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Who was the head of Vienna in Sep, 1944?
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September 06, 1944
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{
"text": [
"Hanns Blaschke"
]
}
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L2_Q1741_P6_8
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Bruno Marek is the head of the government of Vienna from Jun, 1965 to Dec, 1970.
Jakob Reumann is the head of the government of Vienna from May, 1919 to Nov, 1923.
Philipp Wilhelm Jung is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1940 to Dec, 1943.
Franz Jonas is the head of the government of Vienna from Jun, 1951 to Jun, 1965.
Leopold Gratz is the head of the government of Vienna from Jul, 1973 to Sep, 1984.
Michael Häupl is the head of the government of Vienna from Nov, 1994 to May, 2018.
Karl Seitz is the head of the government of Vienna from Nov, 1923 to Feb, 1934.
Michael Ludwig is the head of the government of Vienna from May, 2018 to Dec, 2022.
Richard Weiskirchner is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1912 to May, 1919.
Felix Slavik is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1970 to Jul, 1973.
Hermann Neubacher is the head of the government of Vienna from Mar, 1938 to Dec, 1940.
Richard Schmitz is the head of the government of Vienna from Apr, 1934 to Mar, 1938.
Helmut Zilk is the head of the government of Vienna from Sep, 1984 to Nov, 1994.
Josef Neumayer is the head of the government of Vienna from May, 1910 to Dec, 1912.
Karl Lueger is the head of the government of Vienna from Apr, 1897 to Mar, 1910.
Hanns Blaschke is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1943 to Apr, 1945.
Theodor Körner is the head of the government of Vienna from Apr, 1945 to Jun, 1951.
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ViennaVienna (; ; Austro-Bavarian: "Wean") is the national capital, largest city, and one of nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's most populous city, with about 2 million inhabitants (2.6 million within the metropolitan area, nearly one third of the country's population), and its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 6th-largest city by population within city limits in the European Union.Until the beginning of the 20th century, Vienna was the largest German-speaking city in the world, and before the splitting of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I, the city had 2 million inhabitants. Today, it is the second-largest German-speaking city after Berlin. Vienna is host to many major international organizations, including the United Nations, OPEC and the OSCE. The city is located in the eastern part of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region. Along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants. In 2001, the city center was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In July 2017 it was moved to the list of World Heritage in Danger. Additionally, Vienna is known as the "City of Music" due to its musical legacy, as many famous classical musicians such as Beethoven and Mozart called Vienna home. Vienna is also said to be the "City of Dreams", because of it being home to the world's first psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. Vienna's ancestral roots lie in early Celtic and Roman settlements that transformed into a Medieval and Baroque city. It is well known for having played a pivotal role as a leading European music center, from the age of Viennese Classicism through the early part of the 20th century. The historic center of Vienna is rich in architectural ensembles, including Baroque palaces and gardens, and the late-19th-century Ringstraße lined with grand buildings, monuments and parks.Vienna is known for its high quality of life. In a 2005 study of 127 world cities, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked the city first (in a tie with Vancouver and San Francisco) for the world's most livable cities. Between 2011 and 2015, Vienna was ranked second, behind Melbourne. Monocle's 2015 "Quality of Life Survey" ranked Vienna second on a list of the top 25 cities in the world "to make a base within." Monocle's 2012 "Quality of Life Survey" ranked Vienna fourth on a list of the top 25 cities in the world "to make a base within" (up from sixth in 2011 and eighth in 2010). The UN-Habitat classified Vienna as the most prosperous city in the world in 2012/2013. The city was ranked 1st globally for its culture of innovation in 2007 and 2008, and sixth globally (out of 256 cities) in the 2014 Innovation Cities Index, which analyzed 162 indicators in covering three areas: culture, infrastructure, and markets. Vienna regularly hosts urban planning conferences and is often used as a case study by urban planners. Between 2005 and 2010, Vienna was the world's number-one destination for international congresses and conventions. It attracts over 6.8 million tourists a year.The English name "Vienna" is borrowed from the homonymous Italian name. The etymology of the city's name is still subject to scholarly dispute. Some claim that the name comes from "vedunia", meaning "forest stream", which subsequently produced the Old High German "uuenia" ("wenia" in modern writing), the New High German "wien" and its dialectal variant "wean".Others believe that the name comes from the Roman settlement name of Celtic extraction "Vindobona", probably meaning "fair village, white settlement" from Celtic roots, "vindo-", meaning "bright" or "fair" – as in the Irish "fionn" and the Welsh "gwyn" –, and "-bona" "village, settlement". The Celtic word "vindos" may reflect a widespread prehistorical cult of Vindos, a Celtic deity who survives in Irish Mythology as the warrior and seer Fionn mac Cumhaill. A variant of this Celtic name could be preserved in the Czech, Slovak and Polish names of the city ("Vídeň", "Viedeň" and "Wiedeń" respectively) and in that of the city's district Wieden.The name of the city in Hungarian ("Bécs"), Serbo-Croatian ("Beč"; ) and Ottoman Turkish ("Beç") has a different, probably Slavonic origin, and originally referred to an Avar fort in the area. Slovene-speakers call the city "Dunaj", which in other Central European Slavic languages means the river Danube, on which the city stands.Evidence has been found of continuous habitation in the Vienna area since 500 BC, when Celts settled the site on the Danube. In 15 BC, the Romans fortified the frontier city they called Vindobona to guard the empire against Germanic tribes to the north.Close ties with other Celtic peoples continued through the ages. The Irish monk Saint Colman (or Koloman, Irish "Colmán", derived from "colm" "dove") is buried in Melk Abbey and Saint Fergil (Virgil the Geometer) served as Bishop of Salzburg for forty years. Irish Benedictines founded twelfth-century monastic settlements; evidence of these ties persists in the form of Vienna's great Schottenstift monastery (Scots Abbey), once home to many Irish monks.In 976, Leopold I of Babenberg became count of the Eastern March, a district centered on the Danube on the eastern frontier of Bavaria. This initial district grew into the duchy of Austria. Each succeeding Babenberg ruler expanded the march east along the Danube, eventually encompassing Vienna and the lands immediately east. In 1145, Duke Henry II Jasomirgott moved the Babenberg family residence from Klosterneuburg in Lower Austria to Vienna. From that time, Vienna remained the center of the Babenberg dynasty.In 1440, Vienna became the resident city of the Habsburg dynasty. It eventually grew to become the "de facto" capital of the Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) in 1437 and a cultural center for arts and science, music and fine cuisine. Hungary occupied the city between 1485 and 1490.In the 16th and 17th centuries Christian forces twice stopped Ottoman armies outside Vienna, in the 1529 Siege of Vienna and the 1683 Battle of Vienna. The Great Plague of Vienna ravaged the city in 1679, killing nearly a third of its population.In 1804, during the Napoleonic Wars, Vienna became the capital of the newly formed Austrian Empire. The city continued to play a major role in European and world politics, including hosting the Congress of Vienna in 1814/15. After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, Vienna remained the capital of what became the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The city functioned as a center of classical music, for which the title of the First Viennese School (Haydn/Mozart/Beethoven) is sometimes applied.During the latter half of the 19th century, Vienna developed what had previously been the bastions and glacis into the Ringstraße, a new boulevard surrounding the historical town and a major prestige project. Former suburbs were incorporated, and the city of Vienna grew dramatically. In 1918, after World War I, Vienna became capital of the Republic of German-Austria, and then in 1919 of the First Republic of Austria.From the late-19th century to 1938, the city remained a center of high culture and of modernism. A world capital of music, Vienna played host to composers such as Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler and Richard Strauss. The city's cultural contributions in the first half of the 20th century included, among many, the Vienna Secession movement in art, psychoanalysis, the Second Viennese School (Schoenberg, Berg, Webern), the architecture of Adolf Loos and the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle. In 1913 Adolf Hitler, Leon Trotsky, Josip Broz Tito, Sigmund Freud and Joseph Stalin all lived within a few kilometres of each other in central Vienna, some of them becoming regulars at the same coffeehouses.Austrians came to regard Vienna as a center of socialist politics, sometimes referred to as "Red Vienna"(“Das rote Wien”). In the Austrian Civil War of 1934 Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss sent the Austrian Army to shell civilian housing such as the Karl Marx-Hof occupied by the socialist militia.In 1938, after a triumphant entry into Austria, the Austrian-born German Chancellor Adolf Hitler spoke to the Austrian Germans from the balcony of the Neue Burg, a part of the Hofburg at the Heldenplatz. In the ensuing days the new Nazi authorities oversaw the harassment of Viennese Jews, the looting of their homes, and their on-going deportation and murder. Between 1938 (after the Anschluss) and the end of the Second World War in 1945, Vienna lost its status as a capital to Berlin, because Austria ceased to exist and became part of Nazi Germany.During the November pogroms on November 9, 1938, 92 synagogues in Vienna were destroyed. Only the city temple in the 1st district was spared, as the data of all Jews in Vienna were collected in the adjacent archives. Adolf Eichmann held office in the expropriated Palais Rothschild and organized the expropriation and persecution of the Jews. Of the almost 200,000 Jews in Vienna, around 120,000 were driven to emigrate and around 65,000 were killed. After the end of the war, the Jewish population of Vienna was about only 5,000.Vienna was also the center of the important resistance group around Heinrich Maier, which provided the Allies with plans for V-1, V-2 rockets, Peenemünde, Tiger tanks, Messerschmitt Bf 109, Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet and other aircraft. The information was important to Operation Crossbow and Operation Hydra, both preliminary missions for Operation Overlord. In addition, factory locations for war-essential products were communicated as targets for the Allied Air Force. The group was exposed and most of its members were executed after months of torture by the Gestapo in Vienna. The group around the later executed Karl Burian even tried to blow up the Gestapo headquarters in the Hotel Metropole.On 2 April 1945 the Soviet Red Army launched the Vienna Offensive against the Germans holding the city and besieged it. British and American air-raids, as well as artillery duels between the Red Army and the SS and Wehrmacht, crippled infrastructure, such as tram services and water- and power-distribution, and destroyed or damaged thousands of public and private buildings. The Red Army was helped by an Austrian resistance group in the German Wehrmacht. The group tried under the code name Radetzky to prevent the destruction and fighting in the city. Vienna fell eleven days later. At the end of the war, Austria again became separated from Germany, and Vienna regained its status as the capital city of the Republic of Austria, but the Soviet hold on the city remained until 1955, when Austria regained full sovereignty.After the war, Vienna was part of Soviet-occupied Eastern Austria until September 1945. As in Berlin, Vienna in September 1945 was divided into sectors by the four powers: the US, the UK, France, and the Soviet Union and supervised by an Allied Commission. The four-power occupation of Vienna differed in one key respect from that of Berlin: the central area of the city, known as the first district, constituted an "international zone" in which the four powers alternated control on a monthly basis. The control was policed by the four powers on a "de facto" day-to-day basis, the famous "four soldiers in a jeep" method. The Berlin Blockade of 1948 raised Western concerns that the Soviets might repeat the blockade in Vienna. The matter was raised in the UK House of Commons by MP Anthony Nutting, who asked: "What plans have the Government for dealing with a similar situation in Vienna? Vienna is in exactly a similar position to Berlin."There was a lack of airfields in the Western sectors, and authorities drafted contingency plans to deal with such a blockade. Plans included the laying down of metal landing mats at Schönbrunn. The Soviets did not blockade the city. The Potsdam Agreement included written rights of land access to the western sectors, whereas no such written guarantees had covered the western sectors of Berlin. Also, there was no precipitating event to cause a blockade in Vienna. (In Berlin, the Western powers had introduced a new currency in early 1948 to economically freeze out the Soviets.) During the 10 years of the four-power occupation, Vienna became a hotbed for international espionage between the Western and Eastern blocs. In the wake of the Berlin Blockade, the Cold War in Vienna took on a different dynamic. While accepting that Germany and Berlin would be divided, the Soviets had decided against allowing the same state of affairs to arise in Austria and Vienna. Here, the Soviet forces controlled districts 2, 4, 10, 20, 21, and 22 and all areas incorporated into Vienna in 1938.Barbed wire fences were installed around the perimeter of West Berlin in 1953, but not in Vienna. By 1955, the Soviets, by signing the Austrian State Treaty, agreed to relinquish their occupation zones in Eastern Austria as well as their sector in Vienna. In exchange they required that Austria declare its permanent neutrality after the allied powers had left the country. Thus they ensured that Austria would not be a member of NATO and that NATO forces would therefore not have direct communications between Italy and West Germany.The atmosphere of four-power Vienna is the background for Graham Greene's screenplay for the film "The Third Man" (1949). Later he adapted the screenplay as a novel and published it. Occupied Vienna is also depicted in the 1991 Philip Kerr novel, "A German Requiem".The four-power control of Vienna lasted until the Austrian State Treaty was signed in May 1955. That year, after years of reconstruction and restoration, the State Opera and the Burgtheater, both on the Ringstraße, reopened to the public. The Soviet Union signed the State Treaty only after having been provided with a political guarantee by the federal government to declare Austria's neutrality after the withdrawal of the allied troops. This law of neutrality, passed in late October 1955 (and not the State Treaty itself), ensured that modern Austria would align with neither NATO nor the Soviet bloc, and is considered one of the reasons for Austria's delayed entry into the European Union in 1995.In the 1970s, Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky inaugurated the Vienna International Center, a new area of the city created to host international institutions. Vienna has regained much of its former international stature by hosting international organizations, such as the United Nations (United Nations Industrial Development Organization, United Nations Office at Vienna and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime), the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.Because of the industrialization and migration from other parts of the Empire, the population of Vienna increased sharply during its time as the capital of Austria-Hungary (1867–1918). In 1910, Vienna had more than two million inhabitants, and was the third largest city in Europe after London and Paris. Around the start of the 20th century, Vienna was the city with the second-largest Czech population in the world (after Prague). After World War I, many Czechs and Hungarians returned to their ancestral countries, resulting in a decline in the Viennese population. After World War II, the Soviets used force to repatriate key workers of Czech, Slovak and Hungarian origins to return to their ethnic homelands to further the Soviet bloc economy.Under the Nazi regime, 65,000 Jews were deported and murdered in concentration camps by Nazi forces; approximately 130,000 fled.By 2001, 16% of people living in Austria had nationalities other than Austrian, nearly half of whom were from former Yugoslavia; the next most numerous nationalities in Vienna were Turks (39,000; 2.5%), Poles (13,600; 0.9%) and Germans (12,700; 0.8%)., an official report from Statistics Austria showed that more than 660,000 (38.8%) of the Viennese population have full or partial migrant background, mostly from Ex-Yugoslavia, Turkey, Germany, Poland, Romania and Hungary.From 2005 to 2015 the city's population grew by 10.1%. According to UN-Habitat, Vienna could be the fastest growing city out of 17 European metropolitan areas until 2025 with an increase of 4.65% of its population, compared to 2010.According to the 2001 census, 49.2% of Viennese were Catholic, while 25.7% were of no religion, 7.8% were Muslim, 6.0% were members of an Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, 4.7% were Protestant (mostly Lutheran), 0.5% were Jewish and 6.3% were either of other religions or did not reply. A 2011 report by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis showed the proportions had changed, with 41.3% Catholic, 31.6% no affiliation, 11.6% Muslim, 8.4% Eastern Orthodox, 4.2% Protestant, and 2.9% other.Based on information provided to city officials by various religious organizations about their membership, Vienna's Statistical Yearbook 2019 reports in 2018 an estimated 610,269 Roman Catholics, or 32.3% of the population, and 195,000 (10.3%) Muslims, 70,298 (3.7%) Orthodox, 57,502 (3.0%) other Christians, and 9,504 (0.5%) other religions. A study conducted by the Vienna Institute of Demography estimated the 2018 proportions to be 34% Catholic, 30% unaffiliated, 15% Muslim, 10% Orthodox, 4% Protestant, and 6% other religions.Vienna is the seat of the Metropolitan Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna, in which is also vested the exempt Ordinariate for Byzantine-rite Catholics in Austria; its Archbishop is Cardinal Christoph Schönborn. Many Catholic churches in central Vienna feature performances of religious or other music, including masses sung to classical music and organ. Some of Vienna's most significant historical buildings are Catholic churches, including the St. Stephen's Cathedral ("Stephansdom"), Karlskirche, Peterskirche and the Votivkirche. On the banks of the Danube, there is a Buddhist Peace Pagoda, built in 1983 by the monks and nuns of [Nipponzan Myohoji].Vienna is located in northeastern Austria, at the easternmost extension of the Alps in the Vienna Basin. The earliest settlement, at the location of today's inner city, was south of the meandering Danube while the city now spans both sides of the river. Elevation ranges from . The city has a total area of 414.65 square kilometers (160.1 sq mi), making it the largest city in Austria by area.Vienna has an oceanic climate (Köppen classification "Cfb"). The city has warm summers, with periodical precipitations that can reach its yearly peak in July and August (66.6 and 66.5 mm respectively) and average high temperatures from June to September of approximately , with a record maximum exceeding and a record low in September of . Winters are relatively dry and cold with average temperatures at about freezing point. Spring is variable and autumn cool, with possible snowfalls already in November. Precipitation is generally moderate throughout the year, averaging around annually, with considerable local variations, the Vienna Woods region in the west being the wettest part ( annually) and the flat plains in the east being the driest part ( annually). Snow in winter is common, even if not so frequent compared to the Western and Southern regions of Austria.Vienna was moved to the UNESCO world heritage in endangered list in 2017. The main reason was a planned high-rise development. The city's social democratic party planned construction of a complex in 2019. The plan includes a -high tower, which was reduced from due to opposition. UNESCO believed that the project "fails to comply fully with previous committee decisions, notably concerning the height of new constructions, which will impact adversely the outstanding universal value of the site." UNESCO set the restriction for the height of the construction in the city center to .The citizens of Vienna also opposed the construction of the complex because they are afraid of losing UNESCO status and also of encouraging future high-rise development. The city officials replied that they will convince the WHC to maintain UNESCO world heritage status and said that no further high-rise developments are being planned.UNESCO is concerned about the height of high-rise development in Vienna as it can dramatically influence the visual integrity of the city, specifically the baroque palaces. Visual impact studies are being done in the Vienna city center to assess the level of visual disturbance to visitors and how the changes influenced the city's visual integrity.Vienna is composed of 23 districts ("Bezirke"). Administrative district offices in Vienna (called Magistratische Bezirksämter) serve functions similar to those in the other Austrian states (called Bezirkshauptmannschaften), the officers being subject to the mayor of Vienna; with the notable exception of the police, which is under federal supervision.District residents in Vienna (Austrians as well as EU citizens with permanent residence here) elect a District Assembly (Bezirksvertretung). City hall has delegated maintenance budgets, e.g., for schools and parks, so that the districts are able to set priorities autonomously. Any decision of a district can be overridden by the city assembly (Gemeinderat) or the responsible city councilor (amtsführender Stadtrat).The heart and historical city of Vienna, a large part of today's Innere Stadt, was a fortress surrounded by fields in order to defend itself from potential attackers. In 1850, Vienna with the consent of the emperor annexed 34 surrounding villages, called Vorstädte, into the city limits (districts no. 2 to 8, after 1861 with the separation of Margareten from Wieden no. 2 to 9). Consequently, the walls were razed after 1857, making it possible for the city center to expand.In their place, a broad boulevard called the Ringstraße was built, along which imposing public and private buildings, monuments, and parks were created by the start of the 20th century. These buildings include the Rathaus (town hall), the Burgtheater, the University, the Parliament, the twin museums of natural history and fine art, and the Staatsoper. It is also the location of New Wing of the Hofburg, the former imperial palace, and the Imperial and Royal War Ministry finished in 1913. The mainly Gothic Stephansdom is located at the center of the city, on Stephansplatz. The Imperial-Royal Government set up the Vienna City Renovation Fund (Wiener Stadterneuerungsfonds) and sold many building lots to private investors, thereby partly financing public construction works.From 1850 to 1890, city limits in the West and the South mainly followed another wall called "Linienwall" at which a road toll called the "Liniengeld" was charged. Outside this wall from 1873 onwards a ring road called Gürtel was built. In 1890 it was decided to integrate 33 suburbs (called Vororte) beyond that wall into Vienna by 1 January 1892 and transform them into districts no. 11 to 19 (district no. 10 had been constituted in 1874); hence the Linienwall was torn down beginning in 1894. In 1900, district no. 20, Brigittenau, was created by separating the area from the 2nd district.From 1850 to 1904, Vienna had expanded only on the right bank of the Danube, following the main branch before the regulation of 1868–1875, i.e., the Old Danube of today. In 1904, the 21st district was created by integrating Floridsdorf, Kagran, Stadlau, Hirschstetten, Aspern and other villages on the left bank of the Danube into Vienna, in 1910 Strebersdorf followed. On 15 October 1938 the Nazis created Great Vienna with 26 districts by merging 97 towns and villages into Vienna, 80 of which were returned to surrounding Lower Austria in 1954. Since then Vienna has had 23 districts.Industries are located mostly in the southern and eastern districts. The Innere Stadt is situated away from the main flow of the Danube, but is bounded by the "Donaukanal" ("Danube canal"). Vienna's second and twentieth districts are located between the Donaukanal and the Danube. Across the Danube, where the Vienna International Center is located (districts 21–22), and in the southern areas (district 23) are the newest parts of the city.In the twenty years before the First World War and until 1918, Viennese politics were shaped by the Christian Social Party. In particular, long-term mayor Karl Lueger was able to not apply the general voting rights for men introduced by and for the parliament of imperial Austria, the "Reichsrat", in 1907, thereby excluding most of the working class from taking part in decisions. For Adolf Hitler, who spent some years in Vienna, Lueger was a teacher of how to use antisemitism in politics.Vienna is today considered the center of the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ). During the period of the First Republic (1918–1934), the Vienna Social Democrats undertook many social reforms. At that time, Vienna's municipal policy was admired by Socialists throughout Europe, who therefore referred to the city as "Red Vienna" ("Rotes Wien"). In February 1934 troops of the Austrian federal government under Engelbert Dollfuss, who had closed down the first chamber of the federal parliament, the "Nationalrat", in 1933, and paramilitary socialist organizations were engaged in the Austrian Civil War, which led to the ban of the Social Democratic party.The SPÖ has held the mayor's office and control of the city council/parliament at every free election since 1919. The only break in this SPÖ dominance came between 1934 and 1945, when the Social Democratic Party was illegal, mayors were appointed by the austro-fascist and later by the Nazi authorities. The mayor of Vienna is Michael Ludwig of the SPÖ.The city has enacted many social democratic policies. The "Gemeindebauten" are social housing assets that are well integrated into the city architecture outside the first or "inner" district. The low rents enable comfortable accommodation and good access to the city amenities. Many of the projects were built after the Second World War on vacant lots that were destroyed by bombing during the war. The city took particular pride in building them to a high standard.Since Vienna obtained federal state ("Bundesland") status of its own by the federal constitution of 1920, the city council also functions as the state parliament (Landtag), and the mayor (except 1934–1945) also doubles as the "Landeshauptmann" (governor/minister-president) of the state of Vienna. The Rathaus accommodates the offices of the mayor ("") and the state government ("Landesregierung"). The city is administered by a multitude of departments ("Magistratsabteilungen"), politically supervised by "amtsführende Stadträte" (members of the city government leading offices; according to the Vienna constitution opposition parties have the right to designate members of the city government not leading offices).Under the city constitution of 1920, municipal and state business must be kept separate. Hence, the city council and state parliament hold separate meetings, with separate presiding officers–the chairman of the city council or the president of the state Landtag–even though the two bodies' memberships are identical. When meeting as a city council, the deputies can only deal with the affairs of the city of Vienna; when meeting as a state parliament, they can only deal with the affairs of the state of Vienna.In the 1996 City Council election, the SPÖ lost its overall majority in the 100-seat chamber, winning 43 seats and 39.15% of the vote. The SPÖ had held an outright majority at every free municipal election since 1919. In 1996 the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), which won 29 seats (up from 21 in 1991), beat the ÖVP into third place for the second time running. From 1996 to 2001, the SPÖ governed Vienna in a coalition with the ÖVP. In 2001 the SPÖ regained the overall majority with 52 seats and 46.91% of the vote; in October 2005, this majority was increased further to 55 seats (49.09%). In course of the 2010 city council elections the SPÖ lost their overall majority again and consequently forged a coalition with the Green Party – the first SPÖ/Green coalition in Austria. This coalition was maintained following the 2015 election.Vienna is one of the wealthiest regions in the European Union: Its gross regional product of EUR 47,200 per capita constituted 25.7% of Austria's GDP in 2013. It amounts to 159% of the EU average. The city improved its position from 2012 on the ranking of the most economically powerful cities reaching number nine on the listing in 2015.With a share of 85.5% in gross value added, the service sector is Vienna's most important economic sector. Industry and commerce have a share of 14.5% in gross value added, the primary sector (agriculture) has a share of 0.07% and therefore plays a minor role in the local added value. However, the cultivation and production of wines within the city borders have a high socio-cultural value. The most important business sectors are trade (14.7% of added value in Vienna), scientific and technological services, real estate and housing activities as well as manufacturing of goods. In 2012, Vienna's contribution in Austria's outgoing and incoming foreign direct investments was of about 60%, which demonstrates Vienna's role as an international hub for domestic and foreign companies.Since the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, Vienna has expanded its position as gateway to Eastern Europe: 300 international companies have their Eastern European headquarters in Vienna and its environs. Among them are Hewlett Packard, Henkel, Baxalta and Siemens. Companies in Vienna have extensive contacts and competences in business with Eastern Europe due to the city's historical role as center of the Habsburg Empire. The number of international businesses in Vienna is still growing: In 2014 159 and in 2015 175 international firms established offices in Vienna.Altogether, approximately 8,300 new companies have been founded in Vienna every year since 2004. The majority of these companies are operating in fields of industry-oriented services, wholesale trade as well as information and communications technologies and new media. Vienna makes effort to establish itself as a start-up hub. Since 2012, the city hosts the annual Pioneers Festival, the largest start-up event in Central Europe with 2,500 international participants taking place at Hofburg Palace. Tech Cocktail, an online portal for the start-up scene, has ranked Vienna sixth among the top ten start-up cities worldwide.The city of Vienna attaches major importance to science and research and focuses on creating a positive environment for research and development. In 2014, Vienna has accommodated 1,329 research facilities; 40,400 persons are employed in the R&D sector and 35% of Austria's R&D expenses are invested in the city. With a research quota of 3.4% Vienna exceeds the Austrian average of 2.77% and has already met the EU target of 3.0% by 2020. A major R&D sector in Vienna are life sciences. The Vienna Life Science Cluster is Austria's major hub for life science research, education and business. Throughout Vienna, five universities and several basic research institutes form the academic core of the hub with more than 12,600 employees and 34,700 students. Here, more than 480 medical device, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies with almost 23,000 employees generate around 12 billion euros in revenue (2017). This corresponds to more than 50% of the revenue generated by life science companies in Austria (22.4 billion euros).Vienna is home to global players like Boehringer Ingelheim, Octapharma, Ottobock and Takeda. However, there is also a growing number of start-up companies in the life sciences and Vienna was ranked first in the 2019 PeoplePerHour Startup Cities Index. Companies such as Apeiron Biologics, Hookipa Pharma, Marinomed, mySugr, Themis Bioscience and Valneva operate a presence in Vienna and regularly hit the headlines internationally.To facilitate tapping the economic potential of the multiple facettes of the life sciences at Austria's capital, the Austrian Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs and the local government of City of Vienna have joined forces: Since 2002, the LISAvienna platform is available as a central contact point. It provides free business support services at the interface of the Austrian federal promotional bank, Austria Wirtschaftsservice and the Vienna Business Agency and collects data that inform policy making.The main academic hot spots in Vienna are the Life Science Center Muthgasse with the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), the Austrian Institute of Technology, the University of Veterinary Medicine, the AKH Vienna with the MedUni Vienna and the Vienna Biocenter. Central European University, a graduate institution expelled from Budapest in the midst of a Hungarian government steps to take control of academic and research organizations, welcomes the first class of students to its new Vienna campus in 2019.The Viennese sector for information and communication technologies is comparable in size with the sector in Helsinki, Milan or Munich and thus among Europe's largest IT locations. In 2012 8,962 IT businesses with a workforce of 64,223 were located in the Vienna Region. The main products are instruments and appliances for measuring, testing and navigation as well as electronic components. More than ⅔ of the enterprises provide IT services. Among the biggest IT firms in Vienna are Kapsch, Beko Engineering & Informatics, air traffic control experts Frequentis, Cisco Systems Austria, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft Austria, IBM Austria and Samsung Electronics Austria.The US technology corporation Cisco runs its "Entrepreneurs in Residence" program for Europe in Vienna in cooperation with the Vienna Business Agency.The British company UBM has rated Vienna one of the "Top 10 Internet Cities" worldwide, by analyzing criteria like connection speed, WiFi availability, innovation spirit and open government data.In 2011 74.3% of Viennese households were connected with broadband, 79% were in possession of a computer. According to the broadband strategy of the city, full broadband coverage will be reached by 2020.There were 17.6 million overnight stays in Vienna in 2019 (+6.8% compared to 2018). The top ten incoming markets in 2019 were Germany, Austria, the United States, Italy, United Kingdom, Spain, China, France, Russia and Switzerland.In 2019 the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) ranked Vienna 6th in the world for association meetings. The Union of International Associations (UIA) ranked Vienna 5th in the world for 2019 with 306 international meetings, behind Singapore, Brussels, Seoul and Paris. The city's largest conference center, the Austria Center Vienna (ACV) has a total capacity for around 22,800 people and is situated next to the United Nations Headquarters in Vienna. Other centers are the Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center (up to 3,000 people) and the Hofburg Palace (up to 4,900 people).Vienna was ranked top in the "2019 Quality of Living Ranking" by the international Mercer Consulting Group for the tenth consecutive year. In the 2015 liveability report by the Economist Intelligence Unit as well as in the "Quality of Life Survey 2015" of London-based "Monocle magazine" Vienna was equally ranked second most livable city worldwide.The United Nations Human Settlements Programme "UN-Habitat" has ranked Vienna the most prosperous city in the world in its flagship report "State of the World Cities 2012/2013".According to the 2014 City RepTrack ranking by the Reputation Institute, Vienna has the best reputation in comparison with 100 major global cities.The "Innovation Cities Global Index 2014" by the Australian innovation agency 2thinknow ranks Vienna sixth behind San Francisco-San Jose, New York City, London, Boston and Paris. In 2019 PeoplePerHour put Vienna at the top of their Startup Cities Ranking.US climate strategist Boyd Cohen placed Vienna first in his first "global smart cities" ranking of 2012. In the 2014 ranking, Vienna reached third place among European cities behind Copenhagen and Amsterdam.The "Mori Memorial Institute for Urban Strategies" ranked Vienna in the top ten of their Global Power City Index 2016.Vienna's new Central Railway Station was opened in October 2014. Construction began in June 2007 and was due to last until December 2015. The station is served by 1,100 trains with 145,000 passengers. There is a shopping center with approximately 90 shops and restaurants.In the vicinity of the station a new district is emerging with office space and 5,000 apartments until 2020.Seestadt Aspern is one of the largest urban expansion projects of Europe. A 5 hectare artificial lake, offices, apartments and a subway station within walking distance are supposed to attract 20,000 new citizens when construction is completed in 2028.In addition, the highest wooden skyscraper in the world, “HoHo Wien”, will be built within 3 years, starting in 2015.In 2014, the Vienna City Council adopted the Smart City Wien Framework Strategy 2050. It is a long-term umbrella strategy that is supposed to establish a conducive, long-term and structural framework in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from 3.1 tonnes per capita to 1 tonne per capita by 2050, have 50% of Vienna's gross energy consumption originate from renewable sources and to reduce motorized individual traffic from the current 28% to 15% by 2030. A stated goal is that, by 2050, all vehicles within the municipal boundaries will run without conventional propulsion technologies. Additionally, Vienna aims to be one of the five biggest European research and innovation hubs in 2050.Famous composers including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Ferdinand Ries, Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler, Robert Stolz, and Arnold Schoenberg have worked in Vienna.Art and culture had a long tradition in Vienna, including theater, opera, classical music and fine arts. The Burgtheater is considered one of the best theaters in the German-speaking world alongside its branch, the Akademietheater. The Volkstheater Wien and the Theater in der Josefstadt also enjoy good reputations. There is also a multitude of smaller theaters, in many cases devoted to less mainstream forms of the performing arts, such as modern, experimental plays or cabaret.Vienna is also home to a number of opera houses, including the Theater an der Wien, the Staatsoper and the Volksoper, the latter being devoted to the typical Viennese operetta. Classical concerts are performed at venues such as the Wiener Musikverein, home of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra known across the world for the annual widely broadcast "New Year's Day Concert", as well as the Wiener Konzerthaus, home of the internationally renowned Vienna Symphony. Many concert venues offer concerts aimed at tourists, featuring popular highlights of Viennese music, particularly the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johann Strauss I, and Johann Strauss II.Up until 2005, the Theater an der Wien hosted premieres of musicals, but since 2006 (a year dedicated to the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth), has devoted itself to opera again, becoming a stagione opera house offering one new production each month. Since 2012, Theater an der Wien has taken over the Wiener Kammeroper, a historical small theater in the first district of Vienna seating 300 spectators, turning it into its second venue for smaller sized productions and chamber operas created by the young ensemble of Theater an der Wien (JET). Before 2005 the most successful musical was "Elisabeth", which was later translated into several languages and performed all over the world. The Wiener Taschenoper is dedicated to stage music of the 20th and 21st century. The Haus der Musik ("house of music") opened in the year 2000.The Wienerlied is a unique song genre from Vienna. There are approximately 60,000 – 70,000 Wienerlieder.In 1981 the popular British new romantic group Ultravox paid a tribute to Vienna on an album and an artful music video recording called "Vienna". The inspiration for this work arose from the cinema production called "The Third Man" with the title Zither music of Anton Karas.The Vienna's English Theatre (VET) is an English theater in Vienna. It was founded in 1963 and is located in the 8th Vienna's district. It is the oldest English-language theater in continental Europe.In May 2015, Vienna hosted the Eurovision Song Contest following Austria's victory in the 2014 contest.Notable entertainers born in Vienna include Hedy Lamarr, Christoph Waltz, John Banner, Christiane Hörbiger, Eric Pohlmann, Boris Kodjoe, Christine Buchegger, Mischa Hausserman, Senta Berger and Christine Ostermayer.Notable musicians born in Vienna include Louie Austen, Alban Berg, Falco, Fritz Kreisler, Joseph Lanner, Arnold Schönberg, Franz Schubert, Johann Strauss I, Johann Strauss II, Anton Webern, and Joe Zawinul.Famous musicians who came here to work from other parts of Austria and Germany were Johann Joseph Fux, Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Ferdinand Ries, Johann Sedlatzek, Antonio Salieri, Carl Czerny, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Franz Liszt, Franz von Suppé, Anton Bruckner, Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler and Rainhard Fendrich.Among the most notable Viennese Jews, some of whom left Austria before and during Nazi persecution, are the following figures: Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler (who eventually converted to Christianity), Rudolf Dreikurs, Viktor Frankl, Fritz Lang, Peter Lorre, Fred Zinnemann (both of whose parents were murdered in the Holocaust), Stefan Zweig, Simon Wiesenthal, Theodor Herzl, Judah Alkalai, Erich von Stroheim, Hedy Lamarr, Billy Wilder, Franz Werfel, Arnold Schoenberg, Walter Arlen and Fritz Kreisler.Notable writers from Vienna include Karl Leopold von Möller, Carl Julius Haidvogel, and Stefan Zweig.Writers who lived and worked in Vienna include Franz Kafka, Arthur Schnitzler, Elias Canetti, Ingeborg Bachmann, Robert Musil, Karl Kraus, Ernst von Feuchtersleben, Thomas Bernhard and Elfriede Jelinek.Notable politicians from Vienna include Karl Leopold von Möller.The Hofburg is the location of the Imperial Treasury ("Schatzkammer"), holding the imperial jewels of the Habsburg dynasty. The Sisi Museum (a museum devoted to Empress Elisabeth of Austria) allows visitors to view the imperial apartments as well as the silver cabinet. Directly opposite the Hofburg are the Kunsthistorisches Museum, which houses many paintings by old masters, ancient and classical artifacts, and the Naturhistorisches Museum.A number of museums are located in the Museumsquartier (museum quarter), the former Imperial Stalls which were converted into a museum complex in the 1990s. It houses the Museum of Modern Art, commonly known as the MUMOK (Ludwig Foundation), the Leopold Museum (featuring the largest collection of paintings in the world by Egon Schiele, as well as works by the Vienna Secession, Viennese Modernism and Austrian Expressionism), the AzW (museum of architecture), additional halls with feature exhibitions, and the Tanzquartier. The Liechtenstein Palace contains much of one of the world's largest private art collections, especially strong in the Baroque. The Belvedere, built under Prince Eugene, has a gallery containing paintings by Gustav Klimt (The Kiss), Egon Schiele, and other painters of the early 20th century, also sculptures by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, and changing exhibitions too.There are a multitude of other museums in Vienna, including the Albertina, the Military History Museum, the Technical Museum, the Burial Museum, the Museum of Art Fakes, the KunstHausWien, Museum of Applied Arts, the Sigmund Freud Museum, and the Mozarthaus Vienna. The museums on the history of the city, including the former Historical Museum of the City of Vienna on Karlsplatz, the Hermesvilla, the residences and birthplaces of various composers, the Museum of the Romans, and the Vienna Clock Museum, are now gathered together under the group umbrella Vienna Museum. The Jewish Museum Vienna, founded 1896, is the oldest of its kind. In addition there are museums dedicated to Vienna's individual districts. They provide a record of individual struggles, achievements and tragedy as the city grew and survived two world wars. For readers seeking family histories these are good sources of information.A variety of architectural styles can be found in Vienna, such as the Romanesque Ruprechtskirche and the Baroque Karlskirche. Styles range from classicist buildings to modern architecture. Art Nouveau left many architectural traces in Vienna. The Secession building, Karlsplatz Stadtbahn Station, and the Kirche am Steinhof by Otto Wagner rank among the best known examples of Art Nouveau in the world. Wagner's prominent student Jože Plečnik from Slovenia also left important traces in Vienna. His works include the Langer House (1900) and the Zacherlhaus (1903–1905). Plečnik's 1910–1913 "Church of the Holy Spirit" () in Vienna is remarkable for its innovative use of poured-in-place concrete as both structure and exterior surface, and also for its abstracted classical form language. Most radical is the church's crypt, with its slender concrete columns and angular, cubist capitals and bases.Concurrent to the Art Nouveau movement was the Wiener Moderne, during which some architects shunned the use of extraneous adornment. A key architect of this period was Adolf Loos, whose works include the Looshaus (1909), the Kärntner Bar or American Bar (1908) and the Steiner House (1910).The Hundertwasserhaus by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, designed to counter the clinical look of modern architecture, is one of Vienna's most popular tourist attractions. Another example of unique architecture is the Wotrubakirche by sculptor Fritz Wotruba. In the 1990s, a number of quarters were adapted and extensive building projects were implemented in the areas around Donaustadt (north of the Danube) and Wienerberg (in southern Vienna).The 220-meter high DC Tower 1 located on the Northern bank of the Danube, completed in 2013, is the tallest skyscraper in Vienna. In recent years, Vienna has seen numerous architecture projects completed which combine modern architectural elements with old buildings, such as the remodeling and revitalization of the old Gasometer in 2001.Most buildings in Vienna are relatively low; in early 2006 there were around 100 buildings higher than . The number of high-rise buildings is kept low by building legislation aimed at preserving green areas and districts designated as world cultural heritage. Strong rules apply to the planning, authorization and construction of high-rise buildings. Consequently, much of the inner city is a high-rise free zone.Vienna is the last great capital of the 19th-century ball. There are over 450 balls per year, some featuring as many as nine live orchestras. Balls are held in the many palaces in Vienna, with the principal venue being the Hofburg Palace in Heldenplatz. While the Opera Ball is the best known internationally of all the Austrian balls, other balls such as the Kaffeesiederball (Cafe Owners Ball), the Jägerball (Hunter's Ball) and the Life Ball (AIDS charity event) are almost as well known within Austria and even better appreciated for their cordial atmosphere. Viennese of at least middle class may visit a number of balls in their lifetime.Dancers and opera singers from the Vienna State Opera often perform at the openings of the larger balls.A Vienna ball is an all-night cultural attraction. Major Vienna balls generally begin at 9 pm and last until 5 am, although many guests carry on the celebrations into the next day. Viennese balls are being exported (with support from the City of Vienna) to around 30 cities worldwide such as New York, Barcelona, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Rome, Prague, Bucharest, Berlin and Moscow.Vienna is part of the Austro-Bavarian language area, in particular Central Bavarian ("Mittelbairisch"). In recent years, linguistics experts have seen a decline in the use of the Viennese variant. Manfred Glauninger, sociolinguist at the Institute for Austrian Dialect and Name Lexica, has observed three issues. First, many parents feel there's a stigma attached to the Viennese dialect so they speak Standard German to their children. Second, many children have recently immigrated to Austria and are learning German as a second language in school. Third, young people are influenced by mass media which is most always delivered in Standard German.Vienna is Austria's main center of education and home to many universities, professional colleges and gymnasiums (high schools).Vienna possesses many parks, including the "Stadtpark", the "Burggarten", the "Volksgarten" (part of the "Hofburg"), the "Schlosspark" at Schloss Belvedere (home to the Vienna Botanic Gardens), the "Donaupark", the "Schönbrunner Schlosspark", the "Prater", the "Augarten", the "Rathauspark", the "Lainzer Tiergarten", the "Dehnepark", the "Resselpark", the "Votivpark", the "Kurpark Oberlaa", the "Auer-Welsbach-Park" and the "Türkenschanzpark". Green areas include "Laaer-Berg" (including the Bohemian Prater) and the foothills of the "Wienerwald", which reaches into the outer areas of the city. Small parks, known by the Viennese as "Beserlparks", are everywhere in the inner city areas.Many of Vienna's parks include monuments, such as the Stadtpark with its statue of Johann Strauss II, and the gardens of the baroque palace, where the State Treaty was signed. Vienna's principal park is the Prater which is home to the Riesenrad, a Ferris wheel, and Kugelmugel, a micronation the shape of a sphere. The imperial Schönbrunn's grounds contain an 18th-century park which includes the world's oldest zoo, founded in 1752.The Donauinsel, part of Vienna's flood defenses, is a long artificial island between the Danube and Neue Donau dedicated to leisure activities.Austria's capital is home to numerous football teams. The best known are the local football clubs include FK Austria Wien (21 Austrian Bundesliga titles and record 27-time cup winners), SK Rapid Wien (record 32 Austrian Bundesliga titles), and the oldest team, First Vienna FC. Other important sports clubs include the Raiffeisen Vikings Vienna (American Football), who won the Eurobowl title between 2004 and 2007 4 times in a row and had a perfect season in 2013, the Aon hotVolleys Vienna, one of Europe's premier Volleyball organizations, the Vienna Wanderers (baseball) who won the 2012 and 2013 Championship of the Austrian Baseball League, and the Vienna Capitals (Ice Hockey). Vienna was also where the European Handball Federation (EHF) was founded. There are also three rugby clubs; Vienna Celtic, the oldest rugby club in Austria, RC Donau, and Stade ViennoisVienna hosts many different sporting events including the Vienna City Marathon, which attracts more than 10,000 participants every year and normally takes place in May. In 2005 the Ice Hockey World Championships took place in Austria and the final was played in Vienna. Vienna's Ernst Happel Stadium was the venue of four Champions League and European Champion Clubs' Cup finals (1964, 1987, 1990 and 1995) and on 29 June it hosted the final of Euro 2008 which saw a Spanish 1–0 victory over Germany. Tennis tournament Vienna Open also takes place in the city since 1974. The matches are played in the Wiener Stadthalle.The Neue Donau, which was formed after the Donauinsel was created, is free of river traffic and a popular destination for leisure and sports activities.Vienna will host the official 2021 3x3 Basketball World Cup.Vienna is well known for "Wiener Schnitzel", a cutlet of veal "(Kalbsschnitzel)" or pork "(Schweinsschnitzel)" that is pounded flat, coated in flour, egg and breadcrumbs, and fried in clarified butter. It is available in almost every restaurant that serves Viennese cuisine and can be eaten hot or cold. The traditional 'Wiener Schnitzel' though is a cutlet of veal. Other examples of Viennese cuisine include "Tafelspitz" (very lean boiled beef), which is traditionally served with "Geröstete Erdäpfel" (boiled potatoes mashed with a fork and subsequently fried) and horseradish sauce, "Apfelkren" (a mixture of horseradish, cream and apple) and "Schnittlauchsauce" (a chives sauce made with mayonnaise and stale bread).Vienna has a long tradition of producing cakes and desserts. These include "Apfelstrudel" (hot apple strudel), "Milchrahmstrudel" (milk-cream strudel), "Palatschinken" (sweet pancakes), and "Knödel" (dumplings) often filled with fruit such as apricots ("Marillenknödel"). Sachertorte, a delicately moist chocolate cake with apricot jam created by the Sacher Hotel, is world-famous.In winter, small street stands sell traditional "Maroni" (hot chestnuts) and potato fritters.Sausages are popular and available from street vendors ("Würstelstand") throughout the day and into the night. The sausage known as "Wiener" (German for Viennese) in the U.S. and in Germany, is called a "Frankfurter" in Vienna. Other popular sausages are "Burenwurst" (a coarse beef and pork sausage, generally boiled), "Käsekrainer" (spicy pork with small chunks of cheese), and "Bratwurst" (a white pork sausage). Most can be ordered "mit Brot" (with bread) or as a "hot dog" (stuffed inside a long roll). Mustard is the traditional condiment and usually offered in two varieties: "süß" (sweet) or "scharf" (spicy).Kebab, pizza and noodles are, increasingly, the snack foods most widely available from small stands.The "Naschmarkt" is a permanent market for fruit, vegetables, spices, fish, meat, etc., from around the world. The city has many coffee and breakfast stores.Vienna, along with Paris, Santiago, Cape Town, Prague, Canberra, Bratislava and Warsaw, is one of the few remaining world capital cities with its own vineyards. The wine is served in small Viennese pubs known as Heuriger, which are especially numerous in the wine growing areas of Döbling (Grinzing, Neustift am Walde, Nußdorf, Salmannsdorf, Sievering), Floridsdorf (Stammersdorf, Strebersdorf), Liesing (Mauer) and Favoriten (Oberlaa). The wine is often drunk as a Spritzer ("G'spritzter") with sparkling water. The Grüner Veltliner, a dry white wine, is the most widely cultivated wine in Austria. Another wine very typical for the region is "Gemischter Satz", which is typically a blend of different types of wines harvested from the same vineyard.Beer is next in importance to wine. Vienna has a single large brewery, Ottakringer, and more than ten microbreweries. A "Beisl" is a typical small Austrian pub, of which Vienna has many.Also, local soft drinks such as Almdudler are popular around the country as an alternative to alcoholic beverages, placing it on the top spots along American counterparts such as Coca-Cola in terms of market share. Another popular drink is the so-called "Spezi", a mix between Coca-Cola and the original formula of Orange Fanta or the more locally renowned Frucade.Viennese cafés have an extremely long and distinguished history that dates back centuries, and the caffeine addictions of some famous historical patrons of the oldest are something of a local legend. These coffee houses are unique to Vienna and many cities have unsuccessfully sought to copy them. Some people consider cafés as their extended living room where nobody will be bothered if they spend hours reading a newspaper while enjoying their coffee. Traditionally, the coffee comes with a glass of water. Viennese cafés claim to have invented the process of filtering coffee from booty captured after the second Turkish siege in 1683. Viennese cafés claim that when the invading Turks left Vienna, they abandoned hundreds of sacks of coffee beans. The Polish King John III Sobieski, the commander of the anti-Turkish coalition of Poles, Germans, and Austrians, gave Franz George Kolschitzky (Polish – Franciszek Jerzy Kulczycki) some of this coffee as a reward for providing information that allowed him to defeat the Turks. Kolschitzky then opened Vienna's first coffee shop. Julius Meinl set up a modern roasting plant in the same premises where the coffee sacks were found, in 1891.Major tourist attractions include the imperial palaces of the Hofburg and Schönbrunn (also home to the world's oldest zoo, Tiergarten Schönbrunn) and the Riesenrad in the Prater. Cultural highlights include the Burgtheater, the Wiener Staatsoper, the Lipizzaner horses at the spanische Hofreitschule, and the Vienna Boys' Choir, as well as excursions to Vienna's Heurigen district Döbling.There are also more than 100 art museums, which together attract over eight million visitors per year. The most popular ones are Albertina, Belvedere, Leopold Museum in the Museumsquartier, KunstHausWien, Bank Austria Kunstforum, the twin "Kunsthistorisches Museum" and "Naturhistorisches Museum", and the Technisches Museum Wien, each of which receives over a quarter of a million visitors per year.There are many popular sites associated with composers who lived in Vienna including Beethoven's various residences and grave at Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery) which is the largest cemetery in Vienna and the burial site of many famous people. Mozart has a memorial grave at the Habsburg gardens and at St. Marx cemetery (where his grave was lost). Vienna's many churches also draw large crowds, famous of which are St. Stephen's Cathedral, the Deutschordenskirche, the Jesuitenkirche, the Karlskirche, the Peterskirche, Maria am Gestade, the Minoritenkirche, the Ruprechtskirche, the Schottenkirche, St. Ulrich and the Votivkirche.Modern attractions include the Hundertwasserhaus, the United Nations headquarters and the view from the Donauturm.Vienna has an extensive transportation network with a unified fare system that integrates municipal, regional and railway systems under the umbrella of the Verkehrsverbund Ost-Region (VOR). Public transport is provided by buses, trams and five underground metro lines (U-Bahn), most operated by the Wiener Linien. There are also more than 50 S-train stations within the city limits. Suburban trains are operated by the ÖBB. The city forms the hub of the Austrian railway system, with services to all parts of the country and abroad. The railway system connects Vienna's main station Vienna Hauptbahnhof with other European cities, like Berlin, Bratislava, Budapest, Brussels, Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Ljubljana, Munich, Prague, Venice, Wrocław, Warsaw, Zagreb and Zürich.Vienna has multiple road connections including expressways and motorways.Vienna is served by Vienna International Airport, located southeast of the city center next to the town of Schwechat. The airport handled approximately 31.7 million passengers in 2019. Following lengthy negotiations with surrounding communities, the airport will be expanded to increase its capacity by adding a third runway. The airport is undergoing a major expansion, including a new terminal building that opened in 2012 to prepare for an increase in passengers.Vienna is the seat of a number of United Nations offices and various international institutions and companies, including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). Vienna is the world's third "UN city", next to New York, Geneva, and Nairobi. Additionally, Vienna is the seat of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law's secretariat (UNCITRAL). In conjunction, the University of Vienna annually hosts the prestigious Willem C. Vis Moot, an international commercial arbitration competition for students of law from around the world.Diplomatic meetings have been held in Vienna in the latter half of the 20th century, resulting in documents bearing the name Vienna Convention or Vienna Document. Among the more important documents negotiated in Vienna are the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, as well as the 1990 Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. Vienna also hosted the negotiations leading to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Iran's nuclear program as well as the Vienna peace talks for Syria.Vienna also headquartered the International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF).Alongside international and intergovernmental organizations, there are dozens of charitable organizations based in Vienna. One such organization is the network of SOS Children's Villages, founded by Hermann Gmeiner in 1949. Today, SOS Children's Villages are active in 132 countries and territories worldwide. Others include HASCO.Another popular international event is the annual Life Ball, which supports people with HIV or AIDS. Guests such as Bill Clinton and Whoopi Goldberg were recent attendees.The general policy of the City of Vienna is not to sign any twin or sister city agreements with other cities. Instead Vienna has only cooperation agreements in which specific cooperation areas are defined.In addition, individual Viennese districts have international partnerships all over the world. A detailed list is published on the website of the City of Vienna.
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[
"Karl Seitz",
"Richard Weiskirchner",
"Richard Schmitz",
"Bruno Marek",
"Felix Slavik",
"Theodor Körner",
"Hermann Neubacher",
"Karl Lueger",
"Leopold Gratz",
"Jakob Reumann",
"Josef Neumayer",
"Franz Jonas",
"Michael Häupl",
"Philipp Wilhelm Jung",
"Helmut Zilk",
"Michael Ludwig"
] |
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Who was the head of Vienna in May, 1947?
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May 06, 1947
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{
"text": [
"Theodor Körner"
]
}
|
L2_Q1741_P6_9
|
Hermann Neubacher is the head of the government of Vienna from Mar, 1938 to Dec, 1940.
Richard Schmitz is the head of the government of Vienna from Apr, 1934 to Mar, 1938.
Hanns Blaschke is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1943 to Apr, 1945.
Helmut Zilk is the head of the government of Vienna from Sep, 1984 to Nov, 1994.
Theodor Körner is the head of the government of Vienna from Apr, 1945 to Jun, 1951.
Jakob Reumann is the head of the government of Vienna from May, 1919 to Nov, 1923.
Franz Jonas is the head of the government of Vienna from Jun, 1951 to Jun, 1965.
Michael Ludwig is the head of the government of Vienna from May, 2018 to Dec, 2022.
Karl Lueger is the head of the government of Vienna from Apr, 1897 to Mar, 1910.
Felix Slavik is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1970 to Jul, 1973.
Philipp Wilhelm Jung is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1940 to Dec, 1943.
Josef Neumayer is the head of the government of Vienna from May, 1910 to Dec, 1912.
Bruno Marek is the head of the government of Vienna from Jun, 1965 to Dec, 1970.
Karl Seitz is the head of the government of Vienna from Nov, 1923 to Feb, 1934.
Michael Häupl is the head of the government of Vienna from Nov, 1994 to May, 2018.
Richard Weiskirchner is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1912 to May, 1919.
Leopold Gratz is the head of the government of Vienna from Jul, 1973 to Sep, 1984.
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ViennaVienna (; ; Austro-Bavarian: "Wean") is the national capital, largest city, and one of nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's most populous city, with about 2 million inhabitants (2.6 million within the metropolitan area, nearly one third of the country's population), and its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 6th-largest city by population within city limits in the European Union.Until the beginning of the 20th century, Vienna was the largest German-speaking city in the world, and before the splitting of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I, the city had 2 million inhabitants. Today, it is the second-largest German-speaking city after Berlin. Vienna is host to many major international organizations, including the United Nations, OPEC and the OSCE. The city is located in the eastern part of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region. Along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants. In 2001, the city center was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In July 2017 it was moved to the list of World Heritage in Danger. Additionally, Vienna is known as the "City of Music" due to its musical legacy, as many famous classical musicians such as Beethoven and Mozart called Vienna home. Vienna is also said to be the "City of Dreams", because of it being home to the world's first psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. Vienna's ancestral roots lie in early Celtic and Roman settlements that transformed into a Medieval and Baroque city. It is well known for having played a pivotal role as a leading European music center, from the age of Viennese Classicism through the early part of the 20th century. The historic center of Vienna is rich in architectural ensembles, including Baroque palaces and gardens, and the late-19th-century Ringstraße lined with grand buildings, monuments and parks.Vienna is known for its high quality of life. In a 2005 study of 127 world cities, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked the city first (in a tie with Vancouver and San Francisco) for the world's most livable cities. Between 2011 and 2015, Vienna was ranked second, behind Melbourne. Monocle's 2015 "Quality of Life Survey" ranked Vienna second on a list of the top 25 cities in the world "to make a base within." Monocle's 2012 "Quality of Life Survey" ranked Vienna fourth on a list of the top 25 cities in the world "to make a base within" (up from sixth in 2011 and eighth in 2010). The UN-Habitat classified Vienna as the most prosperous city in the world in 2012/2013. The city was ranked 1st globally for its culture of innovation in 2007 and 2008, and sixth globally (out of 256 cities) in the 2014 Innovation Cities Index, which analyzed 162 indicators in covering three areas: culture, infrastructure, and markets. Vienna regularly hosts urban planning conferences and is often used as a case study by urban planners. Between 2005 and 2010, Vienna was the world's number-one destination for international congresses and conventions. It attracts over 6.8 million tourists a year.The English name "Vienna" is borrowed from the homonymous Italian name. The etymology of the city's name is still subject to scholarly dispute. Some claim that the name comes from "vedunia", meaning "forest stream", which subsequently produced the Old High German "uuenia" ("wenia" in modern writing), the New High German "wien" and its dialectal variant "wean".Others believe that the name comes from the Roman settlement name of Celtic extraction "Vindobona", probably meaning "fair village, white settlement" from Celtic roots, "vindo-", meaning "bright" or "fair" – as in the Irish "fionn" and the Welsh "gwyn" –, and "-bona" "village, settlement". The Celtic word "vindos" may reflect a widespread prehistorical cult of Vindos, a Celtic deity who survives in Irish Mythology as the warrior and seer Fionn mac Cumhaill. A variant of this Celtic name could be preserved in the Czech, Slovak and Polish names of the city ("Vídeň", "Viedeň" and "Wiedeń" respectively) and in that of the city's district Wieden.The name of the city in Hungarian ("Bécs"), Serbo-Croatian ("Beč"; ) and Ottoman Turkish ("Beç") has a different, probably Slavonic origin, and originally referred to an Avar fort in the area. Slovene-speakers call the city "Dunaj", which in other Central European Slavic languages means the river Danube, on which the city stands.Evidence has been found of continuous habitation in the Vienna area since 500 BC, when Celts settled the site on the Danube. In 15 BC, the Romans fortified the frontier city they called Vindobona to guard the empire against Germanic tribes to the north.Close ties with other Celtic peoples continued through the ages. The Irish monk Saint Colman (or Koloman, Irish "Colmán", derived from "colm" "dove") is buried in Melk Abbey and Saint Fergil (Virgil the Geometer) served as Bishop of Salzburg for forty years. Irish Benedictines founded twelfth-century monastic settlements; evidence of these ties persists in the form of Vienna's great Schottenstift monastery (Scots Abbey), once home to many Irish monks.In 976, Leopold I of Babenberg became count of the Eastern March, a district centered on the Danube on the eastern frontier of Bavaria. This initial district grew into the duchy of Austria. Each succeeding Babenberg ruler expanded the march east along the Danube, eventually encompassing Vienna and the lands immediately east. In 1145, Duke Henry II Jasomirgott moved the Babenberg family residence from Klosterneuburg in Lower Austria to Vienna. From that time, Vienna remained the center of the Babenberg dynasty.In 1440, Vienna became the resident city of the Habsburg dynasty. It eventually grew to become the "de facto" capital of the Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) in 1437 and a cultural center for arts and science, music and fine cuisine. Hungary occupied the city between 1485 and 1490.In the 16th and 17th centuries Christian forces twice stopped Ottoman armies outside Vienna, in the 1529 Siege of Vienna and the 1683 Battle of Vienna. The Great Plague of Vienna ravaged the city in 1679, killing nearly a third of its population.In 1804, during the Napoleonic Wars, Vienna became the capital of the newly formed Austrian Empire. The city continued to play a major role in European and world politics, including hosting the Congress of Vienna in 1814/15. After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, Vienna remained the capital of what became the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The city functioned as a center of classical music, for which the title of the First Viennese School (Haydn/Mozart/Beethoven) is sometimes applied.During the latter half of the 19th century, Vienna developed what had previously been the bastions and glacis into the Ringstraße, a new boulevard surrounding the historical town and a major prestige project. Former suburbs were incorporated, and the city of Vienna grew dramatically. In 1918, after World War I, Vienna became capital of the Republic of German-Austria, and then in 1919 of the First Republic of Austria.From the late-19th century to 1938, the city remained a center of high culture and of modernism. A world capital of music, Vienna played host to composers such as Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler and Richard Strauss. The city's cultural contributions in the first half of the 20th century included, among many, the Vienna Secession movement in art, psychoanalysis, the Second Viennese School (Schoenberg, Berg, Webern), the architecture of Adolf Loos and the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle. In 1913 Adolf Hitler, Leon Trotsky, Josip Broz Tito, Sigmund Freud and Joseph Stalin all lived within a few kilometres of each other in central Vienna, some of them becoming regulars at the same coffeehouses.Austrians came to regard Vienna as a center of socialist politics, sometimes referred to as "Red Vienna"(“Das rote Wien”). In the Austrian Civil War of 1934 Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss sent the Austrian Army to shell civilian housing such as the Karl Marx-Hof occupied by the socialist militia.In 1938, after a triumphant entry into Austria, the Austrian-born German Chancellor Adolf Hitler spoke to the Austrian Germans from the balcony of the Neue Burg, a part of the Hofburg at the Heldenplatz. In the ensuing days the new Nazi authorities oversaw the harassment of Viennese Jews, the looting of their homes, and their on-going deportation and murder. Between 1938 (after the Anschluss) and the end of the Second World War in 1945, Vienna lost its status as a capital to Berlin, because Austria ceased to exist and became part of Nazi Germany.During the November pogroms on November 9, 1938, 92 synagogues in Vienna were destroyed. Only the city temple in the 1st district was spared, as the data of all Jews in Vienna were collected in the adjacent archives. Adolf Eichmann held office in the expropriated Palais Rothschild and organized the expropriation and persecution of the Jews. Of the almost 200,000 Jews in Vienna, around 120,000 were driven to emigrate and around 65,000 were killed. After the end of the war, the Jewish population of Vienna was about only 5,000.Vienna was also the center of the important resistance group around Heinrich Maier, which provided the Allies with plans for V-1, V-2 rockets, Peenemünde, Tiger tanks, Messerschmitt Bf 109, Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet and other aircraft. The information was important to Operation Crossbow and Operation Hydra, both preliminary missions for Operation Overlord. In addition, factory locations for war-essential products were communicated as targets for the Allied Air Force. The group was exposed and most of its members were executed after months of torture by the Gestapo in Vienna. The group around the later executed Karl Burian even tried to blow up the Gestapo headquarters in the Hotel Metropole.On 2 April 1945 the Soviet Red Army launched the Vienna Offensive against the Germans holding the city and besieged it. British and American air-raids, as well as artillery duels between the Red Army and the SS and Wehrmacht, crippled infrastructure, such as tram services and water- and power-distribution, and destroyed or damaged thousands of public and private buildings. The Red Army was helped by an Austrian resistance group in the German Wehrmacht. The group tried under the code name Radetzky to prevent the destruction and fighting in the city. Vienna fell eleven days later. At the end of the war, Austria again became separated from Germany, and Vienna regained its status as the capital city of the Republic of Austria, but the Soviet hold on the city remained until 1955, when Austria regained full sovereignty.After the war, Vienna was part of Soviet-occupied Eastern Austria until September 1945. As in Berlin, Vienna in September 1945 was divided into sectors by the four powers: the US, the UK, France, and the Soviet Union and supervised by an Allied Commission. The four-power occupation of Vienna differed in one key respect from that of Berlin: the central area of the city, known as the first district, constituted an "international zone" in which the four powers alternated control on a monthly basis. The control was policed by the four powers on a "de facto" day-to-day basis, the famous "four soldiers in a jeep" method. The Berlin Blockade of 1948 raised Western concerns that the Soviets might repeat the blockade in Vienna. The matter was raised in the UK House of Commons by MP Anthony Nutting, who asked: "What plans have the Government for dealing with a similar situation in Vienna? Vienna is in exactly a similar position to Berlin."There was a lack of airfields in the Western sectors, and authorities drafted contingency plans to deal with such a blockade. Plans included the laying down of metal landing mats at Schönbrunn. The Soviets did not blockade the city. The Potsdam Agreement included written rights of land access to the western sectors, whereas no such written guarantees had covered the western sectors of Berlin. Also, there was no precipitating event to cause a blockade in Vienna. (In Berlin, the Western powers had introduced a new currency in early 1948 to economically freeze out the Soviets.) During the 10 years of the four-power occupation, Vienna became a hotbed for international espionage between the Western and Eastern blocs. In the wake of the Berlin Blockade, the Cold War in Vienna took on a different dynamic. While accepting that Germany and Berlin would be divided, the Soviets had decided against allowing the same state of affairs to arise in Austria and Vienna. Here, the Soviet forces controlled districts 2, 4, 10, 20, 21, and 22 and all areas incorporated into Vienna in 1938.Barbed wire fences were installed around the perimeter of West Berlin in 1953, but not in Vienna. By 1955, the Soviets, by signing the Austrian State Treaty, agreed to relinquish their occupation zones in Eastern Austria as well as their sector in Vienna. In exchange they required that Austria declare its permanent neutrality after the allied powers had left the country. Thus they ensured that Austria would not be a member of NATO and that NATO forces would therefore not have direct communications between Italy and West Germany.The atmosphere of four-power Vienna is the background for Graham Greene's screenplay for the film "The Third Man" (1949). Later he adapted the screenplay as a novel and published it. Occupied Vienna is also depicted in the 1991 Philip Kerr novel, "A German Requiem".The four-power control of Vienna lasted until the Austrian State Treaty was signed in May 1955. That year, after years of reconstruction and restoration, the State Opera and the Burgtheater, both on the Ringstraße, reopened to the public. The Soviet Union signed the State Treaty only after having been provided with a political guarantee by the federal government to declare Austria's neutrality after the withdrawal of the allied troops. This law of neutrality, passed in late October 1955 (and not the State Treaty itself), ensured that modern Austria would align with neither NATO nor the Soviet bloc, and is considered one of the reasons for Austria's delayed entry into the European Union in 1995.In the 1970s, Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky inaugurated the Vienna International Center, a new area of the city created to host international institutions. Vienna has regained much of its former international stature by hosting international organizations, such as the United Nations (United Nations Industrial Development Organization, United Nations Office at Vienna and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime), the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.Because of the industrialization and migration from other parts of the Empire, the population of Vienna increased sharply during its time as the capital of Austria-Hungary (1867–1918). In 1910, Vienna had more than two million inhabitants, and was the third largest city in Europe after London and Paris. Around the start of the 20th century, Vienna was the city with the second-largest Czech population in the world (after Prague). After World War I, many Czechs and Hungarians returned to their ancestral countries, resulting in a decline in the Viennese population. After World War II, the Soviets used force to repatriate key workers of Czech, Slovak and Hungarian origins to return to their ethnic homelands to further the Soviet bloc economy.Under the Nazi regime, 65,000 Jews were deported and murdered in concentration camps by Nazi forces; approximately 130,000 fled.By 2001, 16% of people living in Austria had nationalities other than Austrian, nearly half of whom were from former Yugoslavia; the next most numerous nationalities in Vienna were Turks (39,000; 2.5%), Poles (13,600; 0.9%) and Germans (12,700; 0.8%)., an official report from Statistics Austria showed that more than 660,000 (38.8%) of the Viennese population have full or partial migrant background, mostly from Ex-Yugoslavia, Turkey, Germany, Poland, Romania and Hungary.From 2005 to 2015 the city's population grew by 10.1%. According to UN-Habitat, Vienna could be the fastest growing city out of 17 European metropolitan areas until 2025 with an increase of 4.65% of its population, compared to 2010.According to the 2001 census, 49.2% of Viennese were Catholic, while 25.7% were of no religion, 7.8% were Muslim, 6.0% were members of an Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, 4.7% were Protestant (mostly Lutheran), 0.5% were Jewish and 6.3% were either of other religions or did not reply. A 2011 report by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis showed the proportions had changed, with 41.3% Catholic, 31.6% no affiliation, 11.6% Muslim, 8.4% Eastern Orthodox, 4.2% Protestant, and 2.9% other.Based on information provided to city officials by various religious organizations about their membership, Vienna's Statistical Yearbook 2019 reports in 2018 an estimated 610,269 Roman Catholics, or 32.3% of the population, and 195,000 (10.3%) Muslims, 70,298 (3.7%) Orthodox, 57,502 (3.0%) other Christians, and 9,504 (0.5%) other religions. A study conducted by the Vienna Institute of Demography estimated the 2018 proportions to be 34% Catholic, 30% unaffiliated, 15% Muslim, 10% Orthodox, 4% Protestant, and 6% other religions.Vienna is the seat of the Metropolitan Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna, in which is also vested the exempt Ordinariate for Byzantine-rite Catholics in Austria; its Archbishop is Cardinal Christoph Schönborn. Many Catholic churches in central Vienna feature performances of religious or other music, including masses sung to classical music and organ. Some of Vienna's most significant historical buildings are Catholic churches, including the St. Stephen's Cathedral ("Stephansdom"), Karlskirche, Peterskirche and the Votivkirche. On the banks of the Danube, there is a Buddhist Peace Pagoda, built in 1983 by the monks and nuns of [Nipponzan Myohoji].Vienna is located in northeastern Austria, at the easternmost extension of the Alps in the Vienna Basin. The earliest settlement, at the location of today's inner city, was south of the meandering Danube while the city now spans both sides of the river. Elevation ranges from . The city has a total area of 414.65 square kilometers (160.1 sq mi), making it the largest city in Austria by area.Vienna has an oceanic climate (Köppen classification "Cfb"). The city has warm summers, with periodical precipitations that can reach its yearly peak in July and August (66.6 and 66.5 mm respectively) and average high temperatures from June to September of approximately , with a record maximum exceeding and a record low in September of . Winters are relatively dry and cold with average temperatures at about freezing point. Spring is variable and autumn cool, with possible snowfalls already in November. Precipitation is generally moderate throughout the year, averaging around annually, with considerable local variations, the Vienna Woods region in the west being the wettest part ( annually) and the flat plains in the east being the driest part ( annually). Snow in winter is common, even if not so frequent compared to the Western and Southern regions of Austria.Vienna was moved to the UNESCO world heritage in endangered list in 2017. The main reason was a planned high-rise development. The city's social democratic party planned construction of a complex in 2019. The plan includes a -high tower, which was reduced from due to opposition. UNESCO believed that the project "fails to comply fully with previous committee decisions, notably concerning the height of new constructions, which will impact adversely the outstanding universal value of the site." UNESCO set the restriction for the height of the construction in the city center to .The citizens of Vienna also opposed the construction of the complex because they are afraid of losing UNESCO status and also of encouraging future high-rise development. The city officials replied that they will convince the WHC to maintain UNESCO world heritage status and said that no further high-rise developments are being planned.UNESCO is concerned about the height of high-rise development in Vienna as it can dramatically influence the visual integrity of the city, specifically the baroque palaces. Visual impact studies are being done in the Vienna city center to assess the level of visual disturbance to visitors and how the changes influenced the city's visual integrity.Vienna is composed of 23 districts ("Bezirke"). Administrative district offices in Vienna (called Magistratische Bezirksämter) serve functions similar to those in the other Austrian states (called Bezirkshauptmannschaften), the officers being subject to the mayor of Vienna; with the notable exception of the police, which is under federal supervision.District residents in Vienna (Austrians as well as EU citizens with permanent residence here) elect a District Assembly (Bezirksvertretung). City hall has delegated maintenance budgets, e.g., for schools and parks, so that the districts are able to set priorities autonomously. Any decision of a district can be overridden by the city assembly (Gemeinderat) or the responsible city councilor (amtsführender Stadtrat).The heart and historical city of Vienna, a large part of today's Innere Stadt, was a fortress surrounded by fields in order to defend itself from potential attackers. In 1850, Vienna with the consent of the emperor annexed 34 surrounding villages, called Vorstädte, into the city limits (districts no. 2 to 8, after 1861 with the separation of Margareten from Wieden no. 2 to 9). Consequently, the walls were razed after 1857, making it possible for the city center to expand.In their place, a broad boulevard called the Ringstraße was built, along which imposing public and private buildings, monuments, and parks were created by the start of the 20th century. These buildings include the Rathaus (town hall), the Burgtheater, the University, the Parliament, the twin museums of natural history and fine art, and the Staatsoper. It is also the location of New Wing of the Hofburg, the former imperial palace, and the Imperial and Royal War Ministry finished in 1913. The mainly Gothic Stephansdom is located at the center of the city, on Stephansplatz. The Imperial-Royal Government set up the Vienna City Renovation Fund (Wiener Stadterneuerungsfonds) and sold many building lots to private investors, thereby partly financing public construction works.From 1850 to 1890, city limits in the West and the South mainly followed another wall called "Linienwall" at which a road toll called the "Liniengeld" was charged. Outside this wall from 1873 onwards a ring road called Gürtel was built. In 1890 it was decided to integrate 33 suburbs (called Vororte) beyond that wall into Vienna by 1 January 1892 and transform them into districts no. 11 to 19 (district no. 10 had been constituted in 1874); hence the Linienwall was torn down beginning in 1894. In 1900, district no. 20, Brigittenau, was created by separating the area from the 2nd district.From 1850 to 1904, Vienna had expanded only on the right bank of the Danube, following the main branch before the regulation of 1868–1875, i.e., the Old Danube of today. In 1904, the 21st district was created by integrating Floridsdorf, Kagran, Stadlau, Hirschstetten, Aspern and other villages on the left bank of the Danube into Vienna, in 1910 Strebersdorf followed. On 15 October 1938 the Nazis created Great Vienna with 26 districts by merging 97 towns and villages into Vienna, 80 of which were returned to surrounding Lower Austria in 1954. Since then Vienna has had 23 districts.Industries are located mostly in the southern and eastern districts. The Innere Stadt is situated away from the main flow of the Danube, but is bounded by the "Donaukanal" ("Danube canal"). Vienna's second and twentieth districts are located between the Donaukanal and the Danube. Across the Danube, where the Vienna International Center is located (districts 21–22), and in the southern areas (district 23) are the newest parts of the city.In the twenty years before the First World War and until 1918, Viennese politics were shaped by the Christian Social Party. In particular, long-term mayor Karl Lueger was able to not apply the general voting rights for men introduced by and for the parliament of imperial Austria, the "Reichsrat", in 1907, thereby excluding most of the working class from taking part in decisions. For Adolf Hitler, who spent some years in Vienna, Lueger was a teacher of how to use antisemitism in politics.Vienna is today considered the center of the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ). During the period of the First Republic (1918–1934), the Vienna Social Democrats undertook many social reforms. At that time, Vienna's municipal policy was admired by Socialists throughout Europe, who therefore referred to the city as "Red Vienna" ("Rotes Wien"). In February 1934 troops of the Austrian federal government under Engelbert Dollfuss, who had closed down the first chamber of the federal parliament, the "Nationalrat", in 1933, and paramilitary socialist organizations were engaged in the Austrian Civil War, which led to the ban of the Social Democratic party.The SPÖ has held the mayor's office and control of the city council/parliament at every free election since 1919. The only break in this SPÖ dominance came between 1934 and 1945, when the Social Democratic Party was illegal, mayors were appointed by the austro-fascist and later by the Nazi authorities. The mayor of Vienna is Michael Ludwig of the SPÖ.The city has enacted many social democratic policies. The "Gemeindebauten" are social housing assets that are well integrated into the city architecture outside the first or "inner" district. The low rents enable comfortable accommodation and good access to the city amenities. Many of the projects were built after the Second World War on vacant lots that were destroyed by bombing during the war. The city took particular pride in building them to a high standard.Since Vienna obtained federal state ("Bundesland") status of its own by the federal constitution of 1920, the city council also functions as the state parliament (Landtag), and the mayor (except 1934–1945) also doubles as the "Landeshauptmann" (governor/minister-president) of the state of Vienna. The Rathaus accommodates the offices of the mayor ("") and the state government ("Landesregierung"). The city is administered by a multitude of departments ("Magistratsabteilungen"), politically supervised by "amtsführende Stadträte" (members of the city government leading offices; according to the Vienna constitution opposition parties have the right to designate members of the city government not leading offices).Under the city constitution of 1920, municipal and state business must be kept separate. Hence, the city council and state parliament hold separate meetings, with separate presiding officers–the chairman of the city council or the president of the state Landtag–even though the two bodies' memberships are identical. When meeting as a city council, the deputies can only deal with the affairs of the city of Vienna; when meeting as a state parliament, they can only deal with the affairs of the state of Vienna.In the 1996 City Council election, the SPÖ lost its overall majority in the 100-seat chamber, winning 43 seats and 39.15% of the vote. The SPÖ had held an outright majority at every free municipal election since 1919. In 1996 the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), which won 29 seats (up from 21 in 1991), beat the ÖVP into third place for the second time running. From 1996 to 2001, the SPÖ governed Vienna in a coalition with the ÖVP. In 2001 the SPÖ regained the overall majority with 52 seats and 46.91% of the vote; in October 2005, this majority was increased further to 55 seats (49.09%). In course of the 2010 city council elections the SPÖ lost their overall majority again and consequently forged a coalition with the Green Party – the first SPÖ/Green coalition in Austria. This coalition was maintained following the 2015 election.Vienna is one of the wealthiest regions in the European Union: Its gross regional product of EUR 47,200 per capita constituted 25.7% of Austria's GDP in 2013. It amounts to 159% of the EU average. The city improved its position from 2012 on the ranking of the most economically powerful cities reaching number nine on the listing in 2015.With a share of 85.5% in gross value added, the service sector is Vienna's most important economic sector. Industry and commerce have a share of 14.5% in gross value added, the primary sector (agriculture) has a share of 0.07% and therefore plays a minor role in the local added value. However, the cultivation and production of wines within the city borders have a high socio-cultural value. The most important business sectors are trade (14.7% of added value in Vienna), scientific and technological services, real estate and housing activities as well as manufacturing of goods. In 2012, Vienna's contribution in Austria's outgoing and incoming foreign direct investments was of about 60%, which demonstrates Vienna's role as an international hub for domestic and foreign companies.Since the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, Vienna has expanded its position as gateway to Eastern Europe: 300 international companies have their Eastern European headquarters in Vienna and its environs. Among them are Hewlett Packard, Henkel, Baxalta and Siemens. Companies in Vienna have extensive contacts and competences in business with Eastern Europe due to the city's historical role as center of the Habsburg Empire. The number of international businesses in Vienna is still growing: In 2014 159 and in 2015 175 international firms established offices in Vienna.Altogether, approximately 8,300 new companies have been founded in Vienna every year since 2004. The majority of these companies are operating in fields of industry-oriented services, wholesale trade as well as information and communications technologies and new media. Vienna makes effort to establish itself as a start-up hub. Since 2012, the city hosts the annual Pioneers Festival, the largest start-up event in Central Europe with 2,500 international participants taking place at Hofburg Palace. Tech Cocktail, an online portal for the start-up scene, has ranked Vienna sixth among the top ten start-up cities worldwide.The city of Vienna attaches major importance to science and research and focuses on creating a positive environment for research and development. In 2014, Vienna has accommodated 1,329 research facilities; 40,400 persons are employed in the R&D sector and 35% of Austria's R&D expenses are invested in the city. With a research quota of 3.4% Vienna exceeds the Austrian average of 2.77% and has already met the EU target of 3.0% by 2020. A major R&D sector in Vienna are life sciences. The Vienna Life Science Cluster is Austria's major hub for life science research, education and business. Throughout Vienna, five universities and several basic research institutes form the academic core of the hub with more than 12,600 employees and 34,700 students. Here, more than 480 medical device, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies with almost 23,000 employees generate around 12 billion euros in revenue (2017). This corresponds to more than 50% of the revenue generated by life science companies in Austria (22.4 billion euros).Vienna is home to global players like Boehringer Ingelheim, Octapharma, Ottobock and Takeda. However, there is also a growing number of start-up companies in the life sciences and Vienna was ranked first in the 2019 PeoplePerHour Startup Cities Index. Companies such as Apeiron Biologics, Hookipa Pharma, Marinomed, mySugr, Themis Bioscience and Valneva operate a presence in Vienna and regularly hit the headlines internationally.To facilitate tapping the economic potential of the multiple facettes of the life sciences at Austria's capital, the Austrian Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs and the local government of City of Vienna have joined forces: Since 2002, the LISAvienna platform is available as a central contact point. It provides free business support services at the interface of the Austrian federal promotional bank, Austria Wirtschaftsservice and the Vienna Business Agency and collects data that inform policy making.The main academic hot spots in Vienna are the Life Science Center Muthgasse with the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), the Austrian Institute of Technology, the University of Veterinary Medicine, the AKH Vienna with the MedUni Vienna and the Vienna Biocenter. Central European University, a graduate institution expelled from Budapest in the midst of a Hungarian government steps to take control of academic and research organizations, welcomes the first class of students to its new Vienna campus in 2019.The Viennese sector for information and communication technologies is comparable in size with the sector in Helsinki, Milan or Munich and thus among Europe's largest IT locations. In 2012 8,962 IT businesses with a workforce of 64,223 were located in the Vienna Region. The main products are instruments and appliances for measuring, testing and navigation as well as electronic components. More than ⅔ of the enterprises provide IT services. Among the biggest IT firms in Vienna are Kapsch, Beko Engineering & Informatics, air traffic control experts Frequentis, Cisco Systems Austria, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft Austria, IBM Austria and Samsung Electronics Austria.The US technology corporation Cisco runs its "Entrepreneurs in Residence" program for Europe in Vienna in cooperation with the Vienna Business Agency.The British company UBM has rated Vienna one of the "Top 10 Internet Cities" worldwide, by analyzing criteria like connection speed, WiFi availability, innovation spirit and open government data.In 2011 74.3% of Viennese households were connected with broadband, 79% were in possession of a computer. According to the broadband strategy of the city, full broadband coverage will be reached by 2020.There were 17.6 million overnight stays in Vienna in 2019 (+6.8% compared to 2018). The top ten incoming markets in 2019 were Germany, Austria, the United States, Italy, United Kingdom, Spain, China, France, Russia and Switzerland.In 2019 the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) ranked Vienna 6th in the world for association meetings. The Union of International Associations (UIA) ranked Vienna 5th in the world for 2019 with 306 international meetings, behind Singapore, Brussels, Seoul and Paris. The city's largest conference center, the Austria Center Vienna (ACV) has a total capacity for around 22,800 people and is situated next to the United Nations Headquarters in Vienna. Other centers are the Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center (up to 3,000 people) and the Hofburg Palace (up to 4,900 people).Vienna was ranked top in the "2019 Quality of Living Ranking" by the international Mercer Consulting Group for the tenth consecutive year. In the 2015 liveability report by the Economist Intelligence Unit as well as in the "Quality of Life Survey 2015" of London-based "Monocle magazine" Vienna was equally ranked second most livable city worldwide.The United Nations Human Settlements Programme "UN-Habitat" has ranked Vienna the most prosperous city in the world in its flagship report "State of the World Cities 2012/2013".According to the 2014 City RepTrack ranking by the Reputation Institute, Vienna has the best reputation in comparison with 100 major global cities.The "Innovation Cities Global Index 2014" by the Australian innovation agency 2thinknow ranks Vienna sixth behind San Francisco-San Jose, New York City, London, Boston and Paris. In 2019 PeoplePerHour put Vienna at the top of their Startup Cities Ranking.US climate strategist Boyd Cohen placed Vienna first in his first "global smart cities" ranking of 2012. In the 2014 ranking, Vienna reached third place among European cities behind Copenhagen and Amsterdam.The "Mori Memorial Institute for Urban Strategies" ranked Vienna in the top ten of their Global Power City Index 2016.Vienna's new Central Railway Station was opened in October 2014. Construction began in June 2007 and was due to last until December 2015. The station is served by 1,100 trains with 145,000 passengers. There is a shopping center with approximately 90 shops and restaurants.In the vicinity of the station a new district is emerging with office space and 5,000 apartments until 2020.Seestadt Aspern is one of the largest urban expansion projects of Europe. A 5 hectare artificial lake, offices, apartments and a subway station within walking distance are supposed to attract 20,000 new citizens when construction is completed in 2028.In addition, the highest wooden skyscraper in the world, “HoHo Wien”, will be built within 3 years, starting in 2015.In 2014, the Vienna City Council adopted the Smart City Wien Framework Strategy 2050. It is a long-term umbrella strategy that is supposed to establish a conducive, long-term and structural framework in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from 3.1 tonnes per capita to 1 tonne per capita by 2050, have 50% of Vienna's gross energy consumption originate from renewable sources and to reduce motorized individual traffic from the current 28% to 15% by 2030. A stated goal is that, by 2050, all vehicles within the municipal boundaries will run without conventional propulsion technologies. Additionally, Vienna aims to be one of the five biggest European research and innovation hubs in 2050.Famous composers including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Ferdinand Ries, Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler, Robert Stolz, and Arnold Schoenberg have worked in Vienna.Art and culture had a long tradition in Vienna, including theater, opera, classical music and fine arts. The Burgtheater is considered one of the best theaters in the German-speaking world alongside its branch, the Akademietheater. The Volkstheater Wien and the Theater in der Josefstadt also enjoy good reputations. There is also a multitude of smaller theaters, in many cases devoted to less mainstream forms of the performing arts, such as modern, experimental plays or cabaret.Vienna is also home to a number of opera houses, including the Theater an der Wien, the Staatsoper and the Volksoper, the latter being devoted to the typical Viennese operetta. Classical concerts are performed at venues such as the Wiener Musikverein, home of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra known across the world for the annual widely broadcast "New Year's Day Concert", as well as the Wiener Konzerthaus, home of the internationally renowned Vienna Symphony. Many concert venues offer concerts aimed at tourists, featuring popular highlights of Viennese music, particularly the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johann Strauss I, and Johann Strauss II.Up until 2005, the Theater an der Wien hosted premieres of musicals, but since 2006 (a year dedicated to the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth), has devoted itself to opera again, becoming a stagione opera house offering one new production each month. Since 2012, Theater an der Wien has taken over the Wiener Kammeroper, a historical small theater in the first district of Vienna seating 300 spectators, turning it into its second venue for smaller sized productions and chamber operas created by the young ensemble of Theater an der Wien (JET). Before 2005 the most successful musical was "Elisabeth", which was later translated into several languages and performed all over the world. The Wiener Taschenoper is dedicated to stage music of the 20th and 21st century. The Haus der Musik ("house of music") opened in the year 2000.The Wienerlied is a unique song genre from Vienna. There are approximately 60,000 – 70,000 Wienerlieder.In 1981 the popular British new romantic group Ultravox paid a tribute to Vienna on an album and an artful music video recording called "Vienna". The inspiration for this work arose from the cinema production called "The Third Man" with the title Zither music of Anton Karas.The Vienna's English Theatre (VET) is an English theater in Vienna. It was founded in 1963 and is located in the 8th Vienna's district. It is the oldest English-language theater in continental Europe.In May 2015, Vienna hosted the Eurovision Song Contest following Austria's victory in the 2014 contest.Notable entertainers born in Vienna include Hedy Lamarr, Christoph Waltz, John Banner, Christiane Hörbiger, Eric Pohlmann, Boris Kodjoe, Christine Buchegger, Mischa Hausserman, Senta Berger and Christine Ostermayer.Notable musicians born in Vienna include Louie Austen, Alban Berg, Falco, Fritz Kreisler, Joseph Lanner, Arnold Schönberg, Franz Schubert, Johann Strauss I, Johann Strauss II, Anton Webern, and Joe Zawinul.Famous musicians who came here to work from other parts of Austria and Germany were Johann Joseph Fux, Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Ferdinand Ries, Johann Sedlatzek, Antonio Salieri, Carl Czerny, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Franz Liszt, Franz von Suppé, Anton Bruckner, Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler and Rainhard Fendrich.Among the most notable Viennese Jews, some of whom left Austria before and during Nazi persecution, are the following figures: Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler (who eventually converted to Christianity), Rudolf Dreikurs, Viktor Frankl, Fritz Lang, Peter Lorre, Fred Zinnemann (both of whose parents were murdered in the Holocaust), Stefan Zweig, Simon Wiesenthal, Theodor Herzl, Judah Alkalai, Erich von Stroheim, Hedy Lamarr, Billy Wilder, Franz Werfel, Arnold Schoenberg, Walter Arlen and Fritz Kreisler.Notable writers from Vienna include Karl Leopold von Möller, Carl Julius Haidvogel, and Stefan Zweig.Writers who lived and worked in Vienna include Franz Kafka, Arthur Schnitzler, Elias Canetti, Ingeborg Bachmann, Robert Musil, Karl Kraus, Ernst von Feuchtersleben, Thomas Bernhard and Elfriede Jelinek.Notable politicians from Vienna include Karl Leopold von Möller.The Hofburg is the location of the Imperial Treasury ("Schatzkammer"), holding the imperial jewels of the Habsburg dynasty. The Sisi Museum (a museum devoted to Empress Elisabeth of Austria) allows visitors to view the imperial apartments as well as the silver cabinet. Directly opposite the Hofburg are the Kunsthistorisches Museum, which houses many paintings by old masters, ancient and classical artifacts, and the Naturhistorisches Museum.A number of museums are located in the Museumsquartier (museum quarter), the former Imperial Stalls which were converted into a museum complex in the 1990s. It houses the Museum of Modern Art, commonly known as the MUMOK (Ludwig Foundation), the Leopold Museum (featuring the largest collection of paintings in the world by Egon Schiele, as well as works by the Vienna Secession, Viennese Modernism and Austrian Expressionism), the AzW (museum of architecture), additional halls with feature exhibitions, and the Tanzquartier. The Liechtenstein Palace contains much of one of the world's largest private art collections, especially strong in the Baroque. The Belvedere, built under Prince Eugene, has a gallery containing paintings by Gustav Klimt (The Kiss), Egon Schiele, and other painters of the early 20th century, also sculptures by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, and changing exhibitions too.There are a multitude of other museums in Vienna, including the Albertina, the Military History Museum, the Technical Museum, the Burial Museum, the Museum of Art Fakes, the KunstHausWien, Museum of Applied Arts, the Sigmund Freud Museum, and the Mozarthaus Vienna. The museums on the history of the city, including the former Historical Museum of the City of Vienna on Karlsplatz, the Hermesvilla, the residences and birthplaces of various composers, the Museum of the Romans, and the Vienna Clock Museum, are now gathered together under the group umbrella Vienna Museum. The Jewish Museum Vienna, founded 1896, is the oldest of its kind. In addition there are museums dedicated to Vienna's individual districts. They provide a record of individual struggles, achievements and tragedy as the city grew and survived two world wars. For readers seeking family histories these are good sources of information.A variety of architectural styles can be found in Vienna, such as the Romanesque Ruprechtskirche and the Baroque Karlskirche. Styles range from classicist buildings to modern architecture. Art Nouveau left many architectural traces in Vienna. The Secession building, Karlsplatz Stadtbahn Station, and the Kirche am Steinhof by Otto Wagner rank among the best known examples of Art Nouveau in the world. Wagner's prominent student Jože Plečnik from Slovenia also left important traces in Vienna. His works include the Langer House (1900) and the Zacherlhaus (1903–1905). Plečnik's 1910–1913 "Church of the Holy Spirit" () in Vienna is remarkable for its innovative use of poured-in-place concrete as both structure and exterior surface, and also for its abstracted classical form language. Most radical is the church's crypt, with its slender concrete columns and angular, cubist capitals and bases.Concurrent to the Art Nouveau movement was the Wiener Moderne, during which some architects shunned the use of extraneous adornment. A key architect of this period was Adolf Loos, whose works include the Looshaus (1909), the Kärntner Bar or American Bar (1908) and the Steiner House (1910).The Hundertwasserhaus by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, designed to counter the clinical look of modern architecture, is one of Vienna's most popular tourist attractions. Another example of unique architecture is the Wotrubakirche by sculptor Fritz Wotruba. In the 1990s, a number of quarters were adapted and extensive building projects were implemented in the areas around Donaustadt (north of the Danube) and Wienerberg (in southern Vienna).The 220-meter high DC Tower 1 located on the Northern bank of the Danube, completed in 2013, is the tallest skyscraper in Vienna. In recent years, Vienna has seen numerous architecture projects completed which combine modern architectural elements with old buildings, such as the remodeling and revitalization of the old Gasometer in 2001.Most buildings in Vienna are relatively low; in early 2006 there were around 100 buildings higher than . The number of high-rise buildings is kept low by building legislation aimed at preserving green areas and districts designated as world cultural heritage. Strong rules apply to the planning, authorization and construction of high-rise buildings. Consequently, much of the inner city is a high-rise free zone.Vienna is the last great capital of the 19th-century ball. There are over 450 balls per year, some featuring as many as nine live orchestras. Balls are held in the many palaces in Vienna, with the principal venue being the Hofburg Palace in Heldenplatz. While the Opera Ball is the best known internationally of all the Austrian balls, other balls such as the Kaffeesiederball (Cafe Owners Ball), the Jägerball (Hunter's Ball) and the Life Ball (AIDS charity event) are almost as well known within Austria and even better appreciated for their cordial atmosphere. Viennese of at least middle class may visit a number of balls in their lifetime.Dancers and opera singers from the Vienna State Opera often perform at the openings of the larger balls.A Vienna ball is an all-night cultural attraction. Major Vienna balls generally begin at 9 pm and last until 5 am, although many guests carry on the celebrations into the next day. Viennese balls are being exported (with support from the City of Vienna) to around 30 cities worldwide such as New York, Barcelona, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Rome, Prague, Bucharest, Berlin and Moscow.Vienna is part of the Austro-Bavarian language area, in particular Central Bavarian ("Mittelbairisch"). In recent years, linguistics experts have seen a decline in the use of the Viennese variant. Manfred Glauninger, sociolinguist at the Institute for Austrian Dialect and Name Lexica, has observed three issues. First, many parents feel there's a stigma attached to the Viennese dialect so they speak Standard German to their children. Second, many children have recently immigrated to Austria and are learning German as a second language in school. Third, young people are influenced by mass media which is most always delivered in Standard German.Vienna is Austria's main center of education and home to many universities, professional colleges and gymnasiums (high schools).Vienna possesses many parks, including the "Stadtpark", the "Burggarten", the "Volksgarten" (part of the "Hofburg"), the "Schlosspark" at Schloss Belvedere (home to the Vienna Botanic Gardens), the "Donaupark", the "Schönbrunner Schlosspark", the "Prater", the "Augarten", the "Rathauspark", the "Lainzer Tiergarten", the "Dehnepark", the "Resselpark", the "Votivpark", the "Kurpark Oberlaa", the "Auer-Welsbach-Park" and the "Türkenschanzpark". Green areas include "Laaer-Berg" (including the Bohemian Prater) and the foothills of the "Wienerwald", which reaches into the outer areas of the city. Small parks, known by the Viennese as "Beserlparks", are everywhere in the inner city areas.Many of Vienna's parks include monuments, such as the Stadtpark with its statue of Johann Strauss II, and the gardens of the baroque palace, where the State Treaty was signed. Vienna's principal park is the Prater which is home to the Riesenrad, a Ferris wheel, and Kugelmugel, a micronation the shape of a sphere. The imperial Schönbrunn's grounds contain an 18th-century park which includes the world's oldest zoo, founded in 1752.The Donauinsel, part of Vienna's flood defenses, is a long artificial island between the Danube and Neue Donau dedicated to leisure activities.Austria's capital is home to numerous football teams. The best known are the local football clubs include FK Austria Wien (21 Austrian Bundesliga titles and record 27-time cup winners), SK Rapid Wien (record 32 Austrian Bundesliga titles), and the oldest team, First Vienna FC. Other important sports clubs include the Raiffeisen Vikings Vienna (American Football), who won the Eurobowl title between 2004 and 2007 4 times in a row and had a perfect season in 2013, the Aon hotVolleys Vienna, one of Europe's premier Volleyball organizations, the Vienna Wanderers (baseball) who won the 2012 and 2013 Championship of the Austrian Baseball League, and the Vienna Capitals (Ice Hockey). Vienna was also where the European Handball Federation (EHF) was founded. There are also three rugby clubs; Vienna Celtic, the oldest rugby club in Austria, RC Donau, and Stade ViennoisVienna hosts many different sporting events including the Vienna City Marathon, which attracts more than 10,000 participants every year and normally takes place in May. In 2005 the Ice Hockey World Championships took place in Austria and the final was played in Vienna. Vienna's Ernst Happel Stadium was the venue of four Champions League and European Champion Clubs' Cup finals (1964, 1987, 1990 and 1995) and on 29 June it hosted the final of Euro 2008 which saw a Spanish 1–0 victory over Germany. Tennis tournament Vienna Open also takes place in the city since 1974. The matches are played in the Wiener Stadthalle.The Neue Donau, which was formed after the Donauinsel was created, is free of river traffic and a popular destination for leisure and sports activities.Vienna will host the official 2021 3x3 Basketball World Cup.Vienna is well known for "Wiener Schnitzel", a cutlet of veal "(Kalbsschnitzel)" or pork "(Schweinsschnitzel)" that is pounded flat, coated in flour, egg and breadcrumbs, and fried in clarified butter. It is available in almost every restaurant that serves Viennese cuisine and can be eaten hot or cold. The traditional 'Wiener Schnitzel' though is a cutlet of veal. Other examples of Viennese cuisine include "Tafelspitz" (very lean boiled beef), which is traditionally served with "Geröstete Erdäpfel" (boiled potatoes mashed with a fork and subsequently fried) and horseradish sauce, "Apfelkren" (a mixture of horseradish, cream and apple) and "Schnittlauchsauce" (a chives sauce made with mayonnaise and stale bread).Vienna has a long tradition of producing cakes and desserts. These include "Apfelstrudel" (hot apple strudel), "Milchrahmstrudel" (milk-cream strudel), "Palatschinken" (sweet pancakes), and "Knödel" (dumplings) often filled with fruit such as apricots ("Marillenknödel"). Sachertorte, a delicately moist chocolate cake with apricot jam created by the Sacher Hotel, is world-famous.In winter, small street stands sell traditional "Maroni" (hot chestnuts) and potato fritters.Sausages are popular and available from street vendors ("Würstelstand") throughout the day and into the night. The sausage known as "Wiener" (German for Viennese) in the U.S. and in Germany, is called a "Frankfurter" in Vienna. Other popular sausages are "Burenwurst" (a coarse beef and pork sausage, generally boiled), "Käsekrainer" (spicy pork with small chunks of cheese), and "Bratwurst" (a white pork sausage). Most can be ordered "mit Brot" (with bread) or as a "hot dog" (stuffed inside a long roll). Mustard is the traditional condiment and usually offered in two varieties: "süß" (sweet) or "scharf" (spicy).Kebab, pizza and noodles are, increasingly, the snack foods most widely available from small stands.The "Naschmarkt" is a permanent market for fruit, vegetables, spices, fish, meat, etc., from around the world. The city has many coffee and breakfast stores.Vienna, along with Paris, Santiago, Cape Town, Prague, Canberra, Bratislava and Warsaw, is one of the few remaining world capital cities with its own vineyards. The wine is served in small Viennese pubs known as Heuriger, which are especially numerous in the wine growing areas of Döbling (Grinzing, Neustift am Walde, Nußdorf, Salmannsdorf, Sievering), Floridsdorf (Stammersdorf, Strebersdorf), Liesing (Mauer) and Favoriten (Oberlaa). The wine is often drunk as a Spritzer ("G'spritzter") with sparkling water. The Grüner Veltliner, a dry white wine, is the most widely cultivated wine in Austria. Another wine very typical for the region is "Gemischter Satz", which is typically a blend of different types of wines harvested from the same vineyard.Beer is next in importance to wine. Vienna has a single large brewery, Ottakringer, and more than ten microbreweries. A "Beisl" is a typical small Austrian pub, of which Vienna has many.Also, local soft drinks such as Almdudler are popular around the country as an alternative to alcoholic beverages, placing it on the top spots along American counterparts such as Coca-Cola in terms of market share. Another popular drink is the so-called "Spezi", a mix between Coca-Cola and the original formula of Orange Fanta or the more locally renowned Frucade.Viennese cafés have an extremely long and distinguished history that dates back centuries, and the caffeine addictions of some famous historical patrons of the oldest are something of a local legend. These coffee houses are unique to Vienna and many cities have unsuccessfully sought to copy them. Some people consider cafés as their extended living room where nobody will be bothered if they spend hours reading a newspaper while enjoying their coffee. Traditionally, the coffee comes with a glass of water. Viennese cafés claim to have invented the process of filtering coffee from booty captured after the second Turkish siege in 1683. Viennese cafés claim that when the invading Turks left Vienna, they abandoned hundreds of sacks of coffee beans. The Polish King John III Sobieski, the commander of the anti-Turkish coalition of Poles, Germans, and Austrians, gave Franz George Kolschitzky (Polish – Franciszek Jerzy Kulczycki) some of this coffee as a reward for providing information that allowed him to defeat the Turks. Kolschitzky then opened Vienna's first coffee shop. Julius Meinl set up a modern roasting plant in the same premises where the coffee sacks were found, in 1891.Major tourist attractions include the imperial palaces of the Hofburg and Schönbrunn (also home to the world's oldest zoo, Tiergarten Schönbrunn) and the Riesenrad in the Prater. Cultural highlights include the Burgtheater, the Wiener Staatsoper, the Lipizzaner horses at the spanische Hofreitschule, and the Vienna Boys' Choir, as well as excursions to Vienna's Heurigen district Döbling.There are also more than 100 art museums, which together attract over eight million visitors per year. The most popular ones are Albertina, Belvedere, Leopold Museum in the Museumsquartier, KunstHausWien, Bank Austria Kunstforum, the twin "Kunsthistorisches Museum" and "Naturhistorisches Museum", and the Technisches Museum Wien, each of which receives over a quarter of a million visitors per year.There are many popular sites associated with composers who lived in Vienna including Beethoven's various residences and grave at Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery) which is the largest cemetery in Vienna and the burial site of many famous people. Mozart has a memorial grave at the Habsburg gardens and at St. Marx cemetery (where his grave was lost). Vienna's many churches also draw large crowds, famous of which are St. Stephen's Cathedral, the Deutschordenskirche, the Jesuitenkirche, the Karlskirche, the Peterskirche, Maria am Gestade, the Minoritenkirche, the Ruprechtskirche, the Schottenkirche, St. Ulrich and the Votivkirche.Modern attractions include the Hundertwasserhaus, the United Nations headquarters and the view from the Donauturm.Vienna has an extensive transportation network with a unified fare system that integrates municipal, regional and railway systems under the umbrella of the Verkehrsverbund Ost-Region (VOR). Public transport is provided by buses, trams and five underground metro lines (U-Bahn), most operated by the Wiener Linien. There are also more than 50 S-train stations within the city limits. Suburban trains are operated by the ÖBB. The city forms the hub of the Austrian railway system, with services to all parts of the country and abroad. The railway system connects Vienna's main station Vienna Hauptbahnhof with other European cities, like Berlin, Bratislava, Budapest, Brussels, Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Ljubljana, Munich, Prague, Venice, Wrocław, Warsaw, Zagreb and Zürich.Vienna has multiple road connections including expressways and motorways.Vienna is served by Vienna International Airport, located southeast of the city center next to the town of Schwechat. The airport handled approximately 31.7 million passengers in 2019. Following lengthy negotiations with surrounding communities, the airport will be expanded to increase its capacity by adding a third runway. The airport is undergoing a major expansion, including a new terminal building that opened in 2012 to prepare for an increase in passengers.Vienna is the seat of a number of United Nations offices and various international institutions and companies, including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). Vienna is the world's third "UN city", next to New York, Geneva, and Nairobi. Additionally, Vienna is the seat of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law's secretariat (UNCITRAL). In conjunction, the University of Vienna annually hosts the prestigious Willem C. Vis Moot, an international commercial arbitration competition for students of law from around the world.Diplomatic meetings have been held in Vienna in the latter half of the 20th century, resulting in documents bearing the name Vienna Convention or Vienna Document. Among the more important documents negotiated in Vienna are the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, as well as the 1990 Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. Vienna also hosted the negotiations leading to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Iran's nuclear program as well as the Vienna peace talks for Syria.Vienna also headquartered the International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF).Alongside international and intergovernmental organizations, there are dozens of charitable organizations based in Vienna. One such organization is the network of SOS Children's Villages, founded by Hermann Gmeiner in 1949. Today, SOS Children's Villages are active in 132 countries and territories worldwide. Others include HASCO.Another popular international event is the annual Life Ball, which supports people with HIV or AIDS. Guests such as Bill Clinton and Whoopi Goldberg were recent attendees.The general policy of the City of Vienna is not to sign any twin or sister city agreements with other cities. Instead Vienna has only cooperation agreements in which specific cooperation areas are defined.In addition, individual Viennese districts have international partnerships all over the world. A detailed list is published on the website of the City of Vienna.
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[
"Hanns Blaschke",
"Karl Seitz",
"Richard Weiskirchner",
"Richard Schmitz",
"Bruno Marek",
"Felix Slavik",
"Hermann Neubacher",
"Karl Lueger",
"Leopold Gratz",
"Jakob Reumann",
"Josef Neumayer",
"Franz Jonas",
"Michael Häupl",
"Philipp Wilhelm Jung",
"Helmut Zilk",
"Michael Ludwig"
] |
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Who was the head of Vienna in Apr, 1963?
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April 05, 1963
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{
"text": [
"Franz Jonas"
]
}
|
L2_Q1741_P6_10
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Philipp Wilhelm Jung is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1940 to Dec, 1943.
Bruno Marek is the head of the government of Vienna from Jun, 1965 to Dec, 1970.
Karl Seitz is the head of the government of Vienna from Nov, 1923 to Feb, 1934.
Michael Ludwig is the head of the government of Vienna from May, 2018 to Dec, 2022.
Felix Slavik is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1970 to Jul, 1973.
Jakob Reumann is the head of the government of Vienna from May, 1919 to Nov, 1923.
Richard Schmitz is the head of the government of Vienna from Apr, 1934 to Mar, 1938.
Karl Lueger is the head of the government of Vienna from Apr, 1897 to Mar, 1910.
Hanns Blaschke is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1943 to Apr, 1945.
Richard Weiskirchner is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1912 to May, 1919.
Theodor Körner is the head of the government of Vienna from Apr, 1945 to Jun, 1951.
Josef Neumayer is the head of the government of Vienna from May, 1910 to Dec, 1912.
Michael Häupl is the head of the government of Vienna from Nov, 1994 to May, 2018.
Leopold Gratz is the head of the government of Vienna from Jul, 1973 to Sep, 1984.
Franz Jonas is the head of the government of Vienna from Jun, 1951 to Jun, 1965.
Hermann Neubacher is the head of the government of Vienna from Mar, 1938 to Dec, 1940.
Helmut Zilk is the head of the government of Vienna from Sep, 1984 to Nov, 1994.
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ViennaVienna (; ; Austro-Bavarian: "Wean") is the national capital, largest city, and one of nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's most populous city, with about 2 million inhabitants (2.6 million within the metropolitan area, nearly one third of the country's population), and its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 6th-largest city by population within city limits in the European Union.Until the beginning of the 20th century, Vienna was the largest German-speaking city in the world, and before the splitting of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I, the city had 2 million inhabitants. Today, it is the second-largest German-speaking city after Berlin. Vienna is host to many major international organizations, including the United Nations, OPEC and the OSCE. The city is located in the eastern part of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region. Along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants. In 2001, the city center was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In July 2017 it was moved to the list of World Heritage in Danger. Additionally, Vienna is known as the "City of Music" due to its musical legacy, as many famous classical musicians such as Beethoven and Mozart called Vienna home. Vienna is also said to be the "City of Dreams", because of it being home to the world's first psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. Vienna's ancestral roots lie in early Celtic and Roman settlements that transformed into a Medieval and Baroque city. It is well known for having played a pivotal role as a leading European music center, from the age of Viennese Classicism through the early part of the 20th century. The historic center of Vienna is rich in architectural ensembles, including Baroque palaces and gardens, and the late-19th-century Ringstraße lined with grand buildings, monuments and parks.Vienna is known for its high quality of life. In a 2005 study of 127 world cities, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked the city first (in a tie with Vancouver and San Francisco) for the world's most livable cities. Between 2011 and 2015, Vienna was ranked second, behind Melbourne. Monocle's 2015 "Quality of Life Survey" ranked Vienna second on a list of the top 25 cities in the world "to make a base within." Monocle's 2012 "Quality of Life Survey" ranked Vienna fourth on a list of the top 25 cities in the world "to make a base within" (up from sixth in 2011 and eighth in 2010). The UN-Habitat classified Vienna as the most prosperous city in the world in 2012/2013. The city was ranked 1st globally for its culture of innovation in 2007 and 2008, and sixth globally (out of 256 cities) in the 2014 Innovation Cities Index, which analyzed 162 indicators in covering three areas: culture, infrastructure, and markets. Vienna regularly hosts urban planning conferences and is often used as a case study by urban planners. Between 2005 and 2010, Vienna was the world's number-one destination for international congresses and conventions. It attracts over 6.8 million tourists a year.The English name "Vienna" is borrowed from the homonymous Italian name. The etymology of the city's name is still subject to scholarly dispute. Some claim that the name comes from "vedunia", meaning "forest stream", which subsequently produced the Old High German "uuenia" ("wenia" in modern writing), the New High German "wien" and its dialectal variant "wean".Others believe that the name comes from the Roman settlement name of Celtic extraction "Vindobona", probably meaning "fair village, white settlement" from Celtic roots, "vindo-", meaning "bright" or "fair" – as in the Irish "fionn" and the Welsh "gwyn" –, and "-bona" "village, settlement". The Celtic word "vindos" may reflect a widespread prehistorical cult of Vindos, a Celtic deity who survives in Irish Mythology as the warrior and seer Fionn mac Cumhaill. A variant of this Celtic name could be preserved in the Czech, Slovak and Polish names of the city ("Vídeň", "Viedeň" and "Wiedeń" respectively) and in that of the city's district Wieden.The name of the city in Hungarian ("Bécs"), Serbo-Croatian ("Beč"; ) and Ottoman Turkish ("Beç") has a different, probably Slavonic origin, and originally referred to an Avar fort in the area. Slovene-speakers call the city "Dunaj", which in other Central European Slavic languages means the river Danube, on which the city stands.Evidence has been found of continuous habitation in the Vienna area since 500 BC, when Celts settled the site on the Danube. In 15 BC, the Romans fortified the frontier city they called Vindobona to guard the empire against Germanic tribes to the north.Close ties with other Celtic peoples continued through the ages. The Irish monk Saint Colman (or Koloman, Irish "Colmán", derived from "colm" "dove") is buried in Melk Abbey and Saint Fergil (Virgil the Geometer) served as Bishop of Salzburg for forty years. Irish Benedictines founded twelfth-century monastic settlements; evidence of these ties persists in the form of Vienna's great Schottenstift monastery (Scots Abbey), once home to many Irish monks.In 976, Leopold I of Babenberg became count of the Eastern March, a district centered on the Danube on the eastern frontier of Bavaria. This initial district grew into the duchy of Austria. Each succeeding Babenberg ruler expanded the march east along the Danube, eventually encompassing Vienna and the lands immediately east. In 1145, Duke Henry II Jasomirgott moved the Babenberg family residence from Klosterneuburg in Lower Austria to Vienna. From that time, Vienna remained the center of the Babenberg dynasty.In 1440, Vienna became the resident city of the Habsburg dynasty. It eventually grew to become the "de facto" capital of the Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) in 1437 and a cultural center for arts and science, music and fine cuisine. Hungary occupied the city between 1485 and 1490.In the 16th and 17th centuries Christian forces twice stopped Ottoman armies outside Vienna, in the 1529 Siege of Vienna and the 1683 Battle of Vienna. The Great Plague of Vienna ravaged the city in 1679, killing nearly a third of its population.In 1804, during the Napoleonic Wars, Vienna became the capital of the newly formed Austrian Empire. The city continued to play a major role in European and world politics, including hosting the Congress of Vienna in 1814/15. After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, Vienna remained the capital of what became the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The city functioned as a center of classical music, for which the title of the First Viennese School (Haydn/Mozart/Beethoven) is sometimes applied.During the latter half of the 19th century, Vienna developed what had previously been the bastions and glacis into the Ringstraße, a new boulevard surrounding the historical town and a major prestige project. Former suburbs were incorporated, and the city of Vienna grew dramatically. In 1918, after World War I, Vienna became capital of the Republic of German-Austria, and then in 1919 of the First Republic of Austria.From the late-19th century to 1938, the city remained a center of high culture and of modernism. A world capital of music, Vienna played host to composers such as Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler and Richard Strauss. The city's cultural contributions in the first half of the 20th century included, among many, the Vienna Secession movement in art, psychoanalysis, the Second Viennese School (Schoenberg, Berg, Webern), the architecture of Adolf Loos and the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle. In 1913 Adolf Hitler, Leon Trotsky, Josip Broz Tito, Sigmund Freud and Joseph Stalin all lived within a few kilometres of each other in central Vienna, some of them becoming regulars at the same coffeehouses.Austrians came to regard Vienna as a center of socialist politics, sometimes referred to as "Red Vienna"(“Das rote Wien”). In the Austrian Civil War of 1934 Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss sent the Austrian Army to shell civilian housing such as the Karl Marx-Hof occupied by the socialist militia.In 1938, after a triumphant entry into Austria, the Austrian-born German Chancellor Adolf Hitler spoke to the Austrian Germans from the balcony of the Neue Burg, a part of the Hofburg at the Heldenplatz. In the ensuing days the new Nazi authorities oversaw the harassment of Viennese Jews, the looting of their homes, and their on-going deportation and murder. Between 1938 (after the Anschluss) and the end of the Second World War in 1945, Vienna lost its status as a capital to Berlin, because Austria ceased to exist and became part of Nazi Germany.During the November pogroms on November 9, 1938, 92 synagogues in Vienna were destroyed. Only the city temple in the 1st district was spared, as the data of all Jews in Vienna were collected in the adjacent archives. Adolf Eichmann held office in the expropriated Palais Rothschild and organized the expropriation and persecution of the Jews. Of the almost 200,000 Jews in Vienna, around 120,000 were driven to emigrate and around 65,000 were killed. After the end of the war, the Jewish population of Vienna was about only 5,000.Vienna was also the center of the important resistance group around Heinrich Maier, which provided the Allies with plans for V-1, V-2 rockets, Peenemünde, Tiger tanks, Messerschmitt Bf 109, Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet and other aircraft. The information was important to Operation Crossbow and Operation Hydra, both preliminary missions for Operation Overlord. In addition, factory locations for war-essential products were communicated as targets for the Allied Air Force. The group was exposed and most of its members were executed after months of torture by the Gestapo in Vienna. The group around the later executed Karl Burian even tried to blow up the Gestapo headquarters in the Hotel Metropole.On 2 April 1945 the Soviet Red Army launched the Vienna Offensive against the Germans holding the city and besieged it. British and American air-raids, as well as artillery duels between the Red Army and the SS and Wehrmacht, crippled infrastructure, such as tram services and water- and power-distribution, and destroyed or damaged thousands of public and private buildings. The Red Army was helped by an Austrian resistance group in the German Wehrmacht. The group tried under the code name Radetzky to prevent the destruction and fighting in the city. Vienna fell eleven days later. At the end of the war, Austria again became separated from Germany, and Vienna regained its status as the capital city of the Republic of Austria, but the Soviet hold on the city remained until 1955, when Austria regained full sovereignty.After the war, Vienna was part of Soviet-occupied Eastern Austria until September 1945. As in Berlin, Vienna in September 1945 was divided into sectors by the four powers: the US, the UK, France, and the Soviet Union and supervised by an Allied Commission. The four-power occupation of Vienna differed in one key respect from that of Berlin: the central area of the city, known as the first district, constituted an "international zone" in which the four powers alternated control on a monthly basis. The control was policed by the four powers on a "de facto" day-to-day basis, the famous "four soldiers in a jeep" method. The Berlin Blockade of 1948 raised Western concerns that the Soviets might repeat the blockade in Vienna. The matter was raised in the UK House of Commons by MP Anthony Nutting, who asked: "What plans have the Government for dealing with a similar situation in Vienna? Vienna is in exactly a similar position to Berlin."There was a lack of airfields in the Western sectors, and authorities drafted contingency plans to deal with such a blockade. Plans included the laying down of metal landing mats at Schönbrunn. The Soviets did not blockade the city. The Potsdam Agreement included written rights of land access to the western sectors, whereas no such written guarantees had covered the western sectors of Berlin. Also, there was no precipitating event to cause a blockade in Vienna. (In Berlin, the Western powers had introduced a new currency in early 1948 to economically freeze out the Soviets.) During the 10 years of the four-power occupation, Vienna became a hotbed for international espionage between the Western and Eastern blocs. In the wake of the Berlin Blockade, the Cold War in Vienna took on a different dynamic. While accepting that Germany and Berlin would be divided, the Soviets had decided against allowing the same state of affairs to arise in Austria and Vienna. Here, the Soviet forces controlled districts 2, 4, 10, 20, 21, and 22 and all areas incorporated into Vienna in 1938.Barbed wire fences were installed around the perimeter of West Berlin in 1953, but not in Vienna. By 1955, the Soviets, by signing the Austrian State Treaty, agreed to relinquish their occupation zones in Eastern Austria as well as their sector in Vienna. In exchange they required that Austria declare its permanent neutrality after the allied powers had left the country. Thus they ensured that Austria would not be a member of NATO and that NATO forces would therefore not have direct communications between Italy and West Germany.The atmosphere of four-power Vienna is the background for Graham Greene's screenplay for the film "The Third Man" (1949). Later he adapted the screenplay as a novel and published it. Occupied Vienna is also depicted in the 1991 Philip Kerr novel, "A German Requiem".The four-power control of Vienna lasted until the Austrian State Treaty was signed in May 1955. That year, after years of reconstruction and restoration, the State Opera and the Burgtheater, both on the Ringstraße, reopened to the public. The Soviet Union signed the State Treaty only after having been provided with a political guarantee by the federal government to declare Austria's neutrality after the withdrawal of the allied troops. This law of neutrality, passed in late October 1955 (and not the State Treaty itself), ensured that modern Austria would align with neither NATO nor the Soviet bloc, and is considered one of the reasons for Austria's delayed entry into the European Union in 1995.In the 1970s, Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky inaugurated the Vienna International Center, a new area of the city created to host international institutions. Vienna has regained much of its former international stature by hosting international organizations, such as the United Nations (United Nations Industrial Development Organization, United Nations Office at Vienna and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime), the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.Because of the industrialization and migration from other parts of the Empire, the population of Vienna increased sharply during its time as the capital of Austria-Hungary (1867–1918). In 1910, Vienna had more than two million inhabitants, and was the third largest city in Europe after London and Paris. Around the start of the 20th century, Vienna was the city with the second-largest Czech population in the world (after Prague). After World War I, many Czechs and Hungarians returned to their ancestral countries, resulting in a decline in the Viennese population. After World War II, the Soviets used force to repatriate key workers of Czech, Slovak and Hungarian origins to return to their ethnic homelands to further the Soviet bloc economy.Under the Nazi regime, 65,000 Jews were deported and murdered in concentration camps by Nazi forces; approximately 130,000 fled.By 2001, 16% of people living in Austria had nationalities other than Austrian, nearly half of whom were from former Yugoslavia; the next most numerous nationalities in Vienna were Turks (39,000; 2.5%), Poles (13,600; 0.9%) and Germans (12,700; 0.8%)., an official report from Statistics Austria showed that more than 660,000 (38.8%) of the Viennese population have full or partial migrant background, mostly from Ex-Yugoslavia, Turkey, Germany, Poland, Romania and Hungary.From 2005 to 2015 the city's population grew by 10.1%. According to UN-Habitat, Vienna could be the fastest growing city out of 17 European metropolitan areas until 2025 with an increase of 4.65% of its population, compared to 2010.According to the 2001 census, 49.2% of Viennese were Catholic, while 25.7% were of no religion, 7.8% were Muslim, 6.0% were members of an Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, 4.7% were Protestant (mostly Lutheran), 0.5% were Jewish and 6.3% were either of other religions or did not reply. A 2011 report by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis showed the proportions had changed, with 41.3% Catholic, 31.6% no affiliation, 11.6% Muslim, 8.4% Eastern Orthodox, 4.2% Protestant, and 2.9% other.Based on information provided to city officials by various religious organizations about their membership, Vienna's Statistical Yearbook 2019 reports in 2018 an estimated 610,269 Roman Catholics, or 32.3% of the population, and 195,000 (10.3%) Muslims, 70,298 (3.7%) Orthodox, 57,502 (3.0%) other Christians, and 9,504 (0.5%) other religions. A study conducted by the Vienna Institute of Demography estimated the 2018 proportions to be 34% Catholic, 30% unaffiliated, 15% Muslim, 10% Orthodox, 4% Protestant, and 6% other religions.Vienna is the seat of the Metropolitan Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna, in which is also vested the exempt Ordinariate for Byzantine-rite Catholics in Austria; its Archbishop is Cardinal Christoph Schönborn. Many Catholic churches in central Vienna feature performances of religious or other music, including masses sung to classical music and organ. Some of Vienna's most significant historical buildings are Catholic churches, including the St. Stephen's Cathedral ("Stephansdom"), Karlskirche, Peterskirche and the Votivkirche. On the banks of the Danube, there is a Buddhist Peace Pagoda, built in 1983 by the monks and nuns of [Nipponzan Myohoji].Vienna is located in northeastern Austria, at the easternmost extension of the Alps in the Vienna Basin. The earliest settlement, at the location of today's inner city, was south of the meandering Danube while the city now spans both sides of the river. Elevation ranges from . The city has a total area of 414.65 square kilometers (160.1 sq mi), making it the largest city in Austria by area.Vienna has an oceanic climate (Köppen classification "Cfb"). The city has warm summers, with periodical precipitations that can reach its yearly peak in July and August (66.6 and 66.5 mm respectively) and average high temperatures from June to September of approximately , with a record maximum exceeding and a record low in September of . Winters are relatively dry and cold with average temperatures at about freezing point. Spring is variable and autumn cool, with possible snowfalls already in November. Precipitation is generally moderate throughout the year, averaging around annually, with considerable local variations, the Vienna Woods region in the west being the wettest part ( annually) and the flat plains in the east being the driest part ( annually). Snow in winter is common, even if not so frequent compared to the Western and Southern regions of Austria.Vienna was moved to the UNESCO world heritage in endangered list in 2017. The main reason was a planned high-rise development. The city's social democratic party planned construction of a complex in 2019. The plan includes a -high tower, which was reduced from due to opposition. UNESCO believed that the project "fails to comply fully with previous committee decisions, notably concerning the height of new constructions, which will impact adversely the outstanding universal value of the site." UNESCO set the restriction for the height of the construction in the city center to .The citizens of Vienna also opposed the construction of the complex because they are afraid of losing UNESCO status and also of encouraging future high-rise development. The city officials replied that they will convince the WHC to maintain UNESCO world heritage status and said that no further high-rise developments are being planned.UNESCO is concerned about the height of high-rise development in Vienna as it can dramatically influence the visual integrity of the city, specifically the baroque palaces. Visual impact studies are being done in the Vienna city center to assess the level of visual disturbance to visitors and how the changes influenced the city's visual integrity.Vienna is composed of 23 districts ("Bezirke"). Administrative district offices in Vienna (called Magistratische Bezirksämter) serve functions similar to those in the other Austrian states (called Bezirkshauptmannschaften), the officers being subject to the mayor of Vienna; with the notable exception of the police, which is under federal supervision.District residents in Vienna (Austrians as well as EU citizens with permanent residence here) elect a District Assembly (Bezirksvertretung). City hall has delegated maintenance budgets, e.g., for schools and parks, so that the districts are able to set priorities autonomously. Any decision of a district can be overridden by the city assembly (Gemeinderat) or the responsible city councilor (amtsführender Stadtrat).The heart and historical city of Vienna, a large part of today's Innere Stadt, was a fortress surrounded by fields in order to defend itself from potential attackers. In 1850, Vienna with the consent of the emperor annexed 34 surrounding villages, called Vorstädte, into the city limits (districts no. 2 to 8, after 1861 with the separation of Margareten from Wieden no. 2 to 9). Consequently, the walls were razed after 1857, making it possible for the city center to expand.In their place, a broad boulevard called the Ringstraße was built, along which imposing public and private buildings, monuments, and parks were created by the start of the 20th century. These buildings include the Rathaus (town hall), the Burgtheater, the University, the Parliament, the twin museums of natural history and fine art, and the Staatsoper. It is also the location of New Wing of the Hofburg, the former imperial palace, and the Imperial and Royal War Ministry finished in 1913. The mainly Gothic Stephansdom is located at the center of the city, on Stephansplatz. The Imperial-Royal Government set up the Vienna City Renovation Fund (Wiener Stadterneuerungsfonds) and sold many building lots to private investors, thereby partly financing public construction works.From 1850 to 1890, city limits in the West and the South mainly followed another wall called "Linienwall" at which a road toll called the "Liniengeld" was charged. Outside this wall from 1873 onwards a ring road called Gürtel was built. In 1890 it was decided to integrate 33 suburbs (called Vororte) beyond that wall into Vienna by 1 January 1892 and transform them into districts no. 11 to 19 (district no. 10 had been constituted in 1874); hence the Linienwall was torn down beginning in 1894. In 1900, district no. 20, Brigittenau, was created by separating the area from the 2nd district.From 1850 to 1904, Vienna had expanded only on the right bank of the Danube, following the main branch before the regulation of 1868–1875, i.e., the Old Danube of today. In 1904, the 21st district was created by integrating Floridsdorf, Kagran, Stadlau, Hirschstetten, Aspern and other villages on the left bank of the Danube into Vienna, in 1910 Strebersdorf followed. On 15 October 1938 the Nazis created Great Vienna with 26 districts by merging 97 towns and villages into Vienna, 80 of which were returned to surrounding Lower Austria in 1954. Since then Vienna has had 23 districts.Industries are located mostly in the southern and eastern districts. The Innere Stadt is situated away from the main flow of the Danube, but is bounded by the "Donaukanal" ("Danube canal"). Vienna's second and twentieth districts are located between the Donaukanal and the Danube. Across the Danube, where the Vienna International Center is located (districts 21–22), and in the southern areas (district 23) are the newest parts of the city.In the twenty years before the First World War and until 1918, Viennese politics were shaped by the Christian Social Party. In particular, long-term mayor Karl Lueger was able to not apply the general voting rights for men introduced by and for the parliament of imperial Austria, the "Reichsrat", in 1907, thereby excluding most of the working class from taking part in decisions. For Adolf Hitler, who spent some years in Vienna, Lueger was a teacher of how to use antisemitism in politics.Vienna is today considered the center of the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ). During the period of the First Republic (1918–1934), the Vienna Social Democrats undertook many social reforms. At that time, Vienna's municipal policy was admired by Socialists throughout Europe, who therefore referred to the city as "Red Vienna" ("Rotes Wien"). In February 1934 troops of the Austrian federal government under Engelbert Dollfuss, who had closed down the first chamber of the federal parliament, the "Nationalrat", in 1933, and paramilitary socialist organizations were engaged in the Austrian Civil War, which led to the ban of the Social Democratic party.The SPÖ has held the mayor's office and control of the city council/parliament at every free election since 1919. The only break in this SPÖ dominance came between 1934 and 1945, when the Social Democratic Party was illegal, mayors were appointed by the austro-fascist and later by the Nazi authorities. The mayor of Vienna is Michael Ludwig of the SPÖ.The city has enacted many social democratic policies. The "Gemeindebauten" are social housing assets that are well integrated into the city architecture outside the first or "inner" district. The low rents enable comfortable accommodation and good access to the city amenities. Many of the projects were built after the Second World War on vacant lots that were destroyed by bombing during the war. The city took particular pride in building them to a high standard.Since Vienna obtained federal state ("Bundesland") status of its own by the federal constitution of 1920, the city council also functions as the state parliament (Landtag), and the mayor (except 1934–1945) also doubles as the "Landeshauptmann" (governor/minister-president) of the state of Vienna. The Rathaus accommodates the offices of the mayor ("") and the state government ("Landesregierung"). The city is administered by a multitude of departments ("Magistratsabteilungen"), politically supervised by "amtsführende Stadträte" (members of the city government leading offices; according to the Vienna constitution opposition parties have the right to designate members of the city government not leading offices).Under the city constitution of 1920, municipal and state business must be kept separate. Hence, the city council and state parliament hold separate meetings, with separate presiding officers–the chairman of the city council or the president of the state Landtag–even though the two bodies' memberships are identical. When meeting as a city council, the deputies can only deal with the affairs of the city of Vienna; when meeting as a state parliament, they can only deal with the affairs of the state of Vienna.In the 1996 City Council election, the SPÖ lost its overall majority in the 100-seat chamber, winning 43 seats and 39.15% of the vote. The SPÖ had held an outright majority at every free municipal election since 1919. In 1996 the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), which won 29 seats (up from 21 in 1991), beat the ÖVP into third place for the second time running. From 1996 to 2001, the SPÖ governed Vienna in a coalition with the ÖVP. In 2001 the SPÖ regained the overall majority with 52 seats and 46.91% of the vote; in October 2005, this majority was increased further to 55 seats (49.09%). In course of the 2010 city council elections the SPÖ lost their overall majority again and consequently forged a coalition with the Green Party – the first SPÖ/Green coalition in Austria. This coalition was maintained following the 2015 election.Vienna is one of the wealthiest regions in the European Union: Its gross regional product of EUR 47,200 per capita constituted 25.7% of Austria's GDP in 2013. It amounts to 159% of the EU average. The city improved its position from 2012 on the ranking of the most economically powerful cities reaching number nine on the listing in 2015.With a share of 85.5% in gross value added, the service sector is Vienna's most important economic sector. Industry and commerce have a share of 14.5% in gross value added, the primary sector (agriculture) has a share of 0.07% and therefore plays a minor role in the local added value. However, the cultivation and production of wines within the city borders have a high socio-cultural value. The most important business sectors are trade (14.7% of added value in Vienna), scientific and technological services, real estate and housing activities as well as manufacturing of goods. In 2012, Vienna's contribution in Austria's outgoing and incoming foreign direct investments was of about 60%, which demonstrates Vienna's role as an international hub for domestic and foreign companies.Since the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, Vienna has expanded its position as gateway to Eastern Europe: 300 international companies have their Eastern European headquarters in Vienna and its environs. Among them are Hewlett Packard, Henkel, Baxalta and Siemens. Companies in Vienna have extensive contacts and competences in business with Eastern Europe due to the city's historical role as center of the Habsburg Empire. The number of international businesses in Vienna is still growing: In 2014 159 and in 2015 175 international firms established offices in Vienna.Altogether, approximately 8,300 new companies have been founded in Vienna every year since 2004. The majority of these companies are operating in fields of industry-oriented services, wholesale trade as well as information and communications technologies and new media. Vienna makes effort to establish itself as a start-up hub. Since 2012, the city hosts the annual Pioneers Festival, the largest start-up event in Central Europe with 2,500 international participants taking place at Hofburg Palace. Tech Cocktail, an online portal for the start-up scene, has ranked Vienna sixth among the top ten start-up cities worldwide.The city of Vienna attaches major importance to science and research and focuses on creating a positive environment for research and development. In 2014, Vienna has accommodated 1,329 research facilities; 40,400 persons are employed in the R&D sector and 35% of Austria's R&D expenses are invested in the city. With a research quota of 3.4% Vienna exceeds the Austrian average of 2.77% and has already met the EU target of 3.0% by 2020. A major R&D sector in Vienna are life sciences. The Vienna Life Science Cluster is Austria's major hub for life science research, education and business. Throughout Vienna, five universities and several basic research institutes form the academic core of the hub with more than 12,600 employees and 34,700 students. Here, more than 480 medical device, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies with almost 23,000 employees generate around 12 billion euros in revenue (2017). This corresponds to more than 50% of the revenue generated by life science companies in Austria (22.4 billion euros).Vienna is home to global players like Boehringer Ingelheim, Octapharma, Ottobock and Takeda. However, there is also a growing number of start-up companies in the life sciences and Vienna was ranked first in the 2019 PeoplePerHour Startup Cities Index. Companies such as Apeiron Biologics, Hookipa Pharma, Marinomed, mySugr, Themis Bioscience and Valneva operate a presence in Vienna and regularly hit the headlines internationally.To facilitate tapping the economic potential of the multiple facettes of the life sciences at Austria's capital, the Austrian Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs and the local government of City of Vienna have joined forces: Since 2002, the LISAvienna platform is available as a central contact point. It provides free business support services at the interface of the Austrian federal promotional bank, Austria Wirtschaftsservice and the Vienna Business Agency and collects data that inform policy making.The main academic hot spots in Vienna are the Life Science Center Muthgasse with the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), the Austrian Institute of Technology, the University of Veterinary Medicine, the AKH Vienna with the MedUni Vienna and the Vienna Biocenter. Central European University, a graduate institution expelled from Budapest in the midst of a Hungarian government steps to take control of academic and research organizations, welcomes the first class of students to its new Vienna campus in 2019.The Viennese sector for information and communication technologies is comparable in size with the sector in Helsinki, Milan or Munich and thus among Europe's largest IT locations. In 2012 8,962 IT businesses with a workforce of 64,223 were located in the Vienna Region. The main products are instruments and appliances for measuring, testing and navigation as well as electronic components. More than ⅔ of the enterprises provide IT services. Among the biggest IT firms in Vienna are Kapsch, Beko Engineering & Informatics, air traffic control experts Frequentis, Cisco Systems Austria, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft Austria, IBM Austria and Samsung Electronics Austria.The US technology corporation Cisco runs its "Entrepreneurs in Residence" program for Europe in Vienna in cooperation with the Vienna Business Agency.The British company UBM has rated Vienna one of the "Top 10 Internet Cities" worldwide, by analyzing criteria like connection speed, WiFi availability, innovation spirit and open government data.In 2011 74.3% of Viennese households were connected with broadband, 79% were in possession of a computer. According to the broadband strategy of the city, full broadband coverage will be reached by 2020.There were 17.6 million overnight stays in Vienna in 2019 (+6.8% compared to 2018). The top ten incoming markets in 2019 were Germany, Austria, the United States, Italy, United Kingdom, Spain, China, France, Russia and Switzerland.In 2019 the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) ranked Vienna 6th in the world for association meetings. The Union of International Associations (UIA) ranked Vienna 5th in the world for 2019 with 306 international meetings, behind Singapore, Brussels, Seoul and Paris. The city's largest conference center, the Austria Center Vienna (ACV) has a total capacity for around 22,800 people and is situated next to the United Nations Headquarters in Vienna. Other centers are the Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center (up to 3,000 people) and the Hofburg Palace (up to 4,900 people).Vienna was ranked top in the "2019 Quality of Living Ranking" by the international Mercer Consulting Group for the tenth consecutive year. In the 2015 liveability report by the Economist Intelligence Unit as well as in the "Quality of Life Survey 2015" of London-based "Monocle magazine" Vienna was equally ranked second most livable city worldwide.The United Nations Human Settlements Programme "UN-Habitat" has ranked Vienna the most prosperous city in the world in its flagship report "State of the World Cities 2012/2013".According to the 2014 City RepTrack ranking by the Reputation Institute, Vienna has the best reputation in comparison with 100 major global cities.The "Innovation Cities Global Index 2014" by the Australian innovation agency 2thinknow ranks Vienna sixth behind San Francisco-San Jose, New York City, London, Boston and Paris. In 2019 PeoplePerHour put Vienna at the top of their Startup Cities Ranking.US climate strategist Boyd Cohen placed Vienna first in his first "global smart cities" ranking of 2012. In the 2014 ranking, Vienna reached third place among European cities behind Copenhagen and Amsterdam.The "Mori Memorial Institute for Urban Strategies" ranked Vienna in the top ten of their Global Power City Index 2016.Vienna's new Central Railway Station was opened in October 2014. Construction began in June 2007 and was due to last until December 2015. The station is served by 1,100 trains with 145,000 passengers. There is a shopping center with approximately 90 shops and restaurants.In the vicinity of the station a new district is emerging with office space and 5,000 apartments until 2020.Seestadt Aspern is one of the largest urban expansion projects of Europe. A 5 hectare artificial lake, offices, apartments and a subway station within walking distance are supposed to attract 20,000 new citizens when construction is completed in 2028.In addition, the highest wooden skyscraper in the world, “HoHo Wien”, will be built within 3 years, starting in 2015.In 2014, the Vienna City Council adopted the Smart City Wien Framework Strategy 2050. It is a long-term umbrella strategy that is supposed to establish a conducive, long-term and structural framework in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from 3.1 tonnes per capita to 1 tonne per capita by 2050, have 50% of Vienna's gross energy consumption originate from renewable sources and to reduce motorized individual traffic from the current 28% to 15% by 2030. A stated goal is that, by 2050, all vehicles within the municipal boundaries will run without conventional propulsion technologies. Additionally, Vienna aims to be one of the five biggest European research and innovation hubs in 2050.Famous composers including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Ferdinand Ries, Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler, Robert Stolz, and Arnold Schoenberg have worked in Vienna.Art and culture had a long tradition in Vienna, including theater, opera, classical music and fine arts. The Burgtheater is considered one of the best theaters in the German-speaking world alongside its branch, the Akademietheater. The Volkstheater Wien and the Theater in der Josefstadt also enjoy good reputations. There is also a multitude of smaller theaters, in many cases devoted to less mainstream forms of the performing arts, such as modern, experimental plays or cabaret.Vienna is also home to a number of opera houses, including the Theater an der Wien, the Staatsoper and the Volksoper, the latter being devoted to the typical Viennese operetta. Classical concerts are performed at venues such as the Wiener Musikverein, home of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra known across the world for the annual widely broadcast "New Year's Day Concert", as well as the Wiener Konzerthaus, home of the internationally renowned Vienna Symphony. Many concert venues offer concerts aimed at tourists, featuring popular highlights of Viennese music, particularly the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johann Strauss I, and Johann Strauss II.Up until 2005, the Theater an der Wien hosted premieres of musicals, but since 2006 (a year dedicated to the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth), has devoted itself to opera again, becoming a stagione opera house offering one new production each month. Since 2012, Theater an der Wien has taken over the Wiener Kammeroper, a historical small theater in the first district of Vienna seating 300 spectators, turning it into its second venue for smaller sized productions and chamber operas created by the young ensemble of Theater an der Wien (JET). Before 2005 the most successful musical was "Elisabeth", which was later translated into several languages and performed all over the world. The Wiener Taschenoper is dedicated to stage music of the 20th and 21st century. The Haus der Musik ("house of music") opened in the year 2000.The Wienerlied is a unique song genre from Vienna. There are approximately 60,000 – 70,000 Wienerlieder.In 1981 the popular British new romantic group Ultravox paid a tribute to Vienna on an album and an artful music video recording called "Vienna". The inspiration for this work arose from the cinema production called "The Third Man" with the title Zither music of Anton Karas.The Vienna's English Theatre (VET) is an English theater in Vienna. It was founded in 1963 and is located in the 8th Vienna's district. It is the oldest English-language theater in continental Europe.In May 2015, Vienna hosted the Eurovision Song Contest following Austria's victory in the 2014 contest.Notable entertainers born in Vienna include Hedy Lamarr, Christoph Waltz, John Banner, Christiane Hörbiger, Eric Pohlmann, Boris Kodjoe, Christine Buchegger, Mischa Hausserman, Senta Berger and Christine Ostermayer.Notable musicians born in Vienna include Louie Austen, Alban Berg, Falco, Fritz Kreisler, Joseph Lanner, Arnold Schönberg, Franz Schubert, Johann Strauss I, Johann Strauss II, Anton Webern, and Joe Zawinul.Famous musicians who came here to work from other parts of Austria and Germany were Johann Joseph Fux, Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Ferdinand Ries, Johann Sedlatzek, Antonio Salieri, Carl Czerny, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Franz Liszt, Franz von Suppé, Anton Bruckner, Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler and Rainhard Fendrich.Among the most notable Viennese Jews, some of whom left Austria before and during Nazi persecution, are the following figures: Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler (who eventually converted to Christianity), Rudolf Dreikurs, Viktor Frankl, Fritz Lang, Peter Lorre, Fred Zinnemann (both of whose parents were murdered in the Holocaust), Stefan Zweig, Simon Wiesenthal, Theodor Herzl, Judah Alkalai, Erich von Stroheim, Hedy Lamarr, Billy Wilder, Franz Werfel, Arnold Schoenberg, Walter Arlen and Fritz Kreisler.Notable writers from Vienna include Karl Leopold von Möller, Carl Julius Haidvogel, and Stefan Zweig.Writers who lived and worked in Vienna include Franz Kafka, Arthur Schnitzler, Elias Canetti, Ingeborg Bachmann, Robert Musil, Karl Kraus, Ernst von Feuchtersleben, Thomas Bernhard and Elfriede Jelinek.Notable politicians from Vienna include Karl Leopold von Möller.The Hofburg is the location of the Imperial Treasury ("Schatzkammer"), holding the imperial jewels of the Habsburg dynasty. The Sisi Museum (a museum devoted to Empress Elisabeth of Austria) allows visitors to view the imperial apartments as well as the silver cabinet. Directly opposite the Hofburg are the Kunsthistorisches Museum, which houses many paintings by old masters, ancient and classical artifacts, and the Naturhistorisches Museum.A number of museums are located in the Museumsquartier (museum quarter), the former Imperial Stalls which were converted into a museum complex in the 1990s. It houses the Museum of Modern Art, commonly known as the MUMOK (Ludwig Foundation), the Leopold Museum (featuring the largest collection of paintings in the world by Egon Schiele, as well as works by the Vienna Secession, Viennese Modernism and Austrian Expressionism), the AzW (museum of architecture), additional halls with feature exhibitions, and the Tanzquartier. The Liechtenstein Palace contains much of one of the world's largest private art collections, especially strong in the Baroque. The Belvedere, built under Prince Eugene, has a gallery containing paintings by Gustav Klimt (The Kiss), Egon Schiele, and other painters of the early 20th century, also sculptures by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, and changing exhibitions too.There are a multitude of other museums in Vienna, including the Albertina, the Military History Museum, the Technical Museum, the Burial Museum, the Museum of Art Fakes, the KunstHausWien, Museum of Applied Arts, the Sigmund Freud Museum, and the Mozarthaus Vienna. The museums on the history of the city, including the former Historical Museum of the City of Vienna on Karlsplatz, the Hermesvilla, the residences and birthplaces of various composers, the Museum of the Romans, and the Vienna Clock Museum, are now gathered together under the group umbrella Vienna Museum. The Jewish Museum Vienna, founded 1896, is the oldest of its kind. In addition there are museums dedicated to Vienna's individual districts. They provide a record of individual struggles, achievements and tragedy as the city grew and survived two world wars. For readers seeking family histories these are good sources of information.A variety of architectural styles can be found in Vienna, such as the Romanesque Ruprechtskirche and the Baroque Karlskirche. Styles range from classicist buildings to modern architecture. Art Nouveau left many architectural traces in Vienna. The Secession building, Karlsplatz Stadtbahn Station, and the Kirche am Steinhof by Otto Wagner rank among the best known examples of Art Nouveau in the world. Wagner's prominent student Jože Plečnik from Slovenia also left important traces in Vienna. His works include the Langer House (1900) and the Zacherlhaus (1903–1905). Plečnik's 1910–1913 "Church of the Holy Spirit" () in Vienna is remarkable for its innovative use of poured-in-place concrete as both structure and exterior surface, and also for its abstracted classical form language. Most radical is the church's crypt, with its slender concrete columns and angular, cubist capitals and bases.Concurrent to the Art Nouveau movement was the Wiener Moderne, during which some architects shunned the use of extraneous adornment. A key architect of this period was Adolf Loos, whose works include the Looshaus (1909), the Kärntner Bar or American Bar (1908) and the Steiner House (1910).The Hundertwasserhaus by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, designed to counter the clinical look of modern architecture, is one of Vienna's most popular tourist attractions. Another example of unique architecture is the Wotrubakirche by sculptor Fritz Wotruba. In the 1990s, a number of quarters were adapted and extensive building projects were implemented in the areas around Donaustadt (north of the Danube) and Wienerberg (in southern Vienna).The 220-meter high DC Tower 1 located on the Northern bank of the Danube, completed in 2013, is the tallest skyscraper in Vienna. In recent years, Vienna has seen numerous architecture projects completed which combine modern architectural elements with old buildings, such as the remodeling and revitalization of the old Gasometer in 2001.Most buildings in Vienna are relatively low; in early 2006 there were around 100 buildings higher than . The number of high-rise buildings is kept low by building legislation aimed at preserving green areas and districts designated as world cultural heritage. Strong rules apply to the planning, authorization and construction of high-rise buildings. Consequently, much of the inner city is a high-rise free zone.Vienna is the last great capital of the 19th-century ball. There are over 450 balls per year, some featuring as many as nine live orchestras. Balls are held in the many palaces in Vienna, with the principal venue being the Hofburg Palace in Heldenplatz. While the Opera Ball is the best known internationally of all the Austrian balls, other balls such as the Kaffeesiederball (Cafe Owners Ball), the Jägerball (Hunter's Ball) and the Life Ball (AIDS charity event) are almost as well known within Austria and even better appreciated for their cordial atmosphere. Viennese of at least middle class may visit a number of balls in their lifetime.Dancers and opera singers from the Vienna State Opera often perform at the openings of the larger balls.A Vienna ball is an all-night cultural attraction. Major Vienna balls generally begin at 9 pm and last until 5 am, although many guests carry on the celebrations into the next day. Viennese balls are being exported (with support from the City of Vienna) to around 30 cities worldwide such as New York, Barcelona, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Rome, Prague, Bucharest, Berlin and Moscow.Vienna is part of the Austro-Bavarian language area, in particular Central Bavarian ("Mittelbairisch"). In recent years, linguistics experts have seen a decline in the use of the Viennese variant. Manfred Glauninger, sociolinguist at the Institute for Austrian Dialect and Name Lexica, has observed three issues. First, many parents feel there's a stigma attached to the Viennese dialect so they speak Standard German to their children. Second, many children have recently immigrated to Austria and are learning German as a second language in school. Third, young people are influenced by mass media which is most always delivered in Standard German.Vienna is Austria's main center of education and home to many universities, professional colleges and gymnasiums (high schools).Vienna possesses many parks, including the "Stadtpark", the "Burggarten", the "Volksgarten" (part of the "Hofburg"), the "Schlosspark" at Schloss Belvedere (home to the Vienna Botanic Gardens), the "Donaupark", the "Schönbrunner Schlosspark", the "Prater", the "Augarten", the "Rathauspark", the "Lainzer Tiergarten", the "Dehnepark", the "Resselpark", the "Votivpark", the "Kurpark Oberlaa", the "Auer-Welsbach-Park" and the "Türkenschanzpark". Green areas include "Laaer-Berg" (including the Bohemian Prater) and the foothills of the "Wienerwald", which reaches into the outer areas of the city. Small parks, known by the Viennese as "Beserlparks", are everywhere in the inner city areas.Many of Vienna's parks include monuments, such as the Stadtpark with its statue of Johann Strauss II, and the gardens of the baroque palace, where the State Treaty was signed. Vienna's principal park is the Prater which is home to the Riesenrad, a Ferris wheel, and Kugelmugel, a micronation the shape of a sphere. The imperial Schönbrunn's grounds contain an 18th-century park which includes the world's oldest zoo, founded in 1752.The Donauinsel, part of Vienna's flood defenses, is a long artificial island between the Danube and Neue Donau dedicated to leisure activities.Austria's capital is home to numerous football teams. The best known are the local football clubs include FK Austria Wien (21 Austrian Bundesliga titles and record 27-time cup winners), SK Rapid Wien (record 32 Austrian Bundesliga titles), and the oldest team, First Vienna FC. Other important sports clubs include the Raiffeisen Vikings Vienna (American Football), who won the Eurobowl title between 2004 and 2007 4 times in a row and had a perfect season in 2013, the Aon hotVolleys Vienna, one of Europe's premier Volleyball organizations, the Vienna Wanderers (baseball) who won the 2012 and 2013 Championship of the Austrian Baseball League, and the Vienna Capitals (Ice Hockey). Vienna was also where the European Handball Federation (EHF) was founded. There are also three rugby clubs; Vienna Celtic, the oldest rugby club in Austria, RC Donau, and Stade ViennoisVienna hosts many different sporting events including the Vienna City Marathon, which attracts more than 10,000 participants every year and normally takes place in May. In 2005 the Ice Hockey World Championships took place in Austria and the final was played in Vienna. Vienna's Ernst Happel Stadium was the venue of four Champions League and European Champion Clubs' Cup finals (1964, 1987, 1990 and 1995) and on 29 June it hosted the final of Euro 2008 which saw a Spanish 1–0 victory over Germany. Tennis tournament Vienna Open also takes place in the city since 1974. The matches are played in the Wiener Stadthalle.The Neue Donau, which was formed after the Donauinsel was created, is free of river traffic and a popular destination for leisure and sports activities.Vienna will host the official 2021 3x3 Basketball World Cup.Vienna is well known for "Wiener Schnitzel", a cutlet of veal "(Kalbsschnitzel)" or pork "(Schweinsschnitzel)" that is pounded flat, coated in flour, egg and breadcrumbs, and fried in clarified butter. It is available in almost every restaurant that serves Viennese cuisine and can be eaten hot or cold. The traditional 'Wiener Schnitzel' though is a cutlet of veal. Other examples of Viennese cuisine include "Tafelspitz" (very lean boiled beef), which is traditionally served with "Geröstete Erdäpfel" (boiled potatoes mashed with a fork and subsequently fried) and horseradish sauce, "Apfelkren" (a mixture of horseradish, cream and apple) and "Schnittlauchsauce" (a chives sauce made with mayonnaise and stale bread).Vienna has a long tradition of producing cakes and desserts. These include "Apfelstrudel" (hot apple strudel), "Milchrahmstrudel" (milk-cream strudel), "Palatschinken" (sweet pancakes), and "Knödel" (dumplings) often filled with fruit such as apricots ("Marillenknödel"). Sachertorte, a delicately moist chocolate cake with apricot jam created by the Sacher Hotel, is world-famous.In winter, small street stands sell traditional "Maroni" (hot chestnuts) and potato fritters.Sausages are popular and available from street vendors ("Würstelstand") throughout the day and into the night. The sausage known as "Wiener" (German for Viennese) in the U.S. and in Germany, is called a "Frankfurter" in Vienna. Other popular sausages are "Burenwurst" (a coarse beef and pork sausage, generally boiled), "Käsekrainer" (spicy pork with small chunks of cheese), and "Bratwurst" (a white pork sausage). Most can be ordered "mit Brot" (with bread) or as a "hot dog" (stuffed inside a long roll). Mustard is the traditional condiment and usually offered in two varieties: "süß" (sweet) or "scharf" (spicy).Kebab, pizza and noodles are, increasingly, the snack foods most widely available from small stands.The "Naschmarkt" is a permanent market for fruit, vegetables, spices, fish, meat, etc., from around the world. The city has many coffee and breakfast stores.Vienna, along with Paris, Santiago, Cape Town, Prague, Canberra, Bratislava and Warsaw, is one of the few remaining world capital cities with its own vineyards. The wine is served in small Viennese pubs known as Heuriger, which are especially numerous in the wine growing areas of Döbling (Grinzing, Neustift am Walde, Nußdorf, Salmannsdorf, Sievering), Floridsdorf (Stammersdorf, Strebersdorf), Liesing (Mauer) and Favoriten (Oberlaa). The wine is often drunk as a Spritzer ("G'spritzter") with sparkling water. The Grüner Veltliner, a dry white wine, is the most widely cultivated wine in Austria. Another wine very typical for the region is "Gemischter Satz", which is typically a blend of different types of wines harvested from the same vineyard.Beer is next in importance to wine. Vienna has a single large brewery, Ottakringer, and more than ten microbreweries. A "Beisl" is a typical small Austrian pub, of which Vienna has many.Also, local soft drinks such as Almdudler are popular around the country as an alternative to alcoholic beverages, placing it on the top spots along American counterparts such as Coca-Cola in terms of market share. Another popular drink is the so-called "Spezi", a mix between Coca-Cola and the original formula of Orange Fanta or the more locally renowned Frucade.Viennese cafés have an extremely long and distinguished history that dates back centuries, and the caffeine addictions of some famous historical patrons of the oldest are something of a local legend. These coffee houses are unique to Vienna and many cities have unsuccessfully sought to copy them. Some people consider cafés as their extended living room where nobody will be bothered if they spend hours reading a newspaper while enjoying their coffee. Traditionally, the coffee comes with a glass of water. Viennese cafés claim to have invented the process of filtering coffee from booty captured after the second Turkish siege in 1683. Viennese cafés claim that when the invading Turks left Vienna, they abandoned hundreds of sacks of coffee beans. The Polish King John III Sobieski, the commander of the anti-Turkish coalition of Poles, Germans, and Austrians, gave Franz George Kolschitzky (Polish – Franciszek Jerzy Kulczycki) some of this coffee as a reward for providing information that allowed him to defeat the Turks. Kolschitzky then opened Vienna's first coffee shop. Julius Meinl set up a modern roasting plant in the same premises where the coffee sacks were found, in 1891.Major tourist attractions include the imperial palaces of the Hofburg and Schönbrunn (also home to the world's oldest zoo, Tiergarten Schönbrunn) and the Riesenrad in the Prater. Cultural highlights include the Burgtheater, the Wiener Staatsoper, the Lipizzaner horses at the spanische Hofreitschule, and the Vienna Boys' Choir, as well as excursions to Vienna's Heurigen district Döbling.There are also more than 100 art museums, which together attract over eight million visitors per year. The most popular ones are Albertina, Belvedere, Leopold Museum in the Museumsquartier, KunstHausWien, Bank Austria Kunstforum, the twin "Kunsthistorisches Museum" and "Naturhistorisches Museum", and the Technisches Museum Wien, each of which receives over a quarter of a million visitors per year.There are many popular sites associated with composers who lived in Vienna including Beethoven's various residences and grave at Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery) which is the largest cemetery in Vienna and the burial site of many famous people. Mozart has a memorial grave at the Habsburg gardens and at St. Marx cemetery (where his grave was lost). Vienna's many churches also draw large crowds, famous of which are St. Stephen's Cathedral, the Deutschordenskirche, the Jesuitenkirche, the Karlskirche, the Peterskirche, Maria am Gestade, the Minoritenkirche, the Ruprechtskirche, the Schottenkirche, St. Ulrich and the Votivkirche.Modern attractions include the Hundertwasserhaus, the United Nations headquarters and the view from the Donauturm.Vienna has an extensive transportation network with a unified fare system that integrates municipal, regional and railway systems under the umbrella of the Verkehrsverbund Ost-Region (VOR). Public transport is provided by buses, trams and five underground metro lines (U-Bahn), most operated by the Wiener Linien. There are also more than 50 S-train stations within the city limits. Suburban trains are operated by the ÖBB. The city forms the hub of the Austrian railway system, with services to all parts of the country and abroad. The railway system connects Vienna's main station Vienna Hauptbahnhof with other European cities, like Berlin, Bratislava, Budapest, Brussels, Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Ljubljana, Munich, Prague, Venice, Wrocław, Warsaw, Zagreb and Zürich.Vienna has multiple road connections including expressways and motorways.Vienna is served by Vienna International Airport, located southeast of the city center next to the town of Schwechat. The airport handled approximately 31.7 million passengers in 2019. Following lengthy negotiations with surrounding communities, the airport will be expanded to increase its capacity by adding a third runway. The airport is undergoing a major expansion, including a new terminal building that opened in 2012 to prepare for an increase in passengers.Vienna is the seat of a number of United Nations offices and various international institutions and companies, including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). Vienna is the world's third "UN city", next to New York, Geneva, and Nairobi. Additionally, Vienna is the seat of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law's secretariat (UNCITRAL). In conjunction, the University of Vienna annually hosts the prestigious Willem C. Vis Moot, an international commercial arbitration competition for students of law from around the world.Diplomatic meetings have been held in Vienna in the latter half of the 20th century, resulting in documents bearing the name Vienna Convention or Vienna Document. Among the more important documents negotiated in Vienna are the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, as well as the 1990 Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. Vienna also hosted the negotiations leading to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Iran's nuclear program as well as the Vienna peace talks for Syria.Vienna also headquartered the International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF).Alongside international and intergovernmental organizations, there are dozens of charitable organizations based in Vienna. One such organization is the network of SOS Children's Villages, founded by Hermann Gmeiner in 1949. Today, SOS Children's Villages are active in 132 countries and territories worldwide. Others include HASCO.Another popular international event is the annual Life Ball, which supports people with HIV or AIDS. Guests such as Bill Clinton and Whoopi Goldberg were recent attendees.The general policy of the City of Vienna is not to sign any twin or sister city agreements with other cities. Instead Vienna has only cooperation agreements in which specific cooperation areas are defined.In addition, individual Viennese districts have international partnerships all over the world. A detailed list is published on the website of the City of Vienna.
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[
"Hanns Blaschke",
"Karl Seitz",
"Richard Weiskirchner",
"Richard Schmitz",
"Bruno Marek",
"Felix Slavik",
"Theodor Körner",
"Hermann Neubacher",
"Karl Lueger",
"Leopold Gratz",
"Jakob Reumann",
"Josef Neumayer",
"Michael Häupl",
"Philipp Wilhelm Jung",
"Helmut Zilk",
"Michael Ludwig"
] |
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Who was the head of Vienna in Aug, 1969?
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August 08, 1969
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{
"text": [
"Bruno Marek"
]
}
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L2_Q1741_P6_11
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Philipp Wilhelm Jung is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1940 to Dec, 1943.
Richard Weiskirchner is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1912 to May, 1919.
Josef Neumayer is the head of the government of Vienna from May, 1910 to Dec, 1912.
Michael Ludwig is the head of the government of Vienna from May, 2018 to Dec, 2022.
Helmut Zilk is the head of the government of Vienna from Sep, 1984 to Nov, 1994.
Bruno Marek is the head of the government of Vienna from Jun, 1965 to Dec, 1970.
Hanns Blaschke is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1943 to Apr, 1945.
Michael Häupl is the head of the government of Vienna from Nov, 1994 to May, 2018.
Richard Schmitz is the head of the government of Vienna from Apr, 1934 to Mar, 1938.
Hermann Neubacher is the head of the government of Vienna from Mar, 1938 to Dec, 1940.
Franz Jonas is the head of the government of Vienna from Jun, 1951 to Jun, 1965.
Leopold Gratz is the head of the government of Vienna from Jul, 1973 to Sep, 1984.
Karl Lueger is the head of the government of Vienna from Apr, 1897 to Mar, 1910.
Karl Seitz is the head of the government of Vienna from Nov, 1923 to Feb, 1934.
Jakob Reumann is the head of the government of Vienna from May, 1919 to Nov, 1923.
Theodor Körner is the head of the government of Vienna from Apr, 1945 to Jun, 1951.
Felix Slavik is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1970 to Jul, 1973.
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ViennaVienna (; ; Austro-Bavarian: "Wean") is the national capital, largest city, and one of nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's most populous city, with about 2 million inhabitants (2.6 million within the metropolitan area, nearly one third of the country's population), and its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 6th-largest city by population within city limits in the European Union.Until the beginning of the 20th century, Vienna was the largest German-speaking city in the world, and before the splitting of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I, the city had 2 million inhabitants. Today, it is the second-largest German-speaking city after Berlin. Vienna is host to many major international organizations, including the United Nations, OPEC and the OSCE. The city is located in the eastern part of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region. Along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants. In 2001, the city center was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In July 2017 it was moved to the list of World Heritage in Danger. Additionally, Vienna is known as the "City of Music" due to its musical legacy, as many famous classical musicians such as Beethoven and Mozart called Vienna home. Vienna is also said to be the "City of Dreams", because of it being home to the world's first psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. Vienna's ancestral roots lie in early Celtic and Roman settlements that transformed into a Medieval and Baroque city. It is well known for having played a pivotal role as a leading European music center, from the age of Viennese Classicism through the early part of the 20th century. The historic center of Vienna is rich in architectural ensembles, including Baroque palaces and gardens, and the late-19th-century Ringstraße lined with grand buildings, monuments and parks.Vienna is known for its high quality of life. In a 2005 study of 127 world cities, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked the city first (in a tie with Vancouver and San Francisco) for the world's most livable cities. Between 2011 and 2015, Vienna was ranked second, behind Melbourne. Monocle's 2015 "Quality of Life Survey" ranked Vienna second on a list of the top 25 cities in the world "to make a base within." Monocle's 2012 "Quality of Life Survey" ranked Vienna fourth on a list of the top 25 cities in the world "to make a base within" (up from sixth in 2011 and eighth in 2010). The UN-Habitat classified Vienna as the most prosperous city in the world in 2012/2013. The city was ranked 1st globally for its culture of innovation in 2007 and 2008, and sixth globally (out of 256 cities) in the 2014 Innovation Cities Index, which analyzed 162 indicators in covering three areas: culture, infrastructure, and markets. Vienna regularly hosts urban planning conferences and is often used as a case study by urban planners. Between 2005 and 2010, Vienna was the world's number-one destination for international congresses and conventions. It attracts over 6.8 million tourists a year.The English name "Vienna" is borrowed from the homonymous Italian name. The etymology of the city's name is still subject to scholarly dispute. Some claim that the name comes from "vedunia", meaning "forest stream", which subsequently produced the Old High German "uuenia" ("wenia" in modern writing), the New High German "wien" and its dialectal variant "wean".Others believe that the name comes from the Roman settlement name of Celtic extraction "Vindobona", probably meaning "fair village, white settlement" from Celtic roots, "vindo-", meaning "bright" or "fair" – as in the Irish "fionn" and the Welsh "gwyn" –, and "-bona" "village, settlement". The Celtic word "vindos" may reflect a widespread prehistorical cult of Vindos, a Celtic deity who survives in Irish Mythology as the warrior and seer Fionn mac Cumhaill. A variant of this Celtic name could be preserved in the Czech, Slovak and Polish names of the city ("Vídeň", "Viedeň" and "Wiedeń" respectively) and in that of the city's district Wieden.The name of the city in Hungarian ("Bécs"), Serbo-Croatian ("Beč"; ) and Ottoman Turkish ("Beç") has a different, probably Slavonic origin, and originally referred to an Avar fort in the area. Slovene-speakers call the city "Dunaj", which in other Central European Slavic languages means the river Danube, on which the city stands.Evidence has been found of continuous habitation in the Vienna area since 500 BC, when Celts settled the site on the Danube. In 15 BC, the Romans fortified the frontier city they called Vindobona to guard the empire against Germanic tribes to the north.Close ties with other Celtic peoples continued through the ages. The Irish monk Saint Colman (or Koloman, Irish "Colmán", derived from "colm" "dove") is buried in Melk Abbey and Saint Fergil (Virgil the Geometer) served as Bishop of Salzburg for forty years. Irish Benedictines founded twelfth-century monastic settlements; evidence of these ties persists in the form of Vienna's great Schottenstift monastery (Scots Abbey), once home to many Irish monks.In 976, Leopold I of Babenberg became count of the Eastern March, a district centered on the Danube on the eastern frontier of Bavaria. This initial district grew into the duchy of Austria. Each succeeding Babenberg ruler expanded the march east along the Danube, eventually encompassing Vienna and the lands immediately east. In 1145, Duke Henry II Jasomirgott moved the Babenberg family residence from Klosterneuburg in Lower Austria to Vienna. From that time, Vienna remained the center of the Babenberg dynasty.In 1440, Vienna became the resident city of the Habsburg dynasty. It eventually grew to become the "de facto" capital of the Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) in 1437 and a cultural center for arts and science, music and fine cuisine. Hungary occupied the city between 1485 and 1490.In the 16th and 17th centuries Christian forces twice stopped Ottoman armies outside Vienna, in the 1529 Siege of Vienna and the 1683 Battle of Vienna. The Great Plague of Vienna ravaged the city in 1679, killing nearly a third of its population.In 1804, during the Napoleonic Wars, Vienna became the capital of the newly formed Austrian Empire. The city continued to play a major role in European and world politics, including hosting the Congress of Vienna in 1814/15. After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, Vienna remained the capital of what became the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The city functioned as a center of classical music, for which the title of the First Viennese School (Haydn/Mozart/Beethoven) is sometimes applied.During the latter half of the 19th century, Vienna developed what had previously been the bastions and glacis into the Ringstraße, a new boulevard surrounding the historical town and a major prestige project. Former suburbs were incorporated, and the city of Vienna grew dramatically. In 1918, after World War I, Vienna became capital of the Republic of German-Austria, and then in 1919 of the First Republic of Austria.From the late-19th century to 1938, the city remained a center of high culture and of modernism. A world capital of music, Vienna played host to composers such as Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler and Richard Strauss. The city's cultural contributions in the first half of the 20th century included, among many, the Vienna Secession movement in art, psychoanalysis, the Second Viennese School (Schoenberg, Berg, Webern), the architecture of Adolf Loos and the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle. In 1913 Adolf Hitler, Leon Trotsky, Josip Broz Tito, Sigmund Freud and Joseph Stalin all lived within a few kilometres of each other in central Vienna, some of them becoming regulars at the same coffeehouses.Austrians came to regard Vienna as a center of socialist politics, sometimes referred to as "Red Vienna"(“Das rote Wien”). In the Austrian Civil War of 1934 Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss sent the Austrian Army to shell civilian housing such as the Karl Marx-Hof occupied by the socialist militia.In 1938, after a triumphant entry into Austria, the Austrian-born German Chancellor Adolf Hitler spoke to the Austrian Germans from the balcony of the Neue Burg, a part of the Hofburg at the Heldenplatz. In the ensuing days the new Nazi authorities oversaw the harassment of Viennese Jews, the looting of their homes, and their on-going deportation and murder. Between 1938 (after the Anschluss) and the end of the Second World War in 1945, Vienna lost its status as a capital to Berlin, because Austria ceased to exist and became part of Nazi Germany.During the November pogroms on November 9, 1938, 92 synagogues in Vienna were destroyed. Only the city temple in the 1st district was spared, as the data of all Jews in Vienna were collected in the adjacent archives. Adolf Eichmann held office in the expropriated Palais Rothschild and organized the expropriation and persecution of the Jews. Of the almost 200,000 Jews in Vienna, around 120,000 were driven to emigrate and around 65,000 were killed. After the end of the war, the Jewish population of Vienna was about only 5,000.Vienna was also the center of the important resistance group around Heinrich Maier, which provided the Allies with plans for V-1, V-2 rockets, Peenemünde, Tiger tanks, Messerschmitt Bf 109, Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet and other aircraft. The information was important to Operation Crossbow and Operation Hydra, both preliminary missions for Operation Overlord. In addition, factory locations for war-essential products were communicated as targets for the Allied Air Force. The group was exposed and most of its members were executed after months of torture by the Gestapo in Vienna. The group around the later executed Karl Burian even tried to blow up the Gestapo headquarters in the Hotel Metropole.On 2 April 1945 the Soviet Red Army launched the Vienna Offensive against the Germans holding the city and besieged it. British and American air-raids, as well as artillery duels between the Red Army and the SS and Wehrmacht, crippled infrastructure, such as tram services and water- and power-distribution, and destroyed or damaged thousands of public and private buildings. The Red Army was helped by an Austrian resistance group in the German Wehrmacht. The group tried under the code name Radetzky to prevent the destruction and fighting in the city. Vienna fell eleven days later. At the end of the war, Austria again became separated from Germany, and Vienna regained its status as the capital city of the Republic of Austria, but the Soviet hold on the city remained until 1955, when Austria regained full sovereignty.After the war, Vienna was part of Soviet-occupied Eastern Austria until September 1945. As in Berlin, Vienna in September 1945 was divided into sectors by the four powers: the US, the UK, France, and the Soviet Union and supervised by an Allied Commission. The four-power occupation of Vienna differed in one key respect from that of Berlin: the central area of the city, known as the first district, constituted an "international zone" in which the four powers alternated control on a monthly basis. The control was policed by the four powers on a "de facto" day-to-day basis, the famous "four soldiers in a jeep" method. The Berlin Blockade of 1948 raised Western concerns that the Soviets might repeat the blockade in Vienna. The matter was raised in the UK House of Commons by MP Anthony Nutting, who asked: "What plans have the Government for dealing with a similar situation in Vienna? Vienna is in exactly a similar position to Berlin."There was a lack of airfields in the Western sectors, and authorities drafted contingency plans to deal with such a blockade. Plans included the laying down of metal landing mats at Schönbrunn. The Soviets did not blockade the city. The Potsdam Agreement included written rights of land access to the western sectors, whereas no such written guarantees had covered the western sectors of Berlin. Also, there was no precipitating event to cause a blockade in Vienna. (In Berlin, the Western powers had introduced a new currency in early 1948 to economically freeze out the Soviets.) During the 10 years of the four-power occupation, Vienna became a hotbed for international espionage between the Western and Eastern blocs. In the wake of the Berlin Blockade, the Cold War in Vienna took on a different dynamic. While accepting that Germany and Berlin would be divided, the Soviets had decided against allowing the same state of affairs to arise in Austria and Vienna. Here, the Soviet forces controlled districts 2, 4, 10, 20, 21, and 22 and all areas incorporated into Vienna in 1938.Barbed wire fences were installed around the perimeter of West Berlin in 1953, but not in Vienna. By 1955, the Soviets, by signing the Austrian State Treaty, agreed to relinquish their occupation zones in Eastern Austria as well as their sector in Vienna. In exchange they required that Austria declare its permanent neutrality after the allied powers had left the country. Thus they ensured that Austria would not be a member of NATO and that NATO forces would therefore not have direct communications between Italy and West Germany.The atmosphere of four-power Vienna is the background for Graham Greene's screenplay for the film "The Third Man" (1949). Later he adapted the screenplay as a novel and published it. Occupied Vienna is also depicted in the 1991 Philip Kerr novel, "A German Requiem".The four-power control of Vienna lasted until the Austrian State Treaty was signed in May 1955. That year, after years of reconstruction and restoration, the State Opera and the Burgtheater, both on the Ringstraße, reopened to the public. The Soviet Union signed the State Treaty only after having been provided with a political guarantee by the federal government to declare Austria's neutrality after the withdrawal of the allied troops. This law of neutrality, passed in late October 1955 (and not the State Treaty itself), ensured that modern Austria would align with neither NATO nor the Soviet bloc, and is considered one of the reasons for Austria's delayed entry into the European Union in 1995.In the 1970s, Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky inaugurated the Vienna International Center, a new area of the city created to host international institutions. Vienna has regained much of its former international stature by hosting international organizations, such as the United Nations (United Nations Industrial Development Organization, United Nations Office at Vienna and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime), the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.Because of the industrialization and migration from other parts of the Empire, the population of Vienna increased sharply during its time as the capital of Austria-Hungary (1867–1918). In 1910, Vienna had more than two million inhabitants, and was the third largest city in Europe after London and Paris. Around the start of the 20th century, Vienna was the city with the second-largest Czech population in the world (after Prague). After World War I, many Czechs and Hungarians returned to their ancestral countries, resulting in a decline in the Viennese population. After World War II, the Soviets used force to repatriate key workers of Czech, Slovak and Hungarian origins to return to their ethnic homelands to further the Soviet bloc economy.Under the Nazi regime, 65,000 Jews were deported and murdered in concentration camps by Nazi forces; approximately 130,000 fled.By 2001, 16% of people living in Austria had nationalities other than Austrian, nearly half of whom were from former Yugoslavia; the next most numerous nationalities in Vienna were Turks (39,000; 2.5%), Poles (13,600; 0.9%) and Germans (12,700; 0.8%)., an official report from Statistics Austria showed that more than 660,000 (38.8%) of the Viennese population have full or partial migrant background, mostly from Ex-Yugoslavia, Turkey, Germany, Poland, Romania and Hungary.From 2005 to 2015 the city's population grew by 10.1%. According to UN-Habitat, Vienna could be the fastest growing city out of 17 European metropolitan areas until 2025 with an increase of 4.65% of its population, compared to 2010.According to the 2001 census, 49.2% of Viennese were Catholic, while 25.7% were of no religion, 7.8% were Muslim, 6.0% were members of an Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, 4.7% were Protestant (mostly Lutheran), 0.5% were Jewish and 6.3% were either of other religions or did not reply. A 2011 report by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis showed the proportions had changed, with 41.3% Catholic, 31.6% no affiliation, 11.6% Muslim, 8.4% Eastern Orthodox, 4.2% Protestant, and 2.9% other.Based on information provided to city officials by various religious organizations about their membership, Vienna's Statistical Yearbook 2019 reports in 2018 an estimated 610,269 Roman Catholics, or 32.3% of the population, and 195,000 (10.3%) Muslims, 70,298 (3.7%) Orthodox, 57,502 (3.0%) other Christians, and 9,504 (0.5%) other religions. A study conducted by the Vienna Institute of Demography estimated the 2018 proportions to be 34% Catholic, 30% unaffiliated, 15% Muslim, 10% Orthodox, 4% Protestant, and 6% other religions.Vienna is the seat of the Metropolitan Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna, in which is also vested the exempt Ordinariate for Byzantine-rite Catholics in Austria; its Archbishop is Cardinal Christoph Schönborn. Many Catholic churches in central Vienna feature performances of religious or other music, including masses sung to classical music and organ. Some of Vienna's most significant historical buildings are Catholic churches, including the St. Stephen's Cathedral ("Stephansdom"), Karlskirche, Peterskirche and the Votivkirche. On the banks of the Danube, there is a Buddhist Peace Pagoda, built in 1983 by the monks and nuns of [Nipponzan Myohoji].Vienna is located in northeastern Austria, at the easternmost extension of the Alps in the Vienna Basin. The earliest settlement, at the location of today's inner city, was south of the meandering Danube while the city now spans both sides of the river. Elevation ranges from . The city has a total area of 414.65 square kilometers (160.1 sq mi), making it the largest city in Austria by area.Vienna has an oceanic climate (Köppen classification "Cfb"). The city has warm summers, with periodical precipitations that can reach its yearly peak in July and August (66.6 and 66.5 mm respectively) and average high temperatures from June to September of approximately , with a record maximum exceeding and a record low in September of . Winters are relatively dry and cold with average temperatures at about freezing point. Spring is variable and autumn cool, with possible snowfalls already in November. Precipitation is generally moderate throughout the year, averaging around annually, with considerable local variations, the Vienna Woods region in the west being the wettest part ( annually) and the flat plains in the east being the driest part ( annually). Snow in winter is common, even if not so frequent compared to the Western and Southern regions of Austria.Vienna was moved to the UNESCO world heritage in endangered list in 2017. The main reason was a planned high-rise development. The city's social democratic party planned construction of a complex in 2019. The plan includes a -high tower, which was reduced from due to opposition. UNESCO believed that the project "fails to comply fully with previous committee decisions, notably concerning the height of new constructions, which will impact adversely the outstanding universal value of the site." UNESCO set the restriction for the height of the construction in the city center to .The citizens of Vienna also opposed the construction of the complex because they are afraid of losing UNESCO status and also of encouraging future high-rise development. The city officials replied that they will convince the WHC to maintain UNESCO world heritage status and said that no further high-rise developments are being planned.UNESCO is concerned about the height of high-rise development in Vienna as it can dramatically influence the visual integrity of the city, specifically the baroque palaces. Visual impact studies are being done in the Vienna city center to assess the level of visual disturbance to visitors and how the changes influenced the city's visual integrity.Vienna is composed of 23 districts ("Bezirke"). Administrative district offices in Vienna (called Magistratische Bezirksämter) serve functions similar to those in the other Austrian states (called Bezirkshauptmannschaften), the officers being subject to the mayor of Vienna; with the notable exception of the police, which is under federal supervision.District residents in Vienna (Austrians as well as EU citizens with permanent residence here) elect a District Assembly (Bezirksvertretung). City hall has delegated maintenance budgets, e.g., for schools and parks, so that the districts are able to set priorities autonomously. Any decision of a district can be overridden by the city assembly (Gemeinderat) or the responsible city councilor (amtsführender Stadtrat).The heart and historical city of Vienna, a large part of today's Innere Stadt, was a fortress surrounded by fields in order to defend itself from potential attackers. In 1850, Vienna with the consent of the emperor annexed 34 surrounding villages, called Vorstädte, into the city limits (districts no. 2 to 8, after 1861 with the separation of Margareten from Wieden no. 2 to 9). Consequently, the walls were razed after 1857, making it possible for the city center to expand.In their place, a broad boulevard called the Ringstraße was built, along which imposing public and private buildings, monuments, and parks were created by the start of the 20th century. These buildings include the Rathaus (town hall), the Burgtheater, the University, the Parliament, the twin museums of natural history and fine art, and the Staatsoper. It is also the location of New Wing of the Hofburg, the former imperial palace, and the Imperial and Royal War Ministry finished in 1913. The mainly Gothic Stephansdom is located at the center of the city, on Stephansplatz. The Imperial-Royal Government set up the Vienna City Renovation Fund (Wiener Stadterneuerungsfonds) and sold many building lots to private investors, thereby partly financing public construction works.From 1850 to 1890, city limits in the West and the South mainly followed another wall called "Linienwall" at which a road toll called the "Liniengeld" was charged. Outside this wall from 1873 onwards a ring road called Gürtel was built. In 1890 it was decided to integrate 33 suburbs (called Vororte) beyond that wall into Vienna by 1 January 1892 and transform them into districts no. 11 to 19 (district no. 10 had been constituted in 1874); hence the Linienwall was torn down beginning in 1894. In 1900, district no. 20, Brigittenau, was created by separating the area from the 2nd district.From 1850 to 1904, Vienna had expanded only on the right bank of the Danube, following the main branch before the regulation of 1868–1875, i.e., the Old Danube of today. In 1904, the 21st district was created by integrating Floridsdorf, Kagran, Stadlau, Hirschstetten, Aspern and other villages on the left bank of the Danube into Vienna, in 1910 Strebersdorf followed. On 15 October 1938 the Nazis created Great Vienna with 26 districts by merging 97 towns and villages into Vienna, 80 of which were returned to surrounding Lower Austria in 1954. Since then Vienna has had 23 districts.Industries are located mostly in the southern and eastern districts. The Innere Stadt is situated away from the main flow of the Danube, but is bounded by the "Donaukanal" ("Danube canal"). Vienna's second and twentieth districts are located between the Donaukanal and the Danube. Across the Danube, where the Vienna International Center is located (districts 21–22), and in the southern areas (district 23) are the newest parts of the city.In the twenty years before the First World War and until 1918, Viennese politics were shaped by the Christian Social Party. In particular, long-term mayor Karl Lueger was able to not apply the general voting rights for men introduced by and for the parliament of imperial Austria, the "Reichsrat", in 1907, thereby excluding most of the working class from taking part in decisions. For Adolf Hitler, who spent some years in Vienna, Lueger was a teacher of how to use antisemitism in politics.Vienna is today considered the center of the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ). During the period of the First Republic (1918–1934), the Vienna Social Democrats undertook many social reforms. At that time, Vienna's municipal policy was admired by Socialists throughout Europe, who therefore referred to the city as "Red Vienna" ("Rotes Wien"). In February 1934 troops of the Austrian federal government under Engelbert Dollfuss, who had closed down the first chamber of the federal parliament, the "Nationalrat", in 1933, and paramilitary socialist organizations were engaged in the Austrian Civil War, which led to the ban of the Social Democratic party.The SPÖ has held the mayor's office and control of the city council/parliament at every free election since 1919. The only break in this SPÖ dominance came between 1934 and 1945, when the Social Democratic Party was illegal, mayors were appointed by the austro-fascist and later by the Nazi authorities. The mayor of Vienna is Michael Ludwig of the SPÖ.The city has enacted many social democratic policies. The "Gemeindebauten" are social housing assets that are well integrated into the city architecture outside the first or "inner" district. The low rents enable comfortable accommodation and good access to the city amenities. Many of the projects were built after the Second World War on vacant lots that were destroyed by bombing during the war. The city took particular pride in building them to a high standard.Since Vienna obtained federal state ("Bundesland") status of its own by the federal constitution of 1920, the city council also functions as the state parliament (Landtag), and the mayor (except 1934–1945) also doubles as the "Landeshauptmann" (governor/minister-president) of the state of Vienna. The Rathaus accommodates the offices of the mayor ("") and the state government ("Landesregierung"). The city is administered by a multitude of departments ("Magistratsabteilungen"), politically supervised by "amtsführende Stadträte" (members of the city government leading offices; according to the Vienna constitution opposition parties have the right to designate members of the city government not leading offices).Under the city constitution of 1920, municipal and state business must be kept separate. Hence, the city council and state parliament hold separate meetings, with separate presiding officers–the chairman of the city council or the president of the state Landtag–even though the two bodies' memberships are identical. When meeting as a city council, the deputies can only deal with the affairs of the city of Vienna; when meeting as a state parliament, they can only deal with the affairs of the state of Vienna.In the 1996 City Council election, the SPÖ lost its overall majority in the 100-seat chamber, winning 43 seats and 39.15% of the vote. The SPÖ had held an outright majority at every free municipal election since 1919. In 1996 the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), which won 29 seats (up from 21 in 1991), beat the ÖVP into third place for the second time running. From 1996 to 2001, the SPÖ governed Vienna in a coalition with the ÖVP. In 2001 the SPÖ regained the overall majority with 52 seats and 46.91% of the vote; in October 2005, this majority was increased further to 55 seats (49.09%). In course of the 2010 city council elections the SPÖ lost their overall majority again and consequently forged a coalition with the Green Party – the first SPÖ/Green coalition in Austria. This coalition was maintained following the 2015 election.Vienna is one of the wealthiest regions in the European Union: Its gross regional product of EUR 47,200 per capita constituted 25.7% of Austria's GDP in 2013. It amounts to 159% of the EU average. The city improved its position from 2012 on the ranking of the most economically powerful cities reaching number nine on the listing in 2015.With a share of 85.5% in gross value added, the service sector is Vienna's most important economic sector. Industry and commerce have a share of 14.5% in gross value added, the primary sector (agriculture) has a share of 0.07% and therefore plays a minor role in the local added value. However, the cultivation and production of wines within the city borders have a high socio-cultural value. The most important business sectors are trade (14.7% of added value in Vienna), scientific and technological services, real estate and housing activities as well as manufacturing of goods. In 2012, Vienna's contribution in Austria's outgoing and incoming foreign direct investments was of about 60%, which demonstrates Vienna's role as an international hub for domestic and foreign companies.Since the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, Vienna has expanded its position as gateway to Eastern Europe: 300 international companies have their Eastern European headquarters in Vienna and its environs. Among them are Hewlett Packard, Henkel, Baxalta and Siemens. Companies in Vienna have extensive contacts and competences in business with Eastern Europe due to the city's historical role as center of the Habsburg Empire. The number of international businesses in Vienna is still growing: In 2014 159 and in 2015 175 international firms established offices in Vienna.Altogether, approximately 8,300 new companies have been founded in Vienna every year since 2004. The majority of these companies are operating in fields of industry-oriented services, wholesale trade as well as information and communications technologies and new media. Vienna makes effort to establish itself as a start-up hub. Since 2012, the city hosts the annual Pioneers Festival, the largest start-up event in Central Europe with 2,500 international participants taking place at Hofburg Palace. Tech Cocktail, an online portal for the start-up scene, has ranked Vienna sixth among the top ten start-up cities worldwide.The city of Vienna attaches major importance to science and research and focuses on creating a positive environment for research and development. In 2014, Vienna has accommodated 1,329 research facilities; 40,400 persons are employed in the R&D sector and 35% of Austria's R&D expenses are invested in the city. With a research quota of 3.4% Vienna exceeds the Austrian average of 2.77% and has already met the EU target of 3.0% by 2020. A major R&D sector in Vienna are life sciences. The Vienna Life Science Cluster is Austria's major hub for life science research, education and business. Throughout Vienna, five universities and several basic research institutes form the academic core of the hub with more than 12,600 employees and 34,700 students. Here, more than 480 medical device, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies with almost 23,000 employees generate around 12 billion euros in revenue (2017). This corresponds to more than 50% of the revenue generated by life science companies in Austria (22.4 billion euros).Vienna is home to global players like Boehringer Ingelheim, Octapharma, Ottobock and Takeda. However, there is also a growing number of start-up companies in the life sciences and Vienna was ranked first in the 2019 PeoplePerHour Startup Cities Index. Companies such as Apeiron Biologics, Hookipa Pharma, Marinomed, mySugr, Themis Bioscience and Valneva operate a presence in Vienna and regularly hit the headlines internationally.To facilitate tapping the economic potential of the multiple facettes of the life sciences at Austria's capital, the Austrian Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs and the local government of City of Vienna have joined forces: Since 2002, the LISAvienna platform is available as a central contact point. It provides free business support services at the interface of the Austrian federal promotional bank, Austria Wirtschaftsservice and the Vienna Business Agency and collects data that inform policy making.The main academic hot spots in Vienna are the Life Science Center Muthgasse with the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), the Austrian Institute of Technology, the University of Veterinary Medicine, the AKH Vienna with the MedUni Vienna and the Vienna Biocenter. Central European University, a graduate institution expelled from Budapest in the midst of a Hungarian government steps to take control of academic and research organizations, welcomes the first class of students to its new Vienna campus in 2019.The Viennese sector for information and communication technologies is comparable in size with the sector in Helsinki, Milan or Munich and thus among Europe's largest IT locations. In 2012 8,962 IT businesses with a workforce of 64,223 were located in the Vienna Region. The main products are instruments and appliances for measuring, testing and navigation as well as electronic components. More than ⅔ of the enterprises provide IT services. Among the biggest IT firms in Vienna are Kapsch, Beko Engineering & Informatics, air traffic control experts Frequentis, Cisco Systems Austria, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft Austria, IBM Austria and Samsung Electronics Austria.The US technology corporation Cisco runs its "Entrepreneurs in Residence" program for Europe in Vienna in cooperation with the Vienna Business Agency.The British company UBM has rated Vienna one of the "Top 10 Internet Cities" worldwide, by analyzing criteria like connection speed, WiFi availability, innovation spirit and open government data.In 2011 74.3% of Viennese households were connected with broadband, 79% were in possession of a computer. According to the broadband strategy of the city, full broadband coverage will be reached by 2020.There were 17.6 million overnight stays in Vienna in 2019 (+6.8% compared to 2018). The top ten incoming markets in 2019 were Germany, Austria, the United States, Italy, United Kingdom, Spain, China, France, Russia and Switzerland.In 2019 the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) ranked Vienna 6th in the world for association meetings. The Union of International Associations (UIA) ranked Vienna 5th in the world for 2019 with 306 international meetings, behind Singapore, Brussels, Seoul and Paris. The city's largest conference center, the Austria Center Vienna (ACV) has a total capacity for around 22,800 people and is situated next to the United Nations Headquarters in Vienna. Other centers are the Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center (up to 3,000 people) and the Hofburg Palace (up to 4,900 people).Vienna was ranked top in the "2019 Quality of Living Ranking" by the international Mercer Consulting Group for the tenth consecutive year. In the 2015 liveability report by the Economist Intelligence Unit as well as in the "Quality of Life Survey 2015" of London-based "Monocle magazine" Vienna was equally ranked second most livable city worldwide.The United Nations Human Settlements Programme "UN-Habitat" has ranked Vienna the most prosperous city in the world in its flagship report "State of the World Cities 2012/2013".According to the 2014 City RepTrack ranking by the Reputation Institute, Vienna has the best reputation in comparison with 100 major global cities.The "Innovation Cities Global Index 2014" by the Australian innovation agency 2thinknow ranks Vienna sixth behind San Francisco-San Jose, New York City, London, Boston and Paris. In 2019 PeoplePerHour put Vienna at the top of their Startup Cities Ranking.US climate strategist Boyd Cohen placed Vienna first in his first "global smart cities" ranking of 2012. In the 2014 ranking, Vienna reached third place among European cities behind Copenhagen and Amsterdam.The "Mori Memorial Institute for Urban Strategies" ranked Vienna in the top ten of their Global Power City Index 2016.Vienna's new Central Railway Station was opened in October 2014. Construction began in June 2007 and was due to last until December 2015. The station is served by 1,100 trains with 145,000 passengers. There is a shopping center with approximately 90 shops and restaurants.In the vicinity of the station a new district is emerging with office space and 5,000 apartments until 2020.Seestadt Aspern is one of the largest urban expansion projects of Europe. A 5 hectare artificial lake, offices, apartments and a subway station within walking distance are supposed to attract 20,000 new citizens when construction is completed in 2028.In addition, the highest wooden skyscraper in the world, “HoHo Wien”, will be built within 3 years, starting in 2015.In 2014, the Vienna City Council adopted the Smart City Wien Framework Strategy 2050. It is a long-term umbrella strategy that is supposed to establish a conducive, long-term and structural framework in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from 3.1 tonnes per capita to 1 tonne per capita by 2050, have 50% of Vienna's gross energy consumption originate from renewable sources and to reduce motorized individual traffic from the current 28% to 15% by 2030. A stated goal is that, by 2050, all vehicles within the municipal boundaries will run without conventional propulsion technologies. Additionally, Vienna aims to be one of the five biggest European research and innovation hubs in 2050.Famous composers including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Ferdinand Ries, Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler, Robert Stolz, and Arnold Schoenberg have worked in Vienna.Art and culture had a long tradition in Vienna, including theater, opera, classical music and fine arts. The Burgtheater is considered one of the best theaters in the German-speaking world alongside its branch, the Akademietheater. The Volkstheater Wien and the Theater in der Josefstadt also enjoy good reputations. There is also a multitude of smaller theaters, in many cases devoted to less mainstream forms of the performing arts, such as modern, experimental plays or cabaret.Vienna is also home to a number of opera houses, including the Theater an der Wien, the Staatsoper and the Volksoper, the latter being devoted to the typical Viennese operetta. Classical concerts are performed at venues such as the Wiener Musikverein, home of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra known across the world for the annual widely broadcast "New Year's Day Concert", as well as the Wiener Konzerthaus, home of the internationally renowned Vienna Symphony. Many concert venues offer concerts aimed at tourists, featuring popular highlights of Viennese music, particularly the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johann Strauss I, and Johann Strauss II.Up until 2005, the Theater an der Wien hosted premieres of musicals, but since 2006 (a year dedicated to the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth), has devoted itself to opera again, becoming a stagione opera house offering one new production each month. Since 2012, Theater an der Wien has taken over the Wiener Kammeroper, a historical small theater in the first district of Vienna seating 300 spectators, turning it into its second venue for smaller sized productions and chamber operas created by the young ensemble of Theater an der Wien (JET). Before 2005 the most successful musical was "Elisabeth", which was later translated into several languages and performed all over the world. The Wiener Taschenoper is dedicated to stage music of the 20th and 21st century. The Haus der Musik ("house of music") opened in the year 2000.The Wienerlied is a unique song genre from Vienna. There are approximately 60,000 – 70,000 Wienerlieder.In 1981 the popular British new romantic group Ultravox paid a tribute to Vienna on an album and an artful music video recording called "Vienna". The inspiration for this work arose from the cinema production called "The Third Man" with the title Zither music of Anton Karas.The Vienna's English Theatre (VET) is an English theater in Vienna. It was founded in 1963 and is located in the 8th Vienna's district. It is the oldest English-language theater in continental Europe.In May 2015, Vienna hosted the Eurovision Song Contest following Austria's victory in the 2014 contest.Notable entertainers born in Vienna include Hedy Lamarr, Christoph Waltz, John Banner, Christiane Hörbiger, Eric Pohlmann, Boris Kodjoe, Christine Buchegger, Mischa Hausserman, Senta Berger and Christine Ostermayer.Notable musicians born in Vienna include Louie Austen, Alban Berg, Falco, Fritz Kreisler, Joseph Lanner, Arnold Schönberg, Franz Schubert, Johann Strauss I, Johann Strauss II, Anton Webern, and Joe Zawinul.Famous musicians who came here to work from other parts of Austria and Germany were Johann Joseph Fux, Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Ferdinand Ries, Johann Sedlatzek, Antonio Salieri, Carl Czerny, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Franz Liszt, Franz von Suppé, Anton Bruckner, Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler and Rainhard Fendrich.Among the most notable Viennese Jews, some of whom left Austria before and during Nazi persecution, are the following figures: Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler (who eventually converted to Christianity), Rudolf Dreikurs, Viktor Frankl, Fritz Lang, Peter Lorre, Fred Zinnemann (both of whose parents were murdered in the Holocaust), Stefan Zweig, Simon Wiesenthal, Theodor Herzl, Judah Alkalai, Erich von Stroheim, Hedy Lamarr, Billy Wilder, Franz Werfel, Arnold Schoenberg, Walter Arlen and Fritz Kreisler.Notable writers from Vienna include Karl Leopold von Möller, Carl Julius Haidvogel, and Stefan Zweig.Writers who lived and worked in Vienna include Franz Kafka, Arthur Schnitzler, Elias Canetti, Ingeborg Bachmann, Robert Musil, Karl Kraus, Ernst von Feuchtersleben, Thomas Bernhard and Elfriede Jelinek.Notable politicians from Vienna include Karl Leopold von Möller.The Hofburg is the location of the Imperial Treasury ("Schatzkammer"), holding the imperial jewels of the Habsburg dynasty. The Sisi Museum (a museum devoted to Empress Elisabeth of Austria) allows visitors to view the imperial apartments as well as the silver cabinet. Directly opposite the Hofburg are the Kunsthistorisches Museum, which houses many paintings by old masters, ancient and classical artifacts, and the Naturhistorisches Museum.A number of museums are located in the Museumsquartier (museum quarter), the former Imperial Stalls which were converted into a museum complex in the 1990s. It houses the Museum of Modern Art, commonly known as the MUMOK (Ludwig Foundation), the Leopold Museum (featuring the largest collection of paintings in the world by Egon Schiele, as well as works by the Vienna Secession, Viennese Modernism and Austrian Expressionism), the AzW (museum of architecture), additional halls with feature exhibitions, and the Tanzquartier. The Liechtenstein Palace contains much of one of the world's largest private art collections, especially strong in the Baroque. The Belvedere, built under Prince Eugene, has a gallery containing paintings by Gustav Klimt (The Kiss), Egon Schiele, and other painters of the early 20th century, also sculptures by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, and changing exhibitions too.There are a multitude of other museums in Vienna, including the Albertina, the Military History Museum, the Technical Museum, the Burial Museum, the Museum of Art Fakes, the KunstHausWien, Museum of Applied Arts, the Sigmund Freud Museum, and the Mozarthaus Vienna. The museums on the history of the city, including the former Historical Museum of the City of Vienna on Karlsplatz, the Hermesvilla, the residences and birthplaces of various composers, the Museum of the Romans, and the Vienna Clock Museum, are now gathered together under the group umbrella Vienna Museum. The Jewish Museum Vienna, founded 1896, is the oldest of its kind. In addition there are museums dedicated to Vienna's individual districts. They provide a record of individual struggles, achievements and tragedy as the city grew and survived two world wars. For readers seeking family histories these are good sources of information.A variety of architectural styles can be found in Vienna, such as the Romanesque Ruprechtskirche and the Baroque Karlskirche. Styles range from classicist buildings to modern architecture. Art Nouveau left many architectural traces in Vienna. The Secession building, Karlsplatz Stadtbahn Station, and the Kirche am Steinhof by Otto Wagner rank among the best known examples of Art Nouveau in the world. Wagner's prominent student Jože Plečnik from Slovenia also left important traces in Vienna. His works include the Langer House (1900) and the Zacherlhaus (1903–1905). Plečnik's 1910–1913 "Church of the Holy Spirit" () in Vienna is remarkable for its innovative use of poured-in-place concrete as both structure and exterior surface, and also for its abstracted classical form language. Most radical is the church's crypt, with its slender concrete columns and angular, cubist capitals and bases.Concurrent to the Art Nouveau movement was the Wiener Moderne, during which some architects shunned the use of extraneous adornment. A key architect of this period was Adolf Loos, whose works include the Looshaus (1909), the Kärntner Bar or American Bar (1908) and the Steiner House (1910).The Hundertwasserhaus by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, designed to counter the clinical look of modern architecture, is one of Vienna's most popular tourist attractions. Another example of unique architecture is the Wotrubakirche by sculptor Fritz Wotruba. In the 1990s, a number of quarters were adapted and extensive building projects were implemented in the areas around Donaustadt (north of the Danube) and Wienerberg (in southern Vienna).The 220-meter high DC Tower 1 located on the Northern bank of the Danube, completed in 2013, is the tallest skyscraper in Vienna. In recent years, Vienna has seen numerous architecture projects completed which combine modern architectural elements with old buildings, such as the remodeling and revitalization of the old Gasometer in 2001.Most buildings in Vienna are relatively low; in early 2006 there were around 100 buildings higher than . The number of high-rise buildings is kept low by building legislation aimed at preserving green areas and districts designated as world cultural heritage. Strong rules apply to the planning, authorization and construction of high-rise buildings. Consequently, much of the inner city is a high-rise free zone.Vienna is the last great capital of the 19th-century ball. There are over 450 balls per year, some featuring as many as nine live orchestras. Balls are held in the many palaces in Vienna, with the principal venue being the Hofburg Palace in Heldenplatz. While the Opera Ball is the best known internationally of all the Austrian balls, other balls such as the Kaffeesiederball (Cafe Owners Ball), the Jägerball (Hunter's Ball) and the Life Ball (AIDS charity event) are almost as well known within Austria and even better appreciated for their cordial atmosphere. Viennese of at least middle class may visit a number of balls in their lifetime.Dancers and opera singers from the Vienna State Opera often perform at the openings of the larger balls.A Vienna ball is an all-night cultural attraction. Major Vienna balls generally begin at 9 pm and last until 5 am, although many guests carry on the celebrations into the next day. Viennese balls are being exported (with support from the City of Vienna) to around 30 cities worldwide such as New York, Barcelona, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Rome, Prague, Bucharest, Berlin and Moscow.Vienna is part of the Austro-Bavarian language area, in particular Central Bavarian ("Mittelbairisch"). In recent years, linguistics experts have seen a decline in the use of the Viennese variant. Manfred Glauninger, sociolinguist at the Institute for Austrian Dialect and Name Lexica, has observed three issues. First, many parents feel there's a stigma attached to the Viennese dialect so they speak Standard German to their children. Second, many children have recently immigrated to Austria and are learning German as a second language in school. Third, young people are influenced by mass media which is most always delivered in Standard German.Vienna is Austria's main center of education and home to many universities, professional colleges and gymnasiums (high schools).Vienna possesses many parks, including the "Stadtpark", the "Burggarten", the "Volksgarten" (part of the "Hofburg"), the "Schlosspark" at Schloss Belvedere (home to the Vienna Botanic Gardens), the "Donaupark", the "Schönbrunner Schlosspark", the "Prater", the "Augarten", the "Rathauspark", the "Lainzer Tiergarten", the "Dehnepark", the "Resselpark", the "Votivpark", the "Kurpark Oberlaa", the "Auer-Welsbach-Park" and the "Türkenschanzpark". Green areas include "Laaer-Berg" (including the Bohemian Prater) and the foothills of the "Wienerwald", which reaches into the outer areas of the city. Small parks, known by the Viennese as "Beserlparks", are everywhere in the inner city areas.Many of Vienna's parks include monuments, such as the Stadtpark with its statue of Johann Strauss II, and the gardens of the baroque palace, where the State Treaty was signed. Vienna's principal park is the Prater which is home to the Riesenrad, a Ferris wheel, and Kugelmugel, a micronation the shape of a sphere. The imperial Schönbrunn's grounds contain an 18th-century park which includes the world's oldest zoo, founded in 1752.The Donauinsel, part of Vienna's flood defenses, is a long artificial island between the Danube and Neue Donau dedicated to leisure activities.Austria's capital is home to numerous football teams. The best known are the local football clubs include FK Austria Wien (21 Austrian Bundesliga titles and record 27-time cup winners), SK Rapid Wien (record 32 Austrian Bundesliga titles), and the oldest team, First Vienna FC. Other important sports clubs include the Raiffeisen Vikings Vienna (American Football), who won the Eurobowl title between 2004 and 2007 4 times in a row and had a perfect season in 2013, the Aon hotVolleys Vienna, one of Europe's premier Volleyball organizations, the Vienna Wanderers (baseball) who won the 2012 and 2013 Championship of the Austrian Baseball League, and the Vienna Capitals (Ice Hockey). Vienna was also where the European Handball Federation (EHF) was founded. There are also three rugby clubs; Vienna Celtic, the oldest rugby club in Austria, RC Donau, and Stade ViennoisVienna hosts many different sporting events including the Vienna City Marathon, which attracts more than 10,000 participants every year and normally takes place in May. In 2005 the Ice Hockey World Championships took place in Austria and the final was played in Vienna. Vienna's Ernst Happel Stadium was the venue of four Champions League and European Champion Clubs' Cup finals (1964, 1987, 1990 and 1995) and on 29 June it hosted the final of Euro 2008 which saw a Spanish 1–0 victory over Germany. Tennis tournament Vienna Open also takes place in the city since 1974. The matches are played in the Wiener Stadthalle.The Neue Donau, which was formed after the Donauinsel was created, is free of river traffic and a popular destination for leisure and sports activities.Vienna will host the official 2021 3x3 Basketball World Cup.Vienna is well known for "Wiener Schnitzel", a cutlet of veal "(Kalbsschnitzel)" or pork "(Schweinsschnitzel)" that is pounded flat, coated in flour, egg and breadcrumbs, and fried in clarified butter. It is available in almost every restaurant that serves Viennese cuisine and can be eaten hot or cold. The traditional 'Wiener Schnitzel' though is a cutlet of veal. Other examples of Viennese cuisine include "Tafelspitz" (very lean boiled beef), which is traditionally served with "Geröstete Erdäpfel" (boiled potatoes mashed with a fork and subsequently fried) and horseradish sauce, "Apfelkren" (a mixture of horseradish, cream and apple) and "Schnittlauchsauce" (a chives sauce made with mayonnaise and stale bread).Vienna has a long tradition of producing cakes and desserts. These include "Apfelstrudel" (hot apple strudel), "Milchrahmstrudel" (milk-cream strudel), "Palatschinken" (sweet pancakes), and "Knödel" (dumplings) often filled with fruit such as apricots ("Marillenknödel"). Sachertorte, a delicately moist chocolate cake with apricot jam created by the Sacher Hotel, is world-famous.In winter, small street stands sell traditional "Maroni" (hot chestnuts) and potato fritters.Sausages are popular and available from street vendors ("Würstelstand") throughout the day and into the night. The sausage known as "Wiener" (German for Viennese) in the U.S. and in Germany, is called a "Frankfurter" in Vienna. Other popular sausages are "Burenwurst" (a coarse beef and pork sausage, generally boiled), "Käsekrainer" (spicy pork with small chunks of cheese), and "Bratwurst" (a white pork sausage). Most can be ordered "mit Brot" (with bread) or as a "hot dog" (stuffed inside a long roll). Mustard is the traditional condiment and usually offered in two varieties: "süß" (sweet) or "scharf" (spicy).Kebab, pizza and noodles are, increasingly, the snack foods most widely available from small stands.The "Naschmarkt" is a permanent market for fruit, vegetables, spices, fish, meat, etc., from around the world. The city has many coffee and breakfast stores.Vienna, along with Paris, Santiago, Cape Town, Prague, Canberra, Bratislava and Warsaw, is one of the few remaining world capital cities with its own vineyards. The wine is served in small Viennese pubs known as Heuriger, which are especially numerous in the wine growing areas of Döbling (Grinzing, Neustift am Walde, Nußdorf, Salmannsdorf, Sievering), Floridsdorf (Stammersdorf, Strebersdorf), Liesing (Mauer) and Favoriten (Oberlaa). The wine is often drunk as a Spritzer ("G'spritzter") with sparkling water. The Grüner Veltliner, a dry white wine, is the most widely cultivated wine in Austria. Another wine very typical for the region is "Gemischter Satz", which is typically a blend of different types of wines harvested from the same vineyard.Beer is next in importance to wine. Vienna has a single large brewery, Ottakringer, and more than ten microbreweries. A "Beisl" is a typical small Austrian pub, of which Vienna has many.Also, local soft drinks such as Almdudler are popular around the country as an alternative to alcoholic beverages, placing it on the top spots along American counterparts such as Coca-Cola in terms of market share. Another popular drink is the so-called "Spezi", a mix between Coca-Cola and the original formula of Orange Fanta or the more locally renowned Frucade.Viennese cafés have an extremely long and distinguished history that dates back centuries, and the caffeine addictions of some famous historical patrons of the oldest are something of a local legend. These coffee houses are unique to Vienna and many cities have unsuccessfully sought to copy them. Some people consider cafés as their extended living room where nobody will be bothered if they spend hours reading a newspaper while enjoying their coffee. Traditionally, the coffee comes with a glass of water. Viennese cafés claim to have invented the process of filtering coffee from booty captured after the second Turkish siege in 1683. Viennese cafés claim that when the invading Turks left Vienna, they abandoned hundreds of sacks of coffee beans. The Polish King John III Sobieski, the commander of the anti-Turkish coalition of Poles, Germans, and Austrians, gave Franz George Kolschitzky (Polish – Franciszek Jerzy Kulczycki) some of this coffee as a reward for providing information that allowed him to defeat the Turks. Kolschitzky then opened Vienna's first coffee shop. Julius Meinl set up a modern roasting plant in the same premises where the coffee sacks were found, in 1891.Major tourist attractions include the imperial palaces of the Hofburg and Schönbrunn (also home to the world's oldest zoo, Tiergarten Schönbrunn) and the Riesenrad in the Prater. Cultural highlights include the Burgtheater, the Wiener Staatsoper, the Lipizzaner horses at the spanische Hofreitschule, and the Vienna Boys' Choir, as well as excursions to Vienna's Heurigen district Döbling.There are also more than 100 art museums, which together attract over eight million visitors per year. The most popular ones are Albertina, Belvedere, Leopold Museum in the Museumsquartier, KunstHausWien, Bank Austria Kunstforum, the twin "Kunsthistorisches Museum" and "Naturhistorisches Museum", and the Technisches Museum Wien, each of which receives over a quarter of a million visitors per year.There are many popular sites associated with composers who lived in Vienna including Beethoven's various residences and grave at Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery) which is the largest cemetery in Vienna and the burial site of many famous people. Mozart has a memorial grave at the Habsburg gardens and at St. Marx cemetery (where his grave was lost). Vienna's many churches also draw large crowds, famous of which are St. Stephen's Cathedral, the Deutschordenskirche, the Jesuitenkirche, the Karlskirche, the Peterskirche, Maria am Gestade, the Minoritenkirche, the Ruprechtskirche, the Schottenkirche, St. Ulrich and the Votivkirche.Modern attractions include the Hundertwasserhaus, the United Nations headquarters and the view from the Donauturm.Vienna has an extensive transportation network with a unified fare system that integrates municipal, regional and railway systems under the umbrella of the Verkehrsverbund Ost-Region (VOR). Public transport is provided by buses, trams and five underground metro lines (U-Bahn), most operated by the Wiener Linien. There are also more than 50 S-train stations within the city limits. Suburban trains are operated by the ÖBB. The city forms the hub of the Austrian railway system, with services to all parts of the country and abroad. The railway system connects Vienna's main station Vienna Hauptbahnhof with other European cities, like Berlin, Bratislava, Budapest, Brussels, Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Ljubljana, Munich, Prague, Venice, Wrocław, Warsaw, Zagreb and Zürich.Vienna has multiple road connections including expressways and motorways.Vienna is served by Vienna International Airport, located southeast of the city center next to the town of Schwechat. The airport handled approximately 31.7 million passengers in 2019. Following lengthy negotiations with surrounding communities, the airport will be expanded to increase its capacity by adding a third runway. The airport is undergoing a major expansion, including a new terminal building that opened in 2012 to prepare for an increase in passengers.Vienna is the seat of a number of United Nations offices and various international institutions and companies, including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). Vienna is the world's third "UN city", next to New York, Geneva, and Nairobi. Additionally, Vienna is the seat of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law's secretariat (UNCITRAL). In conjunction, the University of Vienna annually hosts the prestigious Willem C. Vis Moot, an international commercial arbitration competition for students of law from around the world.Diplomatic meetings have been held in Vienna in the latter half of the 20th century, resulting in documents bearing the name Vienna Convention or Vienna Document. Among the more important documents negotiated in Vienna are the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, as well as the 1990 Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. Vienna also hosted the negotiations leading to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Iran's nuclear program as well as the Vienna peace talks for Syria.Vienna also headquartered the International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF).Alongside international and intergovernmental organizations, there are dozens of charitable organizations based in Vienna. One such organization is the network of SOS Children's Villages, founded by Hermann Gmeiner in 1949. Today, SOS Children's Villages are active in 132 countries and territories worldwide. Others include HASCO.Another popular international event is the annual Life Ball, which supports people with HIV or AIDS. Guests such as Bill Clinton and Whoopi Goldberg were recent attendees.The general policy of the City of Vienna is not to sign any twin or sister city agreements with other cities. Instead Vienna has only cooperation agreements in which specific cooperation areas are defined.In addition, individual Viennese districts have international partnerships all over the world. A detailed list is published on the website of the City of Vienna.
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[
"Hanns Blaschke",
"Karl Seitz",
"Richard Weiskirchner",
"Richard Schmitz",
"Felix Slavik",
"Theodor Körner",
"Hermann Neubacher",
"Karl Lueger",
"Leopold Gratz",
"Jakob Reumann",
"Josef Neumayer",
"Franz Jonas",
"Michael Häupl",
"Philipp Wilhelm Jung",
"Helmut Zilk",
"Michael Ludwig"
] |
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Who was the head of Vienna in Apr, 1972?
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April 11, 1972
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{
"text": [
"Felix Slavik"
]
}
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L2_Q1741_P6_12
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Josef Neumayer is the head of the government of Vienna from May, 1910 to Dec, 1912.
Michael Häupl is the head of the government of Vienna from Nov, 1994 to May, 2018.
Richard Schmitz is the head of the government of Vienna from Apr, 1934 to Mar, 1938.
Felix Slavik is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1970 to Jul, 1973.
Karl Lueger is the head of the government of Vienna from Apr, 1897 to Mar, 1910.
Hanns Blaschke is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1943 to Apr, 1945.
Leopold Gratz is the head of the government of Vienna from Jul, 1973 to Sep, 1984.
Theodor Körner is the head of the government of Vienna from Apr, 1945 to Jun, 1951.
Karl Seitz is the head of the government of Vienna from Nov, 1923 to Feb, 1934.
Helmut Zilk is the head of the government of Vienna from Sep, 1984 to Nov, 1994.
Michael Ludwig is the head of the government of Vienna from May, 2018 to Dec, 2022.
Hermann Neubacher is the head of the government of Vienna from Mar, 1938 to Dec, 1940.
Franz Jonas is the head of the government of Vienna from Jun, 1951 to Jun, 1965.
Philipp Wilhelm Jung is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1940 to Dec, 1943.
Bruno Marek is the head of the government of Vienna from Jun, 1965 to Dec, 1970.
Jakob Reumann is the head of the government of Vienna from May, 1919 to Nov, 1923.
Richard Weiskirchner is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1912 to May, 1919.
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ViennaVienna (; ; Austro-Bavarian: "Wean") is the national capital, largest city, and one of nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's most populous city, with about 2 million inhabitants (2.6 million within the metropolitan area, nearly one third of the country's population), and its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 6th-largest city by population within city limits in the European Union.Until the beginning of the 20th century, Vienna was the largest German-speaking city in the world, and before the splitting of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I, the city had 2 million inhabitants. Today, it is the second-largest German-speaking city after Berlin. Vienna is host to many major international organizations, including the United Nations, OPEC and the OSCE. The city is located in the eastern part of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region. Along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants. In 2001, the city center was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In July 2017 it was moved to the list of World Heritage in Danger. Additionally, Vienna is known as the "City of Music" due to its musical legacy, as many famous classical musicians such as Beethoven and Mozart called Vienna home. Vienna is also said to be the "City of Dreams", because of it being home to the world's first psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. Vienna's ancestral roots lie in early Celtic and Roman settlements that transformed into a Medieval and Baroque city. It is well known for having played a pivotal role as a leading European music center, from the age of Viennese Classicism through the early part of the 20th century. The historic center of Vienna is rich in architectural ensembles, including Baroque palaces and gardens, and the late-19th-century Ringstraße lined with grand buildings, monuments and parks.Vienna is known for its high quality of life. In a 2005 study of 127 world cities, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked the city first (in a tie with Vancouver and San Francisco) for the world's most livable cities. Between 2011 and 2015, Vienna was ranked second, behind Melbourne. Monocle's 2015 "Quality of Life Survey" ranked Vienna second on a list of the top 25 cities in the world "to make a base within." Monocle's 2012 "Quality of Life Survey" ranked Vienna fourth on a list of the top 25 cities in the world "to make a base within" (up from sixth in 2011 and eighth in 2010). The UN-Habitat classified Vienna as the most prosperous city in the world in 2012/2013. The city was ranked 1st globally for its culture of innovation in 2007 and 2008, and sixth globally (out of 256 cities) in the 2014 Innovation Cities Index, which analyzed 162 indicators in covering three areas: culture, infrastructure, and markets. Vienna regularly hosts urban planning conferences and is often used as a case study by urban planners. Between 2005 and 2010, Vienna was the world's number-one destination for international congresses and conventions. It attracts over 6.8 million tourists a year.The English name "Vienna" is borrowed from the homonymous Italian name. The etymology of the city's name is still subject to scholarly dispute. Some claim that the name comes from "vedunia", meaning "forest stream", which subsequently produced the Old High German "uuenia" ("wenia" in modern writing), the New High German "wien" and its dialectal variant "wean".Others believe that the name comes from the Roman settlement name of Celtic extraction "Vindobona", probably meaning "fair village, white settlement" from Celtic roots, "vindo-", meaning "bright" or "fair" – as in the Irish "fionn" and the Welsh "gwyn" –, and "-bona" "village, settlement". The Celtic word "vindos" may reflect a widespread prehistorical cult of Vindos, a Celtic deity who survives in Irish Mythology as the warrior and seer Fionn mac Cumhaill. A variant of this Celtic name could be preserved in the Czech, Slovak and Polish names of the city ("Vídeň", "Viedeň" and "Wiedeń" respectively) and in that of the city's district Wieden.The name of the city in Hungarian ("Bécs"), Serbo-Croatian ("Beč"; ) and Ottoman Turkish ("Beç") has a different, probably Slavonic origin, and originally referred to an Avar fort in the area. Slovene-speakers call the city "Dunaj", which in other Central European Slavic languages means the river Danube, on which the city stands.Evidence has been found of continuous habitation in the Vienna area since 500 BC, when Celts settled the site on the Danube. In 15 BC, the Romans fortified the frontier city they called Vindobona to guard the empire against Germanic tribes to the north.Close ties with other Celtic peoples continued through the ages. The Irish monk Saint Colman (or Koloman, Irish "Colmán", derived from "colm" "dove") is buried in Melk Abbey and Saint Fergil (Virgil the Geometer) served as Bishop of Salzburg for forty years. Irish Benedictines founded twelfth-century monastic settlements; evidence of these ties persists in the form of Vienna's great Schottenstift monastery (Scots Abbey), once home to many Irish monks.In 976, Leopold I of Babenberg became count of the Eastern March, a district centered on the Danube on the eastern frontier of Bavaria. This initial district grew into the duchy of Austria. Each succeeding Babenberg ruler expanded the march east along the Danube, eventually encompassing Vienna and the lands immediately east. In 1145, Duke Henry II Jasomirgott moved the Babenberg family residence from Klosterneuburg in Lower Austria to Vienna. From that time, Vienna remained the center of the Babenberg dynasty.In 1440, Vienna became the resident city of the Habsburg dynasty. It eventually grew to become the "de facto" capital of the Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) in 1437 and a cultural center for arts and science, music and fine cuisine. Hungary occupied the city between 1485 and 1490.In the 16th and 17th centuries Christian forces twice stopped Ottoman armies outside Vienna, in the 1529 Siege of Vienna and the 1683 Battle of Vienna. The Great Plague of Vienna ravaged the city in 1679, killing nearly a third of its population.In 1804, during the Napoleonic Wars, Vienna became the capital of the newly formed Austrian Empire. The city continued to play a major role in European and world politics, including hosting the Congress of Vienna in 1814/15. After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, Vienna remained the capital of what became the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The city functioned as a center of classical music, for which the title of the First Viennese School (Haydn/Mozart/Beethoven) is sometimes applied.During the latter half of the 19th century, Vienna developed what had previously been the bastions and glacis into the Ringstraße, a new boulevard surrounding the historical town and a major prestige project. Former suburbs were incorporated, and the city of Vienna grew dramatically. In 1918, after World War I, Vienna became capital of the Republic of German-Austria, and then in 1919 of the First Republic of Austria.From the late-19th century to 1938, the city remained a center of high culture and of modernism. A world capital of music, Vienna played host to composers such as Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler and Richard Strauss. The city's cultural contributions in the first half of the 20th century included, among many, the Vienna Secession movement in art, psychoanalysis, the Second Viennese School (Schoenberg, Berg, Webern), the architecture of Adolf Loos and the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle. In 1913 Adolf Hitler, Leon Trotsky, Josip Broz Tito, Sigmund Freud and Joseph Stalin all lived within a few kilometres of each other in central Vienna, some of them becoming regulars at the same coffeehouses.Austrians came to regard Vienna as a center of socialist politics, sometimes referred to as "Red Vienna"(“Das rote Wien”). In the Austrian Civil War of 1934 Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss sent the Austrian Army to shell civilian housing such as the Karl Marx-Hof occupied by the socialist militia.In 1938, after a triumphant entry into Austria, the Austrian-born German Chancellor Adolf Hitler spoke to the Austrian Germans from the balcony of the Neue Burg, a part of the Hofburg at the Heldenplatz. In the ensuing days the new Nazi authorities oversaw the harassment of Viennese Jews, the looting of their homes, and their on-going deportation and murder. Between 1938 (after the Anschluss) and the end of the Second World War in 1945, Vienna lost its status as a capital to Berlin, because Austria ceased to exist and became part of Nazi Germany.During the November pogroms on November 9, 1938, 92 synagogues in Vienna were destroyed. Only the city temple in the 1st district was spared, as the data of all Jews in Vienna were collected in the adjacent archives. Adolf Eichmann held office in the expropriated Palais Rothschild and organized the expropriation and persecution of the Jews. Of the almost 200,000 Jews in Vienna, around 120,000 were driven to emigrate and around 65,000 were killed. After the end of the war, the Jewish population of Vienna was about only 5,000.Vienna was also the center of the important resistance group around Heinrich Maier, which provided the Allies with plans for V-1, V-2 rockets, Peenemünde, Tiger tanks, Messerschmitt Bf 109, Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet and other aircraft. The information was important to Operation Crossbow and Operation Hydra, both preliminary missions for Operation Overlord. In addition, factory locations for war-essential products were communicated as targets for the Allied Air Force. The group was exposed and most of its members were executed after months of torture by the Gestapo in Vienna. The group around the later executed Karl Burian even tried to blow up the Gestapo headquarters in the Hotel Metropole.On 2 April 1945 the Soviet Red Army launched the Vienna Offensive against the Germans holding the city and besieged it. British and American air-raids, as well as artillery duels between the Red Army and the SS and Wehrmacht, crippled infrastructure, such as tram services and water- and power-distribution, and destroyed or damaged thousands of public and private buildings. The Red Army was helped by an Austrian resistance group in the German Wehrmacht. The group tried under the code name Radetzky to prevent the destruction and fighting in the city. Vienna fell eleven days later. At the end of the war, Austria again became separated from Germany, and Vienna regained its status as the capital city of the Republic of Austria, but the Soviet hold on the city remained until 1955, when Austria regained full sovereignty.After the war, Vienna was part of Soviet-occupied Eastern Austria until September 1945. As in Berlin, Vienna in September 1945 was divided into sectors by the four powers: the US, the UK, France, and the Soviet Union and supervised by an Allied Commission. The four-power occupation of Vienna differed in one key respect from that of Berlin: the central area of the city, known as the first district, constituted an "international zone" in which the four powers alternated control on a monthly basis. The control was policed by the four powers on a "de facto" day-to-day basis, the famous "four soldiers in a jeep" method. The Berlin Blockade of 1948 raised Western concerns that the Soviets might repeat the blockade in Vienna. The matter was raised in the UK House of Commons by MP Anthony Nutting, who asked: "What plans have the Government for dealing with a similar situation in Vienna? Vienna is in exactly a similar position to Berlin."There was a lack of airfields in the Western sectors, and authorities drafted contingency plans to deal with such a blockade. Plans included the laying down of metal landing mats at Schönbrunn. The Soviets did not blockade the city. The Potsdam Agreement included written rights of land access to the western sectors, whereas no such written guarantees had covered the western sectors of Berlin. Also, there was no precipitating event to cause a blockade in Vienna. (In Berlin, the Western powers had introduced a new currency in early 1948 to economically freeze out the Soviets.) During the 10 years of the four-power occupation, Vienna became a hotbed for international espionage between the Western and Eastern blocs. In the wake of the Berlin Blockade, the Cold War in Vienna took on a different dynamic. While accepting that Germany and Berlin would be divided, the Soviets had decided against allowing the same state of affairs to arise in Austria and Vienna. Here, the Soviet forces controlled districts 2, 4, 10, 20, 21, and 22 and all areas incorporated into Vienna in 1938.Barbed wire fences were installed around the perimeter of West Berlin in 1953, but not in Vienna. By 1955, the Soviets, by signing the Austrian State Treaty, agreed to relinquish their occupation zones in Eastern Austria as well as their sector in Vienna. In exchange they required that Austria declare its permanent neutrality after the allied powers had left the country. Thus they ensured that Austria would not be a member of NATO and that NATO forces would therefore not have direct communications between Italy and West Germany.The atmosphere of four-power Vienna is the background for Graham Greene's screenplay for the film "The Third Man" (1949). Later he adapted the screenplay as a novel and published it. Occupied Vienna is also depicted in the 1991 Philip Kerr novel, "A German Requiem".The four-power control of Vienna lasted until the Austrian State Treaty was signed in May 1955. That year, after years of reconstruction and restoration, the State Opera and the Burgtheater, both on the Ringstraße, reopened to the public. The Soviet Union signed the State Treaty only after having been provided with a political guarantee by the federal government to declare Austria's neutrality after the withdrawal of the allied troops. This law of neutrality, passed in late October 1955 (and not the State Treaty itself), ensured that modern Austria would align with neither NATO nor the Soviet bloc, and is considered one of the reasons for Austria's delayed entry into the European Union in 1995.In the 1970s, Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky inaugurated the Vienna International Center, a new area of the city created to host international institutions. Vienna has regained much of its former international stature by hosting international organizations, such as the United Nations (United Nations Industrial Development Organization, United Nations Office at Vienna and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime), the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.Because of the industrialization and migration from other parts of the Empire, the population of Vienna increased sharply during its time as the capital of Austria-Hungary (1867–1918). In 1910, Vienna had more than two million inhabitants, and was the third largest city in Europe after London and Paris. Around the start of the 20th century, Vienna was the city with the second-largest Czech population in the world (after Prague). After World War I, many Czechs and Hungarians returned to their ancestral countries, resulting in a decline in the Viennese population. After World War II, the Soviets used force to repatriate key workers of Czech, Slovak and Hungarian origins to return to their ethnic homelands to further the Soviet bloc economy.Under the Nazi regime, 65,000 Jews were deported and murdered in concentration camps by Nazi forces; approximately 130,000 fled.By 2001, 16% of people living in Austria had nationalities other than Austrian, nearly half of whom were from former Yugoslavia; the next most numerous nationalities in Vienna were Turks (39,000; 2.5%), Poles (13,600; 0.9%) and Germans (12,700; 0.8%)., an official report from Statistics Austria showed that more than 660,000 (38.8%) of the Viennese population have full or partial migrant background, mostly from Ex-Yugoslavia, Turkey, Germany, Poland, Romania and Hungary.From 2005 to 2015 the city's population grew by 10.1%. According to UN-Habitat, Vienna could be the fastest growing city out of 17 European metropolitan areas until 2025 with an increase of 4.65% of its population, compared to 2010.According to the 2001 census, 49.2% of Viennese were Catholic, while 25.7% were of no religion, 7.8% were Muslim, 6.0% were members of an Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, 4.7% were Protestant (mostly Lutheran), 0.5% were Jewish and 6.3% were either of other religions or did not reply. A 2011 report by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis showed the proportions had changed, with 41.3% Catholic, 31.6% no affiliation, 11.6% Muslim, 8.4% Eastern Orthodox, 4.2% Protestant, and 2.9% other.Based on information provided to city officials by various religious organizations about their membership, Vienna's Statistical Yearbook 2019 reports in 2018 an estimated 610,269 Roman Catholics, or 32.3% of the population, and 195,000 (10.3%) Muslims, 70,298 (3.7%) Orthodox, 57,502 (3.0%) other Christians, and 9,504 (0.5%) other religions. A study conducted by the Vienna Institute of Demography estimated the 2018 proportions to be 34% Catholic, 30% unaffiliated, 15% Muslim, 10% Orthodox, 4% Protestant, and 6% other religions.Vienna is the seat of the Metropolitan Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna, in which is also vested the exempt Ordinariate for Byzantine-rite Catholics in Austria; its Archbishop is Cardinal Christoph Schönborn. Many Catholic churches in central Vienna feature performances of religious or other music, including masses sung to classical music and organ. Some of Vienna's most significant historical buildings are Catholic churches, including the St. Stephen's Cathedral ("Stephansdom"), Karlskirche, Peterskirche and the Votivkirche. On the banks of the Danube, there is a Buddhist Peace Pagoda, built in 1983 by the monks and nuns of [Nipponzan Myohoji].Vienna is located in northeastern Austria, at the easternmost extension of the Alps in the Vienna Basin. The earliest settlement, at the location of today's inner city, was south of the meandering Danube while the city now spans both sides of the river. Elevation ranges from . The city has a total area of 414.65 square kilometers (160.1 sq mi), making it the largest city in Austria by area.Vienna has an oceanic climate (Köppen classification "Cfb"). The city has warm summers, with periodical precipitations that can reach its yearly peak in July and August (66.6 and 66.5 mm respectively) and average high temperatures from June to September of approximately , with a record maximum exceeding and a record low in September of . Winters are relatively dry and cold with average temperatures at about freezing point. Spring is variable and autumn cool, with possible snowfalls already in November. Precipitation is generally moderate throughout the year, averaging around annually, with considerable local variations, the Vienna Woods region in the west being the wettest part ( annually) and the flat plains in the east being the driest part ( annually). Snow in winter is common, even if not so frequent compared to the Western and Southern regions of Austria.Vienna was moved to the UNESCO world heritage in endangered list in 2017. The main reason was a planned high-rise development. The city's social democratic party planned construction of a complex in 2019. The plan includes a -high tower, which was reduced from due to opposition. UNESCO believed that the project "fails to comply fully with previous committee decisions, notably concerning the height of new constructions, which will impact adversely the outstanding universal value of the site." UNESCO set the restriction for the height of the construction in the city center to .The citizens of Vienna also opposed the construction of the complex because they are afraid of losing UNESCO status and also of encouraging future high-rise development. The city officials replied that they will convince the WHC to maintain UNESCO world heritage status and said that no further high-rise developments are being planned.UNESCO is concerned about the height of high-rise development in Vienna as it can dramatically influence the visual integrity of the city, specifically the baroque palaces. Visual impact studies are being done in the Vienna city center to assess the level of visual disturbance to visitors and how the changes influenced the city's visual integrity.Vienna is composed of 23 districts ("Bezirke"). Administrative district offices in Vienna (called Magistratische Bezirksämter) serve functions similar to those in the other Austrian states (called Bezirkshauptmannschaften), the officers being subject to the mayor of Vienna; with the notable exception of the police, which is under federal supervision.District residents in Vienna (Austrians as well as EU citizens with permanent residence here) elect a District Assembly (Bezirksvertretung). City hall has delegated maintenance budgets, e.g., for schools and parks, so that the districts are able to set priorities autonomously. Any decision of a district can be overridden by the city assembly (Gemeinderat) or the responsible city councilor (amtsführender Stadtrat).The heart and historical city of Vienna, a large part of today's Innere Stadt, was a fortress surrounded by fields in order to defend itself from potential attackers. In 1850, Vienna with the consent of the emperor annexed 34 surrounding villages, called Vorstädte, into the city limits (districts no. 2 to 8, after 1861 with the separation of Margareten from Wieden no. 2 to 9). Consequently, the walls were razed after 1857, making it possible for the city center to expand.In their place, a broad boulevard called the Ringstraße was built, along which imposing public and private buildings, monuments, and parks were created by the start of the 20th century. These buildings include the Rathaus (town hall), the Burgtheater, the University, the Parliament, the twin museums of natural history and fine art, and the Staatsoper. It is also the location of New Wing of the Hofburg, the former imperial palace, and the Imperial and Royal War Ministry finished in 1913. The mainly Gothic Stephansdom is located at the center of the city, on Stephansplatz. The Imperial-Royal Government set up the Vienna City Renovation Fund (Wiener Stadterneuerungsfonds) and sold many building lots to private investors, thereby partly financing public construction works.From 1850 to 1890, city limits in the West and the South mainly followed another wall called "Linienwall" at which a road toll called the "Liniengeld" was charged. Outside this wall from 1873 onwards a ring road called Gürtel was built. In 1890 it was decided to integrate 33 suburbs (called Vororte) beyond that wall into Vienna by 1 January 1892 and transform them into districts no. 11 to 19 (district no. 10 had been constituted in 1874); hence the Linienwall was torn down beginning in 1894. In 1900, district no. 20, Brigittenau, was created by separating the area from the 2nd district.From 1850 to 1904, Vienna had expanded only on the right bank of the Danube, following the main branch before the regulation of 1868–1875, i.e., the Old Danube of today. In 1904, the 21st district was created by integrating Floridsdorf, Kagran, Stadlau, Hirschstetten, Aspern and other villages on the left bank of the Danube into Vienna, in 1910 Strebersdorf followed. On 15 October 1938 the Nazis created Great Vienna with 26 districts by merging 97 towns and villages into Vienna, 80 of which were returned to surrounding Lower Austria in 1954. Since then Vienna has had 23 districts.Industries are located mostly in the southern and eastern districts. The Innere Stadt is situated away from the main flow of the Danube, but is bounded by the "Donaukanal" ("Danube canal"). Vienna's second and twentieth districts are located between the Donaukanal and the Danube. Across the Danube, where the Vienna International Center is located (districts 21–22), and in the southern areas (district 23) are the newest parts of the city.In the twenty years before the First World War and until 1918, Viennese politics were shaped by the Christian Social Party. In particular, long-term mayor Karl Lueger was able to not apply the general voting rights for men introduced by and for the parliament of imperial Austria, the "Reichsrat", in 1907, thereby excluding most of the working class from taking part in decisions. For Adolf Hitler, who spent some years in Vienna, Lueger was a teacher of how to use antisemitism in politics.Vienna is today considered the center of the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ). During the period of the First Republic (1918–1934), the Vienna Social Democrats undertook many social reforms. At that time, Vienna's municipal policy was admired by Socialists throughout Europe, who therefore referred to the city as "Red Vienna" ("Rotes Wien"). In February 1934 troops of the Austrian federal government under Engelbert Dollfuss, who had closed down the first chamber of the federal parliament, the "Nationalrat", in 1933, and paramilitary socialist organizations were engaged in the Austrian Civil War, which led to the ban of the Social Democratic party.The SPÖ has held the mayor's office and control of the city council/parliament at every free election since 1919. The only break in this SPÖ dominance came between 1934 and 1945, when the Social Democratic Party was illegal, mayors were appointed by the austro-fascist and later by the Nazi authorities. The mayor of Vienna is Michael Ludwig of the SPÖ.The city has enacted many social democratic policies. The "Gemeindebauten" are social housing assets that are well integrated into the city architecture outside the first or "inner" district. The low rents enable comfortable accommodation and good access to the city amenities. Many of the projects were built after the Second World War on vacant lots that were destroyed by bombing during the war. The city took particular pride in building them to a high standard.Since Vienna obtained federal state ("Bundesland") status of its own by the federal constitution of 1920, the city council also functions as the state parliament (Landtag), and the mayor (except 1934–1945) also doubles as the "Landeshauptmann" (governor/minister-president) of the state of Vienna. The Rathaus accommodates the offices of the mayor ("") and the state government ("Landesregierung"). The city is administered by a multitude of departments ("Magistratsabteilungen"), politically supervised by "amtsführende Stadträte" (members of the city government leading offices; according to the Vienna constitution opposition parties have the right to designate members of the city government not leading offices).Under the city constitution of 1920, municipal and state business must be kept separate. Hence, the city council and state parliament hold separate meetings, with separate presiding officers–the chairman of the city council or the president of the state Landtag–even though the two bodies' memberships are identical. When meeting as a city council, the deputies can only deal with the affairs of the city of Vienna; when meeting as a state parliament, they can only deal with the affairs of the state of Vienna.In the 1996 City Council election, the SPÖ lost its overall majority in the 100-seat chamber, winning 43 seats and 39.15% of the vote. The SPÖ had held an outright majority at every free municipal election since 1919. In 1996 the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), which won 29 seats (up from 21 in 1991), beat the ÖVP into third place for the second time running. From 1996 to 2001, the SPÖ governed Vienna in a coalition with the ÖVP. In 2001 the SPÖ regained the overall majority with 52 seats and 46.91% of the vote; in October 2005, this majority was increased further to 55 seats (49.09%). In course of the 2010 city council elections the SPÖ lost their overall majority again and consequently forged a coalition with the Green Party – the first SPÖ/Green coalition in Austria. This coalition was maintained following the 2015 election.Vienna is one of the wealthiest regions in the European Union: Its gross regional product of EUR 47,200 per capita constituted 25.7% of Austria's GDP in 2013. It amounts to 159% of the EU average. The city improved its position from 2012 on the ranking of the most economically powerful cities reaching number nine on the listing in 2015.With a share of 85.5% in gross value added, the service sector is Vienna's most important economic sector. Industry and commerce have a share of 14.5% in gross value added, the primary sector (agriculture) has a share of 0.07% and therefore plays a minor role in the local added value. However, the cultivation and production of wines within the city borders have a high socio-cultural value. The most important business sectors are trade (14.7% of added value in Vienna), scientific and technological services, real estate and housing activities as well as manufacturing of goods. In 2012, Vienna's contribution in Austria's outgoing and incoming foreign direct investments was of about 60%, which demonstrates Vienna's role as an international hub for domestic and foreign companies.Since the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, Vienna has expanded its position as gateway to Eastern Europe: 300 international companies have their Eastern European headquarters in Vienna and its environs. Among them are Hewlett Packard, Henkel, Baxalta and Siemens. Companies in Vienna have extensive contacts and competences in business with Eastern Europe due to the city's historical role as center of the Habsburg Empire. The number of international businesses in Vienna is still growing: In 2014 159 and in 2015 175 international firms established offices in Vienna.Altogether, approximately 8,300 new companies have been founded in Vienna every year since 2004. The majority of these companies are operating in fields of industry-oriented services, wholesale trade as well as information and communications technologies and new media. Vienna makes effort to establish itself as a start-up hub. Since 2012, the city hosts the annual Pioneers Festival, the largest start-up event in Central Europe with 2,500 international participants taking place at Hofburg Palace. Tech Cocktail, an online portal for the start-up scene, has ranked Vienna sixth among the top ten start-up cities worldwide.The city of Vienna attaches major importance to science and research and focuses on creating a positive environment for research and development. In 2014, Vienna has accommodated 1,329 research facilities; 40,400 persons are employed in the R&D sector and 35% of Austria's R&D expenses are invested in the city. With a research quota of 3.4% Vienna exceeds the Austrian average of 2.77% and has already met the EU target of 3.0% by 2020. A major R&D sector in Vienna are life sciences. The Vienna Life Science Cluster is Austria's major hub for life science research, education and business. Throughout Vienna, five universities and several basic research institutes form the academic core of the hub with more than 12,600 employees and 34,700 students. Here, more than 480 medical device, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies with almost 23,000 employees generate around 12 billion euros in revenue (2017). This corresponds to more than 50% of the revenue generated by life science companies in Austria (22.4 billion euros).Vienna is home to global players like Boehringer Ingelheim, Octapharma, Ottobock and Takeda. However, there is also a growing number of start-up companies in the life sciences and Vienna was ranked first in the 2019 PeoplePerHour Startup Cities Index. Companies such as Apeiron Biologics, Hookipa Pharma, Marinomed, mySugr, Themis Bioscience and Valneva operate a presence in Vienna and regularly hit the headlines internationally.To facilitate tapping the economic potential of the multiple facettes of the life sciences at Austria's capital, the Austrian Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs and the local government of City of Vienna have joined forces: Since 2002, the LISAvienna platform is available as a central contact point. It provides free business support services at the interface of the Austrian federal promotional bank, Austria Wirtschaftsservice and the Vienna Business Agency and collects data that inform policy making.The main academic hot spots in Vienna are the Life Science Center Muthgasse with the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), the Austrian Institute of Technology, the University of Veterinary Medicine, the AKH Vienna with the MedUni Vienna and the Vienna Biocenter. Central European University, a graduate institution expelled from Budapest in the midst of a Hungarian government steps to take control of academic and research organizations, welcomes the first class of students to its new Vienna campus in 2019.The Viennese sector for information and communication technologies is comparable in size with the sector in Helsinki, Milan or Munich and thus among Europe's largest IT locations. In 2012 8,962 IT businesses with a workforce of 64,223 were located in the Vienna Region. The main products are instruments and appliances for measuring, testing and navigation as well as electronic components. More than ⅔ of the enterprises provide IT services. Among the biggest IT firms in Vienna are Kapsch, Beko Engineering & Informatics, air traffic control experts Frequentis, Cisco Systems Austria, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft Austria, IBM Austria and Samsung Electronics Austria.The US technology corporation Cisco runs its "Entrepreneurs in Residence" program for Europe in Vienna in cooperation with the Vienna Business Agency.The British company UBM has rated Vienna one of the "Top 10 Internet Cities" worldwide, by analyzing criteria like connection speed, WiFi availability, innovation spirit and open government data.In 2011 74.3% of Viennese households were connected with broadband, 79% were in possession of a computer. According to the broadband strategy of the city, full broadband coverage will be reached by 2020.There were 17.6 million overnight stays in Vienna in 2019 (+6.8% compared to 2018). The top ten incoming markets in 2019 were Germany, Austria, the United States, Italy, United Kingdom, Spain, China, France, Russia and Switzerland.In 2019 the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) ranked Vienna 6th in the world for association meetings. The Union of International Associations (UIA) ranked Vienna 5th in the world for 2019 with 306 international meetings, behind Singapore, Brussels, Seoul and Paris. The city's largest conference center, the Austria Center Vienna (ACV) has a total capacity for around 22,800 people and is situated next to the United Nations Headquarters in Vienna. Other centers are the Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center (up to 3,000 people) and the Hofburg Palace (up to 4,900 people).Vienna was ranked top in the "2019 Quality of Living Ranking" by the international Mercer Consulting Group for the tenth consecutive year. In the 2015 liveability report by the Economist Intelligence Unit as well as in the "Quality of Life Survey 2015" of London-based "Monocle magazine" Vienna was equally ranked second most livable city worldwide.The United Nations Human Settlements Programme "UN-Habitat" has ranked Vienna the most prosperous city in the world in its flagship report "State of the World Cities 2012/2013".According to the 2014 City RepTrack ranking by the Reputation Institute, Vienna has the best reputation in comparison with 100 major global cities.The "Innovation Cities Global Index 2014" by the Australian innovation agency 2thinknow ranks Vienna sixth behind San Francisco-San Jose, New York City, London, Boston and Paris. In 2019 PeoplePerHour put Vienna at the top of their Startup Cities Ranking.US climate strategist Boyd Cohen placed Vienna first in his first "global smart cities" ranking of 2012. In the 2014 ranking, Vienna reached third place among European cities behind Copenhagen and Amsterdam.The "Mori Memorial Institute for Urban Strategies" ranked Vienna in the top ten of their Global Power City Index 2016.Vienna's new Central Railway Station was opened in October 2014. Construction began in June 2007 and was due to last until December 2015. The station is served by 1,100 trains with 145,000 passengers. There is a shopping center with approximately 90 shops and restaurants.In the vicinity of the station a new district is emerging with office space and 5,000 apartments until 2020.Seestadt Aspern is one of the largest urban expansion projects of Europe. A 5 hectare artificial lake, offices, apartments and a subway station within walking distance are supposed to attract 20,000 new citizens when construction is completed in 2028.In addition, the highest wooden skyscraper in the world, “HoHo Wien”, will be built within 3 years, starting in 2015.In 2014, the Vienna City Council adopted the Smart City Wien Framework Strategy 2050. It is a long-term umbrella strategy that is supposed to establish a conducive, long-term and structural framework in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from 3.1 tonnes per capita to 1 tonne per capita by 2050, have 50% of Vienna's gross energy consumption originate from renewable sources and to reduce motorized individual traffic from the current 28% to 15% by 2030. A stated goal is that, by 2050, all vehicles within the municipal boundaries will run without conventional propulsion technologies. Additionally, Vienna aims to be one of the five biggest European research and innovation hubs in 2050.Famous composers including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Ferdinand Ries, Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler, Robert Stolz, and Arnold Schoenberg have worked in Vienna.Art and culture had a long tradition in Vienna, including theater, opera, classical music and fine arts. The Burgtheater is considered one of the best theaters in the German-speaking world alongside its branch, the Akademietheater. The Volkstheater Wien and the Theater in der Josefstadt also enjoy good reputations. There is also a multitude of smaller theaters, in many cases devoted to less mainstream forms of the performing arts, such as modern, experimental plays or cabaret.Vienna is also home to a number of opera houses, including the Theater an der Wien, the Staatsoper and the Volksoper, the latter being devoted to the typical Viennese operetta. Classical concerts are performed at venues such as the Wiener Musikverein, home of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra known across the world for the annual widely broadcast "New Year's Day Concert", as well as the Wiener Konzerthaus, home of the internationally renowned Vienna Symphony. Many concert venues offer concerts aimed at tourists, featuring popular highlights of Viennese music, particularly the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johann Strauss I, and Johann Strauss II.Up until 2005, the Theater an der Wien hosted premieres of musicals, but since 2006 (a year dedicated to the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth), has devoted itself to opera again, becoming a stagione opera house offering one new production each month. Since 2012, Theater an der Wien has taken over the Wiener Kammeroper, a historical small theater in the first district of Vienna seating 300 spectators, turning it into its second venue for smaller sized productions and chamber operas created by the young ensemble of Theater an der Wien (JET). Before 2005 the most successful musical was "Elisabeth", which was later translated into several languages and performed all over the world. The Wiener Taschenoper is dedicated to stage music of the 20th and 21st century. The Haus der Musik ("house of music") opened in the year 2000.The Wienerlied is a unique song genre from Vienna. There are approximately 60,000 – 70,000 Wienerlieder.In 1981 the popular British new romantic group Ultravox paid a tribute to Vienna on an album and an artful music video recording called "Vienna". The inspiration for this work arose from the cinema production called "The Third Man" with the title Zither music of Anton Karas.The Vienna's English Theatre (VET) is an English theater in Vienna. It was founded in 1963 and is located in the 8th Vienna's district. It is the oldest English-language theater in continental Europe.In May 2015, Vienna hosted the Eurovision Song Contest following Austria's victory in the 2014 contest.Notable entertainers born in Vienna include Hedy Lamarr, Christoph Waltz, John Banner, Christiane Hörbiger, Eric Pohlmann, Boris Kodjoe, Christine Buchegger, Mischa Hausserman, Senta Berger and Christine Ostermayer.Notable musicians born in Vienna include Louie Austen, Alban Berg, Falco, Fritz Kreisler, Joseph Lanner, Arnold Schönberg, Franz Schubert, Johann Strauss I, Johann Strauss II, Anton Webern, and Joe Zawinul.Famous musicians who came here to work from other parts of Austria and Germany were Johann Joseph Fux, Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Ferdinand Ries, Johann Sedlatzek, Antonio Salieri, Carl Czerny, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Franz Liszt, Franz von Suppé, Anton Bruckner, Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler and Rainhard Fendrich.Among the most notable Viennese Jews, some of whom left Austria before and during Nazi persecution, are the following figures: Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler (who eventually converted to Christianity), Rudolf Dreikurs, Viktor Frankl, Fritz Lang, Peter Lorre, Fred Zinnemann (both of whose parents were murdered in the Holocaust), Stefan Zweig, Simon Wiesenthal, Theodor Herzl, Judah Alkalai, Erich von Stroheim, Hedy Lamarr, Billy Wilder, Franz Werfel, Arnold Schoenberg, Walter Arlen and Fritz Kreisler.Notable writers from Vienna include Karl Leopold von Möller, Carl Julius Haidvogel, and Stefan Zweig.Writers who lived and worked in Vienna include Franz Kafka, Arthur Schnitzler, Elias Canetti, Ingeborg Bachmann, Robert Musil, Karl Kraus, Ernst von Feuchtersleben, Thomas Bernhard and Elfriede Jelinek.Notable politicians from Vienna include Karl Leopold von Möller.The Hofburg is the location of the Imperial Treasury ("Schatzkammer"), holding the imperial jewels of the Habsburg dynasty. The Sisi Museum (a museum devoted to Empress Elisabeth of Austria) allows visitors to view the imperial apartments as well as the silver cabinet. Directly opposite the Hofburg are the Kunsthistorisches Museum, which houses many paintings by old masters, ancient and classical artifacts, and the Naturhistorisches Museum.A number of museums are located in the Museumsquartier (museum quarter), the former Imperial Stalls which were converted into a museum complex in the 1990s. It houses the Museum of Modern Art, commonly known as the MUMOK (Ludwig Foundation), the Leopold Museum (featuring the largest collection of paintings in the world by Egon Schiele, as well as works by the Vienna Secession, Viennese Modernism and Austrian Expressionism), the AzW (museum of architecture), additional halls with feature exhibitions, and the Tanzquartier. The Liechtenstein Palace contains much of one of the world's largest private art collections, especially strong in the Baroque. The Belvedere, built under Prince Eugene, has a gallery containing paintings by Gustav Klimt (The Kiss), Egon Schiele, and other painters of the early 20th century, also sculptures by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, and changing exhibitions too.There are a multitude of other museums in Vienna, including the Albertina, the Military History Museum, the Technical Museum, the Burial Museum, the Museum of Art Fakes, the KunstHausWien, Museum of Applied Arts, the Sigmund Freud Museum, and the Mozarthaus Vienna. The museums on the history of the city, including the former Historical Museum of the City of Vienna on Karlsplatz, the Hermesvilla, the residences and birthplaces of various composers, the Museum of the Romans, and the Vienna Clock Museum, are now gathered together under the group umbrella Vienna Museum. The Jewish Museum Vienna, founded 1896, is the oldest of its kind. In addition there are museums dedicated to Vienna's individual districts. They provide a record of individual struggles, achievements and tragedy as the city grew and survived two world wars. For readers seeking family histories these are good sources of information.A variety of architectural styles can be found in Vienna, such as the Romanesque Ruprechtskirche and the Baroque Karlskirche. Styles range from classicist buildings to modern architecture. Art Nouveau left many architectural traces in Vienna. The Secession building, Karlsplatz Stadtbahn Station, and the Kirche am Steinhof by Otto Wagner rank among the best known examples of Art Nouveau in the world. Wagner's prominent student Jože Plečnik from Slovenia also left important traces in Vienna. His works include the Langer House (1900) and the Zacherlhaus (1903–1905). Plečnik's 1910–1913 "Church of the Holy Spirit" () in Vienna is remarkable for its innovative use of poured-in-place concrete as both structure and exterior surface, and also for its abstracted classical form language. Most radical is the church's crypt, with its slender concrete columns and angular, cubist capitals and bases.Concurrent to the Art Nouveau movement was the Wiener Moderne, during which some architects shunned the use of extraneous adornment. A key architect of this period was Adolf Loos, whose works include the Looshaus (1909), the Kärntner Bar or American Bar (1908) and the Steiner House (1910).The Hundertwasserhaus by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, designed to counter the clinical look of modern architecture, is one of Vienna's most popular tourist attractions. Another example of unique architecture is the Wotrubakirche by sculptor Fritz Wotruba. In the 1990s, a number of quarters were adapted and extensive building projects were implemented in the areas around Donaustadt (north of the Danube) and Wienerberg (in southern Vienna).The 220-meter high DC Tower 1 located on the Northern bank of the Danube, completed in 2013, is the tallest skyscraper in Vienna. In recent years, Vienna has seen numerous architecture projects completed which combine modern architectural elements with old buildings, such as the remodeling and revitalization of the old Gasometer in 2001.Most buildings in Vienna are relatively low; in early 2006 there were around 100 buildings higher than . The number of high-rise buildings is kept low by building legislation aimed at preserving green areas and districts designated as world cultural heritage. Strong rules apply to the planning, authorization and construction of high-rise buildings. Consequently, much of the inner city is a high-rise free zone.Vienna is the last great capital of the 19th-century ball. There are over 450 balls per year, some featuring as many as nine live orchestras. Balls are held in the many palaces in Vienna, with the principal venue being the Hofburg Palace in Heldenplatz. While the Opera Ball is the best known internationally of all the Austrian balls, other balls such as the Kaffeesiederball (Cafe Owners Ball), the Jägerball (Hunter's Ball) and the Life Ball (AIDS charity event) are almost as well known within Austria and even better appreciated for their cordial atmosphere. Viennese of at least middle class may visit a number of balls in their lifetime.Dancers and opera singers from the Vienna State Opera often perform at the openings of the larger balls.A Vienna ball is an all-night cultural attraction. Major Vienna balls generally begin at 9 pm and last until 5 am, although many guests carry on the celebrations into the next day. Viennese balls are being exported (with support from the City of Vienna) to around 30 cities worldwide such as New York, Barcelona, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Rome, Prague, Bucharest, Berlin and Moscow.Vienna is part of the Austro-Bavarian language area, in particular Central Bavarian ("Mittelbairisch"). In recent years, linguistics experts have seen a decline in the use of the Viennese variant. Manfred Glauninger, sociolinguist at the Institute for Austrian Dialect and Name Lexica, has observed three issues. First, many parents feel there's a stigma attached to the Viennese dialect so they speak Standard German to their children. Second, many children have recently immigrated to Austria and are learning German as a second language in school. Third, young people are influenced by mass media which is most always delivered in Standard German.Vienna is Austria's main center of education and home to many universities, professional colleges and gymnasiums (high schools).Vienna possesses many parks, including the "Stadtpark", the "Burggarten", the "Volksgarten" (part of the "Hofburg"), the "Schlosspark" at Schloss Belvedere (home to the Vienna Botanic Gardens), the "Donaupark", the "Schönbrunner Schlosspark", the "Prater", the "Augarten", the "Rathauspark", the "Lainzer Tiergarten", the "Dehnepark", the "Resselpark", the "Votivpark", the "Kurpark Oberlaa", the "Auer-Welsbach-Park" and the "Türkenschanzpark". Green areas include "Laaer-Berg" (including the Bohemian Prater) and the foothills of the "Wienerwald", which reaches into the outer areas of the city. Small parks, known by the Viennese as "Beserlparks", are everywhere in the inner city areas.Many of Vienna's parks include monuments, such as the Stadtpark with its statue of Johann Strauss II, and the gardens of the baroque palace, where the State Treaty was signed. Vienna's principal park is the Prater which is home to the Riesenrad, a Ferris wheel, and Kugelmugel, a micronation the shape of a sphere. The imperial Schönbrunn's grounds contain an 18th-century park which includes the world's oldest zoo, founded in 1752.The Donauinsel, part of Vienna's flood defenses, is a long artificial island between the Danube and Neue Donau dedicated to leisure activities.Austria's capital is home to numerous football teams. The best known are the local football clubs include FK Austria Wien (21 Austrian Bundesliga titles and record 27-time cup winners), SK Rapid Wien (record 32 Austrian Bundesliga titles), and the oldest team, First Vienna FC. Other important sports clubs include the Raiffeisen Vikings Vienna (American Football), who won the Eurobowl title between 2004 and 2007 4 times in a row and had a perfect season in 2013, the Aon hotVolleys Vienna, one of Europe's premier Volleyball organizations, the Vienna Wanderers (baseball) who won the 2012 and 2013 Championship of the Austrian Baseball League, and the Vienna Capitals (Ice Hockey). Vienna was also where the European Handball Federation (EHF) was founded. There are also three rugby clubs; Vienna Celtic, the oldest rugby club in Austria, RC Donau, and Stade ViennoisVienna hosts many different sporting events including the Vienna City Marathon, which attracts more than 10,000 participants every year and normally takes place in May. In 2005 the Ice Hockey World Championships took place in Austria and the final was played in Vienna. Vienna's Ernst Happel Stadium was the venue of four Champions League and European Champion Clubs' Cup finals (1964, 1987, 1990 and 1995) and on 29 June it hosted the final of Euro 2008 which saw a Spanish 1–0 victory over Germany. Tennis tournament Vienna Open also takes place in the city since 1974. The matches are played in the Wiener Stadthalle.The Neue Donau, which was formed after the Donauinsel was created, is free of river traffic and a popular destination for leisure and sports activities.Vienna will host the official 2021 3x3 Basketball World Cup.Vienna is well known for "Wiener Schnitzel", a cutlet of veal "(Kalbsschnitzel)" or pork "(Schweinsschnitzel)" that is pounded flat, coated in flour, egg and breadcrumbs, and fried in clarified butter. It is available in almost every restaurant that serves Viennese cuisine and can be eaten hot or cold. The traditional 'Wiener Schnitzel' though is a cutlet of veal. Other examples of Viennese cuisine include "Tafelspitz" (very lean boiled beef), which is traditionally served with "Geröstete Erdäpfel" (boiled potatoes mashed with a fork and subsequently fried) and horseradish sauce, "Apfelkren" (a mixture of horseradish, cream and apple) and "Schnittlauchsauce" (a chives sauce made with mayonnaise and stale bread).Vienna has a long tradition of producing cakes and desserts. These include "Apfelstrudel" (hot apple strudel), "Milchrahmstrudel" (milk-cream strudel), "Palatschinken" (sweet pancakes), and "Knödel" (dumplings) often filled with fruit such as apricots ("Marillenknödel"). Sachertorte, a delicately moist chocolate cake with apricot jam created by the Sacher Hotel, is world-famous.In winter, small street stands sell traditional "Maroni" (hot chestnuts) and potato fritters.Sausages are popular and available from street vendors ("Würstelstand") throughout the day and into the night. The sausage known as "Wiener" (German for Viennese) in the U.S. and in Germany, is called a "Frankfurter" in Vienna. Other popular sausages are "Burenwurst" (a coarse beef and pork sausage, generally boiled), "Käsekrainer" (spicy pork with small chunks of cheese), and "Bratwurst" (a white pork sausage). Most can be ordered "mit Brot" (with bread) or as a "hot dog" (stuffed inside a long roll). Mustard is the traditional condiment and usually offered in two varieties: "süß" (sweet) or "scharf" (spicy).Kebab, pizza and noodles are, increasingly, the snack foods most widely available from small stands.The "Naschmarkt" is a permanent market for fruit, vegetables, spices, fish, meat, etc., from around the world. The city has many coffee and breakfast stores.Vienna, along with Paris, Santiago, Cape Town, Prague, Canberra, Bratislava and Warsaw, is one of the few remaining world capital cities with its own vineyards. The wine is served in small Viennese pubs known as Heuriger, which are especially numerous in the wine growing areas of Döbling (Grinzing, Neustift am Walde, Nußdorf, Salmannsdorf, Sievering), Floridsdorf (Stammersdorf, Strebersdorf), Liesing (Mauer) and Favoriten (Oberlaa). The wine is often drunk as a Spritzer ("G'spritzter") with sparkling water. The Grüner Veltliner, a dry white wine, is the most widely cultivated wine in Austria. Another wine very typical for the region is "Gemischter Satz", which is typically a blend of different types of wines harvested from the same vineyard.Beer is next in importance to wine. Vienna has a single large brewery, Ottakringer, and more than ten microbreweries. A "Beisl" is a typical small Austrian pub, of which Vienna has many.Also, local soft drinks such as Almdudler are popular around the country as an alternative to alcoholic beverages, placing it on the top spots along American counterparts such as Coca-Cola in terms of market share. Another popular drink is the so-called "Spezi", a mix between Coca-Cola and the original formula of Orange Fanta or the more locally renowned Frucade.Viennese cafés have an extremely long and distinguished history that dates back centuries, and the caffeine addictions of some famous historical patrons of the oldest are something of a local legend. These coffee houses are unique to Vienna and many cities have unsuccessfully sought to copy them. Some people consider cafés as their extended living room where nobody will be bothered if they spend hours reading a newspaper while enjoying their coffee. Traditionally, the coffee comes with a glass of water. Viennese cafés claim to have invented the process of filtering coffee from booty captured after the second Turkish siege in 1683. Viennese cafés claim that when the invading Turks left Vienna, they abandoned hundreds of sacks of coffee beans. The Polish King John III Sobieski, the commander of the anti-Turkish coalition of Poles, Germans, and Austrians, gave Franz George Kolschitzky (Polish – Franciszek Jerzy Kulczycki) some of this coffee as a reward for providing information that allowed him to defeat the Turks. Kolschitzky then opened Vienna's first coffee shop. Julius Meinl set up a modern roasting plant in the same premises where the coffee sacks were found, in 1891.Major tourist attractions include the imperial palaces of the Hofburg and Schönbrunn (also home to the world's oldest zoo, Tiergarten Schönbrunn) and the Riesenrad in the Prater. Cultural highlights include the Burgtheater, the Wiener Staatsoper, the Lipizzaner horses at the spanische Hofreitschule, and the Vienna Boys' Choir, as well as excursions to Vienna's Heurigen district Döbling.There are also more than 100 art museums, which together attract over eight million visitors per year. The most popular ones are Albertina, Belvedere, Leopold Museum in the Museumsquartier, KunstHausWien, Bank Austria Kunstforum, the twin "Kunsthistorisches Museum" and "Naturhistorisches Museum", and the Technisches Museum Wien, each of which receives over a quarter of a million visitors per year.There are many popular sites associated with composers who lived in Vienna including Beethoven's various residences and grave at Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery) which is the largest cemetery in Vienna and the burial site of many famous people. Mozart has a memorial grave at the Habsburg gardens and at St. Marx cemetery (where his grave was lost). Vienna's many churches also draw large crowds, famous of which are St. Stephen's Cathedral, the Deutschordenskirche, the Jesuitenkirche, the Karlskirche, the Peterskirche, Maria am Gestade, the Minoritenkirche, the Ruprechtskirche, the Schottenkirche, St. Ulrich and the Votivkirche.Modern attractions include the Hundertwasserhaus, the United Nations headquarters and the view from the Donauturm.Vienna has an extensive transportation network with a unified fare system that integrates municipal, regional and railway systems under the umbrella of the Verkehrsverbund Ost-Region (VOR). Public transport is provided by buses, trams and five underground metro lines (U-Bahn), most operated by the Wiener Linien. There are also more than 50 S-train stations within the city limits. Suburban trains are operated by the ÖBB. The city forms the hub of the Austrian railway system, with services to all parts of the country and abroad. The railway system connects Vienna's main station Vienna Hauptbahnhof with other European cities, like Berlin, Bratislava, Budapest, Brussels, Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Ljubljana, Munich, Prague, Venice, Wrocław, Warsaw, Zagreb and Zürich.Vienna has multiple road connections including expressways and motorways.Vienna is served by Vienna International Airport, located southeast of the city center next to the town of Schwechat. The airport handled approximately 31.7 million passengers in 2019. Following lengthy negotiations with surrounding communities, the airport will be expanded to increase its capacity by adding a third runway. The airport is undergoing a major expansion, including a new terminal building that opened in 2012 to prepare for an increase in passengers.Vienna is the seat of a number of United Nations offices and various international institutions and companies, including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). Vienna is the world's third "UN city", next to New York, Geneva, and Nairobi. Additionally, Vienna is the seat of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law's secretariat (UNCITRAL). In conjunction, the University of Vienna annually hosts the prestigious Willem C. Vis Moot, an international commercial arbitration competition for students of law from around the world.Diplomatic meetings have been held in Vienna in the latter half of the 20th century, resulting in documents bearing the name Vienna Convention or Vienna Document. Among the more important documents negotiated in Vienna are the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, as well as the 1990 Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. Vienna also hosted the negotiations leading to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Iran's nuclear program as well as the Vienna peace talks for Syria.Vienna also headquartered the International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF).Alongside international and intergovernmental organizations, there are dozens of charitable organizations based in Vienna. One such organization is the network of SOS Children's Villages, founded by Hermann Gmeiner in 1949. Today, SOS Children's Villages are active in 132 countries and territories worldwide. Others include HASCO.Another popular international event is the annual Life Ball, which supports people with HIV or AIDS. Guests such as Bill Clinton and Whoopi Goldberg were recent attendees.The general policy of the City of Vienna is not to sign any twin or sister city agreements with other cities. Instead Vienna has only cooperation agreements in which specific cooperation areas are defined.In addition, individual Viennese districts have international partnerships all over the world. A detailed list is published on the website of the City of Vienna.
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[
"Hanns Blaschke",
"Karl Seitz",
"Richard Weiskirchner",
"Richard Schmitz",
"Bruno Marek",
"Theodor Körner",
"Hermann Neubacher",
"Karl Lueger",
"Leopold Gratz",
"Jakob Reumann",
"Josef Neumayer",
"Franz Jonas",
"Michael Häupl",
"Philipp Wilhelm Jung",
"Helmut Zilk",
"Michael Ludwig"
] |
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Who was the head of Vienna in Mar, 1981?
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March 02, 1981
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{
"text": [
"Leopold Gratz"
]
}
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L2_Q1741_P6_13
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Felix Slavik is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1970 to Jul, 1973.
Theodor Körner is the head of the government of Vienna from Apr, 1945 to Jun, 1951.
Michael Ludwig is the head of the government of Vienna from May, 2018 to Dec, 2022.
Richard Weiskirchner is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1912 to May, 1919.
Michael Häupl is the head of the government of Vienna from Nov, 1994 to May, 2018.
Bruno Marek is the head of the government of Vienna from Jun, 1965 to Dec, 1970.
Karl Seitz is the head of the government of Vienna from Nov, 1923 to Feb, 1934.
Karl Lueger is the head of the government of Vienna from Apr, 1897 to Mar, 1910.
Franz Jonas is the head of the government of Vienna from Jun, 1951 to Jun, 1965.
Hermann Neubacher is the head of the government of Vienna from Mar, 1938 to Dec, 1940.
Leopold Gratz is the head of the government of Vienna from Jul, 1973 to Sep, 1984.
Hanns Blaschke is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1943 to Apr, 1945.
Jakob Reumann is the head of the government of Vienna from May, 1919 to Nov, 1923.
Josef Neumayer is the head of the government of Vienna from May, 1910 to Dec, 1912.
Philipp Wilhelm Jung is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1940 to Dec, 1943.
Richard Schmitz is the head of the government of Vienna from Apr, 1934 to Mar, 1938.
Helmut Zilk is the head of the government of Vienna from Sep, 1984 to Nov, 1994.
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ViennaVienna (; ; Austro-Bavarian: "Wean") is the national capital, largest city, and one of nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's most populous city, with about 2 million inhabitants (2.6 million within the metropolitan area, nearly one third of the country's population), and its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 6th-largest city by population within city limits in the European Union.Until the beginning of the 20th century, Vienna was the largest German-speaking city in the world, and before the splitting of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I, the city had 2 million inhabitants. Today, it is the second-largest German-speaking city after Berlin. Vienna is host to many major international organizations, including the United Nations, OPEC and the OSCE. The city is located in the eastern part of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region. Along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants. In 2001, the city center was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In July 2017 it was moved to the list of World Heritage in Danger. Additionally, Vienna is known as the "City of Music" due to its musical legacy, as many famous classical musicians such as Beethoven and Mozart called Vienna home. Vienna is also said to be the "City of Dreams", because of it being home to the world's first psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. Vienna's ancestral roots lie in early Celtic and Roman settlements that transformed into a Medieval and Baroque city. It is well known for having played a pivotal role as a leading European music center, from the age of Viennese Classicism through the early part of the 20th century. The historic center of Vienna is rich in architectural ensembles, including Baroque palaces and gardens, and the late-19th-century Ringstraße lined with grand buildings, monuments and parks.Vienna is known for its high quality of life. In a 2005 study of 127 world cities, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked the city first (in a tie with Vancouver and San Francisco) for the world's most livable cities. Between 2011 and 2015, Vienna was ranked second, behind Melbourne. Monocle's 2015 "Quality of Life Survey" ranked Vienna second on a list of the top 25 cities in the world "to make a base within." Monocle's 2012 "Quality of Life Survey" ranked Vienna fourth on a list of the top 25 cities in the world "to make a base within" (up from sixth in 2011 and eighth in 2010). The UN-Habitat classified Vienna as the most prosperous city in the world in 2012/2013. The city was ranked 1st globally for its culture of innovation in 2007 and 2008, and sixth globally (out of 256 cities) in the 2014 Innovation Cities Index, which analyzed 162 indicators in covering three areas: culture, infrastructure, and markets. Vienna regularly hosts urban planning conferences and is often used as a case study by urban planners. Between 2005 and 2010, Vienna was the world's number-one destination for international congresses and conventions. It attracts over 6.8 million tourists a year.The English name "Vienna" is borrowed from the homonymous Italian name. The etymology of the city's name is still subject to scholarly dispute. Some claim that the name comes from "vedunia", meaning "forest stream", which subsequently produced the Old High German "uuenia" ("wenia" in modern writing), the New High German "wien" and its dialectal variant "wean".Others believe that the name comes from the Roman settlement name of Celtic extraction "Vindobona", probably meaning "fair village, white settlement" from Celtic roots, "vindo-", meaning "bright" or "fair" – as in the Irish "fionn" and the Welsh "gwyn" –, and "-bona" "village, settlement". The Celtic word "vindos" may reflect a widespread prehistorical cult of Vindos, a Celtic deity who survives in Irish Mythology as the warrior and seer Fionn mac Cumhaill. A variant of this Celtic name could be preserved in the Czech, Slovak and Polish names of the city ("Vídeň", "Viedeň" and "Wiedeń" respectively) and in that of the city's district Wieden.The name of the city in Hungarian ("Bécs"), Serbo-Croatian ("Beč"; ) and Ottoman Turkish ("Beç") has a different, probably Slavonic origin, and originally referred to an Avar fort in the area. Slovene-speakers call the city "Dunaj", which in other Central European Slavic languages means the river Danube, on which the city stands.Evidence has been found of continuous habitation in the Vienna area since 500 BC, when Celts settled the site on the Danube. In 15 BC, the Romans fortified the frontier city they called Vindobona to guard the empire against Germanic tribes to the north.Close ties with other Celtic peoples continued through the ages. The Irish monk Saint Colman (or Koloman, Irish "Colmán", derived from "colm" "dove") is buried in Melk Abbey and Saint Fergil (Virgil the Geometer) served as Bishop of Salzburg for forty years. Irish Benedictines founded twelfth-century monastic settlements; evidence of these ties persists in the form of Vienna's great Schottenstift monastery (Scots Abbey), once home to many Irish monks.In 976, Leopold I of Babenberg became count of the Eastern March, a district centered on the Danube on the eastern frontier of Bavaria. This initial district grew into the duchy of Austria. Each succeeding Babenberg ruler expanded the march east along the Danube, eventually encompassing Vienna and the lands immediately east. In 1145, Duke Henry II Jasomirgott moved the Babenberg family residence from Klosterneuburg in Lower Austria to Vienna. From that time, Vienna remained the center of the Babenberg dynasty.In 1440, Vienna became the resident city of the Habsburg dynasty. It eventually grew to become the "de facto" capital of the Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) in 1437 and a cultural center for arts and science, music and fine cuisine. Hungary occupied the city between 1485 and 1490.In the 16th and 17th centuries Christian forces twice stopped Ottoman armies outside Vienna, in the 1529 Siege of Vienna and the 1683 Battle of Vienna. The Great Plague of Vienna ravaged the city in 1679, killing nearly a third of its population.In 1804, during the Napoleonic Wars, Vienna became the capital of the newly formed Austrian Empire. The city continued to play a major role in European and world politics, including hosting the Congress of Vienna in 1814/15. After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, Vienna remained the capital of what became the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The city functioned as a center of classical music, for which the title of the First Viennese School (Haydn/Mozart/Beethoven) is sometimes applied.During the latter half of the 19th century, Vienna developed what had previously been the bastions and glacis into the Ringstraße, a new boulevard surrounding the historical town and a major prestige project. Former suburbs were incorporated, and the city of Vienna grew dramatically. In 1918, after World War I, Vienna became capital of the Republic of German-Austria, and then in 1919 of the First Republic of Austria.From the late-19th century to 1938, the city remained a center of high culture and of modernism. A world capital of music, Vienna played host to composers such as Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler and Richard Strauss. The city's cultural contributions in the first half of the 20th century included, among many, the Vienna Secession movement in art, psychoanalysis, the Second Viennese School (Schoenberg, Berg, Webern), the architecture of Adolf Loos and the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle. In 1913 Adolf Hitler, Leon Trotsky, Josip Broz Tito, Sigmund Freud and Joseph Stalin all lived within a few kilometres of each other in central Vienna, some of them becoming regulars at the same coffeehouses.Austrians came to regard Vienna as a center of socialist politics, sometimes referred to as "Red Vienna"(“Das rote Wien”). In the Austrian Civil War of 1934 Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss sent the Austrian Army to shell civilian housing such as the Karl Marx-Hof occupied by the socialist militia.In 1938, after a triumphant entry into Austria, the Austrian-born German Chancellor Adolf Hitler spoke to the Austrian Germans from the balcony of the Neue Burg, a part of the Hofburg at the Heldenplatz. In the ensuing days the new Nazi authorities oversaw the harassment of Viennese Jews, the looting of their homes, and their on-going deportation and murder. Between 1938 (after the Anschluss) and the end of the Second World War in 1945, Vienna lost its status as a capital to Berlin, because Austria ceased to exist and became part of Nazi Germany.During the November pogroms on November 9, 1938, 92 synagogues in Vienna were destroyed. Only the city temple in the 1st district was spared, as the data of all Jews in Vienna were collected in the adjacent archives. Adolf Eichmann held office in the expropriated Palais Rothschild and organized the expropriation and persecution of the Jews. Of the almost 200,000 Jews in Vienna, around 120,000 were driven to emigrate and around 65,000 were killed. After the end of the war, the Jewish population of Vienna was about only 5,000.Vienna was also the center of the important resistance group around Heinrich Maier, which provided the Allies with plans for V-1, V-2 rockets, Peenemünde, Tiger tanks, Messerschmitt Bf 109, Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet and other aircraft. The information was important to Operation Crossbow and Operation Hydra, both preliminary missions for Operation Overlord. In addition, factory locations for war-essential products were communicated as targets for the Allied Air Force. The group was exposed and most of its members were executed after months of torture by the Gestapo in Vienna. The group around the later executed Karl Burian even tried to blow up the Gestapo headquarters in the Hotel Metropole.On 2 April 1945 the Soviet Red Army launched the Vienna Offensive against the Germans holding the city and besieged it. British and American air-raids, as well as artillery duels between the Red Army and the SS and Wehrmacht, crippled infrastructure, such as tram services and water- and power-distribution, and destroyed or damaged thousands of public and private buildings. The Red Army was helped by an Austrian resistance group in the German Wehrmacht. The group tried under the code name Radetzky to prevent the destruction and fighting in the city. Vienna fell eleven days later. At the end of the war, Austria again became separated from Germany, and Vienna regained its status as the capital city of the Republic of Austria, but the Soviet hold on the city remained until 1955, when Austria regained full sovereignty.After the war, Vienna was part of Soviet-occupied Eastern Austria until September 1945. As in Berlin, Vienna in September 1945 was divided into sectors by the four powers: the US, the UK, France, and the Soviet Union and supervised by an Allied Commission. The four-power occupation of Vienna differed in one key respect from that of Berlin: the central area of the city, known as the first district, constituted an "international zone" in which the four powers alternated control on a monthly basis. The control was policed by the four powers on a "de facto" day-to-day basis, the famous "four soldiers in a jeep" method. The Berlin Blockade of 1948 raised Western concerns that the Soviets might repeat the blockade in Vienna. The matter was raised in the UK House of Commons by MP Anthony Nutting, who asked: "What plans have the Government for dealing with a similar situation in Vienna? Vienna is in exactly a similar position to Berlin."There was a lack of airfields in the Western sectors, and authorities drafted contingency plans to deal with such a blockade. Plans included the laying down of metal landing mats at Schönbrunn. The Soviets did not blockade the city. The Potsdam Agreement included written rights of land access to the western sectors, whereas no such written guarantees had covered the western sectors of Berlin. Also, there was no precipitating event to cause a blockade in Vienna. (In Berlin, the Western powers had introduced a new currency in early 1948 to economically freeze out the Soviets.) During the 10 years of the four-power occupation, Vienna became a hotbed for international espionage between the Western and Eastern blocs. In the wake of the Berlin Blockade, the Cold War in Vienna took on a different dynamic. While accepting that Germany and Berlin would be divided, the Soviets had decided against allowing the same state of affairs to arise in Austria and Vienna. Here, the Soviet forces controlled districts 2, 4, 10, 20, 21, and 22 and all areas incorporated into Vienna in 1938.Barbed wire fences were installed around the perimeter of West Berlin in 1953, but not in Vienna. By 1955, the Soviets, by signing the Austrian State Treaty, agreed to relinquish their occupation zones in Eastern Austria as well as their sector in Vienna. In exchange they required that Austria declare its permanent neutrality after the allied powers had left the country. Thus they ensured that Austria would not be a member of NATO and that NATO forces would therefore not have direct communications between Italy and West Germany.The atmosphere of four-power Vienna is the background for Graham Greene's screenplay for the film "The Third Man" (1949). Later he adapted the screenplay as a novel and published it. Occupied Vienna is also depicted in the 1991 Philip Kerr novel, "A German Requiem".The four-power control of Vienna lasted until the Austrian State Treaty was signed in May 1955. That year, after years of reconstruction and restoration, the State Opera and the Burgtheater, both on the Ringstraße, reopened to the public. The Soviet Union signed the State Treaty only after having been provided with a political guarantee by the federal government to declare Austria's neutrality after the withdrawal of the allied troops. This law of neutrality, passed in late October 1955 (and not the State Treaty itself), ensured that modern Austria would align with neither NATO nor the Soviet bloc, and is considered one of the reasons for Austria's delayed entry into the European Union in 1995.In the 1970s, Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky inaugurated the Vienna International Center, a new area of the city created to host international institutions. Vienna has regained much of its former international stature by hosting international organizations, such as the United Nations (United Nations Industrial Development Organization, United Nations Office at Vienna and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime), the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.Because of the industrialization and migration from other parts of the Empire, the population of Vienna increased sharply during its time as the capital of Austria-Hungary (1867–1918). In 1910, Vienna had more than two million inhabitants, and was the third largest city in Europe after London and Paris. Around the start of the 20th century, Vienna was the city with the second-largest Czech population in the world (after Prague). After World War I, many Czechs and Hungarians returned to their ancestral countries, resulting in a decline in the Viennese population. After World War II, the Soviets used force to repatriate key workers of Czech, Slovak and Hungarian origins to return to their ethnic homelands to further the Soviet bloc economy.Under the Nazi regime, 65,000 Jews were deported and murdered in concentration camps by Nazi forces; approximately 130,000 fled.By 2001, 16% of people living in Austria had nationalities other than Austrian, nearly half of whom were from former Yugoslavia; the next most numerous nationalities in Vienna were Turks (39,000; 2.5%), Poles (13,600; 0.9%) and Germans (12,700; 0.8%)., an official report from Statistics Austria showed that more than 660,000 (38.8%) of the Viennese population have full or partial migrant background, mostly from Ex-Yugoslavia, Turkey, Germany, Poland, Romania and Hungary.From 2005 to 2015 the city's population grew by 10.1%. According to UN-Habitat, Vienna could be the fastest growing city out of 17 European metropolitan areas until 2025 with an increase of 4.65% of its population, compared to 2010.According to the 2001 census, 49.2% of Viennese were Catholic, while 25.7% were of no religion, 7.8% were Muslim, 6.0% were members of an Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, 4.7% were Protestant (mostly Lutheran), 0.5% were Jewish and 6.3% were either of other religions or did not reply. A 2011 report by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis showed the proportions had changed, with 41.3% Catholic, 31.6% no affiliation, 11.6% Muslim, 8.4% Eastern Orthodox, 4.2% Protestant, and 2.9% other.Based on information provided to city officials by various religious organizations about their membership, Vienna's Statistical Yearbook 2019 reports in 2018 an estimated 610,269 Roman Catholics, or 32.3% of the population, and 195,000 (10.3%) Muslims, 70,298 (3.7%) Orthodox, 57,502 (3.0%) other Christians, and 9,504 (0.5%) other religions. A study conducted by the Vienna Institute of Demography estimated the 2018 proportions to be 34% Catholic, 30% unaffiliated, 15% Muslim, 10% Orthodox, 4% Protestant, and 6% other religions.Vienna is the seat of the Metropolitan Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna, in which is also vested the exempt Ordinariate for Byzantine-rite Catholics in Austria; its Archbishop is Cardinal Christoph Schönborn. Many Catholic churches in central Vienna feature performances of religious or other music, including masses sung to classical music and organ. Some of Vienna's most significant historical buildings are Catholic churches, including the St. Stephen's Cathedral ("Stephansdom"), Karlskirche, Peterskirche and the Votivkirche. On the banks of the Danube, there is a Buddhist Peace Pagoda, built in 1983 by the monks and nuns of [Nipponzan Myohoji].Vienna is located in northeastern Austria, at the easternmost extension of the Alps in the Vienna Basin. The earliest settlement, at the location of today's inner city, was south of the meandering Danube while the city now spans both sides of the river. Elevation ranges from . The city has a total area of 414.65 square kilometers (160.1 sq mi), making it the largest city in Austria by area.Vienna has an oceanic climate (Köppen classification "Cfb"). The city has warm summers, with periodical precipitations that can reach its yearly peak in July and August (66.6 and 66.5 mm respectively) and average high temperatures from June to September of approximately , with a record maximum exceeding and a record low in September of . Winters are relatively dry and cold with average temperatures at about freezing point. Spring is variable and autumn cool, with possible snowfalls already in November. Precipitation is generally moderate throughout the year, averaging around annually, with considerable local variations, the Vienna Woods region in the west being the wettest part ( annually) and the flat plains in the east being the driest part ( annually). Snow in winter is common, even if not so frequent compared to the Western and Southern regions of Austria.Vienna was moved to the UNESCO world heritage in endangered list in 2017. The main reason was a planned high-rise development. The city's social democratic party planned construction of a complex in 2019. The plan includes a -high tower, which was reduced from due to opposition. UNESCO believed that the project "fails to comply fully with previous committee decisions, notably concerning the height of new constructions, which will impact adversely the outstanding universal value of the site." UNESCO set the restriction for the height of the construction in the city center to .The citizens of Vienna also opposed the construction of the complex because they are afraid of losing UNESCO status and also of encouraging future high-rise development. The city officials replied that they will convince the WHC to maintain UNESCO world heritage status and said that no further high-rise developments are being planned.UNESCO is concerned about the height of high-rise development in Vienna as it can dramatically influence the visual integrity of the city, specifically the baroque palaces. Visual impact studies are being done in the Vienna city center to assess the level of visual disturbance to visitors and how the changes influenced the city's visual integrity.Vienna is composed of 23 districts ("Bezirke"). Administrative district offices in Vienna (called Magistratische Bezirksämter) serve functions similar to those in the other Austrian states (called Bezirkshauptmannschaften), the officers being subject to the mayor of Vienna; with the notable exception of the police, which is under federal supervision.District residents in Vienna (Austrians as well as EU citizens with permanent residence here) elect a District Assembly (Bezirksvertretung). City hall has delegated maintenance budgets, e.g., for schools and parks, so that the districts are able to set priorities autonomously. Any decision of a district can be overridden by the city assembly (Gemeinderat) or the responsible city councilor (amtsführender Stadtrat).The heart and historical city of Vienna, a large part of today's Innere Stadt, was a fortress surrounded by fields in order to defend itself from potential attackers. In 1850, Vienna with the consent of the emperor annexed 34 surrounding villages, called Vorstädte, into the city limits (districts no. 2 to 8, after 1861 with the separation of Margareten from Wieden no. 2 to 9). Consequently, the walls were razed after 1857, making it possible for the city center to expand.In their place, a broad boulevard called the Ringstraße was built, along which imposing public and private buildings, monuments, and parks were created by the start of the 20th century. These buildings include the Rathaus (town hall), the Burgtheater, the University, the Parliament, the twin museums of natural history and fine art, and the Staatsoper. It is also the location of New Wing of the Hofburg, the former imperial palace, and the Imperial and Royal War Ministry finished in 1913. The mainly Gothic Stephansdom is located at the center of the city, on Stephansplatz. The Imperial-Royal Government set up the Vienna City Renovation Fund (Wiener Stadterneuerungsfonds) and sold many building lots to private investors, thereby partly financing public construction works.From 1850 to 1890, city limits in the West and the South mainly followed another wall called "Linienwall" at which a road toll called the "Liniengeld" was charged. Outside this wall from 1873 onwards a ring road called Gürtel was built. In 1890 it was decided to integrate 33 suburbs (called Vororte) beyond that wall into Vienna by 1 January 1892 and transform them into districts no. 11 to 19 (district no. 10 had been constituted in 1874); hence the Linienwall was torn down beginning in 1894. In 1900, district no. 20, Brigittenau, was created by separating the area from the 2nd district.From 1850 to 1904, Vienna had expanded only on the right bank of the Danube, following the main branch before the regulation of 1868–1875, i.e., the Old Danube of today. In 1904, the 21st district was created by integrating Floridsdorf, Kagran, Stadlau, Hirschstetten, Aspern and other villages on the left bank of the Danube into Vienna, in 1910 Strebersdorf followed. On 15 October 1938 the Nazis created Great Vienna with 26 districts by merging 97 towns and villages into Vienna, 80 of which were returned to surrounding Lower Austria in 1954. Since then Vienna has had 23 districts.Industries are located mostly in the southern and eastern districts. The Innere Stadt is situated away from the main flow of the Danube, but is bounded by the "Donaukanal" ("Danube canal"). Vienna's second and twentieth districts are located between the Donaukanal and the Danube. Across the Danube, where the Vienna International Center is located (districts 21–22), and in the southern areas (district 23) are the newest parts of the city.In the twenty years before the First World War and until 1918, Viennese politics were shaped by the Christian Social Party. In particular, long-term mayor Karl Lueger was able to not apply the general voting rights for men introduced by and for the parliament of imperial Austria, the "Reichsrat", in 1907, thereby excluding most of the working class from taking part in decisions. For Adolf Hitler, who spent some years in Vienna, Lueger was a teacher of how to use antisemitism in politics.Vienna is today considered the center of the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ). During the period of the First Republic (1918–1934), the Vienna Social Democrats undertook many social reforms. At that time, Vienna's municipal policy was admired by Socialists throughout Europe, who therefore referred to the city as "Red Vienna" ("Rotes Wien"). In February 1934 troops of the Austrian federal government under Engelbert Dollfuss, who had closed down the first chamber of the federal parliament, the "Nationalrat", in 1933, and paramilitary socialist organizations were engaged in the Austrian Civil War, which led to the ban of the Social Democratic party.The SPÖ has held the mayor's office and control of the city council/parliament at every free election since 1919. The only break in this SPÖ dominance came between 1934 and 1945, when the Social Democratic Party was illegal, mayors were appointed by the austro-fascist and later by the Nazi authorities. The mayor of Vienna is Michael Ludwig of the SPÖ.The city has enacted many social democratic policies. The "Gemeindebauten" are social housing assets that are well integrated into the city architecture outside the first or "inner" district. The low rents enable comfortable accommodation and good access to the city amenities. Many of the projects were built after the Second World War on vacant lots that were destroyed by bombing during the war. The city took particular pride in building them to a high standard.Since Vienna obtained federal state ("Bundesland") status of its own by the federal constitution of 1920, the city council also functions as the state parliament (Landtag), and the mayor (except 1934–1945) also doubles as the "Landeshauptmann" (governor/minister-president) of the state of Vienna. The Rathaus accommodates the offices of the mayor ("") and the state government ("Landesregierung"). The city is administered by a multitude of departments ("Magistratsabteilungen"), politically supervised by "amtsführende Stadträte" (members of the city government leading offices; according to the Vienna constitution opposition parties have the right to designate members of the city government not leading offices).Under the city constitution of 1920, municipal and state business must be kept separate. Hence, the city council and state parliament hold separate meetings, with separate presiding officers–the chairman of the city council or the president of the state Landtag–even though the two bodies' memberships are identical. When meeting as a city council, the deputies can only deal with the affairs of the city of Vienna; when meeting as a state parliament, they can only deal with the affairs of the state of Vienna.In the 1996 City Council election, the SPÖ lost its overall majority in the 100-seat chamber, winning 43 seats and 39.15% of the vote. The SPÖ had held an outright majority at every free municipal election since 1919. In 1996 the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), which won 29 seats (up from 21 in 1991), beat the ÖVP into third place for the second time running. From 1996 to 2001, the SPÖ governed Vienna in a coalition with the ÖVP. In 2001 the SPÖ regained the overall majority with 52 seats and 46.91% of the vote; in October 2005, this majority was increased further to 55 seats (49.09%). In course of the 2010 city council elections the SPÖ lost their overall majority again and consequently forged a coalition with the Green Party – the first SPÖ/Green coalition in Austria. This coalition was maintained following the 2015 election.Vienna is one of the wealthiest regions in the European Union: Its gross regional product of EUR 47,200 per capita constituted 25.7% of Austria's GDP in 2013. It amounts to 159% of the EU average. The city improved its position from 2012 on the ranking of the most economically powerful cities reaching number nine on the listing in 2015.With a share of 85.5% in gross value added, the service sector is Vienna's most important economic sector. Industry and commerce have a share of 14.5% in gross value added, the primary sector (agriculture) has a share of 0.07% and therefore plays a minor role in the local added value. However, the cultivation and production of wines within the city borders have a high socio-cultural value. The most important business sectors are trade (14.7% of added value in Vienna), scientific and technological services, real estate and housing activities as well as manufacturing of goods. In 2012, Vienna's contribution in Austria's outgoing and incoming foreign direct investments was of about 60%, which demonstrates Vienna's role as an international hub for domestic and foreign companies.Since the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, Vienna has expanded its position as gateway to Eastern Europe: 300 international companies have their Eastern European headquarters in Vienna and its environs. Among them are Hewlett Packard, Henkel, Baxalta and Siemens. Companies in Vienna have extensive contacts and competences in business with Eastern Europe due to the city's historical role as center of the Habsburg Empire. The number of international businesses in Vienna is still growing: In 2014 159 and in 2015 175 international firms established offices in Vienna.Altogether, approximately 8,300 new companies have been founded in Vienna every year since 2004. The majority of these companies are operating in fields of industry-oriented services, wholesale trade as well as information and communications technologies and new media. Vienna makes effort to establish itself as a start-up hub. Since 2012, the city hosts the annual Pioneers Festival, the largest start-up event in Central Europe with 2,500 international participants taking place at Hofburg Palace. Tech Cocktail, an online portal for the start-up scene, has ranked Vienna sixth among the top ten start-up cities worldwide.The city of Vienna attaches major importance to science and research and focuses on creating a positive environment for research and development. In 2014, Vienna has accommodated 1,329 research facilities; 40,400 persons are employed in the R&D sector and 35% of Austria's R&D expenses are invested in the city. With a research quota of 3.4% Vienna exceeds the Austrian average of 2.77% and has already met the EU target of 3.0% by 2020. A major R&D sector in Vienna are life sciences. The Vienna Life Science Cluster is Austria's major hub for life science research, education and business. Throughout Vienna, five universities and several basic research institutes form the academic core of the hub with more than 12,600 employees and 34,700 students. Here, more than 480 medical device, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies with almost 23,000 employees generate around 12 billion euros in revenue (2017). This corresponds to more than 50% of the revenue generated by life science companies in Austria (22.4 billion euros).Vienna is home to global players like Boehringer Ingelheim, Octapharma, Ottobock and Takeda. However, there is also a growing number of start-up companies in the life sciences and Vienna was ranked first in the 2019 PeoplePerHour Startup Cities Index. Companies such as Apeiron Biologics, Hookipa Pharma, Marinomed, mySugr, Themis Bioscience and Valneva operate a presence in Vienna and regularly hit the headlines internationally.To facilitate tapping the economic potential of the multiple facettes of the life sciences at Austria's capital, the Austrian Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs and the local government of City of Vienna have joined forces: Since 2002, the LISAvienna platform is available as a central contact point. It provides free business support services at the interface of the Austrian federal promotional bank, Austria Wirtschaftsservice and the Vienna Business Agency and collects data that inform policy making.The main academic hot spots in Vienna are the Life Science Center Muthgasse with the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), the Austrian Institute of Technology, the University of Veterinary Medicine, the AKH Vienna with the MedUni Vienna and the Vienna Biocenter. Central European University, a graduate institution expelled from Budapest in the midst of a Hungarian government steps to take control of academic and research organizations, welcomes the first class of students to its new Vienna campus in 2019.The Viennese sector for information and communication technologies is comparable in size with the sector in Helsinki, Milan or Munich and thus among Europe's largest IT locations. In 2012 8,962 IT businesses with a workforce of 64,223 were located in the Vienna Region. The main products are instruments and appliances for measuring, testing and navigation as well as electronic components. More than ⅔ of the enterprises provide IT services. Among the biggest IT firms in Vienna are Kapsch, Beko Engineering & Informatics, air traffic control experts Frequentis, Cisco Systems Austria, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft Austria, IBM Austria and Samsung Electronics Austria.The US technology corporation Cisco runs its "Entrepreneurs in Residence" program for Europe in Vienna in cooperation with the Vienna Business Agency.The British company UBM has rated Vienna one of the "Top 10 Internet Cities" worldwide, by analyzing criteria like connection speed, WiFi availability, innovation spirit and open government data.In 2011 74.3% of Viennese households were connected with broadband, 79% were in possession of a computer. According to the broadband strategy of the city, full broadband coverage will be reached by 2020.There were 17.6 million overnight stays in Vienna in 2019 (+6.8% compared to 2018). The top ten incoming markets in 2019 were Germany, Austria, the United States, Italy, United Kingdom, Spain, China, France, Russia and Switzerland.In 2019 the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) ranked Vienna 6th in the world for association meetings. The Union of International Associations (UIA) ranked Vienna 5th in the world for 2019 with 306 international meetings, behind Singapore, Brussels, Seoul and Paris. The city's largest conference center, the Austria Center Vienna (ACV) has a total capacity for around 22,800 people and is situated next to the United Nations Headquarters in Vienna. Other centers are the Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center (up to 3,000 people) and the Hofburg Palace (up to 4,900 people).Vienna was ranked top in the "2019 Quality of Living Ranking" by the international Mercer Consulting Group for the tenth consecutive year. In the 2015 liveability report by the Economist Intelligence Unit as well as in the "Quality of Life Survey 2015" of London-based "Monocle magazine" Vienna was equally ranked second most livable city worldwide.The United Nations Human Settlements Programme "UN-Habitat" has ranked Vienna the most prosperous city in the world in its flagship report "State of the World Cities 2012/2013".According to the 2014 City RepTrack ranking by the Reputation Institute, Vienna has the best reputation in comparison with 100 major global cities.The "Innovation Cities Global Index 2014" by the Australian innovation agency 2thinknow ranks Vienna sixth behind San Francisco-San Jose, New York City, London, Boston and Paris. In 2019 PeoplePerHour put Vienna at the top of their Startup Cities Ranking.US climate strategist Boyd Cohen placed Vienna first in his first "global smart cities" ranking of 2012. In the 2014 ranking, Vienna reached third place among European cities behind Copenhagen and Amsterdam.The "Mori Memorial Institute for Urban Strategies" ranked Vienna in the top ten of their Global Power City Index 2016.Vienna's new Central Railway Station was opened in October 2014. Construction began in June 2007 and was due to last until December 2015. The station is served by 1,100 trains with 145,000 passengers. There is a shopping center with approximately 90 shops and restaurants.In the vicinity of the station a new district is emerging with office space and 5,000 apartments until 2020.Seestadt Aspern is one of the largest urban expansion projects of Europe. A 5 hectare artificial lake, offices, apartments and a subway station within walking distance are supposed to attract 20,000 new citizens when construction is completed in 2028.In addition, the highest wooden skyscraper in the world, “HoHo Wien”, will be built within 3 years, starting in 2015.In 2014, the Vienna City Council adopted the Smart City Wien Framework Strategy 2050. It is a long-term umbrella strategy that is supposed to establish a conducive, long-term and structural framework in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from 3.1 tonnes per capita to 1 tonne per capita by 2050, have 50% of Vienna's gross energy consumption originate from renewable sources and to reduce motorized individual traffic from the current 28% to 15% by 2030. A stated goal is that, by 2050, all vehicles within the municipal boundaries will run without conventional propulsion technologies. Additionally, Vienna aims to be one of the five biggest European research and innovation hubs in 2050.Famous composers including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Ferdinand Ries, Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler, Robert Stolz, and Arnold Schoenberg have worked in Vienna.Art and culture had a long tradition in Vienna, including theater, opera, classical music and fine arts. The Burgtheater is considered one of the best theaters in the German-speaking world alongside its branch, the Akademietheater. The Volkstheater Wien and the Theater in der Josefstadt also enjoy good reputations. There is also a multitude of smaller theaters, in many cases devoted to less mainstream forms of the performing arts, such as modern, experimental plays or cabaret.Vienna is also home to a number of opera houses, including the Theater an der Wien, the Staatsoper and the Volksoper, the latter being devoted to the typical Viennese operetta. Classical concerts are performed at venues such as the Wiener Musikverein, home of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra known across the world for the annual widely broadcast "New Year's Day Concert", as well as the Wiener Konzerthaus, home of the internationally renowned Vienna Symphony. Many concert venues offer concerts aimed at tourists, featuring popular highlights of Viennese music, particularly the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johann Strauss I, and Johann Strauss II.Up until 2005, the Theater an der Wien hosted premieres of musicals, but since 2006 (a year dedicated to the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth), has devoted itself to opera again, becoming a stagione opera house offering one new production each month. Since 2012, Theater an der Wien has taken over the Wiener Kammeroper, a historical small theater in the first district of Vienna seating 300 spectators, turning it into its second venue for smaller sized productions and chamber operas created by the young ensemble of Theater an der Wien (JET). Before 2005 the most successful musical was "Elisabeth", which was later translated into several languages and performed all over the world. The Wiener Taschenoper is dedicated to stage music of the 20th and 21st century. The Haus der Musik ("house of music") opened in the year 2000.The Wienerlied is a unique song genre from Vienna. There are approximately 60,000 – 70,000 Wienerlieder.In 1981 the popular British new romantic group Ultravox paid a tribute to Vienna on an album and an artful music video recording called "Vienna". The inspiration for this work arose from the cinema production called "The Third Man" with the title Zither music of Anton Karas.The Vienna's English Theatre (VET) is an English theater in Vienna. It was founded in 1963 and is located in the 8th Vienna's district. It is the oldest English-language theater in continental Europe.In May 2015, Vienna hosted the Eurovision Song Contest following Austria's victory in the 2014 contest.Notable entertainers born in Vienna include Hedy Lamarr, Christoph Waltz, John Banner, Christiane Hörbiger, Eric Pohlmann, Boris Kodjoe, Christine Buchegger, Mischa Hausserman, Senta Berger and Christine Ostermayer.Notable musicians born in Vienna include Louie Austen, Alban Berg, Falco, Fritz Kreisler, Joseph Lanner, Arnold Schönberg, Franz Schubert, Johann Strauss I, Johann Strauss II, Anton Webern, and Joe Zawinul.Famous musicians who came here to work from other parts of Austria and Germany were Johann Joseph Fux, Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Ferdinand Ries, Johann Sedlatzek, Antonio Salieri, Carl Czerny, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Franz Liszt, Franz von Suppé, Anton Bruckner, Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler and Rainhard Fendrich.Among the most notable Viennese Jews, some of whom left Austria before and during Nazi persecution, are the following figures: Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler (who eventually converted to Christianity), Rudolf Dreikurs, Viktor Frankl, Fritz Lang, Peter Lorre, Fred Zinnemann (both of whose parents were murdered in the Holocaust), Stefan Zweig, Simon Wiesenthal, Theodor Herzl, Judah Alkalai, Erich von Stroheim, Hedy Lamarr, Billy Wilder, Franz Werfel, Arnold Schoenberg, Walter Arlen and Fritz Kreisler.Notable writers from Vienna include Karl Leopold von Möller, Carl Julius Haidvogel, and Stefan Zweig.Writers who lived and worked in Vienna include Franz Kafka, Arthur Schnitzler, Elias Canetti, Ingeborg Bachmann, Robert Musil, Karl Kraus, Ernst von Feuchtersleben, Thomas Bernhard and Elfriede Jelinek.Notable politicians from Vienna include Karl Leopold von Möller.The Hofburg is the location of the Imperial Treasury ("Schatzkammer"), holding the imperial jewels of the Habsburg dynasty. The Sisi Museum (a museum devoted to Empress Elisabeth of Austria) allows visitors to view the imperial apartments as well as the silver cabinet. Directly opposite the Hofburg are the Kunsthistorisches Museum, which houses many paintings by old masters, ancient and classical artifacts, and the Naturhistorisches Museum.A number of museums are located in the Museumsquartier (museum quarter), the former Imperial Stalls which were converted into a museum complex in the 1990s. It houses the Museum of Modern Art, commonly known as the MUMOK (Ludwig Foundation), the Leopold Museum (featuring the largest collection of paintings in the world by Egon Schiele, as well as works by the Vienna Secession, Viennese Modernism and Austrian Expressionism), the AzW (museum of architecture), additional halls with feature exhibitions, and the Tanzquartier. The Liechtenstein Palace contains much of one of the world's largest private art collections, especially strong in the Baroque. The Belvedere, built under Prince Eugene, has a gallery containing paintings by Gustav Klimt (The Kiss), Egon Schiele, and other painters of the early 20th century, also sculptures by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, and changing exhibitions too.There are a multitude of other museums in Vienna, including the Albertina, the Military History Museum, the Technical Museum, the Burial Museum, the Museum of Art Fakes, the KunstHausWien, Museum of Applied Arts, the Sigmund Freud Museum, and the Mozarthaus Vienna. The museums on the history of the city, including the former Historical Museum of the City of Vienna on Karlsplatz, the Hermesvilla, the residences and birthplaces of various composers, the Museum of the Romans, and the Vienna Clock Museum, are now gathered together under the group umbrella Vienna Museum. The Jewish Museum Vienna, founded 1896, is the oldest of its kind. In addition there are museums dedicated to Vienna's individual districts. They provide a record of individual struggles, achievements and tragedy as the city grew and survived two world wars. For readers seeking family histories these are good sources of information.A variety of architectural styles can be found in Vienna, such as the Romanesque Ruprechtskirche and the Baroque Karlskirche. Styles range from classicist buildings to modern architecture. Art Nouveau left many architectural traces in Vienna. The Secession building, Karlsplatz Stadtbahn Station, and the Kirche am Steinhof by Otto Wagner rank among the best known examples of Art Nouveau in the world. Wagner's prominent student Jože Plečnik from Slovenia also left important traces in Vienna. His works include the Langer House (1900) and the Zacherlhaus (1903–1905). Plečnik's 1910–1913 "Church of the Holy Spirit" () in Vienna is remarkable for its innovative use of poured-in-place concrete as both structure and exterior surface, and also for its abstracted classical form language. Most radical is the church's crypt, with its slender concrete columns and angular, cubist capitals and bases.Concurrent to the Art Nouveau movement was the Wiener Moderne, during which some architects shunned the use of extraneous adornment. A key architect of this period was Adolf Loos, whose works include the Looshaus (1909), the Kärntner Bar or American Bar (1908) and the Steiner House (1910).The Hundertwasserhaus by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, designed to counter the clinical look of modern architecture, is one of Vienna's most popular tourist attractions. Another example of unique architecture is the Wotrubakirche by sculptor Fritz Wotruba. In the 1990s, a number of quarters were adapted and extensive building projects were implemented in the areas around Donaustadt (north of the Danube) and Wienerberg (in southern Vienna).The 220-meter high DC Tower 1 located on the Northern bank of the Danube, completed in 2013, is the tallest skyscraper in Vienna. In recent years, Vienna has seen numerous architecture projects completed which combine modern architectural elements with old buildings, such as the remodeling and revitalization of the old Gasometer in 2001.Most buildings in Vienna are relatively low; in early 2006 there were around 100 buildings higher than . The number of high-rise buildings is kept low by building legislation aimed at preserving green areas and districts designated as world cultural heritage. Strong rules apply to the planning, authorization and construction of high-rise buildings. Consequently, much of the inner city is a high-rise free zone.Vienna is the last great capital of the 19th-century ball. There are over 450 balls per year, some featuring as many as nine live orchestras. Balls are held in the many palaces in Vienna, with the principal venue being the Hofburg Palace in Heldenplatz. While the Opera Ball is the best known internationally of all the Austrian balls, other balls such as the Kaffeesiederball (Cafe Owners Ball), the Jägerball (Hunter's Ball) and the Life Ball (AIDS charity event) are almost as well known within Austria and even better appreciated for their cordial atmosphere. Viennese of at least middle class may visit a number of balls in their lifetime.Dancers and opera singers from the Vienna State Opera often perform at the openings of the larger balls.A Vienna ball is an all-night cultural attraction. Major Vienna balls generally begin at 9 pm and last until 5 am, although many guests carry on the celebrations into the next day. Viennese balls are being exported (with support from the City of Vienna) to around 30 cities worldwide such as New York, Barcelona, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Rome, Prague, Bucharest, Berlin and Moscow.Vienna is part of the Austro-Bavarian language area, in particular Central Bavarian ("Mittelbairisch"). In recent years, linguistics experts have seen a decline in the use of the Viennese variant. Manfred Glauninger, sociolinguist at the Institute for Austrian Dialect and Name Lexica, has observed three issues. First, many parents feel there's a stigma attached to the Viennese dialect so they speak Standard German to their children. Second, many children have recently immigrated to Austria and are learning German as a second language in school. Third, young people are influenced by mass media which is most always delivered in Standard German.Vienna is Austria's main center of education and home to many universities, professional colleges and gymnasiums (high schools).Vienna possesses many parks, including the "Stadtpark", the "Burggarten", the "Volksgarten" (part of the "Hofburg"), the "Schlosspark" at Schloss Belvedere (home to the Vienna Botanic Gardens), the "Donaupark", the "Schönbrunner Schlosspark", the "Prater", the "Augarten", the "Rathauspark", the "Lainzer Tiergarten", the "Dehnepark", the "Resselpark", the "Votivpark", the "Kurpark Oberlaa", the "Auer-Welsbach-Park" and the "Türkenschanzpark". Green areas include "Laaer-Berg" (including the Bohemian Prater) and the foothills of the "Wienerwald", which reaches into the outer areas of the city. Small parks, known by the Viennese as "Beserlparks", are everywhere in the inner city areas.Many of Vienna's parks include monuments, such as the Stadtpark with its statue of Johann Strauss II, and the gardens of the baroque palace, where the State Treaty was signed. Vienna's principal park is the Prater which is home to the Riesenrad, a Ferris wheel, and Kugelmugel, a micronation the shape of a sphere. The imperial Schönbrunn's grounds contain an 18th-century park which includes the world's oldest zoo, founded in 1752.The Donauinsel, part of Vienna's flood defenses, is a long artificial island between the Danube and Neue Donau dedicated to leisure activities.Austria's capital is home to numerous football teams. The best known are the local football clubs include FK Austria Wien (21 Austrian Bundesliga titles and record 27-time cup winners), SK Rapid Wien (record 32 Austrian Bundesliga titles), and the oldest team, First Vienna FC. Other important sports clubs include the Raiffeisen Vikings Vienna (American Football), who won the Eurobowl title between 2004 and 2007 4 times in a row and had a perfect season in 2013, the Aon hotVolleys Vienna, one of Europe's premier Volleyball organizations, the Vienna Wanderers (baseball) who won the 2012 and 2013 Championship of the Austrian Baseball League, and the Vienna Capitals (Ice Hockey). Vienna was also where the European Handball Federation (EHF) was founded. There are also three rugby clubs; Vienna Celtic, the oldest rugby club in Austria, RC Donau, and Stade ViennoisVienna hosts many different sporting events including the Vienna City Marathon, which attracts more than 10,000 participants every year and normally takes place in May. In 2005 the Ice Hockey World Championships took place in Austria and the final was played in Vienna. Vienna's Ernst Happel Stadium was the venue of four Champions League and European Champion Clubs' Cup finals (1964, 1987, 1990 and 1995) and on 29 June it hosted the final of Euro 2008 which saw a Spanish 1–0 victory over Germany. Tennis tournament Vienna Open also takes place in the city since 1974. The matches are played in the Wiener Stadthalle.The Neue Donau, which was formed after the Donauinsel was created, is free of river traffic and a popular destination for leisure and sports activities.Vienna will host the official 2021 3x3 Basketball World Cup.Vienna is well known for "Wiener Schnitzel", a cutlet of veal "(Kalbsschnitzel)" or pork "(Schweinsschnitzel)" that is pounded flat, coated in flour, egg and breadcrumbs, and fried in clarified butter. It is available in almost every restaurant that serves Viennese cuisine and can be eaten hot or cold. The traditional 'Wiener Schnitzel' though is a cutlet of veal. Other examples of Viennese cuisine include "Tafelspitz" (very lean boiled beef), which is traditionally served with "Geröstete Erdäpfel" (boiled potatoes mashed with a fork and subsequently fried) and horseradish sauce, "Apfelkren" (a mixture of horseradish, cream and apple) and "Schnittlauchsauce" (a chives sauce made with mayonnaise and stale bread).Vienna has a long tradition of producing cakes and desserts. These include "Apfelstrudel" (hot apple strudel), "Milchrahmstrudel" (milk-cream strudel), "Palatschinken" (sweet pancakes), and "Knödel" (dumplings) often filled with fruit such as apricots ("Marillenknödel"). Sachertorte, a delicately moist chocolate cake with apricot jam created by the Sacher Hotel, is world-famous.In winter, small street stands sell traditional "Maroni" (hot chestnuts) and potato fritters.Sausages are popular and available from street vendors ("Würstelstand") throughout the day and into the night. The sausage known as "Wiener" (German for Viennese) in the U.S. and in Germany, is called a "Frankfurter" in Vienna. Other popular sausages are "Burenwurst" (a coarse beef and pork sausage, generally boiled), "Käsekrainer" (spicy pork with small chunks of cheese), and "Bratwurst" (a white pork sausage). Most can be ordered "mit Brot" (with bread) or as a "hot dog" (stuffed inside a long roll). Mustard is the traditional condiment and usually offered in two varieties: "süß" (sweet) or "scharf" (spicy).Kebab, pizza and noodles are, increasingly, the snack foods most widely available from small stands.The "Naschmarkt" is a permanent market for fruit, vegetables, spices, fish, meat, etc., from around the world. The city has many coffee and breakfast stores.Vienna, along with Paris, Santiago, Cape Town, Prague, Canberra, Bratislava and Warsaw, is one of the few remaining world capital cities with its own vineyards. The wine is served in small Viennese pubs known as Heuriger, which are especially numerous in the wine growing areas of Döbling (Grinzing, Neustift am Walde, Nußdorf, Salmannsdorf, Sievering), Floridsdorf (Stammersdorf, Strebersdorf), Liesing (Mauer) and Favoriten (Oberlaa). The wine is often drunk as a Spritzer ("G'spritzter") with sparkling water. The Grüner Veltliner, a dry white wine, is the most widely cultivated wine in Austria. Another wine very typical for the region is "Gemischter Satz", which is typically a blend of different types of wines harvested from the same vineyard.Beer is next in importance to wine. Vienna has a single large brewery, Ottakringer, and more than ten microbreweries. A "Beisl" is a typical small Austrian pub, of which Vienna has many.Also, local soft drinks such as Almdudler are popular around the country as an alternative to alcoholic beverages, placing it on the top spots along American counterparts such as Coca-Cola in terms of market share. Another popular drink is the so-called "Spezi", a mix between Coca-Cola and the original formula of Orange Fanta or the more locally renowned Frucade.Viennese cafés have an extremely long and distinguished history that dates back centuries, and the caffeine addictions of some famous historical patrons of the oldest are something of a local legend. These coffee houses are unique to Vienna and many cities have unsuccessfully sought to copy them. Some people consider cafés as their extended living room where nobody will be bothered if they spend hours reading a newspaper while enjoying their coffee. Traditionally, the coffee comes with a glass of water. Viennese cafés claim to have invented the process of filtering coffee from booty captured after the second Turkish siege in 1683. Viennese cafés claim that when the invading Turks left Vienna, they abandoned hundreds of sacks of coffee beans. The Polish King John III Sobieski, the commander of the anti-Turkish coalition of Poles, Germans, and Austrians, gave Franz George Kolschitzky (Polish – Franciszek Jerzy Kulczycki) some of this coffee as a reward for providing information that allowed him to defeat the Turks. Kolschitzky then opened Vienna's first coffee shop. Julius Meinl set up a modern roasting plant in the same premises where the coffee sacks were found, in 1891.Major tourist attractions include the imperial palaces of the Hofburg and Schönbrunn (also home to the world's oldest zoo, Tiergarten Schönbrunn) and the Riesenrad in the Prater. Cultural highlights include the Burgtheater, the Wiener Staatsoper, the Lipizzaner horses at the spanische Hofreitschule, and the Vienna Boys' Choir, as well as excursions to Vienna's Heurigen district Döbling.There are also more than 100 art museums, which together attract over eight million visitors per year. The most popular ones are Albertina, Belvedere, Leopold Museum in the Museumsquartier, KunstHausWien, Bank Austria Kunstforum, the twin "Kunsthistorisches Museum" and "Naturhistorisches Museum", and the Technisches Museum Wien, each of which receives over a quarter of a million visitors per year.There are many popular sites associated with composers who lived in Vienna including Beethoven's various residences and grave at Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery) which is the largest cemetery in Vienna and the burial site of many famous people. Mozart has a memorial grave at the Habsburg gardens and at St. Marx cemetery (where his grave was lost). Vienna's many churches also draw large crowds, famous of which are St. Stephen's Cathedral, the Deutschordenskirche, the Jesuitenkirche, the Karlskirche, the Peterskirche, Maria am Gestade, the Minoritenkirche, the Ruprechtskirche, the Schottenkirche, St. Ulrich and the Votivkirche.Modern attractions include the Hundertwasserhaus, the United Nations headquarters and the view from the Donauturm.Vienna has an extensive transportation network with a unified fare system that integrates municipal, regional and railway systems under the umbrella of the Verkehrsverbund Ost-Region (VOR). Public transport is provided by buses, trams and five underground metro lines (U-Bahn), most operated by the Wiener Linien. There are also more than 50 S-train stations within the city limits. Suburban trains are operated by the ÖBB. The city forms the hub of the Austrian railway system, with services to all parts of the country and abroad. The railway system connects Vienna's main station Vienna Hauptbahnhof with other European cities, like Berlin, Bratislava, Budapest, Brussels, Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Ljubljana, Munich, Prague, Venice, Wrocław, Warsaw, Zagreb and Zürich.Vienna has multiple road connections including expressways and motorways.Vienna is served by Vienna International Airport, located southeast of the city center next to the town of Schwechat. The airport handled approximately 31.7 million passengers in 2019. Following lengthy negotiations with surrounding communities, the airport will be expanded to increase its capacity by adding a third runway. The airport is undergoing a major expansion, including a new terminal building that opened in 2012 to prepare for an increase in passengers.Vienna is the seat of a number of United Nations offices and various international institutions and companies, including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). Vienna is the world's third "UN city", next to New York, Geneva, and Nairobi. Additionally, Vienna is the seat of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law's secretariat (UNCITRAL). In conjunction, the University of Vienna annually hosts the prestigious Willem C. Vis Moot, an international commercial arbitration competition for students of law from around the world.Diplomatic meetings have been held in Vienna in the latter half of the 20th century, resulting in documents bearing the name Vienna Convention or Vienna Document. Among the more important documents negotiated in Vienna are the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, as well as the 1990 Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. Vienna also hosted the negotiations leading to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Iran's nuclear program as well as the Vienna peace talks for Syria.Vienna also headquartered the International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF).Alongside international and intergovernmental organizations, there are dozens of charitable organizations based in Vienna. One such organization is the network of SOS Children's Villages, founded by Hermann Gmeiner in 1949. Today, SOS Children's Villages are active in 132 countries and territories worldwide. Others include HASCO.Another popular international event is the annual Life Ball, which supports people with HIV or AIDS. Guests such as Bill Clinton and Whoopi Goldberg were recent attendees.The general policy of the City of Vienna is not to sign any twin or sister city agreements with other cities. Instead Vienna has only cooperation agreements in which specific cooperation areas are defined.In addition, individual Viennese districts have international partnerships all over the world. A detailed list is published on the website of the City of Vienna.
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[
"Hanns Blaschke",
"Karl Seitz",
"Richard Weiskirchner",
"Richard Schmitz",
"Bruno Marek",
"Felix Slavik",
"Theodor Körner",
"Hermann Neubacher",
"Karl Lueger",
"Jakob Reumann",
"Josef Neumayer",
"Franz Jonas",
"Michael Häupl",
"Philipp Wilhelm Jung",
"Helmut Zilk",
"Michael Ludwig"
] |
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Who was the head of Vienna in Apr, 1991?
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April 25, 1991
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{
"text": [
"Helmut Zilk"
]
}
|
L2_Q1741_P6_14
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Josef Neumayer is the head of the government of Vienna from May, 1910 to Dec, 1912.
Hermann Neubacher is the head of the government of Vienna from Mar, 1938 to Dec, 1940.
Richard Schmitz is the head of the government of Vienna from Apr, 1934 to Mar, 1938.
Michael Häupl is the head of the government of Vienna from Nov, 1994 to May, 2018.
Richard Weiskirchner is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1912 to May, 1919.
Felix Slavik is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1970 to Jul, 1973.
Franz Jonas is the head of the government of Vienna from Jun, 1951 to Jun, 1965.
Karl Seitz is the head of the government of Vienna from Nov, 1923 to Feb, 1934.
Philipp Wilhelm Jung is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1940 to Dec, 1943.
Helmut Zilk is the head of the government of Vienna from Sep, 1984 to Nov, 1994.
Karl Lueger is the head of the government of Vienna from Apr, 1897 to Mar, 1910.
Bruno Marek is the head of the government of Vienna from Jun, 1965 to Dec, 1970.
Theodor Körner is the head of the government of Vienna from Apr, 1945 to Jun, 1951.
Hanns Blaschke is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1943 to Apr, 1945.
Jakob Reumann is the head of the government of Vienna from May, 1919 to Nov, 1923.
Leopold Gratz is the head of the government of Vienna from Jul, 1973 to Sep, 1984.
Michael Ludwig is the head of the government of Vienna from May, 2018 to Dec, 2022.
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ViennaVienna (; ; Austro-Bavarian: "Wean") is the national capital, largest city, and one of nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's most populous city, with about 2 million inhabitants (2.6 million within the metropolitan area, nearly one third of the country's population), and its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 6th-largest city by population within city limits in the European Union.Until the beginning of the 20th century, Vienna was the largest German-speaking city in the world, and before the splitting of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I, the city had 2 million inhabitants. Today, it is the second-largest German-speaking city after Berlin. Vienna is host to many major international organizations, including the United Nations, OPEC and the OSCE. The city is located in the eastern part of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region. Along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants. In 2001, the city center was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In July 2017 it was moved to the list of World Heritage in Danger. Additionally, Vienna is known as the "City of Music" due to its musical legacy, as many famous classical musicians such as Beethoven and Mozart called Vienna home. Vienna is also said to be the "City of Dreams", because of it being home to the world's first psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. Vienna's ancestral roots lie in early Celtic and Roman settlements that transformed into a Medieval and Baroque city. It is well known for having played a pivotal role as a leading European music center, from the age of Viennese Classicism through the early part of the 20th century. The historic center of Vienna is rich in architectural ensembles, including Baroque palaces and gardens, and the late-19th-century Ringstraße lined with grand buildings, monuments and parks.Vienna is known for its high quality of life. In a 2005 study of 127 world cities, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked the city first (in a tie with Vancouver and San Francisco) for the world's most livable cities. Between 2011 and 2015, Vienna was ranked second, behind Melbourne. Monocle's 2015 "Quality of Life Survey" ranked Vienna second on a list of the top 25 cities in the world "to make a base within." Monocle's 2012 "Quality of Life Survey" ranked Vienna fourth on a list of the top 25 cities in the world "to make a base within" (up from sixth in 2011 and eighth in 2010). The UN-Habitat classified Vienna as the most prosperous city in the world in 2012/2013. The city was ranked 1st globally for its culture of innovation in 2007 and 2008, and sixth globally (out of 256 cities) in the 2014 Innovation Cities Index, which analyzed 162 indicators in covering three areas: culture, infrastructure, and markets. Vienna regularly hosts urban planning conferences and is often used as a case study by urban planners. Between 2005 and 2010, Vienna was the world's number-one destination for international congresses and conventions. It attracts over 6.8 million tourists a year.The English name "Vienna" is borrowed from the homonymous Italian name. The etymology of the city's name is still subject to scholarly dispute. Some claim that the name comes from "vedunia", meaning "forest stream", which subsequently produced the Old High German "uuenia" ("wenia" in modern writing), the New High German "wien" and its dialectal variant "wean".Others believe that the name comes from the Roman settlement name of Celtic extraction "Vindobona", probably meaning "fair village, white settlement" from Celtic roots, "vindo-", meaning "bright" or "fair" – as in the Irish "fionn" and the Welsh "gwyn" –, and "-bona" "village, settlement". The Celtic word "vindos" may reflect a widespread prehistorical cult of Vindos, a Celtic deity who survives in Irish Mythology as the warrior and seer Fionn mac Cumhaill. A variant of this Celtic name could be preserved in the Czech, Slovak and Polish names of the city ("Vídeň", "Viedeň" and "Wiedeń" respectively) and in that of the city's district Wieden.The name of the city in Hungarian ("Bécs"), Serbo-Croatian ("Beč"; ) and Ottoman Turkish ("Beç") has a different, probably Slavonic origin, and originally referred to an Avar fort in the area. Slovene-speakers call the city "Dunaj", which in other Central European Slavic languages means the river Danube, on which the city stands.Evidence has been found of continuous habitation in the Vienna area since 500 BC, when Celts settled the site on the Danube. In 15 BC, the Romans fortified the frontier city they called Vindobona to guard the empire against Germanic tribes to the north.Close ties with other Celtic peoples continued through the ages. The Irish monk Saint Colman (or Koloman, Irish "Colmán", derived from "colm" "dove") is buried in Melk Abbey and Saint Fergil (Virgil the Geometer) served as Bishop of Salzburg for forty years. Irish Benedictines founded twelfth-century monastic settlements; evidence of these ties persists in the form of Vienna's great Schottenstift monastery (Scots Abbey), once home to many Irish monks.In 976, Leopold I of Babenberg became count of the Eastern March, a district centered on the Danube on the eastern frontier of Bavaria. This initial district grew into the duchy of Austria. Each succeeding Babenberg ruler expanded the march east along the Danube, eventually encompassing Vienna and the lands immediately east. In 1145, Duke Henry II Jasomirgott moved the Babenberg family residence from Klosterneuburg in Lower Austria to Vienna. From that time, Vienna remained the center of the Babenberg dynasty.In 1440, Vienna became the resident city of the Habsburg dynasty. It eventually grew to become the "de facto" capital of the Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) in 1437 and a cultural center for arts and science, music and fine cuisine. Hungary occupied the city between 1485 and 1490.In the 16th and 17th centuries Christian forces twice stopped Ottoman armies outside Vienna, in the 1529 Siege of Vienna and the 1683 Battle of Vienna. The Great Plague of Vienna ravaged the city in 1679, killing nearly a third of its population.In 1804, during the Napoleonic Wars, Vienna became the capital of the newly formed Austrian Empire. The city continued to play a major role in European and world politics, including hosting the Congress of Vienna in 1814/15. After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, Vienna remained the capital of what became the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The city functioned as a center of classical music, for which the title of the First Viennese School (Haydn/Mozart/Beethoven) is sometimes applied.During the latter half of the 19th century, Vienna developed what had previously been the bastions and glacis into the Ringstraße, a new boulevard surrounding the historical town and a major prestige project. Former suburbs were incorporated, and the city of Vienna grew dramatically. In 1918, after World War I, Vienna became capital of the Republic of German-Austria, and then in 1919 of the First Republic of Austria.From the late-19th century to 1938, the city remained a center of high culture and of modernism. A world capital of music, Vienna played host to composers such as Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler and Richard Strauss. The city's cultural contributions in the first half of the 20th century included, among many, the Vienna Secession movement in art, psychoanalysis, the Second Viennese School (Schoenberg, Berg, Webern), the architecture of Adolf Loos and the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle. In 1913 Adolf Hitler, Leon Trotsky, Josip Broz Tito, Sigmund Freud and Joseph Stalin all lived within a few kilometres of each other in central Vienna, some of them becoming regulars at the same coffeehouses.Austrians came to regard Vienna as a center of socialist politics, sometimes referred to as "Red Vienna"(“Das rote Wien”). In the Austrian Civil War of 1934 Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss sent the Austrian Army to shell civilian housing such as the Karl Marx-Hof occupied by the socialist militia.In 1938, after a triumphant entry into Austria, the Austrian-born German Chancellor Adolf Hitler spoke to the Austrian Germans from the balcony of the Neue Burg, a part of the Hofburg at the Heldenplatz. In the ensuing days the new Nazi authorities oversaw the harassment of Viennese Jews, the looting of their homes, and their on-going deportation and murder. Between 1938 (after the Anschluss) and the end of the Second World War in 1945, Vienna lost its status as a capital to Berlin, because Austria ceased to exist and became part of Nazi Germany.During the November pogroms on November 9, 1938, 92 synagogues in Vienna were destroyed. Only the city temple in the 1st district was spared, as the data of all Jews in Vienna were collected in the adjacent archives. Adolf Eichmann held office in the expropriated Palais Rothschild and organized the expropriation and persecution of the Jews. Of the almost 200,000 Jews in Vienna, around 120,000 were driven to emigrate and around 65,000 were killed. After the end of the war, the Jewish population of Vienna was about only 5,000.Vienna was also the center of the important resistance group around Heinrich Maier, which provided the Allies with plans for V-1, V-2 rockets, Peenemünde, Tiger tanks, Messerschmitt Bf 109, Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet and other aircraft. The information was important to Operation Crossbow and Operation Hydra, both preliminary missions for Operation Overlord. In addition, factory locations for war-essential products were communicated as targets for the Allied Air Force. The group was exposed and most of its members were executed after months of torture by the Gestapo in Vienna. The group around the later executed Karl Burian even tried to blow up the Gestapo headquarters in the Hotel Metropole.On 2 April 1945 the Soviet Red Army launched the Vienna Offensive against the Germans holding the city and besieged it. British and American air-raids, as well as artillery duels between the Red Army and the SS and Wehrmacht, crippled infrastructure, such as tram services and water- and power-distribution, and destroyed or damaged thousands of public and private buildings. The Red Army was helped by an Austrian resistance group in the German Wehrmacht. The group tried under the code name Radetzky to prevent the destruction and fighting in the city. Vienna fell eleven days later. At the end of the war, Austria again became separated from Germany, and Vienna regained its status as the capital city of the Republic of Austria, but the Soviet hold on the city remained until 1955, when Austria regained full sovereignty.After the war, Vienna was part of Soviet-occupied Eastern Austria until September 1945. As in Berlin, Vienna in September 1945 was divided into sectors by the four powers: the US, the UK, France, and the Soviet Union and supervised by an Allied Commission. The four-power occupation of Vienna differed in one key respect from that of Berlin: the central area of the city, known as the first district, constituted an "international zone" in which the four powers alternated control on a monthly basis. The control was policed by the four powers on a "de facto" day-to-day basis, the famous "four soldiers in a jeep" method. The Berlin Blockade of 1948 raised Western concerns that the Soviets might repeat the blockade in Vienna. The matter was raised in the UK House of Commons by MP Anthony Nutting, who asked: "What plans have the Government for dealing with a similar situation in Vienna? Vienna is in exactly a similar position to Berlin."There was a lack of airfields in the Western sectors, and authorities drafted contingency plans to deal with such a blockade. Plans included the laying down of metal landing mats at Schönbrunn. The Soviets did not blockade the city. The Potsdam Agreement included written rights of land access to the western sectors, whereas no such written guarantees had covered the western sectors of Berlin. Also, there was no precipitating event to cause a blockade in Vienna. (In Berlin, the Western powers had introduced a new currency in early 1948 to economically freeze out the Soviets.) During the 10 years of the four-power occupation, Vienna became a hotbed for international espionage between the Western and Eastern blocs. In the wake of the Berlin Blockade, the Cold War in Vienna took on a different dynamic. While accepting that Germany and Berlin would be divided, the Soviets had decided against allowing the same state of affairs to arise in Austria and Vienna. Here, the Soviet forces controlled districts 2, 4, 10, 20, 21, and 22 and all areas incorporated into Vienna in 1938.Barbed wire fences were installed around the perimeter of West Berlin in 1953, but not in Vienna. By 1955, the Soviets, by signing the Austrian State Treaty, agreed to relinquish their occupation zones in Eastern Austria as well as their sector in Vienna. In exchange they required that Austria declare its permanent neutrality after the allied powers had left the country. Thus they ensured that Austria would not be a member of NATO and that NATO forces would therefore not have direct communications between Italy and West Germany.The atmosphere of four-power Vienna is the background for Graham Greene's screenplay for the film "The Third Man" (1949). Later he adapted the screenplay as a novel and published it. Occupied Vienna is also depicted in the 1991 Philip Kerr novel, "A German Requiem".The four-power control of Vienna lasted until the Austrian State Treaty was signed in May 1955. That year, after years of reconstruction and restoration, the State Opera and the Burgtheater, both on the Ringstraße, reopened to the public. The Soviet Union signed the State Treaty only after having been provided with a political guarantee by the federal government to declare Austria's neutrality after the withdrawal of the allied troops. This law of neutrality, passed in late October 1955 (and not the State Treaty itself), ensured that modern Austria would align with neither NATO nor the Soviet bloc, and is considered one of the reasons for Austria's delayed entry into the European Union in 1995.In the 1970s, Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky inaugurated the Vienna International Center, a new area of the city created to host international institutions. Vienna has regained much of its former international stature by hosting international organizations, such as the United Nations (United Nations Industrial Development Organization, United Nations Office at Vienna and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime), the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.Because of the industrialization and migration from other parts of the Empire, the population of Vienna increased sharply during its time as the capital of Austria-Hungary (1867–1918). In 1910, Vienna had more than two million inhabitants, and was the third largest city in Europe after London and Paris. Around the start of the 20th century, Vienna was the city with the second-largest Czech population in the world (after Prague). After World War I, many Czechs and Hungarians returned to their ancestral countries, resulting in a decline in the Viennese population. After World War II, the Soviets used force to repatriate key workers of Czech, Slovak and Hungarian origins to return to their ethnic homelands to further the Soviet bloc economy.Under the Nazi regime, 65,000 Jews were deported and murdered in concentration camps by Nazi forces; approximately 130,000 fled.By 2001, 16% of people living in Austria had nationalities other than Austrian, nearly half of whom were from former Yugoslavia; the next most numerous nationalities in Vienna were Turks (39,000; 2.5%), Poles (13,600; 0.9%) and Germans (12,700; 0.8%)., an official report from Statistics Austria showed that more than 660,000 (38.8%) of the Viennese population have full or partial migrant background, mostly from Ex-Yugoslavia, Turkey, Germany, Poland, Romania and Hungary.From 2005 to 2015 the city's population grew by 10.1%. According to UN-Habitat, Vienna could be the fastest growing city out of 17 European metropolitan areas until 2025 with an increase of 4.65% of its population, compared to 2010.According to the 2001 census, 49.2% of Viennese were Catholic, while 25.7% were of no religion, 7.8% were Muslim, 6.0% were members of an Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, 4.7% were Protestant (mostly Lutheran), 0.5% were Jewish and 6.3% were either of other religions or did not reply. A 2011 report by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis showed the proportions had changed, with 41.3% Catholic, 31.6% no affiliation, 11.6% Muslim, 8.4% Eastern Orthodox, 4.2% Protestant, and 2.9% other.Based on information provided to city officials by various religious organizations about their membership, Vienna's Statistical Yearbook 2019 reports in 2018 an estimated 610,269 Roman Catholics, or 32.3% of the population, and 195,000 (10.3%) Muslims, 70,298 (3.7%) Orthodox, 57,502 (3.0%) other Christians, and 9,504 (0.5%) other religions. A study conducted by the Vienna Institute of Demography estimated the 2018 proportions to be 34% Catholic, 30% unaffiliated, 15% Muslim, 10% Orthodox, 4% Protestant, and 6% other religions.Vienna is the seat of the Metropolitan Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna, in which is also vested the exempt Ordinariate for Byzantine-rite Catholics in Austria; its Archbishop is Cardinal Christoph Schönborn. Many Catholic churches in central Vienna feature performances of religious or other music, including masses sung to classical music and organ. Some of Vienna's most significant historical buildings are Catholic churches, including the St. Stephen's Cathedral ("Stephansdom"), Karlskirche, Peterskirche and the Votivkirche. On the banks of the Danube, there is a Buddhist Peace Pagoda, built in 1983 by the monks and nuns of [Nipponzan Myohoji].Vienna is located in northeastern Austria, at the easternmost extension of the Alps in the Vienna Basin. The earliest settlement, at the location of today's inner city, was south of the meandering Danube while the city now spans both sides of the river. Elevation ranges from . The city has a total area of 414.65 square kilometers (160.1 sq mi), making it the largest city in Austria by area.Vienna has an oceanic climate (Köppen classification "Cfb"). The city has warm summers, with periodical precipitations that can reach its yearly peak in July and August (66.6 and 66.5 mm respectively) and average high temperatures from June to September of approximately , with a record maximum exceeding and a record low in September of . Winters are relatively dry and cold with average temperatures at about freezing point. Spring is variable and autumn cool, with possible snowfalls already in November. Precipitation is generally moderate throughout the year, averaging around annually, with considerable local variations, the Vienna Woods region in the west being the wettest part ( annually) and the flat plains in the east being the driest part ( annually). Snow in winter is common, even if not so frequent compared to the Western and Southern regions of Austria.Vienna was moved to the UNESCO world heritage in endangered list in 2017. The main reason was a planned high-rise development. The city's social democratic party planned construction of a complex in 2019. The plan includes a -high tower, which was reduced from due to opposition. UNESCO believed that the project "fails to comply fully with previous committee decisions, notably concerning the height of new constructions, which will impact adversely the outstanding universal value of the site." UNESCO set the restriction for the height of the construction in the city center to .The citizens of Vienna also opposed the construction of the complex because they are afraid of losing UNESCO status and also of encouraging future high-rise development. The city officials replied that they will convince the WHC to maintain UNESCO world heritage status and said that no further high-rise developments are being planned.UNESCO is concerned about the height of high-rise development in Vienna as it can dramatically influence the visual integrity of the city, specifically the baroque palaces. Visual impact studies are being done in the Vienna city center to assess the level of visual disturbance to visitors and how the changes influenced the city's visual integrity.Vienna is composed of 23 districts ("Bezirke"). Administrative district offices in Vienna (called Magistratische Bezirksämter) serve functions similar to those in the other Austrian states (called Bezirkshauptmannschaften), the officers being subject to the mayor of Vienna; with the notable exception of the police, which is under federal supervision.District residents in Vienna (Austrians as well as EU citizens with permanent residence here) elect a District Assembly (Bezirksvertretung). City hall has delegated maintenance budgets, e.g., for schools and parks, so that the districts are able to set priorities autonomously. Any decision of a district can be overridden by the city assembly (Gemeinderat) or the responsible city councilor (amtsführender Stadtrat).The heart and historical city of Vienna, a large part of today's Innere Stadt, was a fortress surrounded by fields in order to defend itself from potential attackers. In 1850, Vienna with the consent of the emperor annexed 34 surrounding villages, called Vorstädte, into the city limits (districts no. 2 to 8, after 1861 with the separation of Margareten from Wieden no. 2 to 9). Consequently, the walls were razed after 1857, making it possible for the city center to expand.In their place, a broad boulevard called the Ringstraße was built, along which imposing public and private buildings, monuments, and parks were created by the start of the 20th century. These buildings include the Rathaus (town hall), the Burgtheater, the University, the Parliament, the twin museums of natural history and fine art, and the Staatsoper. It is also the location of New Wing of the Hofburg, the former imperial palace, and the Imperial and Royal War Ministry finished in 1913. The mainly Gothic Stephansdom is located at the center of the city, on Stephansplatz. The Imperial-Royal Government set up the Vienna City Renovation Fund (Wiener Stadterneuerungsfonds) and sold many building lots to private investors, thereby partly financing public construction works.From 1850 to 1890, city limits in the West and the South mainly followed another wall called "Linienwall" at which a road toll called the "Liniengeld" was charged. Outside this wall from 1873 onwards a ring road called Gürtel was built. In 1890 it was decided to integrate 33 suburbs (called Vororte) beyond that wall into Vienna by 1 January 1892 and transform them into districts no. 11 to 19 (district no. 10 had been constituted in 1874); hence the Linienwall was torn down beginning in 1894. In 1900, district no. 20, Brigittenau, was created by separating the area from the 2nd district.From 1850 to 1904, Vienna had expanded only on the right bank of the Danube, following the main branch before the regulation of 1868–1875, i.e., the Old Danube of today. In 1904, the 21st district was created by integrating Floridsdorf, Kagran, Stadlau, Hirschstetten, Aspern and other villages on the left bank of the Danube into Vienna, in 1910 Strebersdorf followed. On 15 October 1938 the Nazis created Great Vienna with 26 districts by merging 97 towns and villages into Vienna, 80 of which were returned to surrounding Lower Austria in 1954. Since then Vienna has had 23 districts.Industries are located mostly in the southern and eastern districts. The Innere Stadt is situated away from the main flow of the Danube, but is bounded by the "Donaukanal" ("Danube canal"). Vienna's second and twentieth districts are located between the Donaukanal and the Danube. Across the Danube, where the Vienna International Center is located (districts 21–22), and in the southern areas (district 23) are the newest parts of the city.In the twenty years before the First World War and until 1918, Viennese politics were shaped by the Christian Social Party. In particular, long-term mayor Karl Lueger was able to not apply the general voting rights for men introduced by and for the parliament of imperial Austria, the "Reichsrat", in 1907, thereby excluding most of the working class from taking part in decisions. For Adolf Hitler, who spent some years in Vienna, Lueger was a teacher of how to use antisemitism in politics.Vienna is today considered the center of the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ). During the period of the First Republic (1918–1934), the Vienna Social Democrats undertook many social reforms. At that time, Vienna's municipal policy was admired by Socialists throughout Europe, who therefore referred to the city as "Red Vienna" ("Rotes Wien"). In February 1934 troops of the Austrian federal government under Engelbert Dollfuss, who had closed down the first chamber of the federal parliament, the "Nationalrat", in 1933, and paramilitary socialist organizations were engaged in the Austrian Civil War, which led to the ban of the Social Democratic party.The SPÖ has held the mayor's office and control of the city council/parliament at every free election since 1919. The only break in this SPÖ dominance came between 1934 and 1945, when the Social Democratic Party was illegal, mayors were appointed by the austro-fascist and later by the Nazi authorities. The mayor of Vienna is Michael Ludwig of the SPÖ.The city has enacted many social democratic policies. The "Gemeindebauten" are social housing assets that are well integrated into the city architecture outside the first or "inner" district. The low rents enable comfortable accommodation and good access to the city amenities. Many of the projects were built after the Second World War on vacant lots that were destroyed by bombing during the war. The city took particular pride in building them to a high standard.Since Vienna obtained federal state ("Bundesland") status of its own by the federal constitution of 1920, the city council also functions as the state parliament (Landtag), and the mayor (except 1934–1945) also doubles as the "Landeshauptmann" (governor/minister-president) of the state of Vienna. The Rathaus accommodates the offices of the mayor ("") and the state government ("Landesregierung"). The city is administered by a multitude of departments ("Magistratsabteilungen"), politically supervised by "amtsführende Stadträte" (members of the city government leading offices; according to the Vienna constitution opposition parties have the right to designate members of the city government not leading offices).Under the city constitution of 1920, municipal and state business must be kept separate. Hence, the city council and state parliament hold separate meetings, with separate presiding officers–the chairman of the city council or the president of the state Landtag–even though the two bodies' memberships are identical. When meeting as a city council, the deputies can only deal with the affairs of the city of Vienna; when meeting as a state parliament, they can only deal with the affairs of the state of Vienna.In the 1996 City Council election, the SPÖ lost its overall majority in the 100-seat chamber, winning 43 seats and 39.15% of the vote. The SPÖ had held an outright majority at every free municipal election since 1919. In 1996 the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), which won 29 seats (up from 21 in 1991), beat the ÖVP into third place for the second time running. From 1996 to 2001, the SPÖ governed Vienna in a coalition with the ÖVP. In 2001 the SPÖ regained the overall majority with 52 seats and 46.91% of the vote; in October 2005, this majority was increased further to 55 seats (49.09%). In course of the 2010 city council elections the SPÖ lost their overall majority again and consequently forged a coalition with the Green Party – the first SPÖ/Green coalition in Austria. This coalition was maintained following the 2015 election.Vienna is one of the wealthiest regions in the European Union: Its gross regional product of EUR 47,200 per capita constituted 25.7% of Austria's GDP in 2013. It amounts to 159% of the EU average. The city improved its position from 2012 on the ranking of the most economically powerful cities reaching number nine on the listing in 2015.With a share of 85.5% in gross value added, the service sector is Vienna's most important economic sector. Industry and commerce have a share of 14.5% in gross value added, the primary sector (agriculture) has a share of 0.07% and therefore plays a minor role in the local added value. However, the cultivation and production of wines within the city borders have a high socio-cultural value. The most important business sectors are trade (14.7% of added value in Vienna), scientific and technological services, real estate and housing activities as well as manufacturing of goods. In 2012, Vienna's contribution in Austria's outgoing and incoming foreign direct investments was of about 60%, which demonstrates Vienna's role as an international hub for domestic and foreign companies.Since the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, Vienna has expanded its position as gateway to Eastern Europe: 300 international companies have their Eastern European headquarters in Vienna and its environs. Among them are Hewlett Packard, Henkel, Baxalta and Siemens. Companies in Vienna have extensive contacts and competences in business with Eastern Europe due to the city's historical role as center of the Habsburg Empire. The number of international businesses in Vienna is still growing: In 2014 159 and in 2015 175 international firms established offices in Vienna.Altogether, approximately 8,300 new companies have been founded in Vienna every year since 2004. The majority of these companies are operating in fields of industry-oriented services, wholesale trade as well as information and communications technologies and new media. Vienna makes effort to establish itself as a start-up hub. Since 2012, the city hosts the annual Pioneers Festival, the largest start-up event in Central Europe with 2,500 international participants taking place at Hofburg Palace. Tech Cocktail, an online portal for the start-up scene, has ranked Vienna sixth among the top ten start-up cities worldwide.The city of Vienna attaches major importance to science and research and focuses on creating a positive environment for research and development. In 2014, Vienna has accommodated 1,329 research facilities; 40,400 persons are employed in the R&D sector and 35% of Austria's R&D expenses are invested in the city. With a research quota of 3.4% Vienna exceeds the Austrian average of 2.77% and has already met the EU target of 3.0% by 2020. A major R&D sector in Vienna are life sciences. The Vienna Life Science Cluster is Austria's major hub for life science research, education and business. Throughout Vienna, five universities and several basic research institutes form the academic core of the hub with more than 12,600 employees and 34,700 students. Here, more than 480 medical device, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies with almost 23,000 employees generate around 12 billion euros in revenue (2017). This corresponds to more than 50% of the revenue generated by life science companies in Austria (22.4 billion euros).Vienna is home to global players like Boehringer Ingelheim, Octapharma, Ottobock and Takeda. However, there is also a growing number of start-up companies in the life sciences and Vienna was ranked first in the 2019 PeoplePerHour Startup Cities Index. Companies such as Apeiron Biologics, Hookipa Pharma, Marinomed, mySugr, Themis Bioscience and Valneva operate a presence in Vienna and regularly hit the headlines internationally.To facilitate tapping the economic potential of the multiple facettes of the life sciences at Austria's capital, the Austrian Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs and the local government of City of Vienna have joined forces: Since 2002, the LISAvienna platform is available as a central contact point. It provides free business support services at the interface of the Austrian federal promotional bank, Austria Wirtschaftsservice and the Vienna Business Agency and collects data that inform policy making.The main academic hot spots in Vienna are the Life Science Center Muthgasse with the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), the Austrian Institute of Technology, the University of Veterinary Medicine, the AKH Vienna with the MedUni Vienna and the Vienna Biocenter. Central European University, a graduate institution expelled from Budapest in the midst of a Hungarian government steps to take control of academic and research organizations, welcomes the first class of students to its new Vienna campus in 2019.The Viennese sector for information and communication technologies is comparable in size with the sector in Helsinki, Milan or Munich and thus among Europe's largest IT locations. In 2012 8,962 IT businesses with a workforce of 64,223 were located in the Vienna Region. The main products are instruments and appliances for measuring, testing and navigation as well as electronic components. More than ⅔ of the enterprises provide IT services. Among the biggest IT firms in Vienna are Kapsch, Beko Engineering & Informatics, air traffic control experts Frequentis, Cisco Systems Austria, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft Austria, IBM Austria and Samsung Electronics Austria.The US technology corporation Cisco runs its "Entrepreneurs in Residence" program for Europe in Vienna in cooperation with the Vienna Business Agency.The British company UBM has rated Vienna one of the "Top 10 Internet Cities" worldwide, by analyzing criteria like connection speed, WiFi availability, innovation spirit and open government data.In 2011 74.3% of Viennese households were connected with broadband, 79% were in possession of a computer. According to the broadband strategy of the city, full broadband coverage will be reached by 2020.There were 17.6 million overnight stays in Vienna in 2019 (+6.8% compared to 2018). The top ten incoming markets in 2019 were Germany, Austria, the United States, Italy, United Kingdom, Spain, China, France, Russia and Switzerland.In 2019 the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) ranked Vienna 6th in the world for association meetings. The Union of International Associations (UIA) ranked Vienna 5th in the world for 2019 with 306 international meetings, behind Singapore, Brussels, Seoul and Paris. The city's largest conference center, the Austria Center Vienna (ACV) has a total capacity for around 22,800 people and is situated next to the United Nations Headquarters in Vienna. Other centers are the Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center (up to 3,000 people) and the Hofburg Palace (up to 4,900 people).Vienna was ranked top in the "2019 Quality of Living Ranking" by the international Mercer Consulting Group for the tenth consecutive year. In the 2015 liveability report by the Economist Intelligence Unit as well as in the "Quality of Life Survey 2015" of London-based "Monocle magazine" Vienna was equally ranked second most livable city worldwide.The United Nations Human Settlements Programme "UN-Habitat" has ranked Vienna the most prosperous city in the world in its flagship report "State of the World Cities 2012/2013".According to the 2014 City RepTrack ranking by the Reputation Institute, Vienna has the best reputation in comparison with 100 major global cities.The "Innovation Cities Global Index 2014" by the Australian innovation agency 2thinknow ranks Vienna sixth behind San Francisco-San Jose, New York City, London, Boston and Paris. In 2019 PeoplePerHour put Vienna at the top of their Startup Cities Ranking.US climate strategist Boyd Cohen placed Vienna first in his first "global smart cities" ranking of 2012. In the 2014 ranking, Vienna reached third place among European cities behind Copenhagen and Amsterdam.The "Mori Memorial Institute for Urban Strategies" ranked Vienna in the top ten of their Global Power City Index 2016.Vienna's new Central Railway Station was opened in October 2014. Construction began in June 2007 and was due to last until December 2015. The station is served by 1,100 trains with 145,000 passengers. There is a shopping center with approximately 90 shops and restaurants.In the vicinity of the station a new district is emerging with office space and 5,000 apartments until 2020.Seestadt Aspern is one of the largest urban expansion projects of Europe. A 5 hectare artificial lake, offices, apartments and a subway station within walking distance are supposed to attract 20,000 new citizens when construction is completed in 2028.In addition, the highest wooden skyscraper in the world, “HoHo Wien”, will be built within 3 years, starting in 2015.In 2014, the Vienna City Council adopted the Smart City Wien Framework Strategy 2050. It is a long-term umbrella strategy that is supposed to establish a conducive, long-term and structural framework in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from 3.1 tonnes per capita to 1 tonne per capita by 2050, have 50% of Vienna's gross energy consumption originate from renewable sources and to reduce motorized individual traffic from the current 28% to 15% by 2030. A stated goal is that, by 2050, all vehicles within the municipal boundaries will run without conventional propulsion technologies. Additionally, Vienna aims to be one of the five biggest European research and innovation hubs in 2050.Famous composers including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Ferdinand Ries, Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler, Robert Stolz, and Arnold Schoenberg have worked in Vienna.Art and culture had a long tradition in Vienna, including theater, opera, classical music and fine arts. The Burgtheater is considered one of the best theaters in the German-speaking world alongside its branch, the Akademietheater. The Volkstheater Wien and the Theater in der Josefstadt also enjoy good reputations. There is also a multitude of smaller theaters, in many cases devoted to less mainstream forms of the performing arts, such as modern, experimental plays or cabaret.Vienna is also home to a number of opera houses, including the Theater an der Wien, the Staatsoper and the Volksoper, the latter being devoted to the typical Viennese operetta. Classical concerts are performed at venues such as the Wiener Musikverein, home of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra known across the world for the annual widely broadcast "New Year's Day Concert", as well as the Wiener Konzerthaus, home of the internationally renowned Vienna Symphony. Many concert venues offer concerts aimed at tourists, featuring popular highlights of Viennese music, particularly the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johann Strauss I, and Johann Strauss II.Up until 2005, the Theater an der Wien hosted premieres of musicals, but since 2006 (a year dedicated to the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth), has devoted itself to opera again, becoming a stagione opera house offering one new production each month. Since 2012, Theater an der Wien has taken over the Wiener Kammeroper, a historical small theater in the first district of Vienna seating 300 spectators, turning it into its second venue for smaller sized productions and chamber operas created by the young ensemble of Theater an der Wien (JET). Before 2005 the most successful musical was "Elisabeth", which was later translated into several languages and performed all over the world. The Wiener Taschenoper is dedicated to stage music of the 20th and 21st century. The Haus der Musik ("house of music") opened in the year 2000.The Wienerlied is a unique song genre from Vienna. There are approximately 60,000 – 70,000 Wienerlieder.In 1981 the popular British new romantic group Ultravox paid a tribute to Vienna on an album and an artful music video recording called "Vienna". The inspiration for this work arose from the cinema production called "The Third Man" with the title Zither music of Anton Karas.The Vienna's English Theatre (VET) is an English theater in Vienna. It was founded in 1963 and is located in the 8th Vienna's district. It is the oldest English-language theater in continental Europe.In May 2015, Vienna hosted the Eurovision Song Contest following Austria's victory in the 2014 contest.Notable entertainers born in Vienna include Hedy Lamarr, Christoph Waltz, John Banner, Christiane Hörbiger, Eric Pohlmann, Boris Kodjoe, Christine Buchegger, Mischa Hausserman, Senta Berger and Christine Ostermayer.Notable musicians born in Vienna include Louie Austen, Alban Berg, Falco, Fritz Kreisler, Joseph Lanner, Arnold Schönberg, Franz Schubert, Johann Strauss I, Johann Strauss II, Anton Webern, and Joe Zawinul.Famous musicians who came here to work from other parts of Austria and Germany were Johann Joseph Fux, Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Ferdinand Ries, Johann Sedlatzek, Antonio Salieri, Carl Czerny, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Franz Liszt, Franz von Suppé, Anton Bruckner, Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler and Rainhard Fendrich.Among the most notable Viennese Jews, some of whom left Austria before and during Nazi persecution, are the following figures: Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler (who eventually converted to Christianity), Rudolf Dreikurs, Viktor Frankl, Fritz Lang, Peter Lorre, Fred Zinnemann (both of whose parents were murdered in the Holocaust), Stefan Zweig, Simon Wiesenthal, Theodor Herzl, Judah Alkalai, Erich von Stroheim, Hedy Lamarr, Billy Wilder, Franz Werfel, Arnold Schoenberg, Walter Arlen and Fritz Kreisler.Notable writers from Vienna include Karl Leopold von Möller, Carl Julius Haidvogel, and Stefan Zweig.Writers who lived and worked in Vienna include Franz Kafka, Arthur Schnitzler, Elias Canetti, Ingeborg Bachmann, Robert Musil, Karl Kraus, Ernst von Feuchtersleben, Thomas Bernhard and Elfriede Jelinek.Notable politicians from Vienna include Karl Leopold von Möller.The Hofburg is the location of the Imperial Treasury ("Schatzkammer"), holding the imperial jewels of the Habsburg dynasty. The Sisi Museum (a museum devoted to Empress Elisabeth of Austria) allows visitors to view the imperial apartments as well as the silver cabinet. Directly opposite the Hofburg are the Kunsthistorisches Museum, which houses many paintings by old masters, ancient and classical artifacts, and the Naturhistorisches Museum.A number of museums are located in the Museumsquartier (museum quarter), the former Imperial Stalls which were converted into a museum complex in the 1990s. It houses the Museum of Modern Art, commonly known as the MUMOK (Ludwig Foundation), the Leopold Museum (featuring the largest collection of paintings in the world by Egon Schiele, as well as works by the Vienna Secession, Viennese Modernism and Austrian Expressionism), the AzW (museum of architecture), additional halls with feature exhibitions, and the Tanzquartier. The Liechtenstein Palace contains much of one of the world's largest private art collections, especially strong in the Baroque. The Belvedere, built under Prince Eugene, has a gallery containing paintings by Gustav Klimt (The Kiss), Egon Schiele, and other painters of the early 20th century, also sculptures by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, and changing exhibitions too.There are a multitude of other museums in Vienna, including the Albertina, the Military History Museum, the Technical Museum, the Burial Museum, the Museum of Art Fakes, the KunstHausWien, Museum of Applied Arts, the Sigmund Freud Museum, and the Mozarthaus Vienna. The museums on the history of the city, including the former Historical Museum of the City of Vienna on Karlsplatz, the Hermesvilla, the residences and birthplaces of various composers, the Museum of the Romans, and the Vienna Clock Museum, are now gathered together under the group umbrella Vienna Museum. The Jewish Museum Vienna, founded 1896, is the oldest of its kind. In addition there are museums dedicated to Vienna's individual districts. They provide a record of individual struggles, achievements and tragedy as the city grew and survived two world wars. For readers seeking family histories these are good sources of information.A variety of architectural styles can be found in Vienna, such as the Romanesque Ruprechtskirche and the Baroque Karlskirche. Styles range from classicist buildings to modern architecture. Art Nouveau left many architectural traces in Vienna. The Secession building, Karlsplatz Stadtbahn Station, and the Kirche am Steinhof by Otto Wagner rank among the best known examples of Art Nouveau in the world. Wagner's prominent student Jože Plečnik from Slovenia also left important traces in Vienna. His works include the Langer House (1900) and the Zacherlhaus (1903–1905). Plečnik's 1910–1913 "Church of the Holy Spirit" () in Vienna is remarkable for its innovative use of poured-in-place concrete as both structure and exterior surface, and also for its abstracted classical form language. Most radical is the church's crypt, with its slender concrete columns and angular, cubist capitals and bases.Concurrent to the Art Nouveau movement was the Wiener Moderne, during which some architects shunned the use of extraneous adornment. A key architect of this period was Adolf Loos, whose works include the Looshaus (1909), the Kärntner Bar or American Bar (1908) and the Steiner House (1910).The Hundertwasserhaus by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, designed to counter the clinical look of modern architecture, is one of Vienna's most popular tourist attractions. Another example of unique architecture is the Wotrubakirche by sculptor Fritz Wotruba. In the 1990s, a number of quarters were adapted and extensive building projects were implemented in the areas around Donaustadt (north of the Danube) and Wienerberg (in southern Vienna).The 220-meter high DC Tower 1 located on the Northern bank of the Danube, completed in 2013, is the tallest skyscraper in Vienna. In recent years, Vienna has seen numerous architecture projects completed which combine modern architectural elements with old buildings, such as the remodeling and revitalization of the old Gasometer in 2001.Most buildings in Vienna are relatively low; in early 2006 there were around 100 buildings higher than . The number of high-rise buildings is kept low by building legislation aimed at preserving green areas and districts designated as world cultural heritage. Strong rules apply to the planning, authorization and construction of high-rise buildings. Consequently, much of the inner city is a high-rise free zone.Vienna is the last great capital of the 19th-century ball. There are over 450 balls per year, some featuring as many as nine live orchestras. Balls are held in the many palaces in Vienna, with the principal venue being the Hofburg Palace in Heldenplatz. While the Opera Ball is the best known internationally of all the Austrian balls, other balls such as the Kaffeesiederball (Cafe Owners Ball), the Jägerball (Hunter's Ball) and the Life Ball (AIDS charity event) are almost as well known within Austria and even better appreciated for their cordial atmosphere. Viennese of at least middle class may visit a number of balls in their lifetime.Dancers and opera singers from the Vienna State Opera often perform at the openings of the larger balls.A Vienna ball is an all-night cultural attraction. Major Vienna balls generally begin at 9 pm and last until 5 am, although many guests carry on the celebrations into the next day. Viennese balls are being exported (with support from the City of Vienna) to around 30 cities worldwide such as New York, Barcelona, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Rome, Prague, Bucharest, Berlin and Moscow.Vienna is part of the Austro-Bavarian language area, in particular Central Bavarian ("Mittelbairisch"). In recent years, linguistics experts have seen a decline in the use of the Viennese variant. Manfred Glauninger, sociolinguist at the Institute for Austrian Dialect and Name Lexica, has observed three issues. First, many parents feel there's a stigma attached to the Viennese dialect so they speak Standard German to their children. Second, many children have recently immigrated to Austria and are learning German as a second language in school. Third, young people are influenced by mass media which is most always delivered in Standard German.Vienna is Austria's main center of education and home to many universities, professional colleges and gymnasiums (high schools).Vienna possesses many parks, including the "Stadtpark", the "Burggarten", the "Volksgarten" (part of the "Hofburg"), the "Schlosspark" at Schloss Belvedere (home to the Vienna Botanic Gardens), the "Donaupark", the "Schönbrunner Schlosspark", the "Prater", the "Augarten", the "Rathauspark", the "Lainzer Tiergarten", the "Dehnepark", the "Resselpark", the "Votivpark", the "Kurpark Oberlaa", the "Auer-Welsbach-Park" and the "Türkenschanzpark". Green areas include "Laaer-Berg" (including the Bohemian Prater) and the foothills of the "Wienerwald", which reaches into the outer areas of the city. Small parks, known by the Viennese as "Beserlparks", are everywhere in the inner city areas.Many of Vienna's parks include monuments, such as the Stadtpark with its statue of Johann Strauss II, and the gardens of the baroque palace, where the State Treaty was signed. Vienna's principal park is the Prater which is home to the Riesenrad, a Ferris wheel, and Kugelmugel, a micronation the shape of a sphere. The imperial Schönbrunn's grounds contain an 18th-century park which includes the world's oldest zoo, founded in 1752.The Donauinsel, part of Vienna's flood defenses, is a long artificial island between the Danube and Neue Donau dedicated to leisure activities.Austria's capital is home to numerous football teams. The best known are the local football clubs include FK Austria Wien (21 Austrian Bundesliga titles and record 27-time cup winners), SK Rapid Wien (record 32 Austrian Bundesliga titles), and the oldest team, First Vienna FC. Other important sports clubs include the Raiffeisen Vikings Vienna (American Football), who won the Eurobowl title between 2004 and 2007 4 times in a row and had a perfect season in 2013, the Aon hotVolleys Vienna, one of Europe's premier Volleyball organizations, the Vienna Wanderers (baseball) who won the 2012 and 2013 Championship of the Austrian Baseball League, and the Vienna Capitals (Ice Hockey). Vienna was also where the European Handball Federation (EHF) was founded. There are also three rugby clubs; Vienna Celtic, the oldest rugby club in Austria, RC Donau, and Stade ViennoisVienna hosts many different sporting events including the Vienna City Marathon, which attracts more than 10,000 participants every year and normally takes place in May. In 2005 the Ice Hockey World Championships took place in Austria and the final was played in Vienna. Vienna's Ernst Happel Stadium was the venue of four Champions League and European Champion Clubs' Cup finals (1964, 1987, 1990 and 1995) and on 29 June it hosted the final of Euro 2008 which saw a Spanish 1–0 victory over Germany. Tennis tournament Vienna Open also takes place in the city since 1974. The matches are played in the Wiener Stadthalle.The Neue Donau, which was formed after the Donauinsel was created, is free of river traffic and a popular destination for leisure and sports activities.Vienna will host the official 2021 3x3 Basketball World Cup.Vienna is well known for "Wiener Schnitzel", a cutlet of veal "(Kalbsschnitzel)" or pork "(Schweinsschnitzel)" that is pounded flat, coated in flour, egg and breadcrumbs, and fried in clarified butter. It is available in almost every restaurant that serves Viennese cuisine and can be eaten hot or cold. The traditional 'Wiener Schnitzel' though is a cutlet of veal. Other examples of Viennese cuisine include "Tafelspitz" (very lean boiled beef), which is traditionally served with "Geröstete Erdäpfel" (boiled potatoes mashed with a fork and subsequently fried) and horseradish sauce, "Apfelkren" (a mixture of horseradish, cream and apple) and "Schnittlauchsauce" (a chives sauce made with mayonnaise and stale bread).Vienna has a long tradition of producing cakes and desserts. These include "Apfelstrudel" (hot apple strudel), "Milchrahmstrudel" (milk-cream strudel), "Palatschinken" (sweet pancakes), and "Knödel" (dumplings) often filled with fruit such as apricots ("Marillenknödel"). Sachertorte, a delicately moist chocolate cake with apricot jam created by the Sacher Hotel, is world-famous.In winter, small street stands sell traditional "Maroni" (hot chestnuts) and potato fritters.Sausages are popular and available from street vendors ("Würstelstand") throughout the day and into the night. The sausage known as "Wiener" (German for Viennese) in the U.S. and in Germany, is called a "Frankfurter" in Vienna. Other popular sausages are "Burenwurst" (a coarse beef and pork sausage, generally boiled), "Käsekrainer" (spicy pork with small chunks of cheese), and "Bratwurst" (a white pork sausage). Most can be ordered "mit Brot" (with bread) or as a "hot dog" (stuffed inside a long roll). Mustard is the traditional condiment and usually offered in two varieties: "süß" (sweet) or "scharf" (spicy).Kebab, pizza and noodles are, increasingly, the snack foods most widely available from small stands.The "Naschmarkt" is a permanent market for fruit, vegetables, spices, fish, meat, etc., from around the world. The city has many coffee and breakfast stores.Vienna, along with Paris, Santiago, Cape Town, Prague, Canberra, Bratislava and Warsaw, is one of the few remaining world capital cities with its own vineyards. The wine is served in small Viennese pubs known as Heuriger, which are especially numerous in the wine growing areas of Döbling (Grinzing, Neustift am Walde, Nußdorf, Salmannsdorf, Sievering), Floridsdorf (Stammersdorf, Strebersdorf), Liesing (Mauer) and Favoriten (Oberlaa). The wine is often drunk as a Spritzer ("G'spritzter") with sparkling water. The Grüner Veltliner, a dry white wine, is the most widely cultivated wine in Austria. Another wine very typical for the region is "Gemischter Satz", which is typically a blend of different types of wines harvested from the same vineyard.Beer is next in importance to wine. Vienna has a single large brewery, Ottakringer, and more than ten microbreweries. A "Beisl" is a typical small Austrian pub, of which Vienna has many.Also, local soft drinks such as Almdudler are popular around the country as an alternative to alcoholic beverages, placing it on the top spots along American counterparts such as Coca-Cola in terms of market share. Another popular drink is the so-called "Spezi", a mix between Coca-Cola and the original formula of Orange Fanta or the more locally renowned Frucade.Viennese cafés have an extremely long and distinguished history that dates back centuries, and the caffeine addictions of some famous historical patrons of the oldest are something of a local legend. These coffee houses are unique to Vienna and many cities have unsuccessfully sought to copy them. Some people consider cafés as their extended living room where nobody will be bothered if they spend hours reading a newspaper while enjoying their coffee. Traditionally, the coffee comes with a glass of water. Viennese cafés claim to have invented the process of filtering coffee from booty captured after the second Turkish siege in 1683. Viennese cafés claim that when the invading Turks left Vienna, they abandoned hundreds of sacks of coffee beans. The Polish King John III Sobieski, the commander of the anti-Turkish coalition of Poles, Germans, and Austrians, gave Franz George Kolschitzky (Polish – Franciszek Jerzy Kulczycki) some of this coffee as a reward for providing information that allowed him to defeat the Turks. Kolschitzky then opened Vienna's first coffee shop. Julius Meinl set up a modern roasting plant in the same premises where the coffee sacks were found, in 1891.Major tourist attractions include the imperial palaces of the Hofburg and Schönbrunn (also home to the world's oldest zoo, Tiergarten Schönbrunn) and the Riesenrad in the Prater. Cultural highlights include the Burgtheater, the Wiener Staatsoper, the Lipizzaner horses at the spanische Hofreitschule, and the Vienna Boys' Choir, as well as excursions to Vienna's Heurigen district Döbling.There are also more than 100 art museums, which together attract over eight million visitors per year. The most popular ones are Albertina, Belvedere, Leopold Museum in the Museumsquartier, KunstHausWien, Bank Austria Kunstforum, the twin "Kunsthistorisches Museum" and "Naturhistorisches Museum", and the Technisches Museum Wien, each of which receives over a quarter of a million visitors per year.There are many popular sites associated with composers who lived in Vienna including Beethoven's various residences and grave at Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery) which is the largest cemetery in Vienna and the burial site of many famous people. Mozart has a memorial grave at the Habsburg gardens and at St. Marx cemetery (where his grave was lost). Vienna's many churches also draw large crowds, famous of which are St. Stephen's Cathedral, the Deutschordenskirche, the Jesuitenkirche, the Karlskirche, the Peterskirche, Maria am Gestade, the Minoritenkirche, the Ruprechtskirche, the Schottenkirche, St. Ulrich and the Votivkirche.Modern attractions include the Hundertwasserhaus, the United Nations headquarters and the view from the Donauturm.Vienna has an extensive transportation network with a unified fare system that integrates municipal, regional and railway systems under the umbrella of the Verkehrsverbund Ost-Region (VOR). Public transport is provided by buses, trams and five underground metro lines (U-Bahn), most operated by the Wiener Linien. There are also more than 50 S-train stations within the city limits. Suburban trains are operated by the ÖBB. The city forms the hub of the Austrian railway system, with services to all parts of the country and abroad. The railway system connects Vienna's main station Vienna Hauptbahnhof with other European cities, like Berlin, Bratislava, Budapest, Brussels, Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Ljubljana, Munich, Prague, Venice, Wrocław, Warsaw, Zagreb and Zürich.Vienna has multiple road connections including expressways and motorways.Vienna is served by Vienna International Airport, located southeast of the city center next to the town of Schwechat. The airport handled approximately 31.7 million passengers in 2019. Following lengthy negotiations with surrounding communities, the airport will be expanded to increase its capacity by adding a third runway. The airport is undergoing a major expansion, including a new terminal building that opened in 2012 to prepare for an increase in passengers.Vienna is the seat of a number of United Nations offices and various international institutions and companies, including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). Vienna is the world's third "UN city", next to New York, Geneva, and Nairobi. Additionally, Vienna is the seat of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law's secretariat (UNCITRAL). In conjunction, the University of Vienna annually hosts the prestigious Willem C. Vis Moot, an international commercial arbitration competition for students of law from around the world.Diplomatic meetings have been held in Vienna in the latter half of the 20th century, resulting in documents bearing the name Vienna Convention or Vienna Document. Among the more important documents negotiated in Vienna are the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, as well as the 1990 Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. Vienna also hosted the negotiations leading to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Iran's nuclear program as well as the Vienna peace talks for Syria.Vienna also headquartered the International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF).Alongside international and intergovernmental organizations, there are dozens of charitable organizations based in Vienna. One such organization is the network of SOS Children's Villages, founded by Hermann Gmeiner in 1949. Today, SOS Children's Villages are active in 132 countries and territories worldwide. Others include HASCO.Another popular international event is the annual Life Ball, which supports people with HIV or AIDS. Guests such as Bill Clinton and Whoopi Goldberg were recent attendees.The general policy of the City of Vienna is not to sign any twin or sister city agreements with other cities. Instead Vienna has only cooperation agreements in which specific cooperation areas are defined.In addition, individual Viennese districts have international partnerships all over the world. A detailed list is published on the website of the City of Vienna.
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[
"Hanns Blaschke",
"Karl Seitz",
"Richard Weiskirchner",
"Richard Schmitz",
"Bruno Marek",
"Felix Slavik",
"Theodor Körner",
"Hermann Neubacher",
"Karl Lueger",
"Leopold Gratz",
"Jakob Reumann",
"Josef Neumayer",
"Franz Jonas",
"Michael Häupl",
"Philipp Wilhelm Jung",
"Michael Ludwig"
] |
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Who was the head of Vienna in Oct, 1997?
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October 15, 1997
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{
"text": [
"Michael Häupl"
]
}
|
L2_Q1741_P6_15
|
Michael Ludwig is the head of the government of Vienna from May, 2018 to Dec, 2022.
Jakob Reumann is the head of the government of Vienna from May, 1919 to Nov, 1923.
Philipp Wilhelm Jung is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1940 to Dec, 1943.
Felix Slavik is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1970 to Jul, 1973.
Michael Häupl is the head of the government of Vienna from Nov, 1994 to May, 2018.
Bruno Marek is the head of the government of Vienna from Jun, 1965 to Dec, 1970.
Hanns Blaschke is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1943 to Apr, 1945.
Hermann Neubacher is the head of the government of Vienna from Mar, 1938 to Dec, 1940.
Karl Lueger is the head of the government of Vienna from Apr, 1897 to Mar, 1910.
Karl Seitz is the head of the government of Vienna from Nov, 1923 to Feb, 1934.
Richard Schmitz is the head of the government of Vienna from Apr, 1934 to Mar, 1938.
Helmut Zilk is the head of the government of Vienna from Sep, 1984 to Nov, 1994.
Theodor Körner is the head of the government of Vienna from Apr, 1945 to Jun, 1951.
Richard Weiskirchner is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1912 to May, 1919.
Leopold Gratz is the head of the government of Vienna from Jul, 1973 to Sep, 1984.
Josef Neumayer is the head of the government of Vienna from May, 1910 to Dec, 1912.
Franz Jonas is the head of the government of Vienna from Jun, 1951 to Jun, 1965.
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ViennaVienna (; ; Austro-Bavarian: "Wean") is the national capital, largest city, and one of nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's most populous city, with about 2 million inhabitants (2.6 million within the metropolitan area, nearly one third of the country's population), and its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 6th-largest city by population within city limits in the European Union.Until the beginning of the 20th century, Vienna was the largest German-speaking city in the world, and before the splitting of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I, the city had 2 million inhabitants. Today, it is the second-largest German-speaking city after Berlin. Vienna is host to many major international organizations, including the United Nations, OPEC and the OSCE. The city is located in the eastern part of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region. Along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants. In 2001, the city center was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In July 2017 it was moved to the list of World Heritage in Danger. Additionally, Vienna is known as the "City of Music" due to its musical legacy, as many famous classical musicians such as Beethoven and Mozart called Vienna home. Vienna is also said to be the "City of Dreams", because of it being home to the world's first psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. Vienna's ancestral roots lie in early Celtic and Roman settlements that transformed into a Medieval and Baroque city. It is well known for having played a pivotal role as a leading European music center, from the age of Viennese Classicism through the early part of the 20th century. The historic center of Vienna is rich in architectural ensembles, including Baroque palaces and gardens, and the late-19th-century Ringstraße lined with grand buildings, monuments and parks.Vienna is known for its high quality of life. In a 2005 study of 127 world cities, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked the city first (in a tie with Vancouver and San Francisco) for the world's most livable cities. Between 2011 and 2015, Vienna was ranked second, behind Melbourne. Monocle's 2015 "Quality of Life Survey" ranked Vienna second on a list of the top 25 cities in the world "to make a base within." Monocle's 2012 "Quality of Life Survey" ranked Vienna fourth on a list of the top 25 cities in the world "to make a base within" (up from sixth in 2011 and eighth in 2010). The UN-Habitat classified Vienna as the most prosperous city in the world in 2012/2013. The city was ranked 1st globally for its culture of innovation in 2007 and 2008, and sixth globally (out of 256 cities) in the 2014 Innovation Cities Index, which analyzed 162 indicators in covering three areas: culture, infrastructure, and markets. Vienna regularly hosts urban planning conferences and is often used as a case study by urban planners. Between 2005 and 2010, Vienna was the world's number-one destination for international congresses and conventions. It attracts over 6.8 million tourists a year.The English name "Vienna" is borrowed from the homonymous Italian name. The etymology of the city's name is still subject to scholarly dispute. Some claim that the name comes from "vedunia", meaning "forest stream", which subsequently produced the Old High German "uuenia" ("wenia" in modern writing), the New High German "wien" and its dialectal variant "wean".Others believe that the name comes from the Roman settlement name of Celtic extraction "Vindobona", probably meaning "fair village, white settlement" from Celtic roots, "vindo-", meaning "bright" or "fair" – as in the Irish "fionn" and the Welsh "gwyn" –, and "-bona" "village, settlement". The Celtic word "vindos" may reflect a widespread prehistorical cult of Vindos, a Celtic deity who survives in Irish Mythology as the warrior and seer Fionn mac Cumhaill. A variant of this Celtic name could be preserved in the Czech, Slovak and Polish names of the city ("Vídeň", "Viedeň" and "Wiedeń" respectively) and in that of the city's district Wieden.The name of the city in Hungarian ("Bécs"), Serbo-Croatian ("Beč"; ) and Ottoman Turkish ("Beç") has a different, probably Slavonic origin, and originally referred to an Avar fort in the area. Slovene-speakers call the city "Dunaj", which in other Central European Slavic languages means the river Danube, on which the city stands.Evidence has been found of continuous habitation in the Vienna area since 500 BC, when Celts settled the site on the Danube. In 15 BC, the Romans fortified the frontier city they called Vindobona to guard the empire against Germanic tribes to the north.Close ties with other Celtic peoples continued through the ages. The Irish monk Saint Colman (or Koloman, Irish "Colmán", derived from "colm" "dove") is buried in Melk Abbey and Saint Fergil (Virgil the Geometer) served as Bishop of Salzburg for forty years. Irish Benedictines founded twelfth-century monastic settlements; evidence of these ties persists in the form of Vienna's great Schottenstift monastery (Scots Abbey), once home to many Irish monks.In 976, Leopold I of Babenberg became count of the Eastern March, a district centered on the Danube on the eastern frontier of Bavaria. This initial district grew into the duchy of Austria. Each succeeding Babenberg ruler expanded the march east along the Danube, eventually encompassing Vienna and the lands immediately east. In 1145, Duke Henry II Jasomirgott moved the Babenberg family residence from Klosterneuburg in Lower Austria to Vienna. From that time, Vienna remained the center of the Babenberg dynasty.In 1440, Vienna became the resident city of the Habsburg dynasty. It eventually grew to become the "de facto" capital of the Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) in 1437 and a cultural center for arts and science, music and fine cuisine. Hungary occupied the city between 1485 and 1490.In the 16th and 17th centuries Christian forces twice stopped Ottoman armies outside Vienna, in the 1529 Siege of Vienna and the 1683 Battle of Vienna. The Great Plague of Vienna ravaged the city in 1679, killing nearly a third of its population.In 1804, during the Napoleonic Wars, Vienna became the capital of the newly formed Austrian Empire. The city continued to play a major role in European and world politics, including hosting the Congress of Vienna in 1814/15. After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, Vienna remained the capital of what became the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The city functioned as a center of classical music, for which the title of the First Viennese School (Haydn/Mozart/Beethoven) is sometimes applied.During the latter half of the 19th century, Vienna developed what had previously been the bastions and glacis into the Ringstraße, a new boulevard surrounding the historical town and a major prestige project. Former suburbs were incorporated, and the city of Vienna grew dramatically. In 1918, after World War I, Vienna became capital of the Republic of German-Austria, and then in 1919 of the First Republic of Austria.From the late-19th century to 1938, the city remained a center of high culture and of modernism. A world capital of music, Vienna played host to composers such as Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler and Richard Strauss. The city's cultural contributions in the first half of the 20th century included, among many, the Vienna Secession movement in art, psychoanalysis, the Second Viennese School (Schoenberg, Berg, Webern), the architecture of Adolf Loos and the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle. In 1913 Adolf Hitler, Leon Trotsky, Josip Broz Tito, Sigmund Freud and Joseph Stalin all lived within a few kilometres of each other in central Vienna, some of them becoming regulars at the same coffeehouses.Austrians came to regard Vienna as a center of socialist politics, sometimes referred to as "Red Vienna"(“Das rote Wien”). In the Austrian Civil War of 1934 Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss sent the Austrian Army to shell civilian housing such as the Karl Marx-Hof occupied by the socialist militia.In 1938, after a triumphant entry into Austria, the Austrian-born German Chancellor Adolf Hitler spoke to the Austrian Germans from the balcony of the Neue Burg, a part of the Hofburg at the Heldenplatz. In the ensuing days the new Nazi authorities oversaw the harassment of Viennese Jews, the looting of their homes, and their on-going deportation and murder. Between 1938 (after the Anschluss) and the end of the Second World War in 1945, Vienna lost its status as a capital to Berlin, because Austria ceased to exist and became part of Nazi Germany.During the November pogroms on November 9, 1938, 92 synagogues in Vienna were destroyed. Only the city temple in the 1st district was spared, as the data of all Jews in Vienna were collected in the adjacent archives. Adolf Eichmann held office in the expropriated Palais Rothschild and organized the expropriation and persecution of the Jews. Of the almost 200,000 Jews in Vienna, around 120,000 were driven to emigrate and around 65,000 were killed. After the end of the war, the Jewish population of Vienna was about only 5,000.Vienna was also the center of the important resistance group around Heinrich Maier, which provided the Allies with plans for V-1, V-2 rockets, Peenemünde, Tiger tanks, Messerschmitt Bf 109, Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet and other aircraft. The information was important to Operation Crossbow and Operation Hydra, both preliminary missions for Operation Overlord. In addition, factory locations for war-essential products were communicated as targets for the Allied Air Force. The group was exposed and most of its members were executed after months of torture by the Gestapo in Vienna. The group around the later executed Karl Burian even tried to blow up the Gestapo headquarters in the Hotel Metropole.On 2 April 1945 the Soviet Red Army launched the Vienna Offensive against the Germans holding the city and besieged it. British and American air-raids, as well as artillery duels between the Red Army and the SS and Wehrmacht, crippled infrastructure, such as tram services and water- and power-distribution, and destroyed or damaged thousands of public and private buildings. The Red Army was helped by an Austrian resistance group in the German Wehrmacht. The group tried under the code name Radetzky to prevent the destruction and fighting in the city. Vienna fell eleven days later. At the end of the war, Austria again became separated from Germany, and Vienna regained its status as the capital city of the Republic of Austria, but the Soviet hold on the city remained until 1955, when Austria regained full sovereignty.After the war, Vienna was part of Soviet-occupied Eastern Austria until September 1945. As in Berlin, Vienna in September 1945 was divided into sectors by the four powers: the US, the UK, France, and the Soviet Union and supervised by an Allied Commission. The four-power occupation of Vienna differed in one key respect from that of Berlin: the central area of the city, known as the first district, constituted an "international zone" in which the four powers alternated control on a monthly basis. The control was policed by the four powers on a "de facto" day-to-day basis, the famous "four soldiers in a jeep" method. The Berlin Blockade of 1948 raised Western concerns that the Soviets might repeat the blockade in Vienna. The matter was raised in the UK House of Commons by MP Anthony Nutting, who asked: "What plans have the Government for dealing with a similar situation in Vienna? Vienna is in exactly a similar position to Berlin."There was a lack of airfields in the Western sectors, and authorities drafted contingency plans to deal with such a blockade. Plans included the laying down of metal landing mats at Schönbrunn. The Soviets did not blockade the city. The Potsdam Agreement included written rights of land access to the western sectors, whereas no such written guarantees had covered the western sectors of Berlin. Also, there was no precipitating event to cause a blockade in Vienna. (In Berlin, the Western powers had introduced a new currency in early 1948 to economically freeze out the Soviets.) During the 10 years of the four-power occupation, Vienna became a hotbed for international espionage between the Western and Eastern blocs. In the wake of the Berlin Blockade, the Cold War in Vienna took on a different dynamic. While accepting that Germany and Berlin would be divided, the Soviets had decided against allowing the same state of affairs to arise in Austria and Vienna. Here, the Soviet forces controlled districts 2, 4, 10, 20, 21, and 22 and all areas incorporated into Vienna in 1938.Barbed wire fences were installed around the perimeter of West Berlin in 1953, but not in Vienna. By 1955, the Soviets, by signing the Austrian State Treaty, agreed to relinquish their occupation zones in Eastern Austria as well as their sector in Vienna. In exchange they required that Austria declare its permanent neutrality after the allied powers had left the country. Thus they ensured that Austria would not be a member of NATO and that NATO forces would therefore not have direct communications between Italy and West Germany.The atmosphere of four-power Vienna is the background for Graham Greene's screenplay for the film "The Third Man" (1949). Later he adapted the screenplay as a novel and published it. Occupied Vienna is also depicted in the 1991 Philip Kerr novel, "A German Requiem".The four-power control of Vienna lasted until the Austrian State Treaty was signed in May 1955. That year, after years of reconstruction and restoration, the State Opera and the Burgtheater, both on the Ringstraße, reopened to the public. The Soviet Union signed the State Treaty only after having been provided with a political guarantee by the federal government to declare Austria's neutrality after the withdrawal of the allied troops. This law of neutrality, passed in late October 1955 (and not the State Treaty itself), ensured that modern Austria would align with neither NATO nor the Soviet bloc, and is considered one of the reasons for Austria's delayed entry into the European Union in 1995.In the 1970s, Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky inaugurated the Vienna International Center, a new area of the city created to host international institutions. Vienna has regained much of its former international stature by hosting international organizations, such as the United Nations (United Nations Industrial Development Organization, United Nations Office at Vienna and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime), the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.Because of the industrialization and migration from other parts of the Empire, the population of Vienna increased sharply during its time as the capital of Austria-Hungary (1867–1918). In 1910, Vienna had more than two million inhabitants, and was the third largest city in Europe after London and Paris. Around the start of the 20th century, Vienna was the city with the second-largest Czech population in the world (after Prague). After World War I, many Czechs and Hungarians returned to their ancestral countries, resulting in a decline in the Viennese population. After World War II, the Soviets used force to repatriate key workers of Czech, Slovak and Hungarian origins to return to their ethnic homelands to further the Soviet bloc economy.Under the Nazi regime, 65,000 Jews were deported and murdered in concentration camps by Nazi forces; approximately 130,000 fled.By 2001, 16% of people living in Austria had nationalities other than Austrian, nearly half of whom were from former Yugoslavia; the next most numerous nationalities in Vienna were Turks (39,000; 2.5%), Poles (13,600; 0.9%) and Germans (12,700; 0.8%)., an official report from Statistics Austria showed that more than 660,000 (38.8%) of the Viennese population have full or partial migrant background, mostly from Ex-Yugoslavia, Turkey, Germany, Poland, Romania and Hungary.From 2005 to 2015 the city's population grew by 10.1%. According to UN-Habitat, Vienna could be the fastest growing city out of 17 European metropolitan areas until 2025 with an increase of 4.65% of its population, compared to 2010.According to the 2001 census, 49.2% of Viennese were Catholic, while 25.7% were of no religion, 7.8% were Muslim, 6.0% were members of an Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, 4.7% were Protestant (mostly Lutheran), 0.5% were Jewish and 6.3% were either of other religions or did not reply. A 2011 report by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis showed the proportions had changed, with 41.3% Catholic, 31.6% no affiliation, 11.6% Muslim, 8.4% Eastern Orthodox, 4.2% Protestant, and 2.9% other.Based on information provided to city officials by various religious organizations about their membership, Vienna's Statistical Yearbook 2019 reports in 2018 an estimated 610,269 Roman Catholics, or 32.3% of the population, and 195,000 (10.3%) Muslims, 70,298 (3.7%) Orthodox, 57,502 (3.0%) other Christians, and 9,504 (0.5%) other religions. A study conducted by the Vienna Institute of Demography estimated the 2018 proportions to be 34% Catholic, 30% unaffiliated, 15% Muslim, 10% Orthodox, 4% Protestant, and 6% other religions.Vienna is the seat of the Metropolitan Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna, in which is also vested the exempt Ordinariate for Byzantine-rite Catholics in Austria; its Archbishop is Cardinal Christoph Schönborn. Many Catholic churches in central Vienna feature performances of religious or other music, including masses sung to classical music and organ. Some of Vienna's most significant historical buildings are Catholic churches, including the St. Stephen's Cathedral ("Stephansdom"), Karlskirche, Peterskirche and the Votivkirche. On the banks of the Danube, there is a Buddhist Peace Pagoda, built in 1983 by the monks and nuns of [Nipponzan Myohoji].Vienna is located in northeastern Austria, at the easternmost extension of the Alps in the Vienna Basin. The earliest settlement, at the location of today's inner city, was south of the meandering Danube while the city now spans both sides of the river. Elevation ranges from . The city has a total area of 414.65 square kilometers (160.1 sq mi), making it the largest city in Austria by area.Vienna has an oceanic climate (Köppen classification "Cfb"). The city has warm summers, with periodical precipitations that can reach its yearly peak in July and August (66.6 and 66.5 mm respectively) and average high temperatures from June to September of approximately , with a record maximum exceeding and a record low in September of . Winters are relatively dry and cold with average temperatures at about freezing point. Spring is variable and autumn cool, with possible snowfalls already in November. Precipitation is generally moderate throughout the year, averaging around annually, with considerable local variations, the Vienna Woods region in the west being the wettest part ( annually) and the flat plains in the east being the driest part ( annually). Snow in winter is common, even if not so frequent compared to the Western and Southern regions of Austria.Vienna was moved to the UNESCO world heritage in endangered list in 2017. The main reason was a planned high-rise development. The city's social democratic party planned construction of a complex in 2019. The plan includes a -high tower, which was reduced from due to opposition. UNESCO believed that the project "fails to comply fully with previous committee decisions, notably concerning the height of new constructions, which will impact adversely the outstanding universal value of the site." UNESCO set the restriction for the height of the construction in the city center to .The citizens of Vienna also opposed the construction of the complex because they are afraid of losing UNESCO status and also of encouraging future high-rise development. The city officials replied that they will convince the WHC to maintain UNESCO world heritage status and said that no further high-rise developments are being planned.UNESCO is concerned about the height of high-rise development in Vienna as it can dramatically influence the visual integrity of the city, specifically the baroque palaces. Visual impact studies are being done in the Vienna city center to assess the level of visual disturbance to visitors and how the changes influenced the city's visual integrity.Vienna is composed of 23 districts ("Bezirke"). Administrative district offices in Vienna (called Magistratische Bezirksämter) serve functions similar to those in the other Austrian states (called Bezirkshauptmannschaften), the officers being subject to the mayor of Vienna; with the notable exception of the police, which is under federal supervision.District residents in Vienna (Austrians as well as EU citizens with permanent residence here) elect a District Assembly (Bezirksvertretung). City hall has delegated maintenance budgets, e.g., for schools and parks, so that the districts are able to set priorities autonomously. Any decision of a district can be overridden by the city assembly (Gemeinderat) or the responsible city councilor (amtsführender Stadtrat).The heart and historical city of Vienna, a large part of today's Innere Stadt, was a fortress surrounded by fields in order to defend itself from potential attackers. In 1850, Vienna with the consent of the emperor annexed 34 surrounding villages, called Vorstädte, into the city limits (districts no. 2 to 8, after 1861 with the separation of Margareten from Wieden no. 2 to 9). Consequently, the walls were razed after 1857, making it possible for the city center to expand.In their place, a broad boulevard called the Ringstraße was built, along which imposing public and private buildings, monuments, and parks were created by the start of the 20th century. These buildings include the Rathaus (town hall), the Burgtheater, the University, the Parliament, the twin museums of natural history and fine art, and the Staatsoper. It is also the location of New Wing of the Hofburg, the former imperial palace, and the Imperial and Royal War Ministry finished in 1913. The mainly Gothic Stephansdom is located at the center of the city, on Stephansplatz. The Imperial-Royal Government set up the Vienna City Renovation Fund (Wiener Stadterneuerungsfonds) and sold many building lots to private investors, thereby partly financing public construction works.From 1850 to 1890, city limits in the West and the South mainly followed another wall called "Linienwall" at which a road toll called the "Liniengeld" was charged. Outside this wall from 1873 onwards a ring road called Gürtel was built. In 1890 it was decided to integrate 33 suburbs (called Vororte) beyond that wall into Vienna by 1 January 1892 and transform them into districts no. 11 to 19 (district no. 10 had been constituted in 1874); hence the Linienwall was torn down beginning in 1894. In 1900, district no. 20, Brigittenau, was created by separating the area from the 2nd district.From 1850 to 1904, Vienna had expanded only on the right bank of the Danube, following the main branch before the regulation of 1868–1875, i.e., the Old Danube of today. In 1904, the 21st district was created by integrating Floridsdorf, Kagran, Stadlau, Hirschstetten, Aspern and other villages on the left bank of the Danube into Vienna, in 1910 Strebersdorf followed. On 15 October 1938 the Nazis created Great Vienna with 26 districts by merging 97 towns and villages into Vienna, 80 of which were returned to surrounding Lower Austria in 1954. Since then Vienna has had 23 districts.Industries are located mostly in the southern and eastern districts. The Innere Stadt is situated away from the main flow of the Danube, but is bounded by the "Donaukanal" ("Danube canal"). Vienna's second and twentieth districts are located between the Donaukanal and the Danube. Across the Danube, where the Vienna International Center is located (districts 21–22), and in the southern areas (district 23) are the newest parts of the city.In the twenty years before the First World War and until 1918, Viennese politics were shaped by the Christian Social Party. In particular, long-term mayor Karl Lueger was able to not apply the general voting rights for men introduced by and for the parliament of imperial Austria, the "Reichsrat", in 1907, thereby excluding most of the working class from taking part in decisions. For Adolf Hitler, who spent some years in Vienna, Lueger was a teacher of how to use antisemitism in politics.Vienna is today considered the center of the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ). During the period of the First Republic (1918–1934), the Vienna Social Democrats undertook many social reforms. At that time, Vienna's municipal policy was admired by Socialists throughout Europe, who therefore referred to the city as "Red Vienna" ("Rotes Wien"). In February 1934 troops of the Austrian federal government under Engelbert Dollfuss, who had closed down the first chamber of the federal parliament, the "Nationalrat", in 1933, and paramilitary socialist organizations were engaged in the Austrian Civil War, which led to the ban of the Social Democratic party.The SPÖ has held the mayor's office and control of the city council/parliament at every free election since 1919. The only break in this SPÖ dominance came between 1934 and 1945, when the Social Democratic Party was illegal, mayors were appointed by the austro-fascist and later by the Nazi authorities. The mayor of Vienna is Michael Ludwig of the SPÖ.The city has enacted many social democratic policies. The "Gemeindebauten" are social housing assets that are well integrated into the city architecture outside the first or "inner" district. The low rents enable comfortable accommodation and good access to the city amenities. Many of the projects were built after the Second World War on vacant lots that were destroyed by bombing during the war. The city took particular pride in building them to a high standard.Since Vienna obtained federal state ("Bundesland") status of its own by the federal constitution of 1920, the city council also functions as the state parliament (Landtag), and the mayor (except 1934–1945) also doubles as the "Landeshauptmann" (governor/minister-president) of the state of Vienna. The Rathaus accommodates the offices of the mayor ("") and the state government ("Landesregierung"). The city is administered by a multitude of departments ("Magistratsabteilungen"), politically supervised by "amtsführende Stadträte" (members of the city government leading offices; according to the Vienna constitution opposition parties have the right to designate members of the city government not leading offices).Under the city constitution of 1920, municipal and state business must be kept separate. Hence, the city council and state parliament hold separate meetings, with separate presiding officers–the chairman of the city council or the president of the state Landtag–even though the two bodies' memberships are identical. When meeting as a city council, the deputies can only deal with the affairs of the city of Vienna; when meeting as a state parliament, they can only deal with the affairs of the state of Vienna.In the 1996 City Council election, the SPÖ lost its overall majority in the 100-seat chamber, winning 43 seats and 39.15% of the vote. The SPÖ had held an outright majority at every free municipal election since 1919. In 1996 the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), which won 29 seats (up from 21 in 1991), beat the ÖVP into third place for the second time running. From 1996 to 2001, the SPÖ governed Vienna in a coalition with the ÖVP. In 2001 the SPÖ regained the overall majority with 52 seats and 46.91% of the vote; in October 2005, this majority was increased further to 55 seats (49.09%). In course of the 2010 city council elections the SPÖ lost their overall majority again and consequently forged a coalition with the Green Party – the first SPÖ/Green coalition in Austria. This coalition was maintained following the 2015 election.Vienna is one of the wealthiest regions in the European Union: Its gross regional product of EUR 47,200 per capita constituted 25.7% of Austria's GDP in 2013. It amounts to 159% of the EU average. The city improved its position from 2012 on the ranking of the most economically powerful cities reaching number nine on the listing in 2015.With a share of 85.5% in gross value added, the service sector is Vienna's most important economic sector. Industry and commerce have a share of 14.5% in gross value added, the primary sector (agriculture) has a share of 0.07% and therefore plays a minor role in the local added value. However, the cultivation and production of wines within the city borders have a high socio-cultural value. The most important business sectors are trade (14.7% of added value in Vienna), scientific and technological services, real estate and housing activities as well as manufacturing of goods. In 2012, Vienna's contribution in Austria's outgoing and incoming foreign direct investments was of about 60%, which demonstrates Vienna's role as an international hub for domestic and foreign companies.Since the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, Vienna has expanded its position as gateway to Eastern Europe: 300 international companies have their Eastern European headquarters in Vienna and its environs. Among them are Hewlett Packard, Henkel, Baxalta and Siemens. Companies in Vienna have extensive contacts and competences in business with Eastern Europe due to the city's historical role as center of the Habsburg Empire. The number of international businesses in Vienna is still growing: In 2014 159 and in 2015 175 international firms established offices in Vienna.Altogether, approximately 8,300 new companies have been founded in Vienna every year since 2004. The majority of these companies are operating in fields of industry-oriented services, wholesale trade as well as information and communications technologies and new media. Vienna makes effort to establish itself as a start-up hub. Since 2012, the city hosts the annual Pioneers Festival, the largest start-up event in Central Europe with 2,500 international participants taking place at Hofburg Palace. Tech Cocktail, an online portal for the start-up scene, has ranked Vienna sixth among the top ten start-up cities worldwide.The city of Vienna attaches major importance to science and research and focuses on creating a positive environment for research and development. In 2014, Vienna has accommodated 1,329 research facilities; 40,400 persons are employed in the R&D sector and 35% of Austria's R&D expenses are invested in the city. With a research quota of 3.4% Vienna exceeds the Austrian average of 2.77% and has already met the EU target of 3.0% by 2020. A major R&D sector in Vienna are life sciences. The Vienna Life Science Cluster is Austria's major hub for life science research, education and business. Throughout Vienna, five universities and several basic research institutes form the academic core of the hub with more than 12,600 employees and 34,700 students. Here, more than 480 medical device, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies with almost 23,000 employees generate around 12 billion euros in revenue (2017). This corresponds to more than 50% of the revenue generated by life science companies in Austria (22.4 billion euros).Vienna is home to global players like Boehringer Ingelheim, Octapharma, Ottobock and Takeda. However, there is also a growing number of start-up companies in the life sciences and Vienna was ranked first in the 2019 PeoplePerHour Startup Cities Index. Companies such as Apeiron Biologics, Hookipa Pharma, Marinomed, mySugr, Themis Bioscience and Valneva operate a presence in Vienna and regularly hit the headlines internationally.To facilitate tapping the economic potential of the multiple facettes of the life sciences at Austria's capital, the Austrian Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs and the local government of City of Vienna have joined forces: Since 2002, the LISAvienna platform is available as a central contact point. It provides free business support services at the interface of the Austrian federal promotional bank, Austria Wirtschaftsservice and the Vienna Business Agency and collects data that inform policy making.The main academic hot spots in Vienna are the Life Science Center Muthgasse with the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), the Austrian Institute of Technology, the University of Veterinary Medicine, the AKH Vienna with the MedUni Vienna and the Vienna Biocenter. Central European University, a graduate institution expelled from Budapest in the midst of a Hungarian government steps to take control of academic and research organizations, welcomes the first class of students to its new Vienna campus in 2019.The Viennese sector for information and communication technologies is comparable in size with the sector in Helsinki, Milan or Munich and thus among Europe's largest IT locations. In 2012 8,962 IT businesses with a workforce of 64,223 were located in the Vienna Region. The main products are instruments and appliances for measuring, testing and navigation as well as electronic components. More than ⅔ of the enterprises provide IT services. Among the biggest IT firms in Vienna are Kapsch, Beko Engineering & Informatics, air traffic control experts Frequentis, Cisco Systems Austria, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft Austria, IBM Austria and Samsung Electronics Austria.The US technology corporation Cisco runs its "Entrepreneurs in Residence" program for Europe in Vienna in cooperation with the Vienna Business Agency.The British company UBM has rated Vienna one of the "Top 10 Internet Cities" worldwide, by analyzing criteria like connection speed, WiFi availability, innovation spirit and open government data.In 2011 74.3% of Viennese households were connected with broadband, 79% were in possession of a computer. According to the broadband strategy of the city, full broadband coverage will be reached by 2020.There were 17.6 million overnight stays in Vienna in 2019 (+6.8% compared to 2018). The top ten incoming markets in 2019 were Germany, Austria, the United States, Italy, United Kingdom, Spain, China, France, Russia and Switzerland.In 2019 the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) ranked Vienna 6th in the world for association meetings. The Union of International Associations (UIA) ranked Vienna 5th in the world for 2019 with 306 international meetings, behind Singapore, Brussels, Seoul and Paris. The city's largest conference center, the Austria Center Vienna (ACV) has a total capacity for around 22,800 people and is situated next to the United Nations Headquarters in Vienna. Other centers are the Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center (up to 3,000 people) and the Hofburg Palace (up to 4,900 people).Vienna was ranked top in the "2019 Quality of Living Ranking" by the international Mercer Consulting Group for the tenth consecutive year. In the 2015 liveability report by the Economist Intelligence Unit as well as in the "Quality of Life Survey 2015" of London-based "Monocle magazine" Vienna was equally ranked second most livable city worldwide.The United Nations Human Settlements Programme "UN-Habitat" has ranked Vienna the most prosperous city in the world in its flagship report "State of the World Cities 2012/2013".According to the 2014 City RepTrack ranking by the Reputation Institute, Vienna has the best reputation in comparison with 100 major global cities.The "Innovation Cities Global Index 2014" by the Australian innovation agency 2thinknow ranks Vienna sixth behind San Francisco-San Jose, New York City, London, Boston and Paris. In 2019 PeoplePerHour put Vienna at the top of their Startup Cities Ranking.US climate strategist Boyd Cohen placed Vienna first in his first "global smart cities" ranking of 2012. In the 2014 ranking, Vienna reached third place among European cities behind Copenhagen and Amsterdam.The "Mori Memorial Institute for Urban Strategies" ranked Vienna in the top ten of their Global Power City Index 2016.Vienna's new Central Railway Station was opened in October 2014. Construction began in June 2007 and was due to last until December 2015. The station is served by 1,100 trains with 145,000 passengers. There is a shopping center with approximately 90 shops and restaurants.In the vicinity of the station a new district is emerging with office space and 5,000 apartments until 2020.Seestadt Aspern is one of the largest urban expansion projects of Europe. A 5 hectare artificial lake, offices, apartments and a subway station within walking distance are supposed to attract 20,000 new citizens when construction is completed in 2028.In addition, the highest wooden skyscraper in the world, “HoHo Wien”, will be built within 3 years, starting in 2015.In 2014, the Vienna City Council adopted the Smart City Wien Framework Strategy 2050. It is a long-term umbrella strategy that is supposed to establish a conducive, long-term and structural framework in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from 3.1 tonnes per capita to 1 tonne per capita by 2050, have 50% of Vienna's gross energy consumption originate from renewable sources and to reduce motorized individual traffic from the current 28% to 15% by 2030. A stated goal is that, by 2050, all vehicles within the municipal boundaries will run without conventional propulsion technologies. Additionally, Vienna aims to be one of the five biggest European research and innovation hubs in 2050.Famous composers including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Ferdinand Ries, Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler, Robert Stolz, and Arnold Schoenberg have worked in Vienna.Art and culture had a long tradition in Vienna, including theater, opera, classical music and fine arts. The Burgtheater is considered one of the best theaters in the German-speaking world alongside its branch, the Akademietheater. The Volkstheater Wien and the Theater in der Josefstadt also enjoy good reputations. There is also a multitude of smaller theaters, in many cases devoted to less mainstream forms of the performing arts, such as modern, experimental plays or cabaret.Vienna is also home to a number of opera houses, including the Theater an der Wien, the Staatsoper and the Volksoper, the latter being devoted to the typical Viennese operetta. Classical concerts are performed at venues such as the Wiener Musikverein, home of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra known across the world for the annual widely broadcast "New Year's Day Concert", as well as the Wiener Konzerthaus, home of the internationally renowned Vienna Symphony. Many concert venues offer concerts aimed at tourists, featuring popular highlights of Viennese music, particularly the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johann Strauss I, and Johann Strauss II.Up until 2005, the Theater an der Wien hosted premieres of musicals, but since 2006 (a year dedicated to the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth), has devoted itself to opera again, becoming a stagione opera house offering one new production each month. Since 2012, Theater an der Wien has taken over the Wiener Kammeroper, a historical small theater in the first district of Vienna seating 300 spectators, turning it into its second venue for smaller sized productions and chamber operas created by the young ensemble of Theater an der Wien (JET). Before 2005 the most successful musical was "Elisabeth", which was later translated into several languages and performed all over the world. The Wiener Taschenoper is dedicated to stage music of the 20th and 21st century. The Haus der Musik ("house of music") opened in the year 2000.The Wienerlied is a unique song genre from Vienna. There are approximately 60,000 – 70,000 Wienerlieder.In 1981 the popular British new romantic group Ultravox paid a tribute to Vienna on an album and an artful music video recording called "Vienna". The inspiration for this work arose from the cinema production called "The Third Man" with the title Zither music of Anton Karas.The Vienna's English Theatre (VET) is an English theater in Vienna. It was founded in 1963 and is located in the 8th Vienna's district. It is the oldest English-language theater in continental Europe.In May 2015, Vienna hosted the Eurovision Song Contest following Austria's victory in the 2014 contest.Notable entertainers born in Vienna include Hedy Lamarr, Christoph Waltz, John Banner, Christiane Hörbiger, Eric Pohlmann, Boris Kodjoe, Christine Buchegger, Mischa Hausserman, Senta Berger and Christine Ostermayer.Notable musicians born in Vienna include Louie Austen, Alban Berg, Falco, Fritz Kreisler, Joseph Lanner, Arnold Schönberg, Franz Schubert, Johann Strauss I, Johann Strauss II, Anton Webern, and Joe Zawinul.Famous musicians who came here to work from other parts of Austria and Germany were Johann Joseph Fux, Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Ferdinand Ries, Johann Sedlatzek, Antonio Salieri, Carl Czerny, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Franz Liszt, Franz von Suppé, Anton Bruckner, Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler and Rainhard Fendrich.Among the most notable Viennese Jews, some of whom left Austria before and during Nazi persecution, are the following figures: Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler (who eventually converted to Christianity), Rudolf Dreikurs, Viktor Frankl, Fritz Lang, Peter Lorre, Fred Zinnemann (both of whose parents were murdered in the Holocaust), Stefan Zweig, Simon Wiesenthal, Theodor Herzl, Judah Alkalai, Erich von Stroheim, Hedy Lamarr, Billy Wilder, Franz Werfel, Arnold Schoenberg, Walter Arlen and Fritz Kreisler.Notable writers from Vienna include Karl Leopold von Möller, Carl Julius Haidvogel, and Stefan Zweig.Writers who lived and worked in Vienna include Franz Kafka, Arthur Schnitzler, Elias Canetti, Ingeborg Bachmann, Robert Musil, Karl Kraus, Ernst von Feuchtersleben, Thomas Bernhard and Elfriede Jelinek.Notable politicians from Vienna include Karl Leopold von Möller.The Hofburg is the location of the Imperial Treasury ("Schatzkammer"), holding the imperial jewels of the Habsburg dynasty. The Sisi Museum (a museum devoted to Empress Elisabeth of Austria) allows visitors to view the imperial apartments as well as the silver cabinet. Directly opposite the Hofburg are the Kunsthistorisches Museum, which houses many paintings by old masters, ancient and classical artifacts, and the Naturhistorisches Museum.A number of museums are located in the Museumsquartier (museum quarter), the former Imperial Stalls which were converted into a museum complex in the 1990s. It houses the Museum of Modern Art, commonly known as the MUMOK (Ludwig Foundation), the Leopold Museum (featuring the largest collection of paintings in the world by Egon Schiele, as well as works by the Vienna Secession, Viennese Modernism and Austrian Expressionism), the AzW (museum of architecture), additional halls with feature exhibitions, and the Tanzquartier. The Liechtenstein Palace contains much of one of the world's largest private art collections, especially strong in the Baroque. The Belvedere, built under Prince Eugene, has a gallery containing paintings by Gustav Klimt (The Kiss), Egon Schiele, and other painters of the early 20th century, also sculptures by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, and changing exhibitions too.There are a multitude of other museums in Vienna, including the Albertina, the Military History Museum, the Technical Museum, the Burial Museum, the Museum of Art Fakes, the KunstHausWien, Museum of Applied Arts, the Sigmund Freud Museum, and the Mozarthaus Vienna. The museums on the history of the city, including the former Historical Museum of the City of Vienna on Karlsplatz, the Hermesvilla, the residences and birthplaces of various composers, the Museum of the Romans, and the Vienna Clock Museum, are now gathered together under the group umbrella Vienna Museum. The Jewish Museum Vienna, founded 1896, is the oldest of its kind. In addition there are museums dedicated to Vienna's individual districts. They provide a record of individual struggles, achievements and tragedy as the city grew and survived two world wars. For readers seeking family histories these are good sources of information.A variety of architectural styles can be found in Vienna, such as the Romanesque Ruprechtskirche and the Baroque Karlskirche. Styles range from classicist buildings to modern architecture. Art Nouveau left many architectural traces in Vienna. The Secession building, Karlsplatz Stadtbahn Station, and the Kirche am Steinhof by Otto Wagner rank among the best known examples of Art Nouveau in the world. Wagner's prominent student Jože Plečnik from Slovenia also left important traces in Vienna. His works include the Langer House (1900) and the Zacherlhaus (1903–1905). Plečnik's 1910–1913 "Church of the Holy Spirit" () in Vienna is remarkable for its innovative use of poured-in-place concrete as both structure and exterior surface, and also for its abstracted classical form language. Most radical is the church's crypt, with its slender concrete columns and angular, cubist capitals and bases.Concurrent to the Art Nouveau movement was the Wiener Moderne, during which some architects shunned the use of extraneous adornment. A key architect of this period was Adolf Loos, whose works include the Looshaus (1909), the Kärntner Bar or American Bar (1908) and the Steiner House (1910).The Hundertwasserhaus by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, designed to counter the clinical look of modern architecture, is one of Vienna's most popular tourist attractions. Another example of unique architecture is the Wotrubakirche by sculptor Fritz Wotruba. In the 1990s, a number of quarters were adapted and extensive building projects were implemented in the areas around Donaustadt (north of the Danube) and Wienerberg (in southern Vienna).The 220-meter high DC Tower 1 located on the Northern bank of the Danube, completed in 2013, is the tallest skyscraper in Vienna. In recent years, Vienna has seen numerous architecture projects completed which combine modern architectural elements with old buildings, such as the remodeling and revitalization of the old Gasometer in 2001.Most buildings in Vienna are relatively low; in early 2006 there were around 100 buildings higher than . The number of high-rise buildings is kept low by building legislation aimed at preserving green areas and districts designated as world cultural heritage. Strong rules apply to the planning, authorization and construction of high-rise buildings. Consequently, much of the inner city is a high-rise free zone.Vienna is the last great capital of the 19th-century ball. There are over 450 balls per year, some featuring as many as nine live orchestras. Balls are held in the many palaces in Vienna, with the principal venue being the Hofburg Palace in Heldenplatz. While the Opera Ball is the best known internationally of all the Austrian balls, other balls such as the Kaffeesiederball (Cafe Owners Ball), the Jägerball (Hunter's Ball) and the Life Ball (AIDS charity event) are almost as well known within Austria and even better appreciated for their cordial atmosphere. Viennese of at least middle class may visit a number of balls in their lifetime.Dancers and opera singers from the Vienna State Opera often perform at the openings of the larger balls.A Vienna ball is an all-night cultural attraction. Major Vienna balls generally begin at 9 pm and last until 5 am, although many guests carry on the celebrations into the next day. Viennese balls are being exported (with support from the City of Vienna) to around 30 cities worldwide such as New York, Barcelona, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Rome, Prague, Bucharest, Berlin and Moscow.Vienna is part of the Austro-Bavarian language area, in particular Central Bavarian ("Mittelbairisch"). In recent years, linguistics experts have seen a decline in the use of the Viennese variant. Manfred Glauninger, sociolinguist at the Institute for Austrian Dialect and Name Lexica, has observed three issues. First, many parents feel there's a stigma attached to the Viennese dialect so they speak Standard German to their children. Second, many children have recently immigrated to Austria and are learning German as a second language in school. Third, young people are influenced by mass media which is most always delivered in Standard German.Vienna is Austria's main center of education and home to many universities, professional colleges and gymnasiums (high schools).Vienna possesses many parks, including the "Stadtpark", the "Burggarten", the "Volksgarten" (part of the "Hofburg"), the "Schlosspark" at Schloss Belvedere (home to the Vienna Botanic Gardens), the "Donaupark", the "Schönbrunner Schlosspark", the "Prater", the "Augarten", the "Rathauspark", the "Lainzer Tiergarten", the "Dehnepark", the "Resselpark", the "Votivpark", the "Kurpark Oberlaa", the "Auer-Welsbach-Park" and the "Türkenschanzpark". Green areas include "Laaer-Berg" (including the Bohemian Prater) and the foothills of the "Wienerwald", which reaches into the outer areas of the city. Small parks, known by the Viennese as "Beserlparks", are everywhere in the inner city areas.Many of Vienna's parks include monuments, such as the Stadtpark with its statue of Johann Strauss II, and the gardens of the baroque palace, where the State Treaty was signed. Vienna's principal park is the Prater which is home to the Riesenrad, a Ferris wheel, and Kugelmugel, a micronation the shape of a sphere. The imperial Schönbrunn's grounds contain an 18th-century park which includes the world's oldest zoo, founded in 1752.The Donauinsel, part of Vienna's flood defenses, is a long artificial island between the Danube and Neue Donau dedicated to leisure activities.Austria's capital is home to numerous football teams. The best known are the local football clubs include FK Austria Wien (21 Austrian Bundesliga titles and record 27-time cup winners), SK Rapid Wien (record 32 Austrian Bundesliga titles), and the oldest team, First Vienna FC. Other important sports clubs include the Raiffeisen Vikings Vienna (American Football), who won the Eurobowl title between 2004 and 2007 4 times in a row and had a perfect season in 2013, the Aon hotVolleys Vienna, one of Europe's premier Volleyball organizations, the Vienna Wanderers (baseball) who won the 2012 and 2013 Championship of the Austrian Baseball League, and the Vienna Capitals (Ice Hockey). Vienna was also where the European Handball Federation (EHF) was founded. There are also three rugby clubs; Vienna Celtic, the oldest rugby club in Austria, RC Donau, and Stade ViennoisVienna hosts many different sporting events including the Vienna City Marathon, which attracts more than 10,000 participants every year and normally takes place in May. In 2005 the Ice Hockey World Championships took place in Austria and the final was played in Vienna. Vienna's Ernst Happel Stadium was the venue of four Champions League and European Champion Clubs' Cup finals (1964, 1987, 1990 and 1995) and on 29 June it hosted the final of Euro 2008 which saw a Spanish 1–0 victory over Germany. Tennis tournament Vienna Open also takes place in the city since 1974. The matches are played in the Wiener Stadthalle.The Neue Donau, which was formed after the Donauinsel was created, is free of river traffic and a popular destination for leisure and sports activities.Vienna will host the official 2021 3x3 Basketball World Cup.Vienna is well known for "Wiener Schnitzel", a cutlet of veal "(Kalbsschnitzel)" or pork "(Schweinsschnitzel)" that is pounded flat, coated in flour, egg and breadcrumbs, and fried in clarified butter. It is available in almost every restaurant that serves Viennese cuisine and can be eaten hot or cold. The traditional 'Wiener Schnitzel' though is a cutlet of veal. Other examples of Viennese cuisine include "Tafelspitz" (very lean boiled beef), which is traditionally served with "Geröstete Erdäpfel" (boiled potatoes mashed with a fork and subsequently fried) and horseradish sauce, "Apfelkren" (a mixture of horseradish, cream and apple) and "Schnittlauchsauce" (a chives sauce made with mayonnaise and stale bread).Vienna has a long tradition of producing cakes and desserts. These include "Apfelstrudel" (hot apple strudel), "Milchrahmstrudel" (milk-cream strudel), "Palatschinken" (sweet pancakes), and "Knödel" (dumplings) often filled with fruit such as apricots ("Marillenknödel"). Sachertorte, a delicately moist chocolate cake with apricot jam created by the Sacher Hotel, is world-famous.In winter, small street stands sell traditional "Maroni" (hot chestnuts) and potato fritters.Sausages are popular and available from street vendors ("Würstelstand") throughout the day and into the night. The sausage known as "Wiener" (German for Viennese) in the U.S. and in Germany, is called a "Frankfurter" in Vienna. Other popular sausages are "Burenwurst" (a coarse beef and pork sausage, generally boiled), "Käsekrainer" (spicy pork with small chunks of cheese), and "Bratwurst" (a white pork sausage). Most can be ordered "mit Brot" (with bread) or as a "hot dog" (stuffed inside a long roll). Mustard is the traditional condiment and usually offered in two varieties: "süß" (sweet) or "scharf" (spicy).Kebab, pizza and noodles are, increasingly, the snack foods most widely available from small stands.The "Naschmarkt" is a permanent market for fruit, vegetables, spices, fish, meat, etc., from around the world. The city has many coffee and breakfast stores.Vienna, along with Paris, Santiago, Cape Town, Prague, Canberra, Bratislava and Warsaw, is one of the few remaining world capital cities with its own vineyards. The wine is served in small Viennese pubs known as Heuriger, which are especially numerous in the wine growing areas of Döbling (Grinzing, Neustift am Walde, Nußdorf, Salmannsdorf, Sievering), Floridsdorf (Stammersdorf, Strebersdorf), Liesing (Mauer) and Favoriten (Oberlaa). The wine is often drunk as a Spritzer ("G'spritzter") with sparkling water. The Grüner Veltliner, a dry white wine, is the most widely cultivated wine in Austria. Another wine very typical for the region is "Gemischter Satz", which is typically a blend of different types of wines harvested from the same vineyard.Beer is next in importance to wine. Vienna has a single large brewery, Ottakringer, and more than ten microbreweries. A "Beisl" is a typical small Austrian pub, of which Vienna has many.Also, local soft drinks such as Almdudler are popular around the country as an alternative to alcoholic beverages, placing it on the top spots along American counterparts such as Coca-Cola in terms of market share. Another popular drink is the so-called "Spezi", a mix between Coca-Cola and the original formula of Orange Fanta or the more locally renowned Frucade.Viennese cafés have an extremely long and distinguished history that dates back centuries, and the caffeine addictions of some famous historical patrons of the oldest are something of a local legend. These coffee houses are unique to Vienna and many cities have unsuccessfully sought to copy them. Some people consider cafés as their extended living room where nobody will be bothered if they spend hours reading a newspaper while enjoying their coffee. Traditionally, the coffee comes with a glass of water. Viennese cafés claim to have invented the process of filtering coffee from booty captured after the second Turkish siege in 1683. Viennese cafés claim that when the invading Turks left Vienna, they abandoned hundreds of sacks of coffee beans. The Polish King John III Sobieski, the commander of the anti-Turkish coalition of Poles, Germans, and Austrians, gave Franz George Kolschitzky (Polish – Franciszek Jerzy Kulczycki) some of this coffee as a reward for providing information that allowed him to defeat the Turks. Kolschitzky then opened Vienna's first coffee shop. Julius Meinl set up a modern roasting plant in the same premises where the coffee sacks were found, in 1891.Major tourist attractions include the imperial palaces of the Hofburg and Schönbrunn (also home to the world's oldest zoo, Tiergarten Schönbrunn) and the Riesenrad in the Prater. Cultural highlights include the Burgtheater, the Wiener Staatsoper, the Lipizzaner horses at the spanische Hofreitschule, and the Vienna Boys' Choir, as well as excursions to Vienna's Heurigen district Döbling.There are also more than 100 art museums, which together attract over eight million visitors per year. The most popular ones are Albertina, Belvedere, Leopold Museum in the Museumsquartier, KunstHausWien, Bank Austria Kunstforum, the twin "Kunsthistorisches Museum" and "Naturhistorisches Museum", and the Technisches Museum Wien, each of which receives over a quarter of a million visitors per year.There are many popular sites associated with composers who lived in Vienna including Beethoven's various residences and grave at Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery) which is the largest cemetery in Vienna and the burial site of many famous people. Mozart has a memorial grave at the Habsburg gardens and at St. Marx cemetery (where his grave was lost). Vienna's many churches also draw large crowds, famous of which are St. Stephen's Cathedral, the Deutschordenskirche, the Jesuitenkirche, the Karlskirche, the Peterskirche, Maria am Gestade, the Minoritenkirche, the Ruprechtskirche, the Schottenkirche, St. Ulrich and the Votivkirche.Modern attractions include the Hundertwasserhaus, the United Nations headquarters and the view from the Donauturm.Vienna has an extensive transportation network with a unified fare system that integrates municipal, regional and railway systems under the umbrella of the Verkehrsverbund Ost-Region (VOR). Public transport is provided by buses, trams and five underground metro lines (U-Bahn), most operated by the Wiener Linien. There are also more than 50 S-train stations within the city limits. Suburban trains are operated by the ÖBB. The city forms the hub of the Austrian railway system, with services to all parts of the country and abroad. The railway system connects Vienna's main station Vienna Hauptbahnhof with other European cities, like Berlin, Bratislava, Budapest, Brussels, Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Ljubljana, Munich, Prague, Venice, Wrocław, Warsaw, Zagreb and Zürich.Vienna has multiple road connections including expressways and motorways.Vienna is served by Vienna International Airport, located southeast of the city center next to the town of Schwechat. The airport handled approximately 31.7 million passengers in 2019. Following lengthy negotiations with surrounding communities, the airport will be expanded to increase its capacity by adding a third runway. The airport is undergoing a major expansion, including a new terminal building that opened in 2012 to prepare for an increase in passengers.Vienna is the seat of a number of United Nations offices and various international institutions and companies, including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). Vienna is the world's third "UN city", next to New York, Geneva, and Nairobi. Additionally, Vienna is the seat of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law's secretariat (UNCITRAL). In conjunction, the University of Vienna annually hosts the prestigious Willem C. Vis Moot, an international commercial arbitration competition for students of law from around the world.Diplomatic meetings have been held in Vienna in the latter half of the 20th century, resulting in documents bearing the name Vienna Convention or Vienna Document. Among the more important documents negotiated in Vienna are the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, as well as the 1990 Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. Vienna also hosted the negotiations leading to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Iran's nuclear program as well as the Vienna peace talks for Syria.Vienna also headquartered the International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF).Alongside international and intergovernmental organizations, there are dozens of charitable organizations based in Vienna. One such organization is the network of SOS Children's Villages, founded by Hermann Gmeiner in 1949. Today, SOS Children's Villages are active in 132 countries and territories worldwide. Others include HASCO.Another popular international event is the annual Life Ball, which supports people with HIV or AIDS. Guests such as Bill Clinton and Whoopi Goldberg were recent attendees.The general policy of the City of Vienna is not to sign any twin or sister city agreements with other cities. Instead Vienna has only cooperation agreements in which specific cooperation areas are defined.In addition, individual Viennese districts have international partnerships all over the world. A detailed list is published on the website of the City of Vienna.
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[
"Hanns Blaschke",
"Karl Seitz",
"Richard Weiskirchner",
"Richard Schmitz",
"Bruno Marek",
"Felix Slavik",
"Theodor Körner",
"Hermann Neubacher",
"Karl Lueger",
"Leopold Gratz",
"Jakob Reumann",
"Josef Neumayer",
"Franz Jonas",
"Philipp Wilhelm Jung",
"Helmut Zilk",
"Michael Ludwig"
] |
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Who was the head of Vienna in Jul, 2020?
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July 01, 2020
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{
"text": [
"Michael Ludwig"
]
}
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L2_Q1741_P6_16
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Karl Lueger is the head of the government of Vienna from Apr, 1897 to Mar, 1910.
Karl Seitz is the head of the government of Vienna from Nov, 1923 to Feb, 1934.
Michael Ludwig is the head of the government of Vienna from May, 2018 to Dec, 2022.
Bruno Marek is the head of the government of Vienna from Jun, 1965 to Dec, 1970.
Franz Jonas is the head of the government of Vienna from Jun, 1951 to Jun, 1965.
Philipp Wilhelm Jung is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1940 to Dec, 1943.
Michael Häupl is the head of the government of Vienna from Nov, 1994 to May, 2018.
Richard Schmitz is the head of the government of Vienna from Apr, 1934 to Mar, 1938.
Theodor Körner is the head of the government of Vienna from Apr, 1945 to Jun, 1951.
Richard Weiskirchner is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1912 to May, 1919.
Hanns Blaschke is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1943 to Apr, 1945.
Helmut Zilk is the head of the government of Vienna from Sep, 1984 to Nov, 1994.
Hermann Neubacher is the head of the government of Vienna from Mar, 1938 to Dec, 1940.
Jakob Reumann is the head of the government of Vienna from May, 1919 to Nov, 1923.
Felix Slavik is the head of the government of Vienna from Dec, 1970 to Jul, 1973.
Josef Neumayer is the head of the government of Vienna from May, 1910 to Dec, 1912.
Leopold Gratz is the head of the government of Vienna from Jul, 1973 to Sep, 1984.
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ViennaVienna (; ; Austro-Bavarian: "Wean") is the national capital, largest city, and one of nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's most populous city, with about 2 million inhabitants (2.6 million within the metropolitan area, nearly one third of the country's population), and its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 6th-largest city by population within city limits in the European Union.Until the beginning of the 20th century, Vienna was the largest German-speaking city in the world, and before the splitting of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I, the city had 2 million inhabitants. Today, it is the second-largest German-speaking city after Berlin. Vienna is host to many major international organizations, including the United Nations, OPEC and the OSCE. The city is located in the eastern part of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region. Along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants. In 2001, the city center was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In July 2017 it was moved to the list of World Heritage in Danger. Additionally, Vienna is known as the "City of Music" due to its musical legacy, as many famous classical musicians such as Beethoven and Mozart called Vienna home. Vienna is also said to be the "City of Dreams", because of it being home to the world's first psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. Vienna's ancestral roots lie in early Celtic and Roman settlements that transformed into a Medieval and Baroque city. It is well known for having played a pivotal role as a leading European music center, from the age of Viennese Classicism through the early part of the 20th century. The historic center of Vienna is rich in architectural ensembles, including Baroque palaces and gardens, and the late-19th-century Ringstraße lined with grand buildings, monuments and parks.Vienna is known for its high quality of life. In a 2005 study of 127 world cities, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked the city first (in a tie with Vancouver and San Francisco) for the world's most livable cities. Between 2011 and 2015, Vienna was ranked second, behind Melbourne. Monocle's 2015 "Quality of Life Survey" ranked Vienna second on a list of the top 25 cities in the world "to make a base within." Monocle's 2012 "Quality of Life Survey" ranked Vienna fourth on a list of the top 25 cities in the world "to make a base within" (up from sixth in 2011 and eighth in 2010). The UN-Habitat classified Vienna as the most prosperous city in the world in 2012/2013. The city was ranked 1st globally for its culture of innovation in 2007 and 2008, and sixth globally (out of 256 cities) in the 2014 Innovation Cities Index, which analyzed 162 indicators in covering three areas: culture, infrastructure, and markets. Vienna regularly hosts urban planning conferences and is often used as a case study by urban planners. Between 2005 and 2010, Vienna was the world's number-one destination for international congresses and conventions. It attracts over 6.8 million tourists a year.The English name "Vienna" is borrowed from the homonymous Italian name. The etymology of the city's name is still subject to scholarly dispute. Some claim that the name comes from "vedunia", meaning "forest stream", which subsequently produced the Old High German "uuenia" ("wenia" in modern writing), the New High German "wien" and its dialectal variant "wean".Others believe that the name comes from the Roman settlement name of Celtic extraction "Vindobona", probably meaning "fair village, white settlement" from Celtic roots, "vindo-", meaning "bright" or "fair" – as in the Irish "fionn" and the Welsh "gwyn" –, and "-bona" "village, settlement". The Celtic word "vindos" may reflect a widespread prehistorical cult of Vindos, a Celtic deity who survives in Irish Mythology as the warrior and seer Fionn mac Cumhaill. A variant of this Celtic name could be preserved in the Czech, Slovak and Polish names of the city ("Vídeň", "Viedeň" and "Wiedeń" respectively) and in that of the city's district Wieden.The name of the city in Hungarian ("Bécs"), Serbo-Croatian ("Beč"; ) and Ottoman Turkish ("Beç") has a different, probably Slavonic origin, and originally referred to an Avar fort in the area. Slovene-speakers call the city "Dunaj", which in other Central European Slavic languages means the river Danube, on which the city stands.Evidence has been found of continuous habitation in the Vienna area since 500 BC, when Celts settled the site on the Danube. In 15 BC, the Romans fortified the frontier city they called Vindobona to guard the empire against Germanic tribes to the north.Close ties with other Celtic peoples continued through the ages. The Irish monk Saint Colman (or Koloman, Irish "Colmán", derived from "colm" "dove") is buried in Melk Abbey and Saint Fergil (Virgil the Geometer) served as Bishop of Salzburg for forty years. Irish Benedictines founded twelfth-century monastic settlements; evidence of these ties persists in the form of Vienna's great Schottenstift monastery (Scots Abbey), once home to many Irish monks.In 976, Leopold I of Babenberg became count of the Eastern March, a district centered on the Danube on the eastern frontier of Bavaria. This initial district grew into the duchy of Austria. Each succeeding Babenberg ruler expanded the march east along the Danube, eventually encompassing Vienna and the lands immediately east. In 1145, Duke Henry II Jasomirgott moved the Babenberg family residence from Klosterneuburg in Lower Austria to Vienna. From that time, Vienna remained the center of the Babenberg dynasty.In 1440, Vienna became the resident city of the Habsburg dynasty. It eventually grew to become the "de facto" capital of the Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) in 1437 and a cultural center for arts and science, music and fine cuisine. Hungary occupied the city between 1485 and 1490.In the 16th and 17th centuries Christian forces twice stopped Ottoman armies outside Vienna, in the 1529 Siege of Vienna and the 1683 Battle of Vienna. The Great Plague of Vienna ravaged the city in 1679, killing nearly a third of its population.In 1804, during the Napoleonic Wars, Vienna became the capital of the newly formed Austrian Empire. The city continued to play a major role in European and world politics, including hosting the Congress of Vienna in 1814/15. After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, Vienna remained the capital of what became the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The city functioned as a center of classical music, for which the title of the First Viennese School (Haydn/Mozart/Beethoven) is sometimes applied.During the latter half of the 19th century, Vienna developed what had previously been the bastions and glacis into the Ringstraße, a new boulevard surrounding the historical town and a major prestige project. Former suburbs were incorporated, and the city of Vienna grew dramatically. In 1918, after World War I, Vienna became capital of the Republic of German-Austria, and then in 1919 of the First Republic of Austria.From the late-19th century to 1938, the city remained a center of high culture and of modernism. A world capital of music, Vienna played host to composers such as Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler and Richard Strauss. The city's cultural contributions in the first half of the 20th century included, among many, the Vienna Secession movement in art, psychoanalysis, the Second Viennese School (Schoenberg, Berg, Webern), the architecture of Adolf Loos and the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle. In 1913 Adolf Hitler, Leon Trotsky, Josip Broz Tito, Sigmund Freud and Joseph Stalin all lived within a few kilometres of each other in central Vienna, some of them becoming regulars at the same coffeehouses.Austrians came to regard Vienna as a center of socialist politics, sometimes referred to as "Red Vienna"(“Das rote Wien”). In the Austrian Civil War of 1934 Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss sent the Austrian Army to shell civilian housing such as the Karl Marx-Hof occupied by the socialist militia.In 1938, after a triumphant entry into Austria, the Austrian-born German Chancellor Adolf Hitler spoke to the Austrian Germans from the balcony of the Neue Burg, a part of the Hofburg at the Heldenplatz. In the ensuing days the new Nazi authorities oversaw the harassment of Viennese Jews, the looting of their homes, and their on-going deportation and murder. Between 1938 (after the Anschluss) and the end of the Second World War in 1945, Vienna lost its status as a capital to Berlin, because Austria ceased to exist and became part of Nazi Germany.During the November pogroms on November 9, 1938, 92 synagogues in Vienna were destroyed. Only the city temple in the 1st district was spared, as the data of all Jews in Vienna were collected in the adjacent archives. Adolf Eichmann held office in the expropriated Palais Rothschild and organized the expropriation and persecution of the Jews. Of the almost 200,000 Jews in Vienna, around 120,000 were driven to emigrate and around 65,000 were killed. After the end of the war, the Jewish population of Vienna was about only 5,000.Vienna was also the center of the important resistance group around Heinrich Maier, which provided the Allies with plans for V-1, V-2 rockets, Peenemünde, Tiger tanks, Messerschmitt Bf 109, Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet and other aircraft. The information was important to Operation Crossbow and Operation Hydra, both preliminary missions for Operation Overlord. In addition, factory locations for war-essential products were communicated as targets for the Allied Air Force. The group was exposed and most of its members were executed after months of torture by the Gestapo in Vienna. The group around the later executed Karl Burian even tried to blow up the Gestapo headquarters in the Hotel Metropole.On 2 April 1945 the Soviet Red Army launched the Vienna Offensive against the Germans holding the city and besieged it. British and American air-raids, as well as artillery duels between the Red Army and the SS and Wehrmacht, crippled infrastructure, such as tram services and water- and power-distribution, and destroyed or damaged thousands of public and private buildings. The Red Army was helped by an Austrian resistance group in the German Wehrmacht. The group tried under the code name Radetzky to prevent the destruction and fighting in the city. Vienna fell eleven days later. At the end of the war, Austria again became separated from Germany, and Vienna regained its status as the capital city of the Republic of Austria, but the Soviet hold on the city remained until 1955, when Austria regained full sovereignty.After the war, Vienna was part of Soviet-occupied Eastern Austria until September 1945. As in Berlin, Vienna in September 1945 was divided into sectors by the four powers: the US, the UK, France, and the Soviet Union and supervised by an Allied Commission. The four-power occupation of Vienna differed in one key respect from that of Berlin: the central area of the city, known as the first district, constituted an "international zone" in which the four powers alternated control on a monthly basis. The control was policed by the four powers on a "de facto" day-to-day basis, the famous "four soldiers in a jeep" method. The Berlin Blockade of 1948 raised Western concerns that the Soviets might repeat the blockade in Vienna. The matter was raised in the UK House of Commons by MP Anthony Nutting, who asked: "What plans have the Government for dealing with a similar situation in Vienna? Vienna is in exactly a similar position to Berlin."There was a lack of airfields in the Western sectors, and authorities drafted contingency plans to deal with such a blockade. Plans included the laying down of metal landing mats at Schönbrunn. The Soviets did not blockade the city. The Potsdam Agreement included written rights of land access to the western sectors, whereas no such written guarantees had covered the western sectors of Berlin. Also, there was no precipitating event to cause a blockade in Vienna. (In Berlin, the Western powers had introduced a new currency in early 1948 to economically freeze out the Soviets.) During the 10 years of the four-power occupation, Vienna became a hotbed for international espionage between the Western and Eastern blocs. In the wake of the Berlin Blockade, the Cold War in Vienna took on a different dynamic. While accepting that Germany and Berlin would be divided, the Soviets had decided against allowing the same state of affairs to arise in Austria and Vienna. Here, the Soviet forces controlled districts 2, 4, 10, 20, 21, and 22 and all areas incorporated into Vienna in 1938.Barbed wire fences were installed around the perimeter of West Berlin in 1953, but not in Vienna. By 1955, the Soviets, by signing the Austrian State Treaty, agreed to relinquish their occupation zones in Eastern Austria as well as their sector in Vienna. In exchange they required that Austria declare its permanent neutrality after the allied powers had left the country. Thus they ensured that Austria would not be a member of NATO and that NATO forces would therefore not have direct communications between Italy and West Germany.The atmosphere of four-power Vienna is the background for Graham Greene's screenplay for the film "The Third Man" (1949). Later he adapted the screenplay as a novel and published it. Occupied Vienna is also depicted in the 1991 Philip Kerr novel, "A German Requiem".The four-power control of Vienna lasted until the Austrian State Treaty was signed in May 1955. That year, after years of reconstruction and restoration, the State Opera and the Burgtheater, both on the Ringstraße, reopened to the public. The Soviet Union signed the State Treaty only after having been provided with a political guarantee by the federal government to declare Austria's neutrality after the withdrawal of the allied troops. This law of neutrality, passed in late October 1955 (and not the State Treaty itself), ensured that modern Austria would align with neither NATO nor the Soviet bloc, and is considered one of the reasons for Austria's delayed entry into the European Union in 1995.In the 1970s, Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky inaugurated the Vienna International Center, a new area of the city created to host international institutions. Vienna has regained much of its former international stature by hosting international organizations, such as the United Nations (United Nations Industrial Development Organization, United Nations Office at Vienna and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime), the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.Because of the industrialization and migration from other parts of the Empire, the population of Vienna increased sharply during its time as the capital of Austria-Hungary (1867–1918). In 1910, Vienna had more than two million inhabitants, and was the third largest city in Europe after London and Paris. Around the start of the 20th century, Vienna was the city with the second-largest Czech population in the world (after Prague). After World War I, many Czechs and Hungarians returned to their ancestral countries, resulting in a decline in the Viennese population. After World War II, the Soviets used force to repatriate key workers of Czech, Slovak and Hungarian origins to return to their ethnic homelands to further the Soviet bloc economy.Under the Nazi regime, 65,000 Jews were deported and murdered in concentration camps by Nazi forces; approximately 130,000 fled.By 2001, 16% of people living in Austria had nationalities other than Austrian, nearly half of whom were from former Yugoslavia; the next most numerous nationalities in Vienna were Turks (39,000; 2.5%), Poles (13,600; 0.9%) and Germans (12,700; 0.8%)., an official report from Statistics Austria showed that more than 660,000 (38.8%) of the Viennese population have full or partial migrant background, mostly from Ex-Yugoslavia, Turkey, Germany, Poland, Romania and Hungary.From 2005 to 2015 the city's population grew by 10.1%. According to UN-Habitat, Vienna could be the fastest growing city out of 17 European metropolitan areas until 2025 with an increase of 4.65% of its population, compared to 2010.According to the 2001 census, 49.2% of Viennese were Catholic, while 25.7% were of no religion, 7.8% were Muslim, 6.0% were members of an Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, 4.7% were Protestant (mostly Lutheran), 0.5% were Jewish and 6.3% were either of other religions or did not reply. A 2011 report by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis showed the proportions had changed, with 41.3% Catholic, 31.6% no affiliation, 11.6% Muslim, 8.4% Eastern Orthodox, 4.2% Protestant, and 2.9% other.Based on information provided to city officials by various religious organizations about their membership, Vienna's Statistical Yearbook 2019 reports in 2018 an estimated 610,269 Roman Catholics, or 32.3% of the population, and 195,000 (10.3%) Muslims, 70,298 (3.7%) Orthodox, 57,502 (3.0%) other Christians, and 9,504 (0.5%) other religions. A study conducted by the Vienna Institute of Demography estimated the 2018 proportions to be 34% Catholic, 30% unaffiliated, 15% Muslim, 10% Orthodox, 4% Protestant, and 6% other religions.Vienna is the seat of the Metropolitan Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna, in which is also vested the exempt Ordinariate for Byzantine-rite Catholics in Austria; its Archbishop is Cardinal Christoph Schönborn. Many Catholic churches in central Vienna feature performances of religious or other music, including masses sung to classical music and organ. Some of Vienna's most significant historical buildings are Catholic churches, including the St. Stephen's Cathedral ("Stephansdom"), Karlskirche, Peterskirche and the Votivkirche. On the banks of the Danube, there is a Buddhist Peace Pagoda, built in 1983 by the monks and nuns of [Nipponzan Myohoji].Vienna is located in northeastern Austria, at the easternmost extension of the Alps in the Vienna Basin. The earliest settlement, at the location of today's inner city, was south of the meandering Danube while the city now spans both sides of the river. Elevation ranges from . The city has a total area of 414.65 square kilometers (160.1 sq mi), making it the largest city in Austria by area.Vienna has an oceanic climate (Köppen classification "Cfb"). The city has warm summers, with periodical precipitations that can reach its yearly peak in July and August (66.6 and 66.5 mm respectively) and average high temperatures from June to September of approximately , with a record maximum exceeding and a record low in September of . Winters are relatively dry and cold with average temperatures at about freezing point. Spring is variable and autumn cool, with possible snowfalls already in November. Precipitation is generally moderate throughout the year, averaging around annually, with considerable local variations, the Vienna Woods region in the west being the wettest part ( annually) and the flat plains in the east being the driest part ( annually). Snow in winter is common, even if not so frequent compared to the Western and Southern regions of Austria.Vienna was moved to the UNESCO world heritage in endangered list in 2017. The main reason was a planned high-rise development. The city's social democratic party planned construction of a complex in 2019. The plan includes a -high tower, which was reduced from due to opposition. UNESCO believed that the project "fails to comply fully with previous committee decisions, notably concerning the height of new constructions, which will impact adversely the outstanding universal value of the site." UNESCO set the restriction for the height of the construction in the city center to .The citizens of Vienna also opposed the construction of the complex because they are afraid of losing UNESCO status and also of encouraging future high-rise development. The city officials replied that they will convince the WHC to maintain UNESCO world heritage status and said that no further high-rise developments are being planned.UNESCO is concerned about the height of high-rise development in Vienna as it can dramatically influence the visual integrity of the city, specifically the baroque palaces. Visual impact studies are being done in the Vienna city center to assess the level of visual disturbance to visitors and how the changes influenced the city's visual integrity.Vienna is composed of 23 districts ("Bezirke"). Administrative district offices in Vienna (called Magistratische Bezirksämter) serve functions similar to those in the other Austrian states (called Bezirkshauptmannschaften), the officers being subject to the mayor of Vienna; with the notable exception of the police, which is under federal supervision.District residents in Vienna (Austrians as well as EU citizens with permanent residence here) elect a District Assembly (Bezirksvertretung). City hall has delegated maintenance budgets, e.g., for schools and parks, so that the districts are able to set priorities autonomously. Any decision of a district can be overridden by the city assembly (Gemeinderat) or the responsible city councilor (amtsführender Stadtrat).The heart and historical city of Vienna, a large part of today's Innere Stadt, was a fortress surrounded by fields in order to defend itself from potential attackers. In 1850, Vienna with the consent of the emperor annexed 34 surrounding villages, called Vorstädte, into the city limits (districts no. 2 to 8, after 1861 with the separation of Margareten from Wieden no. 2 to 9). Consequently, the walls were razed after 1857, making it possible for the city center to expand.In their place, a broad boulevard called the Ringstraße was built, along which imposing public and private buildings, monuments, and parks were created by the start of the 20th century. These buildings include the Rathaus (town hall), the Burgtheater, the University, the Parliament, the twin museums of natural history and fine art, and the Staatsoper. It is also the location of New Wing of the Hofburg, the former imperial palace, and the Imperial and Royal War Ministry finished in 1913. The mainly Gothic Stephansdom is located at the center of the city, on Stephansplatz. The Imperial-Royal Government set up the Vienna City Renovation Fund (Wiener Stadterneuerungsfonds) and sold many building lots to private investors, thereby partly financing public construction works.From 1850 to 1890, city limits in the West and the South mainly followed another wall called "Linienwall" at which a road toll called the "Liniengeld" was charged. Outside this wall from 1873 onwards a ring road called Gürtel was built. In 1890 it was decided to integrate 33 suburbs (called Vororte) beyond that wall into Vienna by 1 January 1892 and transform them into districts no. 11 to 19 (district no. 10 had been constituted in 1874); hence the Linienwall was torn down beginning in 1894. In 1900, district no. 20, Brigittenau, was created by separating the area from the 2nd district.From 1850 to 1904, Vienna had expanded only on the right bank of the Danube, following the main branch before the regulation of 1868–1875, i.e., the Old Danube of today. In 1904, the 21st district was created by integrating Floridsdorf, Kagran, Stadlau, Hirschstetten, Aspern and other villages on the left bank of the Danube into Vienna, in 1910 Strebersdorf followed. On 15 October 1938 the Nazis created Great Vienna with 26 districts by merging 97 towns and villages into Vienna, 80 of which were returned to surrounding Lower Austria in 1954. Since then Vienna has had 23 districts.Industries are located mostly in the southern and eastern districts. The Innere Stadt is situated away from the main flow of the Danube, but is bounded by the "Donaukanal" ("Danube canal"). Vienna's second and twentieth districts are located between the Donaukanal and the Danube. Across the Danube, where the Vienna International Center is located (districts 21–22), and in the southern areas (district 23) are the newest parts of the city.In the twenty years before the First World War and until 1918, Viennese politics were shaped by the Christian Social Party. In particular, long-term mayor Karl Lueger was able to not apply the general voting rights for men introduced by and for the parliament of imperial Austria, the "Reichsrat", in 1907, thereby excluding most of the working class from taking part in decisions. For Adolf Hitler, who spent some years in Vienna, Lueger was a teacher of how to use antisemitism in politics.Vienna is today considered the center of the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ). During the period of the First Republic (1918–1934), the Vienna Social Democrats undertook many social reforms. At that time, Vienna's municipal policy was admired by Socialists throughout Europe, who therefore referred to the city as "Red Vienna" ("Rotes Wien"). In February 1934 troops of the Austrian federal government under Engelbert Dollfuss, who had closed down the first chamber of the federal parliament, the "Nationalrat", in 1933, and paramilitary socialist organizations were engaged in the Austrian Civil War, which led to the ban of the Social Democratic party.The SPÖ has held the mayor's office and control of the city council/parliament at every free election since 1919. The only break in this SPÖ dominance came between 1934 and 1945, when the Social Democratic Party was illegal, mayors were appointed by the austro-fascist and later by the Nazi authorities. The mayor of Vienna is Michael Ludwig of the SPÖ.The city has enacted many social democratic policies. The "Gemeindebauten" are social housing assets that are well integrated into the city architecture outside the first or "inner" district. The low rents enable comfortable accommodation and good access to the city amenities. Many of the projects were built after the Second World War on vacant lots that were destroyed by bombing during the war. The city took particular pride in building them to a high standard.Since Vienna obtained federal state ("Bundesland") status of its own by the federal constitution of 1920, the city council also functions as the state parliament (Landtag), and the mayor (except 1934–1945) also doubles as the "Landeshauptmann" (governor/minister-president) of the state of Vienna. The Rathaus accommodates the offices of the mayor ("") and the state government ("Landesregierung"). The city is administered by a multitude of departments ("Magistratsabteilungen"), politically supervised by "amtsführende Stadträte" (members of the city government leading offices; according to the Vienna constitution opposition parties have the right to designate members of the city government not leading offices).Under the city constitution of 1920, municipal and state business must be kept separate. Hence, the city council and state parliament hold separate meetings, with separate presiding officers–the chairman of the city council or the president of the state Landtag–even though the two bodies' memberships are identical. When meeting as a city council, the deputies can only deal with the affairs of the city of Vienna; when meeting as a state parliament, they can only deal with the affairs of the state of Vienna.In the 1996 City Council election, the SPÖ lost its overall majority in the 100-seat chamber, winning 43 seats and 39.15% of the vote. The SPÖ had held an outright majority at every free municipal election since 1919. In 1996 the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), which won 29 seats (up from 21 in 1991), beat the ÖVP into third place for the second time running. From 1996 to 2001, the SPÖ governed Vienna in a coalition with the ÖVP. In 2001 the SPÖ regained the overall majority with 52 seats and 46.91% of the vote; in October 2005, this majority was increased further to 55 seats (49.09%). In course of the 2010 city council elections the SPÖ lost their overall majority again and consequently forged a coalition with the Green Party – the first SPÖ/Green coalition in Austria. This coalition was maintained following the 2015 election.Vienna is one of the wealthiest regions in the European Union: Its gross regional product of EUR 47,200 per capita constituted 25.7% of Austria's GDP in 2013. It amounts to 159% of the EU average. The city improved its position from 2012 on the ranking of the most economically powerful cities reaching number nine on the listing in 2015.With a share of 85.5% in gross value added, the service sector is Vienna's most important economic sector. Industry and commerce have a share of 14.5% in gross value added, the primary sector (agriculture) has a share of 0.07% and therefore plays a minor role in the local added value. However, the cultivation and production of wines within the city borders have a high socio-cultural value. The most important business sectors are trade (14.7% of added value in Vienna), scientific and technological services, real estate and housing activities as well as manufacturing of goods. In 2012, Vienna's contribution in Austria's outgoing and incoming foreign direct investments was of about 60%, which demonstrates Vienna's role as an international hub for domestic and foreign companies.Since the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, Vienna has expanded its position as gateway to Eastern Europe: 300 international companies have their Eastern European headquarters in Vienna and its environs. Among them are Hewlett Packard, Henkel, Baxalta and Siemens. Companies in Vienna have extensive contacts and competences in business with Eastern Europe due to the city's historical role as center of the Habsburg Empire. The number of international businesses in Vienna is still growing: In 2014 159 and in 2015 175 international firms established offices in Vienna.Altogether, approximately 8,300 new companies have been founded in Vienna every year since 2004. The majority of these companies are operating in fields of industry-oriented services, wholesale trade as well as information and communications technologies and new media. Vienna makes effort to establish itself as a start-up hub. Since 2012, the city hosts the annual Pioneers Festival, the largest start-up event in Central Europe with 2,500 international participants taking place at Hofburg Palace. Tech Cocktail, an online portal for the start-up scene, has ranked Vienna sixth among the top ten start-up cities worldwide.The city of Vienna attaches major importance to science and research and focuses on creating a positive environment for research and development. In 2014, Vienna has accommodated 1,329 research facilities; 40,400 persons are employed in the R&D sector and 35% of Austria's R&D expenses are invested in the city. With a research quota of 3.4% Vienna exceeds the Austrian average of 2.77% and has already met the EU target of 3.0% by 2020. A major R&D sector in Vienna are life sciences. The Vienna Life Science Cluster is Austria's major hub for life science research, education and business. Throughout Vienna, five universities and several basic research institutes form the academic core of the hub with more than 12,600 employees and 34,700 students. Here, more than 480 medical device, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies with almost 23,000 employees generate around 12 billion euros in revenue (2017). This corresponds to more than 50% of the revenue generated by life science companies in Austria (22.4 billion euros).Vienna is home to global players like Boehringer Ingelheim, Octapharma, Ottobock and Takeda. However, there is also a growing number of start-up companies in the life sciences and Vienna was ranked first in the 2019 PeoplePerHour Startup Cities Index. Companies such as Apeiron Biologics, Hookipa Pharma, Marinomed, mySugr, Themis Bioscience and Valneva operate a presence in Vienna and regularly hit the headlines internationally.To facilitate tapping the economic potential of the multiple facettes of the life sciences at Austria's capital, the Austrian Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs and the local government of City of Vienna have joined forces: Since 2002, the LISAvienna platform is available as a central contact point. It provides free business support services at the interface of the Austrian federal promotional bank, Austria Wirtschaftsservice and the Vienna Business Agency and collects data that inform policy making.The main academic hot spots in Vienna are the Life Science Center Muthgasse with the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), the Austrian Institute of Technology, the University of Veterinary Medicine, the AKH Vienna with the MedUni Vienna and the Vienna Biocenter. Central European University, a graduate institution expelled from Budapest in the midst of a Hungarian government steps to take control of academic and research organizations, welcomes the first class of students to its new Vienna campus in 2019.The Viennese sector for information and communication technologies is comparable in size with the sector in Helsinki, Milan or Munich and thus among Europe's largest IT locations. In 2012 8,962 IT businesses with a workforce of 64,223 were located in the Vienna Region. The main products are instruments and appliances for measuring, testing and navigation as well as electronic components. More than ⅔ of the enterprises provide IT services. Among the biggest IT firms in Vienna are Kapsch, Beko Engineering & Informatics, air traffic control experts Frequentis, Cisco Systems Austria, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft Austria, IBM Austria and Samsung Electronics Austria.The US technology corporation Cisco runs its "Entrepreneurs in Residence" program for Europe in Vienna in cooperation with the Vienna Business Agency.The British company UBM has rated Vienna one of the "Top 10 Internet Cities" worldwide, by analyzing criteria like connection speed, WiFi availability, innovation spirit and open government data.In 2011 74.3% of Viennese households were connected with broadband, 79% were in possession of a computer. According to the broadband strategy of the city, full broadband coverage will be reached by 2020.There were 17.6 million overnight stays in Vienna in 2019 (+6.8% compared to 2018). The top ten incoming markets in 2019 were Germany, Austria, the United States, Italy, United Kingdom, Spain, China, France, Russia and Switzerland.In 2019 the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) ranked Vienna 6th in the world for association meetings. The Union of International Associations (UIA) ranked Vienna 5th in the world for 2019 with 306 international meetings, behind Singapore, Brussels, Seoul and Paris. The city's largest conference center, the Austria Center Vienna (ACV) has a total capacity for around 22,800 people and is situated next to the United Nations Headquarters in Vienna. Other centers are the Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center (up to 3,000 people) and the Hofburg Palace (up to 4,900 people).Vienna was ranked top in the "2019 Quality of Living Ranking" by the international Mercer Consulting Group for the tenth consecutive year. In the 2015 liveability report by the Economist Intelligence Unit as well as in the "Quality of Life Survey 2015" of London-based "Monocle magazine" Vienna was equally ranked second most livable city worldwide.The United Nations Human Settlements Programme "UN-Habitat" has ranked Vienna the most prosperous city in the world in its flagship report "State of the World Cities 2012/2013".According to the 2014 City RepTrack ranking by the Reputation Institute, Vienna has the best reputation in comparison with 100 major global cities.The "Innovation Cities Global Index 2014" by the Australian innovation agency 2thinknow ranks Vienna sixth behind San Francisco-San Jose, New York City, London, Boston and Paris. In 2019 PeoplePerHour put Vienna at the top of their Startup Cities Ranking.US climate strategist Boyd Cohen placed Vienna first in his first "global smart cities" ranking of 2012. In the 2014 ranking, Vienna reached third place among European cities behind Copenhagen and Amsterdam.The "Mori Memorial Institute for Urban Strategies" ranked Vienna in the top ten of their Global Power City Index 2016.Vienna's new Central Railway Station was opened in October 2014. Construction began in June 2007 and was due to last until December 2015. The station is served by 1,100 trains with 145,000 passengers. There is a shopping center with approximately 90 shops and restaurants.In the vicinity of the station a new district is emerging with office space and 5,000 apartments until 2020.Seestadt Aspern is one of the largest urban expansion projects of Europe. A 5 hectare artificial lake, offices, apartments and a subway station within walking distance are supposed to attract 20,000 new citizens when construction is completed in 2028.In addition, the highest wooden skyscraper in the world, “HoHo Wien”, will be built within 3 years, starting in 2015.In 2014, the Vienna City Council adopted the Smart City Wien Framework Strategy 2050. It is a long-term umbrella strategy that is supposed to establish a conducive, long-term and structural framework in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from 3.1 tonnes per capita to 1 tonne per capita by 2050, have 50% of Vienna's gross energy consumption originate from renewable sources and to reduce motorized individual traffic from the current 28% to 15% by 2030. A stated goal is that, by 2050, all vehicles within the municipal boundaries will run without conventional propulsion technologies. Additionally, Vienna aims to be one of the five biggest European research and innovation hubs in 2050.Famous composers including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Ferdinand Ries, Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler, Robert Stolz, and Arnold Schoenberg have worked in Vienna.Art and culture had a long tradition in Vienna, including theater, opera, classical music and fine arts. The Burgtheater is considered one of the best theaters in the German-speaking world alongside its branch, the Akademietheater. The Volkstheater Wien and the Theater in der Josefstadt also enjoy good reputations. There is also a multitude of smaller theaters, in many cases devoted to less mainstream forms of the performing arts, such as modern, experimental plays or cabaret.Vienna is also home to a number of opera houses, including the Theater an der Wien, the Staatsoper and the Volksoper, the latter being devoted to the typical Viennese operetta. Classical concerts are performed at venues such as the Wiener Musikverein, home of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra known across the world for the annual widely broadcast "New Year's Day Concert", as well as the Wiener Konzerthaus, home of the internationally renowned Vienna Symphony. Many concert venues offer concerts aimed at tourists, featuring popular highlights of Viennese music, particularly the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johann Strauss I, and Johann Strauss II.Up until 2005, the Theater an der Wien hosted premieres of musicals, but since 2006 (a year dedicated to the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth), has devoted itself to opera again, becoming a stagione opera house offering one new production each month. Since 2012, Theater an der Wien has taken over the Wiener Kammeroper, a historical small theater in the first district of Vienna seating 300 spectators, turning it into its second venue for smaller sized productions and chamber operas created by the young ensemble of Theater an der Wien (JET). Before 2005 the most successful musical was "Elisabeth", which was later translated into several languages and performed all over the world. The Wiener Taschenoper is dedicated to stage music of the 20th and 21st century. The Haus der Musik ("house of music") opened in the year 2000.The Wienerlied is a unique song genre from Vienna. There are approximately 60,000 – 70,000 Wienerlieder.In 1981 the popular British new romantic group Ultravox paid a tribute to Vienna on an album and an artful music video recording called "Vienna". The inspiration for this work arose from the cinema production called "The Third Man" with the title Zither music of Anton Karas.The Vienna's English Theatre (VET) is an English theater in Vienna. It was founded in 1963 and is located in the 8th Vienna's district. It is the oldest English-language theater in continental Europe.In May 2015, Vienna hosted the Eurovision Song Contest following Austria's victory in the 2014 contest.Notable entertainers born in Vienna include Hedy Lamarr, Christoph Waltz, John Banner, Christiane Hörbiger, Eric Pohlmann, Boris Kodjoe, Christine Buchegger, Mischa Hausserman, Senta Berger and Christine Ostermayer.Notable musicians born in Vienna include Louie Austen, Alban Berg, Falco, Fritz Kreisler, Joseph Lanner, Arnold Schönberg, Franz Schubert, Johann Strauss I, Johann Strauss II, Anton Webern, and Joe Zawinul.Famous musicians who came here to work from other parts of Austria and Germany were Johann Joseph Fux, Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Ferdinand Ries, Johann Sedlatzek, Antonio Salieri, Carl Czerny, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Franz Liszt, Franz von Suppé, Anton Bruckner, Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler and Rainhard Fendrich.Among the most notable Viennese Jews, some of whom left Austria before and during Nazi persecution, are the following figures: Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler (who eventually converted to Christianity), Rudolf Dreikurs, Viktor Frankl, Fritz Lang, Peter Lorre, Fred Zinnemann (both of whose parents were murdered in the Holocaust), Stefan Zweig, Simon Wiesenthal, Theodor Herzl, Judah Alkalai, Erich von Stroheim, Hedy Lamarr, Billy Wilder, Franz Werfel, Arnold Schoenberg, Walter Arlen and Fritz Kreisler.Notable writers from Vienna include Karl Leopold von Möller, Carl Julius Haidvogel, and Stefan Zweig.Writers who lived and worked in Vienna include Franz Kafka, Arthur Schnitzler, Elias Canetti, Ingeborg Bachmann, Robert Musil, Karl Kraus, Ernst von Feuchtersleben, Thomas Bernhard and Elfriede Jelinek.Notable politicians from Vienna include Karl Leopold von Möller.The Hofburg is the location of the Imperial Treasury ("Schatzkammer"), holding the imperial jewels of the Habsburg dynasty. The Sisi Museum (a museum devoted to Empress Elisabeth of Austria) allows visitors to view the imperial apartments as well as the silver cabinet. Directly opposite the Hofburg are the Kunsthistorisches Museum, which houses many paintings by old masters, ancient and classical artifacts, and the Naturhistorisches Museum.A number of museums are located in the Museumsquartier (museum quarter), the former Imperial Stalls which were converted into a museum complex in the 1990s. It houses the Museum of Modern Art, commonly known as the MUMOK (Ludwig Foundation), the Leopold Museum (featuring the largest collection of paintings in the world by Egon Schiele, as well as works by the Vienna Secession, Viennese Modernism and Austrian Expressionism), the AzW (museum of architecture), additional halls with feature exhibitions, and the Tanzquartier. The Liechtenstein Palace contains much of one of the world's largest private art collections, especially strong in the Baroque. The Belvedere, built under Prince Eugene, has a gallery containing paintings by Gustav Klimt (The Kiss), Egon Schiele, and other painters of the early 20th century, also sculptures by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, and changing exhibitions too.There are a multitude of other museums in Vienna, including the Albertina, the Military History Museum, the Technical Museum, the Burial Museum, the Museum of Art Fakes, the KunstHausWien, Museum of Applied Arts, the Sigmund Freud Museum, and the Mozarthaus Vienna. The museums on the history of the city, including the former Historical Museum of the City of Vienna on Karlsplatz, the Hermesvilla, the residences and birthplaces of various composers, the Museum of the Romans, and the Vienna Clock Museum, are now gathered together under the group umbrella Vienna Museum. The Jewish Museum Vienna, founded 1896, is the oldest of its kind. In addition there are museums dedicated to Vienna's individual districts. They provide a record of individual struggles, achievements and tragedy as the city grew and survived two world wars. For readers seeking family histories these are good sources of information.A variety of architectural styles can be found in Vienna, such as the Romanesque Ruprechtskirche and the Baroque Karlskirche. Styles range from classicist buildings to modern architecture. Art Nouveau left many architectural traces in Vienna. The Secession building, Karlsplatz Stadtbahn Station, and the Kirche am Steinhof by Otto Wagner rank among the best known examples of Art Nouveau in the world. Wagner's prominent student Jože Plečnik from Slovenia also left important traces in Vienna. His works include the Langer House (1900) and the Zacherlhaus (1903–1905). Plečnik's 1910–1913 "Church of the Holy Spirit" () in Vienna is remarkable for its innovative use of poured-in-place concrete as both structure and exterior surface, and also for its abstracted classical form language. Most radical is the church's crypt, with its slender concrete columns and angular, cubist capitals and bases.Concurrent to the Art Nouveau movement was the Wiener Moderne, during which some architects shunned the use of extraneous adornment. A key architect of this period was Adolf Loos, whose works include the Looshaus (1909), the Kärntner Bar or American Bar (1908) and the Steiner House (1910).The Hundertwasserhaus by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, designed to counter the clinical look of modern architecture, is one of Vienna's most popular tourist attractions. Another example of unique architecture is the Wotrubakirche by sculptor Fritz Wotruba. In the 1990s, a number of quarters were adapted and extensive building projects were implemented in the areas around Donaustadt (north of the Danube) and Wienerberg (in southern Vienna).The 220-meter high DC Tower 1 located on the Northern bank of the Danube, completed in 2013, is the tallest skyscraper in Vienna. In recent years, Vienna has seen numerous architecture projects completed which combine modern architectural elements with old buildings, such as the remodeling and revitalization of the old Gasometer in 2001.Most buildings in Vienna are relatively low; in early 2006 there were around 100 buildings higher than . The number of high-rise buildings is kept low by building legislation aimed at preserving green areas and districts designated as world cultural heritage. Strong rules apply to the planning, authorization and construction of high-rise buildings. Consequently, much of the inner city is a high-rise free zone.Vienna is the last great capital of the 19th-century ball. There are over 450 balls per year, some featuring as many as nine live orchestras. Balls are held in the many palaces in Vienna, with the principal venue being the Hofburg Palace in Heldenplatz. While the Opera Ball is the best known internationally of all the Austrian balls, other balls such as the Kaffeesiederball (Cafe Owners Ball), the Jägerball (Hunter's Ball) and the Life Ball (AIDS charity event) are almost as well known within Austria and even better appreciated for their cordial atmosphere. Viennese of at least middle class may visit a number of balls in their lifetime.Dancers and opera singers from the Vienna State Opera often perform at the openings of the larger balls.A Vienna ball is an all-night cultural attraction. Major Vienna balls generally begin at 9 pm and last until 5 am, although many guests carry on the celebrations into the next day. Viennese balls are being exported (with support from the City of Vienna) to around 30 cities worldwide such as New York, Barcelona, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Rome, Prague, Bucharest, Berlin and Moscow.Vienna is part of the Austro-Bavarian language area, in particular Central Bavarian ("Mittelbairisch"). In recent years, linguistics experts have seen a decline in the use of the Viennese variant. Manfred Glauninger, sociolinguist at the Institute for Austrian Dialect and Name Lexica, has observed three issues. First, many parents feel there's a stigma attached to the Viennese dialect so they speak Standard German to their children. Second, many children have recently immigrated to Austria and are learning German as a second language in school. Third, young people are influenced by mass media which is most always delivered in Standard German.Vienna is Austria's main center of education and home to many universities, professional colleges and gymnasiums (high schools).Vienna possesses many parks, including the "Stadtpark", the "Burggarten", the "Volksgarten" (part of the "Hofburg"), the "Schlosspark" at Schloss Belvedere (home to the Vienna Botanic Gardens), the "Donaupark", the "Schönbrunner Schlosspark", the "Prater", the "Augarten", the "Rathauspark", the "Lainzer Tiergarten", the "Dehnepark", the "Resselpark", the "Votivpark", the "Kurpark Oberlaa", the "Auer-Welsbach-Park" and the "Türkenschanzpark". Green areas include "Laaer-Berg" (including the Bohemian Prater) and the foothills of the "Wienerwald", which reaches into the outer areas of the city. Small parks, known by the Viennese as "Beserlparks", are everywhere in the inner city areas.Many of Vienna's parks include monuments, such as the Stadtpark with its statue of Johann Strauss II, and the gardens of the baroque palace, where the State Treaty was signed. Vienna's principal park is the Prater which is home to the Riesenrad, a Ferris wheel, and Kugelmugel, a micronation the shape of a sphere. The imperial Schönbrunn's grounds contain an 18th-century park which includes the world's oldest zoo, founded in 1752.The Donauinsel, part of Vienna's flood defenses, is a long artificial island between the Danube and Neue Donau dedicated to leisure activities.Austria's capital is home to numerous football teams. The best known are the local football clubs include FK Austria Wien (21 Austrian Bundesliga titles and record 27-time cup winners), SK Rapid Wien (record 32 Austrian Bundesliga titles), and the oldest team, First Vienna FC. Other important sports clubs include the Raiffeisen Vikings Vienna (American Football), who won the Eurobowl title between 2004 and 2007 4 times in a row and had a perfect season in 2013, the Aon hotVolleys Vienna, one of Europe's premier Volleyball organizations, the Vienna Wanderers (baseball) who won the 2012 and 2013 Championship of the Austrian Baseball League, and the Vienna Capitals (Ice Hockey). Vienna was also where the European Handball Federation (EHF) was founded. There are also three rugby clubs; Vienna Celtic, the oldest rugby club in Austria, RC Donau, and Stade ViennoisVienna hosts many different sporting events including the Vienna City Marathon, which attracts more than 10,000 participants every year and normally takes place in May. In 2005 the Ice Hockey World Championships took place in Austria and the final was played in Vienna. Vienna's Ernst Happel Stadium was the venue of four Champions League and European Champion Clubs' Cup finals (1964, 1987, 1990 and 1995) and on 29 June it hosted the final of Euro 2008 which saw a Spanish 1–0 victory over Germany. Tennis tournament Vienna Open also takes place in the city since 1974. The matches are played in the Wiener Stadthalle.The Neue Donau, which was formed after the Donauinsel was created, is free of river traffic and a popular destination for leisure and sports activities.Vienna will host the official 2021 3x3 Basketball World Cup.Vienna is well known for "Wiener Schnitzel", a cutlet of veal "(Kalbsschnitzel)" or pork "(Schweinsschnitzel)" that is pounded flat, coated in flour, egg and breadcrumbs, and fried in clarified butter. It is available in almost every restaurant that serves Viennese cuisine and can be eaten hot or cold. The traditional 'Wiener Schnitzel' though is a cutlet of veal. Other examples of Viennese cuisine include "Tafelspitz" (very lean boiled beef), which is traditionally served with "Geröstete Erdäpfel" (boiled potatoes mashed with a fork and subsequently fried) and horseradish sauce, "Apfelkren" (a mixture of horseradish, cream and apple) and "Schnittlauchsauce" (a chives sauce made with mayonnaise and stale bread).Vienna has a long tradition of producing cakes and desserts. These include "Apfelstrudel" (hot apple strudel), "Milchrahmstrudel" (milk-cream strudel), "Palatschinken" (sweet pancakes), and "Knödel" (dumplings) often filled with fruit such as apricots ("Marillenknödel"). Sachertorte, a delicately moist chocolate cake with apricot jam created by the Sacher Hotel, is world-famous.In winter, small street stands sell traditional "Maroni" (hot chestnuts) and potato fritters.Sausages are popular and available from street vendors ("Würstelstand") throughout the day and into the night. The sausage known as "Wiener" (German for Viennese) in the U.S. and in Germany, is called a "Frankfurter" in Vienna. Other popular sausages are "Burenwurst" (a coarse beef and pork sausage, generally boiled), "Käsekrainer" (spicy pork with small chunks of cheese), and "Bratwurst" (a white pork sausage). Most can be ordered "mit Brot" (with bread) or as a "hot dog" (stuffed inside a long roll). Mustard is the traditional condiment and usually offered in two varieties: "süß" (sweet) or "scharf" (spicy).Kebab, pizza and noodles are, increasingly, the snack foods most widely available from small stands.The "Naschmarkt" is a permanent market for fruit, vegetables, spices, fish, meat, etc., from around the world. The city has many coffee and breakfast stores.Vienna, along with Paris, Santiago, Cape Town, Prague, Canberra, Bratislava and Warsaw, is one of the few remaining world capital cities with its own vineyards. The wine is served in small Viennese pubs known as Heuriger, which are especially numerous in the wine growing areas of Döbling (Grinzing, Neustift am Walde, Nußdorf, Salmannsdorf, Sievering), Floridsdorf (Stammersdorf, Strebersdorf), Liesing (Mauer) and Favoriten (Oberlaa). The wine is often drunk as a Spritzer ("G'spritzter") with sparkling water. The Grüner Veltliner, a dry white wine, is the most widely cultivated wine in Austria. Another wine very typical for the region is "Gemischter Satz", which is typically a blend of different types of wines harvested from the same vineyard.Beer is next in importance to wine. Vienna has a single large brewery, Ottakringer, and more than ten microbreweries. A "Beisl" is a typical small Austrian pub, of which Vienna has many.Also, local soft drinks such as Almdudler are popular around the country as an alternative to alcoholic beverages, placing it on the top spots along American counterparts such as Coca-Cola in terms of market share. Another popular drink is the so-called "Spezi", a mix between Coca-Cola and the original formula of Orange Fanta or the more locally renowned Frucade.Viennese cafés have an extremely long and distinguished history that dates back centuries, and the caffeine addictions of some famous historical patrons of the oldest are something of a local legend. These coffee houses are unique to Vienna and many cities have unsuccessfully sought to copy them. Some people consider cafés as their extended living room where nobody will be bothered if they spend hours reading a newspaper while enjoying their coffee. Traditionally, the coffee comes with a glass of water. Viennese cafés claim to have invented the process of filtering coffee from booty captured after the second Turkish siege in 1683. Viennese cafés claim that when the invading Turks left Vienna, they abandoned hundreds of sacks of coffee beans. The Polish King John III Sobieski, the commander of the anti-Turkish coalition of Poles, Germans, and Austrians, gave Franz George Kolschitzky (Polish – Franciszek Jerzy Kulczycki) some of this coffee as a reward for providing information that allowed him to defeat the Turks. Kolschitzky then opened Vienna's first coffee shop. Julius Meinl set up a modern roasting plant in the same premises where the coffee sacks were found, in 1891.Major tourist attractions include the imperial palaces of the Hofburg and Schönbrunn (also home to the world's oldest zoo, Tiergarten Schönbrunn) and the Riesenrad in the Prater. Cultural highlights include the Burgtheater, the Wiener Staatsoper, the Lipizzaner horses at the spanische Hofreitschule, and the Vienna Boys' Choir, as well as excursions to Vienna's Heurigen district Döbling.There are also more than 100 art museums, which together attract over eight million visitors per year. The most popular ones are Albertina, Belvedere, Leopold Museum in the Museumsquartier, KunstHausWien, Bank Austria Kunstforum, the twin "Kunsthistorisches Museum" and "Naturhistorisches Museum", and the Technisches Museum Wien, each of which receives over a quarter of a million visitors per year.There are many popular sites associated with composers who lived in Vienna including Beethoven's various residences and grave at Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery) which is the largest cemetery in Vienna and the burial site of many famous people. Mozart has a memorial grave at the Habsburg gardens and at St. Marx cemetery (where his grave was lost). Vienna's many churches also draw large crowds, famous of which are St. Stephen's Cathedral, the Deutschordenskirche, the Jesuitenkirche, the Karlskirche, the Peterskirche, Maria am Gestade, the Minoritenkirche, the Ruprechtskirche, the Schottenkirche, St. Ulrich and the Votivkirche.Modern attractions include the Hundertwasserhaus, the United Nations headquarters and the view from the Donauturm.Vienna has an extensive transportation network with a unified fare system that integrates municipal, regional and railway systems under the umbrella of the Verkehrsverbund Ost-Region (VOR). Public transport is provided by buses, trams and five underground metro lines (U-Bahn), most operated by the Wiener Linien. There are also more than 50 S-train stations within the city limits. Suburban trains are operated by the ÖBB. The city forms the hub of the Austrian railway system, with services to all parts of the country and abroad. The railway system connects Vienna's main station Vienna Hauptbahnhof with other European cities, like Berlin, Bratislava, Budapest, Brussels, Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Ljubljana, Munich, Prague, Venice, Wrocław, Warsaw, Zagreb and Zürich.Vienna has multiple road connections including expressways and motorways.Vienna is served by Vienna International Airport, located southeast of the city center next to the town of Schwechat. The airport handled approximately 31.7 million passengers in 2019. Following lengthy negotiations with surrounding communities, the airport will be expanded to increase its capacity by adding a third runway. The airport is undergoing a major expansion, including a new terminal building that opened in 2012 to prepare for an increase in passengers.Vienna is the seat of a number of United Nations offices and various international institutions and companies, including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). Vienna is the world's third "UN city", next to New York, Geneva, and Nairobi. Additionally, Vienna is the seat of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law's secretariat (UNCITRAL). In conjunction, the University of Vienna annually hosts the prestigious Willem C. Vis Moot, an international commercial arbitration competition for students of law from around the world.Diplomatic meetings have been held in Vienna in the latter half of the 20th century, resulting in documents bearing the name Vienna Convention or Vienna Document. Among the more important documents negotiated in Vienna are the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, as well as the 1990 Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. Vienna also hosted the negotiations leading to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Iran's nuclear program as well as the Vienna peace talks for Syria.Vienna also headquartered the International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF).Alongside international and intergovernmental organizations, there are dozens of charitable organizations based in Vienna. One such organization is the network of SOS Children's Villages, founded by Hermann Gmeiner in 1949. Today, SOS Children's Villages are active in 132 countries and territories worldwide. Others include HASCO.Another popular international event is the annual Life Ball, which supports people with HIV or AIDS. Guests such as Bill Clinton and Whoopi Goldberg were recent attendees.The general policy of the City of Vienna is not to sign any twin or sister city agreements with other cities. Instead Vienna has only cooperation agreements in which specific cooperation areas are defined.In addition, individual Viennese districts have international partnerships all over the world. A detailed list is published on the website of the City of Vienna.
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[
"Hanns Blaschke",
"Karl Seitz",
"Richard Weiskirchner",
"Richard Schmitz",
"Bruno Marek",
"Felix Slavik",
"Theodor Körner",
"Hermann Neubacher",
"Karl Lueger",
"Leopold Gratz",
"Jakob Reumann",
"Josef Neumayer",
"Franz Jonas",
"Michael Häupl",
"Philipp Wilhelm Jung",
"Helmut Zilk"
] |
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Who was the head of Poland in Sep, 1989?
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September 04, 1989
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{
"text": [
"Tadeusz Mazowiecki"
]
}
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L2_Q36_P6_0
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Tadeusz Mazowiecki is the head of the government of Poland from Aug, 1989 to Jan, 1991.
Jarosław Kaczyński is the head of the government of Poland from Jul, 2006 to Nov, 2007.
Hanna Suchocka is the head of the government of Poland from Jul, 1992 to Oct, 1993.
Mateusz Morawiecki is the head of the government of Poland from Dec, 2017 to Dec, 2022.
Marek Belka is the head of the government of Poland from May, 2004 to Oct, 2005.
Ewa Kopacz is the head of the government of Poland from Sep, 2014 to Nov, 2015.
Jerzy Buzek is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 1997 to Oct, 2001.
Jan Krzysztof Bielecki is the head of the government of Poland from Jan, 1991 to Dec, 1991.
Donald Tusk is the head of the government of Poland from Nov, 2007 to Sep, 2014.
Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz is the head of the government of Poland from Feb, 1996 to Oct, 1997.
Beata Szydło is the head of the government of Poland from Nov, 2015 to Dec, 2017.
Józef Oleksy is the head of the government of Poland from Mar, 1995 to Feb, 1996.
Jan Olszewski is the head of the government of Poland from Dec, 1991 to Jun, 1992.
Waldemar Pawlak is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 1993 to Mar, 1995.
Leszek Miller is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 2001 to May, 2004.
Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 2005 to Jul, 2006.
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PolandPoland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country located in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces, covering an area of , and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With a population of nearly 38.5 million people, Poland is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union. Poland's capital and largest metropolis is Warsaw. Other major cities include Kraków, Łódź, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk, and Szczecin.Poland's topographically diverse territory extends from the beaches along the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in its south. The country is bordered by Lithuania and Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukraine to the east, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the south, and Germany to the west.The history of human activity on Polish soil spans thousands of years. Throughout the late antiquity period it became extensively diverse, with various cultures and tribes settling on the vast Central European Plain. However, it was the Western Polans who dominated the region and gave Poland its name. The establishment of Polish statehood can be traced to 966, when the pagan ruler of a realm coextensive with the territory of present-day Poland embraced Christianity and converted to Catholicism. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented its longstanding political association with Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest (over in area) and most populous nations of 16th and 17th century Europe, with a uniquely liberal political system which adopted Europe's first modern constitution, the Constitution of 3 May 1791.With the passing of prominence and prosperity, the country was partitioned by neighbouring states at the end of the 18th century, and regained independence in 1918 with the Treaty of Versailles. After a series of territorial conflicts, the new multi-ethnic Poland restored its position as a key player in European politics. In September 1939, World War II began with the invasion of Poland by Germany, followed by the Soviets invading Poland in accordance with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Approximately six million Polish citizens, including three million of the country's Jews, perished during the course of the war. As a member of the Eastern Bloc, the Polish People's Republic proclaimed forthwith was a chief signatory of the Warsaw Treaty amidst global Cold War tensions. In the wake of the 1989 events, notably through the emergence and contributions of the Solidarity movement, the communist government was dissolved and Poland re-established itself as a semi-presidential democratic republic.Poland is a developed market, and a middle power. It has the sixth largest economy in the European Union by nominal GDP and the fifth largest by GDP (PPP). It provides very high standards of living, safety and economic freedom, as well as free university education and a universal health care system. The country has 16 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, 15 of which are cultural. Poland is a member state of the Schengen Area, European Union, European Economic Area, the United Nations, NATO, the OECD, the Three Seas Initiative and the Visegrád Group.The origin of the name "Poland" derives from the West Slavic tribe of Polans ("Polanie"), who inhabited the Warta river basin of the present-day Greater Poland region starting in the mid-6th century. The origin of the name "Polanie" itself derives from the Proto-Slavic word "pole" (field). In some languages, such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian, Russian and Turkish, the country's name is derived from the Lendians ("Lędzianie" or "Lachy") who dwelled on the southeasternmost edge of present-day Lesser Poland. Their name likewise derives from the Old Polish word "lęda" (open land or plain).The early Bronze Age in Poland began around 2400 BC, while the Iron Age commenced in approximately 750 BC. During this time, the Lusatian culture, spanning both the Bronze and Iron Ages, became particularly prominent. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement (now reconstructed as an open-air museum), dating from the Lusatian culture of the late Bronze Age, around 748 BC.Throughout Antiquity, many distinct ancient ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland in an era that dates from about 400 BC to 500 AD. These groups are identified as Celtic, Scythian, Germanic, Sarmatian, Slavic and Baltic tribes. Also, recent archaeological findings in the Kuyavia region confirmed the presence of the Roman Legions on the territory of Poland. These were most likely expeditionary missions sent out to protect the amber trade. The exact time and routes of the original migration and settlement of Slavic peoples lacks written records and can only be defined as fragmented. There is evidence that earlier tribes may have been associated with the ancient Przeworsk culture. Up until the creation of Mieszko's state and his subsequent conversion to Christianity in 966 AD, the main religion of the numerous West Slavic (Lechitic) tribes that inhabited the geographical area of present-day Poland was paganism. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Western Christianity and the religious authority of the Roman Church. However, the transition from paganism was not a smooth and instantaneous process for the rest of the population as evident from the pagan reaction of the 1030s.Poland began to form into a recognizable unitary and territorial entity around the middle of the 10th century under the Piast dynasty. Poland's first historically documented ruler, Mieszko I, accepted Christianity, as the rightful religion of his realm, under the auspices of the Latin Church with the Baptism of Poland in 966. The bulk of the population converted in the course of the next few centuries. In 1000, Boleslaw the Brave, continuing the policy of his father Mieszko, held a Congress of Gniezno and created the metropolis of Gniezno and the dioceses of Kraków, Kołobrzeg, and Wrocław. However, the pagan unrest led to the transfer of the capital to Kraków in 1038 by Casimir I the Restorer.In 1109, Prince Bolesław III Wrymouth defeated the King of Germany Henry V at the Battle of Hundsfeld, stopping the German incursion into Poland. The clash between Bolesław III and Henry V was documented by Gallus Anonymus in his 1118 chronicle. In 1138, Poland fragmented into several smaller duchies when Bolesław divided his lands among his sons. In 1226, Konrad I of Masovia, one of the regional Piast dukes, invited the Teutonic Knights to help him fight the Baltic Prussian pagans; a decision that led to centuries of warfare with the Knights. In 1264, the Statute of Kalisz or the General Charter of Jewish Liberties introduced numerous right for the Jews in Poland, leading to a nearly autonomous "nation within a nation".In the middle of the 13th century, the Silesian branch of the Piast dynasty (Henry I the Bearded and Henry II the Pious, ruled 1238–1241) nearly succeeded in uniting the Polish lands, but the Mongols invaded the country from the east and defeated the combined Polish forces at the Battle of Legnica where Duke Henry II the Pious died. In 1320, after a number of earlier unsuccessful attempts by regional rulers at uniting the Polish dukedoms, Władysław I consolidated his power, took the throne and became the first king of a reunified Poland. His son, Casimir III (reigned 1333–1370), has a reputation as one of the greatest Polish kings, and gained wide recognition for improving the country's infrastructure. He also extended royal protection to Jews, and encouraged their immigration to Poland. Casimir III realized that the nation needed a class of educated people, especially lawyers, who could codify the country's laws and administer the courts and offices. His efforts to create an institution of higher learning in Poland were finally rewarded when Pope Urban V granted him permission to open the University of Kraków.The Golden Liberty of the nobles began to develop under Casimir's rule, when in return for their military support, the king made a series of concessions to the nobility and establishing their legal status as superior to that of the townsfolk. When Casimir the Great died in 1370, leaving no legitimate male heir, the Piast dynasty came to an end.During the 13th and 14th centuries, Poland became a destination for German, Flemish and to a lesser extent Walloon, Danish and Scottish migrants. Also, Jews and Armenians began to settle and flourish in Poland during this era (see History of the Jews in Poland and Armenians in Poland).The Black Death, a plague that ravaged Europe from 1347 to 1351, did not significantly affect Poland, and the country was spared from a major outbreak of the disease. The reason for this was the decision of Casimir the Great to quarantine the nation's borders.The Jagiellon dynasty spanned the late Middle Ages and early Modern Era of Polish history. Beginning with the Lithuanian Grand Duke Jogaila (Władysław II Jagiełło), the Jagiellon dynasty (1386–1572) formed the Polish–Lithuanian union. The partnership brought vast Lithuanian-controlled Rus' areas into Poland's sphere of influence and proved beneficial for the Poles and Lithuanians, who coexisted and cooperated in one of the largest political entities in Europe for the next four centuries.In the Baltic Sea region the struggle of Poland and Lithuania with the Teutonic Knights continued and culminated at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, where a combined Polish-Lithuanian army inflicted a decisive victory against them. In 1466, after the Thirteen Years' War, King Casimir IV Jagiellon gave royal consent to the Peace of Thorn, which created the future Duchy of Prussia under Polish suzerainty. The Jagiellon dynasty at one point also established dynastic control over the kingdoms of Bohemia (1471 onwards) and Hungary. In the south, Poland confronted the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Tatars (by whom they were attacked on 75 separate occasions between 1474 and 1569), and in the east helped Lithuania fight the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Some historians estimate that Crimean Tatar slave-raiding cost Poland-Lithuania one million of its population between the years of 1494 and 1694.Poland was developing as a feudal state, with a predominantly agricultural economy and an increasingly powerful landed nobility. The "Nihil novi" act adopted by the Polish Sejm (parliament) in 1505, transferred most of the legislative power from the monarch to the Sejm, an event which marked the beginning of the period known as "Golden Liberty", when the state was ruled by the "free and equal" Polish nobility. Protestant Reformation movements made deep inroads into Polish Christianity, which resulted in the establishment of policies promoting religious tolerance, unique in Europe at that time. This tolerance allowed the country to avoid most of the religious turmoil that spread over Europe during the 16th century.The European Renaissance evoked in late Jagiellon Poland (under kings Sigismund I the Old and Sigismund II Augustus) a sense of urgency in the need to promote a cultural awakening, and during this period Polish culture and the nation's economy flourished. In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus, an astronomer from Toruń, published his epochal work "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" ("On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres") and thereby became the first proponent of a predictive mathematical model confirming the heliocentric theory, which became the accepted basic model for the practice of modern astronomy. Another major figure associated with the era is the classicist poet Jan Kochanowski.The 1569 Union of Lublin established the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a more closely unified federal state with an elective monarchy, but which was governed largely by the nobility, through a system of local assemblies with a central parliament. The Warsaw Confederation (1573) guaranteed religious freedom for the Polish nobility "(szlachta)" and townsfolk "(mieszczanie)". However, the peasants "(chłopi)" were still subject to severe limitations imposed on them by the nobility. The establishment of the Commonwealth coincided with a period of stability and prosperity in Poland, with the union thereafter becoming a European power and a major cultural entity, occupying approximately one million square kilometers of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as an agent for the dissemination of Western culture through Polonization into areas of modern-day Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Belarus and western Russia.In the 16th and 17th centuries, Poland suffered from a number of dynastic crises during the reigns of the Vasa kings Sigismund III and Władysław IV and found itself engaged in major conflicts with Russia, Sweden and the Ottoman Empire, as well as a series of minor Cossack uprisings. In 1610, a Polish army under the command of Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski seized Moscow after winning the Battle of Klushino. In 1611, the Tsar of Russia paid homage to the King of Poland.After the signing of Truce of Deulino, Poland had in the years 1618–1621 an area of about .From the middle of the 17th century, the nobles' democracy, suffering from internal disorder, gradually declined, thereby leaving the once powerful Commonwealth vulnerable to foreign intervention. Starting in 1648, the Cossack Khmelnytsky Uprising engulfed the south and east, eventually leaving Ukraine divided, with the eastern part, lost by the Commonwealth, becoming a dependency of the Tsardom of Russia. This was followed by the 'Deluge', a Swedish invasion of Poland, which marched through the Polish heartlands and ruined the country's population, culture and infrastructure—around four million of Poland's eleven million inhabitants died in famines and epidemics throughout the 17th century. However, under John III Sobieski the Commonwealth's military prowess was re-established, and in 1683 Polish forces played a major role in the Battle of Vienna against the Ottoman Army, commanded by Kara Mustafa, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.Sobieski's reign marked the end of the nation's golden era. Finding itself subjected to almost constant warfare and suffering enormous population losses as well as massive damage to its economy, the Commonwealth fell into decline. The government became ineffective as a result of large-scale internal conflicts (e.g. Lubomirski Rebellion against John II Casimir and rebellious confederations) and corrupted legislative processes. The nobility fell under the control of a handful of "magnats", and this, compounded with two relatively weak kings of the Saxon Wettin dynasty, Augustus II and Augustus III, as well as the rise of Russia and Prussia after the Great Northern War only served to worsen the Commonwealth's plight. Despite this The Commonwealth-Saxony personal union gave rise to the emergence of the Commonwealth's first reform movement, and laid the foundations for the Polish Enlightenment.During the later part of the 18th century, the Commonwealth made attempts to implement fundamental internal reforms; with the second half of the century bringing a much improved economy, significant population growth and far-reaching progress in the areas of education, intellectual life, art, and especially toward the end of the period, evolution of the social and political system. The most populous capital city of Warsaw replaced Gdańsk (Danzig) as the leading centre of commerce, and the role of the more prosperous urban population increased.The royal election of 1764 resulted in the elevation of Stanisław II August (a Polish aristocrat connected to the "Familia" faction of magnates) to the monarchy. However, elevated to the throne by the Empress Catherine II of Russia, the new king spent much of his reign maneuvering between his desire to implement necessary reforms to save his country, and the necessity to remain in a political relationship and at peace with Russia. This led to the formation of the 1768 Bar Confederation, a "szlachta" rebellion directed against the Polish king and all external influence, which ineptly aimed to preserve Poland's independence and szlachta's privileges. The failed attempts at reform as well as the internal turmoil caused by the Confederation proved the country's weakness and provoked its neighbours. In 1772 the First Partition of the Commonwealth by Prussia, Russia and Austria took place; an act which the "Partition Sejm", under considerable duress, eventually "ratified" "fait accompli". Disregarding this loss, in 1773 the king established the plan of the most necessary reforms, in which the Commission of National Education, the first government education authority in Europe, was established. Corporal punishment of children was officially prohibited in 1783.The Great Sejm convened by Stanisław II August in 1788 successfully adopted the 3 May Constitution, the first set of modern supreme national laws in Europe. However, this document, accused by detractors of harbouring revolutionary sympathies, generated strong opposition from the Commonwealth's nobles and conservatives as well as from Catherine II, who, determined to prevent the rebirth of a strong Commonwealth set about planning the final dismemberment of the Polish-Lithuanian state. Russia was aided in achieving its goal when the Targowica Confederation, an organisation of Polish nobles, appealed to the Empress for help. In May 1792, Russian forces crossed the Commonwealth's frontier, thus beginning the Polish-Russian War.The defensive war fought by the Poles ended prematurely when the King, convinced of the futility of resistance, capitulated and joined the Targowica Confederation, hoping to save the country. The Confederation then took over the government. Russia and Prussia, fearing the mere existence of a Polish state, understanding, that despite the current influence they still cannot control the country, arranged for, and in 1793 executed, the Second Partition of the Commonwealth, which left the country deprived of so much territory that it was practically incapable of independent existence. Eventually, in 1795, following the failed Kościuszko Uprising, the Commonwealth was partitioned one last time by all three of its more powerful neighbours, and with this, effectively ceased to exist. The 18-century British statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke summed up the partitions: "No wise or honest man can approve of that partition, or can contemplate it without prognosticating great mischief from it to all countries at some future time."Poles rebelled several times against the partitioners, particularly near the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. An unsuccessful attempt at defending Poland's sovereignty took place in 1794 during the Kościuszko Uprising, where a popular and distinguished general Tadeusz Kościuszko, who had several years earlier served under Washington in the American Revolutionary War, led Polish insurrectionists against numerically superior Russian forces. Despite the victory at the Battle of Racławice, his ultimate defeat ended Poland's independent existence for 123 years.In 1807, Napoleon I of France temporarily recreated a Polish state as the satellite Duchy of Warsaw, after a successful Greater Poland Uprising of 1806 against Prussian rule. But, after the failed Napoleonic Wars, Poland was again split between the victorious powers at the Congress of Vienna of 1815. The eastern part was ruled by the Russian tsar as Congress Poland, which had a liberal constitution. However, over time the Russian monarch reduced Polish freedoms, and Russia annexed the country in virtually all but name. Meanwhile, the Prussian controlled territory of Poland came under increased Germanization. Thus, in the 19th century, only Habsburg-ruled Austrian Poland, and particularly the Free City of Kraków, allowed free Polish culture to flourish.Throughout the period of the partitions, political and cultural repression of the Polish nation led to the organisation of a number of uprisings against the authorities of the occupying Russian, Prussian and Austrian governments. In 1830, the November Uprising began in Warsaw when, led by Lieutenant Piotr Wysocki, young non-commissioned officers at the Officer Cadet School in Warsaw revolted. They were joined by large segments of Polish society, and together forced Warsaw's Russian garrison to withdraw north of the city.Over the course of the next seven months, Polish forces successfully defeated the Russian armies of Field Marshal Hans Karl von Diebitsch and a number of other Russian commanders; however, finding themselves in a position unsupported by any other foreign powers, save distant France and the newborn United States, and with Prussia and Austria refusing to allow the import of military supplies through their territories, the Poles accepted that the uprising was doomed to failure. Upon the surrender of Warsaw to General Ivan Paskievich, many Polish troops, feeling they could not go on, withdrew into Prussia and there laid down their arms. After the defeat, the semi-independent Congress Poland lost its constitution, army and legislative assembly, and was integrated more closely with the Russian Empire.During the Spring of Nations (a series of revolutions which swept across Europe), Poles took up arms in the Greater Poland Uprising of 1848 to resist Prussian rule. Initially, the uprising manifested itself in the form of civil disobedience but eventually turned into an armed struggle when the Prussian military was sent in to pacify the region. Subsequently, the uprising was suppressed and the semi-autonomous Grand Duchy of Posen, created from the Prussian partition of Poland, was incorporated into Prussia.In 1863, a new Polish uprising against Russian rule began. The January Uprising started out as a spontaneous protest by young Poles against conscription into the Imperial Russian Army. However, the insurrectionists, despite being joined by high-ranking Polish-Lithuanian officers and numerous politicians, were still severely outnumbered and lacking in foreign support. They were forced to resort to guerrilla warfare tactics and failed to win any major military victories. Afterwards no major uprising was witnessed in the Russian-controlled Congress Poland, and Poles resorted instead to fostering economic and cultural self-improvement. Congress Poland was rapidly industrialised towards the end of the 19th century, and successively transformed into the Empire's wealthiest and most developed subject.Despite the political unrest experienced during the partitions, Poland did benefit from large-scale industrialisation and modernisation programs, instituted by the occupying powers, which helped it develop into a more economically coherent and viable entity. This was particularly true in Greater Poland, Silesia and Eastern Pomerania controlled by Prussia (later becoming a part of the German Empire); areas which eventually, thanks largely to the Greater Poland Uprising of 1918 and Silesian Uprisings, were reconstituted as a part of the Second Polish Republic, becoming the country's most prosperous regions.Following World War I all the Allies agreed on the reconstitution of Poland that United States President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed in Point 13 of his Fourteen Points. A total of 2 million Polish troops fought with the armies of the three occupying powers, and 450,000 died. Shortly after the armistice with Germany in November 1918, Poland regained its independence as the Second Polish Republic ("II Rzeczpospolita Polska"). It reaffirmed its independence after a series of military conflicts, the most notable being the Polish–Soviet War (1919–21) when Poland inflicted a crushing defeat on the Red Army at the Battle of Warsaw, an event which is considered to have halted the advance of Communism into Europe and forced Vladimir Lenin to rethink his objective of achieving global socialism. The event is often referred to as the "Miracle at the Vistula".During this period, Poland successfully managed to fuse the territories of the three former partitioning powers into a cohesive nation state. Railways were restructured to direct traffic towards Warsaw instead of the former imperial capitals, a new network of national roads was gradually built up and a major seaport, Gdynia, was opened on the Baltic Coast, so as to allow Polish exports and imports to bypass the politically charged Free City of Danzig. Also, the Polish government embarked on the creation of the Central Industrial Region ("Centralny Okręg Przemysłowy"). The project's goal was to create a heavy industrial center in the middle of the country, which included steal mills, power plants and factories. The inter-war period heralded in a new era of Polish politics. Whilst Polish political activists had faced heavy censorship in the decades up until the First World War, the country now found itself trying to establish a new political tradition. For this reason, many exiled Polish activists, such as Ignacy Paderewski (who would later become prime minister) returned home to help; a significant number of them then went on to take key positions in the newly formed political and governmental structures. Tragedy struck in 1922 when Gabriel Narutowicz, inaugural holder of the presidency, was assassinated at the Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw by a painter and right-wing nationalist Eligiusz Niewiadomski.In 1926, a May coup, led by the hero of the Polish independence campaign Marshal Józef Piłsudski, turned rule of the Second Polish Republic over to the nonpartisan Sanacja ("Healing") movement in an effort to prevent radical political organizations on both the left and the right from destabilizing the country. The movement functioned with relative stability until Piłsudski's death in 1935. Following Marshall Piłsudski's death, Sanation split into several competing factions. By the late 1930s, due to increased threats posed by political extremism inside the country, the Polish government became increasingly heavy-handed, banning a number of radical organizations, including communist and ultra-nationalist political parties, which threatened the stability of the country.World War II began with the Nazi German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, followed by the Soviet invasion of Poland on 17 September. On 28 September 1939, Warsaw fell. As agreed in the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Poland was split into two zones, one occupied by Nazi Germany, the other by the Soviet Union. In 1939–41, the Soviets deported hundreds of thousands of Poles. The Soviet NKVD executed thousands of Polish prisoners of war (inter alia Katyn massacre) ahead of the Operation Barbarossa. German planners had in November 1939 called for "the complete destruction of all Poles" and their fate as outlined in the genocidal "Generalplan Ost".Polish intelligence operatives proved extremely valuable to the Allies, providing much of the intelligence from Europe and beyond, and Polish code breakers were responsible for cracking the Enigma cypher.Poland made the fourth-largest troop contribution in Europe and its troops served both the Polish Government in Exile in the west and Soviet leadership in the east. Polish troops played an important role in the Normandy, Italian and North African Campaigns and are particularly remembered for the Battle of Monte Cassino. In the east, the Soviet-backed Polish 1st Army distinguished itself in the battles for Warsaw and Berlin.The wartime resistance movement, and the Armia Krajowa ("Home Army"), fought against German occupation. It was one of the three largest resistance movements of the entire war, and encompassed a range of clandestine activities, which functioned as an underground state complete with degree-awarding universities and a court system. The resistance was loyal to the exiled government and generally resented the idea of a communist Poland; for this reason, in the summer of 1944 it initiated Operation Tempest, of which the Warsaw Uprising that begun on 1 August 1944 is the best known operation.Nazi German forces under orders from Adolf Hitler set up six German extermination camps in occupied Poland, including Treblinka, Majdanek and Auschwitz. The Germans transported millions of Jews from across occupied Europe to be murdered in those camps.Altogether, 3 million Polish Jews – approximately 90% of Poland's pre-war Jewry – and between 1.8 and 2.8 million ethnic Poles were killed during the German occupation of Poland, including between 50,000 and 100,000 members of the Polish intelligentsia – academics, doctors, lawyers, nobility and priesthood. During the Warsaw Uprising alone, over 150,000 Polish civilians were killed, most were murdered by the Germans during the Wola and Ochota massacres. Around 150,000 Polish civilians were killed by Soviets between 1939 and 1941 during the Soviet Union's occupation of eastern Poland (Kresy), and another estimated 100,000 Poles were murdered by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) between 1943 and 1944 in what became known as the Wołyń Massacres. Of all the countries in the war, Poland lost the highest percentage of its citizens: around 6 million perished – more than one-sixth of Poland's pre-war population – half of them Polish Jews. About 90% of deaths were non-military in nature.In 1945, Poland's borders were shifted westwards. Over two million Polish inhabitants of Kresy were expelled along the Curzon Line by Stalin. The western border became the Oder-Neisse line. As a result, Poland's territory was reduced by 20%, or . The shift forced the migration of millions of other people, most of whom were Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, and Jews.At the insistence of Joseph Stalin, the Yalta Conference sanctioned the formation of a new provisional pro-Communist coalition government in Moscow, which ignored the Polish government-in-exile based in London. This action angered many Poles who considered it a betrayal by the Allies. In 1944, Stalin had made guarantees to Churchill and Roosevelt that he would maintain Poland's sovereignty and allow democratic elections to take place. However, upon achieving victory in 1945, the elections organized by the occupying Soviet authorities were falsified and were used to provide a veneer of legitimacy for Soviet hegemony over Polish affairs. The Soviet Union instituted a new communist government in Poland, analogous to much of the rest of the Eastern Bloc. As elsewhere in Communist Europe, the Soviet influence over Poland was met with armed resistance from the outset which continued into the 1950s.Despite widespread objections, the new Polish government accepted the Soviet annexation of the pre-war eastern regions of Poland (in particular the cities of Wilno and Lwów) and agreed to the permanent garrisoning of Red Army units on Poland's territory. Military alignment within the Warsaw Pact throughout the Cold War came about as a direct result of this change in Poland's political culture. In the European scene, it came to characterize the full-fledged integration of Poland into the brotherhood of communist nations.The new communist government took control with the adoption of the Small Constitution on 19 February 1947. The Polish People's Republic ("Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa") was officially proclaimed in 1952. In 1956, after the death of Bolesław Bierut, the régime of Władysław Gomułka became temporarily more liberal, freeing many people from prison and expanding some personal freedoms. Collectivization in the Polish People's Republic failed. A similar situation repeated itself in the 1970s under Edward Gierek, but most of the time persecution of anti-communist opposition groups persisted. Despite this, Poland was at the time considered to be one of the least oppressive states of the Eastern Bloc.Labour turmoil in 1980 led to the formation of the independent trade union "Solidarity" (""Solidarność""), which over time became a political force. Despite persecution and imposition of martial law in 1981, it eroded the dominance of the Polish United Workers' Party and by 1989 had triumphed in Poland's first partially free and democratic parliamentary elections since the end of the Second World War. Lech Wałęsa, a Solidarity candidate, eventually won the presidency in 1990. The Solidarity movement heralded the collapse of communist regimes and parties across Europe.A shock therapy programme, initiated by Leszek Balcerowicz in the early 1990s, enabled the country to transform its socialist-style planned economy into a market economy. As with other post-communist countries, Poland suffered declines in social and economic standards, but it became the first post-communist country to reach its pre-1989 GDP levels, which it achieved by 1995 thanks largely to its booming economy.Most visibly, there were numerous improvements in human rights, such as freedom of speech, internet freedom (no censorship), civil liberties (1st class) and political rights (1st class), as ranked by Freedom House non-governmental organization. In 1991, Poland became a member of the Visegrád Group and joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance in 1999 along with the Czech Republic and Hungary. Poles then voted to join the European Union in a referendum in June 2003, with Poland becoming a full member on 1 May 2004.Poland joined the Schengen Area in 2007, as a result of which, the country's borders with other member states of the European Union have been dismantled, allowing for full freedom of movement within most of the EU. In contrast to this, a section of Poland's eastern border now constitutes the external EU border with Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. That border has become increasingly well protected, and has led in part to the coining of the phrase 'Fortress Europe', in reference to the seeming 'impossibility' of gaining entry to the EU for citizens of the former Soviet Union.In an effort to strengthen military cooperation with its neighbors, Poland set up the Visegrád Battlegroup with Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia, with a total of 3,000 troops ready for deployment. Also, in eastern Poland, it formed the LITPOLUKRBRIG battle groups with Lithuania and Ukraine. These battle groups will operate outside of NATO and within the European defense initiative framework.On 10 April 2010, the President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, along with 89 other high-ranking Polish officials died in a plane crash near Smolensk, Russia. The president's party was on their way to attend an annual service of commemoration for the victims of the Katyń massacre when the tragedy took place.In 2011, the ruling Civic Platform won parliamentary elections. Poland joined the European Space Agency in 2012, as well as organised the UEFA Euro 2012 (along with Ukraine). In 2013, Poland also became a member of the Development Assistance Committee. In 2014, the Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, was chosen to be President of the European Council, and resigned as prime minister.The 2015 and 2019 elections were won by the conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS), resulting in increased friction between Poland and the EU. In December 2017, Mateusz Morawiecki was sworn in as the new Prime Minister, succeeding Beata Szydlo, in office since 2015. They both represented ruling Law and Justice party, led by party chairman Jarosław Kaczyński. President Andrzej Duda, supported by Law and Justice party, was narrowly re-elected in the 2020 presidential election.Poland's vast territory covers approximately , of which 98.52% is dry land and 1.48% is water. Extending across several geographical regions, the country is the 9th-largest by area in Europe and 69th largest in the world. Topographically, Poland is diverse and has access to the sea, the mountains and open terrain. Although most of the central parts of the country are flat, there is an abundance of lakes, rivers, hills, swamps, beaches, islands and forests elsewhere.In the north-west is the Baltic seacoast spanning from the Bay of Pomerania to the Gulf of Gdańsk. The coast is marked by several spits, coastal lakes (former bays that have been cut off from the sea), and dunes. The largely straight coastline is indented by the Szczecin Lagoon, the Bay of Puck, and the Vistula Lagoon.The central and northern parts of the country lie within the North European Plain. Rising above these lowlands is a geographical region comprising four hilly districts of moraines and moraine-dammed lakes formed during and after the Pleistocene ice age, notably the Pomeranian Lake District, the Greater Polish Lake District, the Kashubian Lake District, and the Masurian Lake District. The Masurian Lake District is the largest of the four and covers much of north-eastern Poland. The lake districts form a series of moraine belts along the southern shore of the Baltic Sea.South of the Northern European Plain are the regions of Lusatia, Silesia and Masovia, which are marked by broad ice-age river valleys. The extreme south of Poland is mountainous; it runs from the Sudetes in the west to the Carpathian Mountains in the east. The highest part of the Carpathian massif is the Tatra Mountain range, along Poland's southern border.The geological structure of Poland has been shaped by the continental collision of Europe and Africa over the past 60 million years and, more recently, by the Quaternary glaciations of northern Europe. Both processes shaped the Sudetes and the Carpathian Mountains. The moraine landscape of northern Poland contains soils made up mostly of sand or loam, while the ice age river valleys of the south often contain loess. The Polish Jura, the Pieniny, and the Western Tatras consist of limestone, whereas the High Tatras, the Beskids, and the Karkonosze mountain ranges are made up mainly of granite and basalts. The Polish Jura Chain has some of the oldest rock formations on the continent of Europe.Poland has over 70 mountains over in elevation, all situated in the Tatras. Poland's highest point is the north-western summit of Mount Rysy at in elevation. At its foot lie the mountain lakes of Czarny Staw (Black Lake) and Morskie Oko (Eye of the Sea), both naturally-made tarns. Other notable uplands include the Pieniny and Holy Cross Mountains, the Table Mountains noted for their unusual rock formations, the Bieszczady in the far southeast of the country in which the highest peak is Tarnica at , and the Gorce Mountains whose highest point is Turbacz at . The highest point of the Sudeten massif is Mount Śnieżka (), shared with the Czech Republic.The lowest point in Poland – at below sea level – is at Raczki Elbląskie, near Elbląg in the Vistula Delta.In the Zagłębie Dąbrowskie (the Coal Fields of Dąbrowa) region in the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland is an area of sparsely vegetated sand known as the Błędów Desert. It covers an area of . It is not a natural desert and was formed by human activity from the Middle Ages onwards.The Baltic Sea activity in Słowiński National Park created sand dunes which in the course of time separated the bay from the sea creating two lakes. As waves and wind carry sand inland the dunes slowly move, at a rate of per year. Some dunes reach the height of up to . The highest peak of the park is Rowokol at above sea level.The longest rivers are the Vistula (), long; the Oder () which forms part of Poland's western border, long; its tributary, the Warta, long; and the Bug, a tributary of the Vistula, long. The Vistula and the Oder flow into the Baltic Sea, as do numerous smaller rivers in Pomerania. Poland's lengthy waterways have been used since early times for navigation; the Vikings ventured up the Polish rivers in their longships. In the Middle Ages and in early modern times, the shipment of tangible goods down the Vistula toward Gdańsk and onward to other parts of Europe took on great importance.With almost ten thousand closed bodies of water covering more than each, Poland has one of the highest numbers of lakes in the world. In Europe, only Finland has a greater density of lakes. The largest lakes, covering more than , are Lake Śniardwy and Lake Mamry in Masuria as well as Lake Łebsko and Lake Drawsko in Pomerania. The lake with the greatest depth—of more than —is Lake Hańcza in the Wigry Lake District, east of Masuria in Podlaskie Voivodeship.The Polish Baltic coast is approximately long and extends from Świnoujście on the islands of Usedom and Wolin in the west to Krynica Morska on the Vistula Spit in the east. For the most part, Poland has a smooth coastline, which has been shaped by the continual movement of sand by currents and winds. This continual erosion and deposition has formed cliffs, dunes, and spits, many of which have migrated landwards to close off former lagoons, such as Łebsko Lake in the Słowiński National Park.The largest spits are Hel Peninsula and the Vistula Spit. The coast line is varied also by Szczecin and Vistula Lagoons and several lakes, including Jamno. The largest Polish Baltic island is Wolin, located within Wolin National Park. The largest sea harbours are Szczecin, Świnoujście, Gdańsk, Gdynia, Police and Kołobrzeg and the main coastal resorts – Świnoujście, Międzydzdroje, Kołobrzeg, Łeba, Sopot, Władysławowo and the Hel Peninsula.In the valley of Pilica river in Tomaszów Mazowiecki there is a unique natural karst spring of water containing calcium salts, that is an object of protection at Blue Springs Nature Reserve in the Sulejów Landscape Park. The red waves are absorbed by water, hence only blue and green are reflected from the bottom of the spring, giving the water atypical colour.Forests cover about 29.6% of Poland's land area based on international standards. Its overall percentage is still increasing. Forests of Poland are managed by the national program of reforestation (KPZL), aiming at an increase of forest-cover to 33% in 2050. The largest forest complex in Poland is Lower Silesian Wilderness.More than 1% of Poland's territory, , is protected within 23 Polish national parks. Three more national parks are projected for Masuria, the Polish Jura, and the eastern Beskids. In addition, wetlands along lakes and rivers in central Poland are legally protected, as are coastal areas in the north. There are 123 areas designated as landscape parks, along with numerous nature reserves and other protected areas under the Natura 2000 network.In 2017, approximately of land was occupied by farms and farmsteads, over half of Poland's total area.Phytogeographically, Poland belongs to the Central European province of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the territory of Poland belongs to three Palearctic Ecoregions of the continental forest spanning Central and Northern European temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregions, as well as the Carpathian montane conifer forest. The most common deciduous trees found across the country are oak, maple, and beech; the most common conifers are pine, spruce, and fir. An estimated 68.7% of all forests are coniferous.Poland has historically been home to rare species of animals, as well as the two largest European mammals: the wisent ("żubr") and aurochs ("tur"). The last aurochs of Europe became extinct in 1627 in the Polish Jaktorów Forest, while the wisent survived until the 20th century only at Białowieża. It has been since reintroduced to other countries. Other wild species include the brown bear in Białowieża, in the Tatras, and in the Beskids; the gray wolf and the Eurasian lynx in various forests; the moose in northern Poland; and the beaver in Masuria, Pomerania, and Podlaskie.Game animals such as red deer, roe deer, and wild boar are found in most woodlands. Eastern Poland abounds in ancient woods, like the Białowieża Forest, that have not been disturbed by human or industrial activity. There are also large forested areas in the mountains, Greater Poland, Pomerania, Lubusz Land, and Lower Silesia. The Lubusz Voivodeship is currently the most arboraceous province in the country; 52% of its territory is occupied by forests.Poland is also a significant breeding ground for a variety of European migratory birds. One quarter of the global population of white storks (40,000 breeding pairs) live in Poland, particularly in the lake districts and the wetlands along the Biebrza, the Narew, and the Warta, which are part of nature reserves or national parks.The climate is mostly temperate throughout the country. The climate is oceanic in the north-west and becomes gradually warmer and continental towards the south-east. Summers are generally warm, with average temperatures between depending on the region. Winters are rather cold, with average temperatures around in the northwest and in the northeast. Precipitation falls throughout the year, although, especially in the east, winter is drier than summer.The warmest region in Poland is Lower Silesia in the southwest of the country, where temperatures in the summer average between but can go as high as on some days in the warmest months of July and August. The warmest cities in Poland are Tarnów in Lesser Poland, and Wrocław in Lower Silesia. The average temperatures in Wrocław are in the summer and in the winter, but Tarnów has the longest summer in all of Poland, which lasts for 115 days, from mid-May to mid-September. The coldest region of Poland is in the northeast, around the area of Suwałki within the Podlaskie Voivodeship, where the climate is affected by cold fronts coming from Scandinavia and Siberia. The average temperature in the winter in Podlaskie ranges from . The biggest impact of the oceanic climate is observed in Świnoujście and Baltic Sea seashore area from Police to Słupsk.Poland is a representative democracy, with a president as the head of state. The government structure centers on the Council of Ministers, led by a prime minister. The president appoints the cabinet according to the proposals of the prime minister, typically from the majority coalition in the Sejm. The president is elected by popular vote every five years. The current president is Andrzej Duda and the prime minister is Mateusz Morawiecki.Polish voters elect a bicameral parliament consisting of a 460-member lower house (Sejm) and a 100-member Senate (Senat). The Sejm is elected under proportional representation according to the d'Hondt method, a method similar to that used in many parliamentary political systems. The Senat, on the other hand, is elected under the first-past-the-post voting method, with one senator being returned from each of the 100 constituencies.With the exception of ethnic minority parties, only candidates of political parties receiving at least 5% of the total national vote can enter the Sejm. When sitting in joint session, members of the Sejm and Senat form the National Assembly (the "Zgromadzenie Narodowe"). The National Assembly is formed on three occasions: when a new president takes the oath of office; when an indictment against the President of the Republic is brought to the State Tribunal ("Trybunał Stanu"); and when a president's permanent incapacity to exercise his duties due to the state of his health is declared. To date only the first instance has occurred.The judicial branch plays an important role in decision-making. Its major institutions include the Supreme Court ("Sąd Najwyższy"); the Supreme Administrative Court ("Naczelny Sąd Administracyjny"); the Constitutional Tribunal ("Trybunał Konstytucyjny"); and the State Tribunal ("Trybunał Stanu"). On the approval of the Senat, the Sejm also appoints the ombudsman or the Commissioner for Civil Rights Protection ("Rzecznik Praw Obywatelskich") for a five-year term. The ombudsman has the duty of guarding the observance and implementation of the rights and liberties of Polish citizens and residents, of the law and of principles of community life and social justice.The Constitution of Poland is the enacted supreme law, and the Polish legal system is based on the principle of civil rights, governed by the code of civil law. The current democratic constitution was adopted by the National Assembly of Poland on 2 April 1997; it guarantees a multi-party state with freedoms of religion, speech and assembly, prohibits the practices of forced medical experimentation, torture or corporal punishment, and acknowledges the inviolability of the home, the right to form trade unions, and the right to strike.The judiciary incorporates a four-tier court system composed of the Supreme Court, the Supreme Administrative Court, Common Courts (District, Regional, Appellate) and the Military Court. Judges are nominated by the National Council of the Judiciary and are appointed for life by the president. The Constitutional and State Tribunals are separate judicial bodies, which rule the constitutional liability of people holding the highest offices of state and supervise the compliance of statutory law, thus protecting the Constitution.Historically, the most significant Polish legal act is the Constitution of 3 May 1791, the first modern constitution in Europe. Instituted as a Government Act, it was designed to redress long-standing political defects of the federative Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and its Golden Liberty. Previously, only the Henrician Articles (1573) signed by each of Poland's elected monarchs could perform the function of a set of basic laws. The new Constitution introduced political equality between townspeople and the nobility ("szlachta"), and placed the peasants under the protection of the government. It abolished pernicious parliamentary policies such as the "liberum veto", which permitted any deputy to rescind all the legislation passed in the interest of a foreign power. The 3 May Constitution sought to supplant the existing anarchy fostered by some of the country's reactionary magnates, with a more egalitarian and democratic constitutional monarchy. The influenced many later democratic movements across the globe. Tax-paying women were allowed to take part in Polish political life until the third partition in 1795. In 1918 the Second Polish Republic became one of the first countries to introduce universal women's suffrage.Poland has a low homicide rate at 0.7 murders per 100,000 people, as of 2018. Rape, assault and violent crime remain at a very low level, although not all cases are recorded by the authorities.Abortion is permitted only in cases of rape, incest or when the woman's life is in danger. Congenital disorder and stillbirth are not covered by the law, forcing some women to seek abortion abroad, and others to seek the assistance of psychiatrists willing to testify on the negative psychological impact of stillbirth. Poland does not criminalize homosexuality, and its legality was confirmed in 1932. The Polish Constitution defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.Poland is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union and has a grand total of 52 representatives in the European Parliament as of 2020. Since joining the union in 2004, successive Polish governments have pursued policies to extend the country's role in European and international affairs. Poland is an emerging regional power in Central Europe. The capital of Warsaw serves as the headquarters for Frontex, the European Union's agency for external border security as well as ODIHR, one of the principal institutions of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.Apart from the European Union, Poland has been a member of NATO since 1999, the UN, the World Trade Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since 1996, European Economic Area, International Energy Agency, Council of Europe, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, International Atomic Energy Agency, European Space Agency, G6, Council of the Baltic Sea States, Visegrád Group, Weimar Triangle, Schengen Agreement, Lublin Triangle and Bucharest Nine.Over the past two decades, Poland significantly strengthened its ties with the United States, thus becoming one of its closest allies in Europe. Poland was part of the US-led coalition force during the Iraq War in 2003, and sent its troops in the first phase of the conflict, jointly with the United Kingdom and Australia. Along with NATO, Poland maintains military presence in the Middle East, the Baltic states and in the Balkans.The Polish Armed Forces are composed of five branches – Land Forces ("Wojska Lądowe"), Navy ("Marynarka Wojenna"), Air Force ("Siły Powietrzne"), Special Forces ("Wojska Specjalne") and the Territorial Defence Force ("Wojska Obrony Terytorialnej"). The military is subordinate to the Ministry of National Defence of the Republic of Poland. However, its commander-in-chief in peacetime is the President of the Republic, who nominates officers, the Minister for National Defence and the chief of staff.As of 2018, the Polish Armed Forces have a combined strength of 144,142 soldiers. The Polish Navy primarily operates on the Baltic Sea and conducts operations such as maritime patrol, search and rescue for the section of the Baltic under Polish sovereignty, as well as hydrographic measurements and research. The Polish Air Force routinely takes part in Baltic Air Policing assignments. In 2003, the F-16C Block 52 was selected as the new general multi-role fighter for the air force. In January 2020, Poland has approved the delivery for F-35 Lightning II combat aircraft. Poland is currently spending 2% of its GDP on defence (approximately US$13.5 billion in 2020), which is expected to grow to 2.5% by 2030. According to SIPRI, the country exported EUR€487 million worth of arms and armaments to other countries, primarily to the United States, Chile, France and South Africa.The mission of the armed forces is the defence of Poland's territorial integrity and Polish interests abroad. The country's national security goal is to further integrate with NATO and European defence, economic, and political institutions. Compulsory military service for men was discontinued in 2008. From 2007, until conscription ended in 2008, the mandatory service was nine months. Polish military doctrine reflects the same defensive nature as that of its NATO partners and the country actively hosts NATO's military exercises. From 1953 to 2009 Poland was a large contributor to various United Nations peacekeeping missions. The Polish Armed Forces took part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, deploying 2,500 soldiers in the south of that country and commanding the 17-nation multinational force in Iraq. Poland also maintains troops in the Middle East, the Baltic states and in the Balkans; 1,650 soldiers were deployed in 2019.Law enforcement in Poland is performed by several agencies which are subordinate to the Ministry of Interior and Administration – the State Police ("Policja"), assigned to investigate crimes or transgression; the Municipal City Guard, which maintains public order; and several specialized agencies, such as the Polish Border Guard. Private security firms are also common, although they possess no legal authority to arrest or detain a suspect. Municipal guards are primarily headed by provincial, regional or city councils; individual guards are not permitted to carry firearms unless instructed by their superior commanding officer or commandant.The Internal Security Agency (ABW, or ISA in English) is the chief counter-intelligence instrument safeguarding Poland's internal security, along with Agencja Wywiadu (AW) which identifies threats and collects secret information abroad. The Central Investigation Bureau of Police (CBŚP) and the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) are responsible for countering organized crime and corruption in state and private institutions.Emergency services in Poland consist of the emergency medical services, search and rescue units of the Polish Armed Forces and State Fire Service. Emergency medical services in Poland are provided for by local and regional governments.All emergency services personnel are uniformed and security services can be easily recognized during regular patrols in both large urban areas or smaller suburban localities.Poland's current voivodeships (provinces) are largely based on the country's historic regions, whereas those of the past two decades (to 1998) had been centred on and named for individual cities. The new units range in area from less than for Opole Voivodeship to more than for Masovian Voivodeship. Administrative authority at the voivodeship level is shared between a government-appointed voivode (governor), an elected regional assembly ("sejmik") and a voivodeship marshal, an executive elected by that assembly.The voivodeships are subdivided into "powiats" (often referred to in English as counties), and these are further divided into "gminas" (also known as communes or municipalities). Major cities normally have the status of both "gmina" and "powiat". Poland has 16 voivodeships, 380 powiats (including 66 cities with "powiat" status), and 2,478 "gminas".Poland's economy and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is currently the sixth largest in the European Union by nominal standards, and the fifth largest by purchasing power parity. It is also one of the fastest growing within the Union. Around 60% of the employed population belongs to the tertiary service sector, 30% to industry and manufacturing, and the remaining 10% to the agricultural sector. Although Poland is a member of EU's single market, the country has not adopted the Euro as legal tender and maintains its own currency – the Polish złoty (zł, PLN).Poland is the regional economic leader in Central Europe, with nearly 40 per cent of the 500 biggest companies in the region (by revenues) as well as a high globalisation rate. The country's largest firms compose the WIG20 and WIG30 indexes, which is traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. According to reports made by the National Bank of Poland, the value of Polish foreign direct investments reached almost 300 billion PLN at the end of 2014. The Central Statistical Office estimated that in 2014 there were 1,437 Polish corporations with interests in 3,194 foreign entities.Having a strong domestic market, low private debt, low unemployment rate, flexible currency, and not being dependent on a single export sector, Poland is the only European economy to have avoided the recession of 2008. The country is the 20th largest exporter of goods and services in the world and its most successful exports include machinery, furniture, food products, clothing, shoes, cosmetics and videogames. These account to approximately 56% of the total GDP, as of 2018. Poland's largest trading partners include Germany, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, France and Italy. Warsaw leads Central Europe in foreign investment. In September 2018, the unemployment rate was estimated at 5.7%, one of the lowest in the European Union. In 2019, Poland passed a law that would exempt workers under the age of 26 from income tax.The Polish banking sector is the largest in the region, with 32.3 branches per 100,000 adults.World Bank, Financial Inclusion Data. Country Dashboard: Poland. The World Bank Group. Retrieved 6 November 2014. The banks are the largest and most developed sector of the country's financial markets. They are regulated by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority. Poland's banking sector has approximately 5 national banks, a network of nearly 600 cooperative banks and 18 branches of foreign-owned banks. In addition, foreign investors have controlling stakes in nearly 40 commercial banks, which make up 68% of the banking capital.Products and goods manufactured in Poland include: electronics, buses and trams (Solaris, Solbus), helicopters and planes (PZL Świdnik, PZL Mielec), trains (Pesa, Newag), ships (Gdańsk Shipyard, Szczecin Shipyard), military equipment (FB "Łucznik" Radom, , Jelcz), medicines (, ), food (Tymbark, Hortex, E. Wedel), clothes (LLP), glass, pottery (Bolesławiec), chemical products and others. Well-known brands and companies include Alior Bank, Orlen&Lotos Group, Inglot Cosmetics, Plus, Play, Brainly, Netguru, GOG.com, CD Projekt, Trefl and Allegro. Poland is also one of the world's biggest producers of copper, silver, coal, furniture, automotive parts and soft drink.Poland experienced a significant increase in the number of tourists after joining the European Union in 2004. With nearly 21 million international arrivals in 2019, tourism contributes considerably to the overall economy and makes up a relatively large proportion of the country's service market.Tourist attractions in Poland vary, from the mountains in the south to the sandy beaches in the north, with a trail of nearly every architectural style. The most visited city is Kraków, which was the former capital of Poland and serves as a relic of the Polish Golden Age and the Renaissance. Kraków also held royal coronations of most Polish kings and monarchs at Wawel, the nation's chief historical landmark. Among other notable sites in the country is Wrocław, one of the oldest cities in Poland which was a model for the founding of Kraków. Wrocław is famous for its dwarfs, a large market square with two town halls, and the oldest Zoological Gardens with one of the world's largest number of animal species. The Polish capital Warsaw and its historical Old Town were entirely reconstructed after wartime destruction. Other cities attracting countless tourists include Gdańsk, Poznań, Lublin, Toruń as well as the site of the German Auschwitz concentration camp in Oświęcim. A notable highlight is the 13th-century Wieliczka Salt Mine with its labyrinthine tunnels, a subterranean lake and chapels carved by miners out of rock salt beneath the ground.Poland's main tourist offerings include outdoor activities such as skiing, sailing, mountain hiking and climbing, as well as agritourism, sightseeing historical monuments. Tourist destinations include the Baltic Sea coast in the north; the Masurian Lake District and Białowieża Forest in the east; on the south Karkonosze, the Table Mountains and the Tatra Mountains, where Rysy – the highest peak of Poland, and Eagle's Path mountain trail are located. The Pieniny and Bieszczady Mountains lie in the extreme south-east. There are over 100 castles in the country, most in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship (inter alia ), and also on the Trail of the Eagles' Nests. The largest castle in the world by land area is situated in Malbork, in north-central Poland.The electricity generation sector in Poland is largely fossil-fuel–based. Many power plants nationwide use Poland's position as a major European exporter of coal to their advantage by continuing to use coal as the primary raw material in the production of their energy. In 2013, Poland scored 48 out of 129 states in the Energy Sustainability Index. The three largest Polish coal mining firms (Węglokoks, Kompania Węglowa and JSW) extract around 100 million tonnes of coal annually.Renewable forms of energy account for a smaller proportion of Poland's full energy generation capacity. However, the national government has set targets for the development of renewable energy sources in Poland (the share of energy from renewable sources in the gross final energy consumption in 2019 was – 12,18%). Increasing the share of energy from renewable sources and a significant reduction in CO2 emissions to be achieved with the help of biofuels, photovoltaics, construction of wind farms on the land and the Baltic Sea, hydroelectric stations and nuclear power plant.Poland has around 164,800,000,000 m of proven natural gas reserves and around 96,380,000 barrels of proven oil reserves. These reserves are exploited by energy supply companies such as PKN Orlen ("the only Polish company listed in the Fortune Global 500"), PGNiG. However, the small amounts of fossil fuels naturally occurring in Poland are insufficient to satisfy the full energy consumption needs of the population and industry. Consequently, the country is a net importer of oil and natural gas. Therefore, since the second decade of the 21st century, Poland has been strongly developing the so-called North Gate in which the most important components are the Baltic Pipe, the Świnoujście LNG terminal and Floating Storage and Regasification Unit in Port of Gdańsk.The 5 largest companies supplying Poland electricity are PGE, Tauron, Enea, and Innogy Poland.Transport in Poland is provided by means of rail, road, marine shipping and air travel. The country is part of EU's Schengen Area and is an important transport hub along neighbouring Germany due to its strategic position in Central Europe. Some of the longest European routes, including the E40, run through Poland.The country has a good network of highways, composed of express roads and motorways. At the start of 2020, Poland had of highways in use. In addition, all local and regional roads are monitored by the National Road Rebuilding Programme, which aims to improve the quality of travel in the countryside and suburban localities.In 2017, the nation had of railway track, the third longest in Europe after Germany and France. The Polish State Railways (PKP) is the dominant railway operator in the country. In December 2014, Poland began to implement high–speed rail routes connecting major Polish cities, and started passenger service using the New Pendolino train, operating at 200 km/h on the Central Rail Line (CMK). Polish regulations allow trains without ETCS to travel at speeds up to 160 km/h, trains with ETCS1 up to 200 km/h, and trains with ETCS2 at over 200 km/h. Most inter-regional connections rail routes in Poland are operated by PKP Intercity, whilst regional trains are run by a number of private operators, the largest of which is Polregio. The largest passenger train station in terms of the number of travelers is Wrocław Główny.The air and maritime transport markets in Poland are largely well developed. Poland has a number of international airports, the largest of which is Warsaw Chopin Airport, the primary global hub for LOT Polish Airlines. It was established in 1928 from a merger of Aerolloyd (1922) and Aero (1925). Other major airports with international connections include John Paul II International Airport Kraków–Balice, Copernicus Airport Wrocław, Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport. Poland has begun preparations for a construction that can handle 100 million passengers of the Central Communication Port.Seaports exist all along Poland's Baltic coast, with most freight operations using Świnoujście, Police, Szczecin, Kołobrzeg, Gdynia, Gdańsk and Elbląg as their base.Passenger ferries link Poland with Scandinavia all year round; these services are provided from Gdańsk and Świnoujście by Polferries, Stena Line from Gdynia and Unity Line from the Świnoujście. The Port of Gdańsk is the only port in the Baltic Sea adapted to receive oceanic vessels.Over the course of history, the Polish people have made considerable contributions in the fields of science, technology and mathematics. Perhaps the most renowned Pole to support this theory was Nicolaus Copernicus ("Mikołaj Kopernik"), who triggered the Copernican Revolution by placing the Sun rather than the Earth at the center of the universe. He also derived a quantity theory of money, which made him a pioneer of economics. Copernicus' achievements and discoveries are considered the basis of Polish culture and cultural identity.Poland's tertiary education institutions; traditional universities, as well as technical, medical, and economic institutions, employ around tens of thousands of researchers and staff members. There are hundreds of research and development institutes. However, in the 19th and 20th centuries many Polish scientists worked abroad; one of the most important of these exiles was Maria Skłodowska-Curie, a physicist and chemist who lived much of her life in France. In 1925 she established Poland's Radium Institute.In the first half of the 20th century, Poland was a flourishing centre of mathematics. Outstanding Polish mathematicians formed the Lwów School of Mathematics (with Stefan Banach, Stanisław Mazur, Hugo Steinhaus, Stanisław Ulam) and Warsaw School of Mathematics (with Alfred Tarski, Kazimierz Kuratowski, Wacław Sierpiński and Antoni Zygmund). Numerous mathematicians, scientists, chemists or economists emigrated due to historic vicissitudes, among them Benoit Mandelbrot, Leonid Hurwicz, Alfred Tarski, Joseph Rotblat and Nobel Prize laureates Roald Hoffmann, Georges Charpak and Tadeusz Reichstein. In the 1930s, mathematician and cryptologist Marian Rejewski invented the Cryptographic Bomb which formed the basis of the effort that allowed the Allies to crack the Enigma code.Over 40 research and development centers and 4,500 researchers make Poland the biggest research and development hub in Central and Eastern Europe. Multinational companies such as: ABB, Delphi, GlaxoSmithKline, Google, Hewlett–Packard, IBM, Intel, LG Electronics, Microsoft, Motorola, Siemens and Samsung all have set up research and development centres in Poland. Companies chose Poland because of the availability of highly qualified labour force, presence of universities, support of authorities, and the largest market in East-Central Europe. According to a KPMG report from 2011, 80% of Poland's current investors are content with their choice and willing to reinvest. Poland has a very well-developed e-administration, thanks to which many official matters can be easily and quickly settled via the Internet. In the UN ranking, Poland is in the top twenty countries with the best-rated e-administration in the world.Poland, with approximately 38.5 million inhabitants, has the ninth-largest population in Europe and the fifth-largest in the European Union. It has a population density of 122 inhabitants per square kilometre (328 per square mile). The total fertility rate in 2020 was estimated at 1.44 children born to a woman, a considerable rise from previous years. In contrast, the total fertility rate in 1925 was 4.68. Furthermore, Poland's population is aging significantly and the median age in 2018 was 41.1 years. The crude death rate in 2020 stood at 10.3 per 1,000 people.Around 60% of Poles and Polish citizens reside in urban areas or major cities and 40% in more rural zones. The most populous administrative province or state is the Masovian Voivodeship and the most populous city is the capital, Warsaw, at 1.8 million inhabitants with a further 2-3 million people living in its metropolitan area. The metropolitan area of Katowice is the largest urban conurbation in Poland with a population between 2.7 million and 5.3 million residents. The least populous and the smallest province in size is the Opole Voivodeship, with just under 1 million people living within its borders. Hence, a substantial portion of the total population is concentrated in the south of Poland, roughly between the cities of Wrocław and Kraków.In the 2011 Polish census, 37,310,341 people reported Polish identity, 846,719 Silesian, 232,547 Kashubian and 147,814 German. Other identities were reported by 163,363 people (0.41%) and 521,470 people (1.35%) did not specify any nationality. Once prominent but now statistically insignificant minority groups include Polish Jews, Lipka Tatars, Armenians, Greeks, Lemkos, the Romani people and the Vietnamese. Ethnic Poles themselves can be divided into many diverse regional ethnographic sub-groups, most notable being the Kashubians, Silesians and Gorals (Highlanders). The statistics do not include recently arrived migrant workers. More than 1.7 million Ukrainian citizens worked legally in Poland in 2017.There is a very strong Polish diaspora around the world, notably in the United States, Germany, United Kingdom and Canada. A strong Polish minority is still present in the territories of contemporary western Ukraine and Belarus, eastern Lithuania, eastern and central Latvia, and northeastern Czech Republic, which were part of Poland in the past. Altogether, the number of ethnic Poles living abroad is estimated to be around 20 million.Polish is the only official and predominant spoken language in Poland, but it is also used throughout the world by Polish minorities in other countries as well as being one of the official languages of the European Union. The deaf communities use Polish Sign Language belonging to the German family of Sign Languages. Polish is also a second language in Lithuania, where it is taught in schools and universities. Contemporary Poland is a linguistically homogeneous nation, with nearly 97% of respondents declaring Polish as their mother tongue.Poland's once multi-ethnic population communicated in numerous languages and lects which faded or disappeared along the course of history. There are currently 15 minority languages in Poland, including one recognized regional language, Kashubian, which is spoken by around 366,000 people in the northern regions of Kashubia and Pomerania.Languages having the status of national minority's language are Armenian, Belarusian, Czech, German, Yiddish, Hebrew, Lithuanian, Russian, Slovak and Ukrainian. Languages having the status of ethnic minority's language are Karaim, Lemko-Rusyn, Tatar and two Romani languages; Polska Roma and Bergitka Roma. Official recognition of a language provides certain rights under conditions prescribed by Polish law, including education and state financial support for promoting that language. Poland recognized secondary administrative languages or auxiliary languages in bilingual municipalities. Currently, German and Kashubian hold such status in 19 municipalities ("gminas"), Belarusian in 9 and Lithuanian in 1. Bilingual signs, names and advertisements are commonplace in those localities. Silesian and Wymysorys (Vilamovian) are not legally recognized or acknowledged as separate languages with a minority status.More than 50% of Polish citizens declare at least basic knowledge of the English language, followed by German (38%).According to the 2015 census, 92.9% of all Polish citizens adhere to the Roman Catholic Church. An estimated 94.2% of the population are believers and 3.1% are irreligious, making Poland one of the more devout countries in Europe. Around 61.6% of all respondents outlined that religion is of high or very high importance. However, church attendance has decreased in recent years; only 38% of worshippers attended mass regularly on Sunday in 2018. Freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Polish Constitution, and the concordat guarantees the teaching of religion in state schools.For centuries the tribes inhabiting the lands of modern-day Poland have practiced various forms of paganism known as "Rodzimowierstwo", or "native faith". In the year 966, Duke Mieszko I converted to Christianity, and submitted to the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. This event came to be known as the Baptism of Poland. However, this did not put an end to pagan beliefs in the country. The persistence was demonstrated by a series of rebellions in the 1030s known as the pagan reaction, which also showed elements of a peasant uprising against medieval feudalism.Religious tolerance was an important part of Polish political culture, though it varied at times. In 1264, the Statute of Kalisz granted Jews unprecedented legal rights not found anywhere in Europe. In 1573, the Warsaw Confederation marked the formal beginning of extensive religious freedoms in Poland. It was partially influenced by the 1572 St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in France, which prompted the nobility to prevent the monarch from carrying out reprehensible atrocities in Poland based on religious affiliation. The religious tolerance also spurred many theological movements such as the Calvinist Polish Brethren, a number of Protestant groups and atheists like Casimir Liszinski, one of the first atheist thinkers in Europe. Anabaptists fleeing 16th-century persecution in the Netherlands and Germany settled in Poland and became known as the Vistula delta Mennonites. From 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła was head of the Roman Catholic Church as Pope John Paul II.Contemporary religious minorities include Christian Orthodox (506,800), various Protestants (150,000) — including 77,500 Lutherans of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church, 23,000 Pentecostals in the Pentecostal Church in Poland, 10,000 Adventists in the Seventh-day Adventist Church and other smaller Evangelical denominations — Jehovah's Witnesses (126,827), Eastern Catholics, Mariavites, Jews, Muslims (Tatars) and neopagans, some of whom are members of the Native Polish Church.Famous sites of Roman Catholic pilgrimage in Poland include the Monastery of Jasna Góra in the city of Częstochowa, Basilica of Our Lady of Licheń, Kraków's Sanctuary of Divine Mercy and Święta Lipka (Holy Linden) in Masuria. Tourists also visit the family home of John Paul II in Wadowice outside Kraków. Christ the King in Świebodzin is the tallest statue of Jesus in the world. Christian Orthodox pilgrims visit Mount Grabarka near Grabarka-Klasztor and the Hasidic Jews travel annually to the grave of a great rabbi in Leżajsk.Medical service providers and hospitals ("szpitale") in Poland are subordinate to the Ministry of Health; it provides administrative oversight and scrutiny of general medical practice, and is obliged to maintain a high standard of hygiene and patient care. Poland has a universal healthcare system based on an all-inclusive insurance system; state subsidised healthcare is available to all citizens covered by the general health insurance program of the National Health Fund (NFZ). Private medical complexes exist nationwide; over 50% of the population uses both public and private sectors.Hospitals are organised according to the regional administrative structure, resultantly most towns, counties or municipalities possess their own provincial hospital or medical clinics. There are six types of hospital facilities, each with a particular area of medical expertise – I Grade Hospitals for general surgery, internal illnesses and obstetrics; II Grade Hospitals for child surgery, neurology, cardiology and ophthalmology; III Grade Hospitals including teaching hospitals for infectious diseases, nephrology, orthopedics, toxicology and transplantology; Oncology Hospitals for cancer treatment and brachytherapy; Pediatric Hospitals for child care; and Nationwide Hospitals for general and acute care.According to the Human Development Report from 2020, the average life expectancy at birth is 79 years (around 75 years for an infant male and 83 years for an infant female); the country has a low infant mortality rate (4 per 1,000 births). In 2019, the principal cause of death was ischemic heart disease; diseases of the circulatory system accounted for 45% of all deaths. In the same year, Poland was also the 15th-largest importer of medications and pharmaceutical products.The Jagiellonian University founded in 1364 by Casimir III in Kraków was the first institution of higher learning established in Poland, and is one of the oldest universities still in continuous operation. Poland's Commission of National Education ("Komisja Edukacji Narodowej"), established in 1773, was the world's first state ministry of education. The framework for primary and secondary schooling in contemporary Poland is established by the Ministry of National Education. Kindergarten attendance is optional for children aged between three and five, with one year being compulsory for six-year-olds. Primary education traditionally begins at the age of seven, although children aged six can attend at the request of their parents or guardians. Elementary school spans eight grades, at the end of which an obligatory three-part exam on Polish, mathematics and a foreign language is to be undertaken. Secondary schooling is dependent on student preference – either a four-year high school ("liceum"), a five-year technical school ("technikum") or various vocational studies ("szkoła branżowa") can be pursued by each individual pupil. A liceum or technikum is concluded with a maturity exit exam ("matura"), which must be passed in order to apply for a university or other institutions of higher learning.The standards of higher tertiary education are imposed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. In Poland, there are over 500 university-level institutions, with technical, medical, economic, agricultural, pedagogical, theological, musical, maritime and military faculties. The University of Warsaw and Warsaw Polytechnic, the University of Wrocław, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and the University of Technology in Gdańsk are among the most prominent. There are three conventional academic degrees in Poland – "licencjat" or "inżynier" (first cycle qualification), "magister" (second cycle qualification) and "doktor" (third cycle qualification).In 2018, the Programme for International Student Assessment, coordinated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, ranked Poland's educational system higher than the OECD average; the study showed that students in Poland perform better academically than in most OECD countries.The culture of Poland is closely connected with its intricate 1,000-year history and forms an important constituent in western civilization. The Poles take great pride in their national identity which is often associated with the colours white and red, and exuded by the expression "biało-czerwoni" ("whitereds"). National symbols, chiefly the crowned white-tailed eagle, are often visible on clothing, insignia and emblems. The appreciation of Poland's traditions and cultural heritage is commonly known as Polonophilia.With origins in the customs of the tribal Lechites, over time the culture of Poland has been influenced by its connection to Western culture and trends, as well as developing its own unique traditions such as Sarmatism. The people of Poland have traditionally been seen as hospitable to artists from abroad and eager to follow cultural and artistic trends popular in foreign countries, for instance, the 16th- and 17th-century tradition of coffin portraits ("portret trumienny") was only observed in Poland and Roman Egypt. In the 19th and 20th centuries the Polish focus on cultural advancement often took precedence over political and economic activity. These factors have contributed to the versatile nature of Polish art.The architectural monuments of great importance are protected by the National Heritage Board of Poland. Over 100 of the country's most significant tangible wonders were enlisted onto the Historic Monuments Register, with further 16 being recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. Poland is renowned for its brick Gothic castles, granaries and churches as well as diversely-styled tenements, market squares and town halls. The majority of Polish cities founded on Magdeburg Law in the Middle Ages evolved around central marketplaces, a distinguishable urban characteristic which can be observed to this day. Medieval and Renaissance cloth halls were once an abundant feature of many towns.There are 13 government-approved annual public holidays – New Year on 1 January, Three Kings' Day on 6 January, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, Labour Day on 1 May, Constitution Day on 3 May, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, Armed Forces Day on 15 August, All Saints' Day on 1 November, Independence Day on 11 November and Christmastide on 25 and 26 December.Particular traditions and superstitious customs observed in Poland are not found elsewhere in Europe. Though Christmas Eve ("Wigilia") is not a public holiday, it remains the most memorable day of the entire year. Trees are decorated on 24 December, hay is placed under the tablecloth to resemble Jesus' manger, Christmas wafers ("opłatek") are shared between gathered guests and a twelve-dish meatless supper is served that same evening when the first star appears. An empty plate and seat are symbolically left at the table for an unexpected guest. On occasion, carolers journey around smaller towns with a folk Turoń creature until the Lent period.A widely-popular doughnut and sweet pastry feast occurs on Fat Thursday, usually 52 days prior to Easter. Eggs for Holy Sunday are painted and placed in decorated baskets that are previously blessed by clergymen in churches on Easter Saturday. Easter Monday is celebrated with pagan "dyngus" festivities, where the youth is engaged in water fights and some girls are gently spanked by colleagues with pussy willows to stimulate fertility.Cemeteries and graves of the deceased are annually visited by family members on All Saints' Day; tombstones are cleaned as a sign of respect and candles are lit to honour the dead on an unprecedented scale.Artists from Poland, including famous musicians such as Chopin, Rubinstein, Paderewski, Penderecki and Wieniawski, and traditional, regionalized folk composers create a lively and diverse music scene, which even recognizes its own music genres, such as sung poetry and disco polo.The origins of Polish music can be traced to the 13th century; manuscripts have been found in Stary Sącz containing polyphonic compositions related to the Parisian Notre Dame School. Other early compositions, such as the melody of "Bogurodzica" and "God Is Born" (a coronation polonaise tune for Polish kings by an unknown composer), may also date back to this period, however, the first known notable composer, Nicholas of Radom, lived in the 15th century. Diomedes Cato, a native-born Italian who lived in Kraków, became a renowned lutenist at the court of Sigismund III; he not only imported some of the musical styles from southern Europe but blended them with native folk music.In the 17th and 18th centuries, Polish baroque composers wrote liturgical music and secular compositions such as concertos and sonatas for voices or instruments. At the end of the 18th century, Polish classical music evolved into national forms like the polonaise. Wojciech Bogusławski is accredited with composing the first Polish national opera, titled "", which premiered in 1794.Traditional Polish folk music has had a major effect on the works of many Polish composers, and no more so than on Fryderyk Chopin, a widely recognised national hero of the arts. All of Chopin's works involve the piano and are technically demanding, emphasising nuance and expressive depth. As a great composer, Chopin invented the musical form known as the instrumental ballade and made major innovations to the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, polonaise, étude, impromptu and prélude, he was also the composer of a number of polonaises which borrowed heavily from traditional Polish folk music. It is largely thanks to him that such pieces gained great popularity throughout Europe during the 19th century. Several Polish composers such as Szymanowski drew inspiration from Chopin's folk-influenced style. Nowadays the most distinctive folk music can be heard in the towns and villages of the mountainous south, particularly in the region surrounding the winter resort town of Zakopane.Poland today has an active music scene, with the jazz and metal genres being particularly popular among the contemporary populace. Polish jazz musicians such as Krzysztof Komeda created a unique style, which was most famous in the 1960s and 1970s and continues to be popular to this day. Poland has also become a major venue for large-scale music festivals, chief among which are the Open'er Festival, Opole Festival and Sopot Festival.Art in Poland has always reflected European trends while maintaining its unique character. The Kraków Academy of Fine Arts, later developed by Jan Matejko, produced monumental portrayals of customs and significant events in Polish history. Other institutions such as the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw were more innovative and focused on both historical and contemporary styles. Notable art academies include the Kraków School of Art and Fashion Design, Art Academy of Szczecin, University of Fine Arts in Poznań and the Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław.Perhaps the most prominent and internationally admired Polish artist was Tamara de Lempicka, who specialized in the style of Art Deco. Lempicka was described as "the first woman artist to become a glamour star." Another notable was Caziel, born Zielenkiewicz, who represented Cubism and Abstraction in France and England.Prior to the 19th century only Daniel Schultz and Italian-born Marcello Bacciarelli had the privilege of being recognized abroad. The Young Poland movement witnessed the birth of modern Polish art, and engaged in a great deal of formal experimentation led by Jacek Malczewski, Stanisław Wyspiański, Józef Mehoffer, and a group of Polish Impressionists. Stanisław Witkiewicz was an ardent supporter of Realism, its main representative being Józef Chełmoński, while Artur Grottger specialized in Romanticism. Within historically-orientated circles, Henryk Siemiradzki dominated with his monumental Academic Art and ancient Roman theme.Since the inter-war years, Polish art and documentary photography has enjoyed worldwide fame and in the 1960s the Polish School of Posters was formed. Throughout the entire country, many national museum and art institutions hold valuable works by famous masters. Major museums in Poland include the National Museum in Warsaw, Poznań, Wrocław, Kraków, and Gdańsk, as well as the Museum of John Paul II Collection, and the Wilanów Museum. Important collections are also held at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Wawel Castle and in the Palace on the Isle. Contemporary art galleries include Zachęta, Ujazdów, and MOCAK. The most distinguished painting of Poland is "Lady with an Ermine" by Leonardo da Vinci, held at the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków. Although not Polish, the work had a strong influence on Polish culture and has been often associated with Polish identity.Polish cities and towns reflect a whole spectrum of European architectural styles. Romanesque architecture is represented by St. Andrew's Church, Kraków, and St. Mary's Church, Gdańsk, is characteristic for the Brick Gothic style found in Poland. Richly decorated attics and arcade loggias are the common elements of the Polish Renaissance architecture, as evident in the City Hall in Poznań. For some time the late renaissance style known as mannerism, most notably in the Bishop's Palace in Kielce, coexisted with the early baroque style, typified in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Kraków.History has not been kind to Poland's architectural monuments. Nonetheless, a number of ancient structures have survived: castles, churches, and stately homes, often unique in the regional or European context. Some of them have been painstakingly restored, like Wawel Castle, or completely reconstructed, including the Old Town and Royal Castle of Warsaw and the Old Town of Gdańsk.The architecture of Gdańsk is mostly of the Hanseatic variety, a Gothic style common among the former trading cities along the Baltic Sea and in the northern part of Central Europe. The architectural style of Wrocław is mainly representative of German architecture since it was for centuries located within the Holy Roman Empire. The centres of Kazimierz Dolny and Sandomierz on the Vistula are good examples of well-preserved medieval towns. Poland's ancient capital, Kraków, ranks among the best-preserved Gothic and Renaissance urban complexes in Europe.The second half of the 17th century is marked by baroque architecture. Side towers, such as those of Branicki Palace in Białystok, are typical for the Polish baroque. The classical Silesian baroque is represented by the University in Wrocław. The profuse decorations of the Branicki Palace in Warsaw are characteristic of the rococo style. The centre of Polish classicism was Warsaw under the rule of the last Polish king Stanisław II Augustus.The Palace on the Isle is a chief example of Polish neoclassical architecture. Lublin Castle represents the Gothic Revival style in architecture, while the Izrael Poznański Palace in Łódź is an example of eclecticism.Traditional folk architecture in the villages and small towns scattered across the vast Polish countryside was characterized by its extensive use of wood and red brick as primary building materials, common for Central Europe. Some of the best preserved and oldest structures include ancient stone temples in Silesia and fortified wooden churches across southeastern Poland in the Beskids and Bieszczady regions of the Carpathian mountains. Numerous examples of secular structures such as Polish manor houses ("dworek"), farmhouses (), granaries, mills, barns and country inns () can still be found in some Polish regions. However, traditional construction methods faded in the early-mid 20th century, when Poland's population experienced a demographic shift to urban dwelling away from the countryside.The earliest examples of Polish literature date to the 12th century, when Poland's official language was Latin, and early published works were predominantly written by foreigners. Gallus Anonymus, a monk of disputed origin, was the first chronicler who meticulously described Poland's culture, language and territories in "Gesta principum Polonorum" (c. 1112–1118). Latin remained the principal tool of literary expression in Poland until the 18th century, when it was replaced in favour of Polish and French. Historically, Polish literature concentrated extensively around the themes of true drama and poetic-expressive romanticism than on fiction. Patriotism, spirituality and aphorisms were paramount and political or social allegories were common moral narratives.The first documented phrase in the Polish language reads ""Day ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai"" ("Let me grind, and you take a rest"), reflecting the use of quern-stone in early Poland. The phrase was recorded by an abbot in the Latin-based "Liber fundationis" from 1269 to 1273, which outlined the history of a Cistercian monastery in the Silesian village of Henryków. The sentence has been included in the UNESCO Memory of World Register. The oldest extant manuscript of fine prose in Old Polish is the "Holy Cross Sermons", and the earliest religious text is the Bible of Queen Sophia. One of the first printing houses was established by Kasper Straube in the 1470s, while Jan Haller was considered the pioneer of commercial print in Poland. Haller's Calendarium cracoviense, an astronomical wall calendar from 1474, is Poland's oldest surviving print.The tradition of extending Polish historiography in Latin was subsequently inherited by Vincent Kadłubek, Bishop of Kraków in the 13th century, and Jan Długosz in the 15th century. This practice, however, was abandoned by Jan Kochanowski, who became one of the first Polish Renaissance authors to write most of his works in Polish, along with Nicholas Rey. Other writers of the Polish Renaissance include Johannes Dantiscus, Andreus Fricius Modrevius, Matthias Sarbievius, Piotr Skarga and Klemens "Ianicius" Janicki, who was laureled by the Pope. The leading figure of the Polish Reformation was theologian and writer John Laski, who, with the permission of King Edward VI of England, created the European Protestant Congregation of London in 1550.During the Baroque era, the Jesuits greatly influenced Polish literature and literary techniques, often relying on God and religious matters. The leading baroque poet was Jan Andrzej Morsztyn, who incorporated Marinism into his publications. Jan Chryzostom Pasek, also a respected baroque writer, is mostly remembered for his tales and memoirs reflecting sarmatian culture in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Subsequently, the Polish Enlightenment was headed by Samuel Linde, Hugo Kołłątaj, Izabela Czartoryska and Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz. In 1776, Ignacy Krasicki composed the first milestone novel entitled "The Adventures of Mr. Nicholas Wisdom".Among the best known Polish Romantics are the "Three Bards" – the three national poets active in the age of foreign partitions – Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki and Zygmunt Krasiński. The narrative poem "Pan Tadeusz" by Mickiewicz is Poland's national epic and a compulsory reading ("lektura") in the country's schools. Joseph Conrad, the son of dramatist Apollo Korzeniowski, came to fame with his English-language novels and stories that are informed with elements of the Polish national experience. Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", "Nostromo" and "Lord Jim" are believed to be one of the finest works ever written, placing him among the greatest novelists of all time. Modern Polish literature is versatile, with its fantasy genre having been particularly praised. The philosophical sci-fi novel "Solaris" is an acclaimed example of Stanisław Lem's literary legacy, whereas "The Witcher", a fantasy series by Andrzej Sapkowski, is a much-celebrated work of contemporary Polish fiction.In the 20th century, five Polish authors were awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature – Henryk Sienkiewicz for "Quo Vadis", Władysław Reymont for "The Peasants", Isaac Bashevis Singer, Czesław Miłosz and Wisława Szymborska. In 2019, Polish author Olga Tokarczuk was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 2018.Polish cuisine has evolved over the centuries to become highly eclectic due to Poland's history. Polish cuisine shares many similarities with other Central European cuisines, especially German and Austrian as well as Jewish, French, Italian and Turkish culinary traditions. Polish-styled cooking in other cultures is often referred to as "cuisine à la polonaise".Polish dishes are usually rich in meat, especially pork, chicken and beef (depending on the region), winter vegetables (sauerkraut cabbage in "bigos"), and spices. It is also characteristic in its use of various kinds of noodles, the most notable of which are kluski, as well as cereals such as "kasha" (from the Polish word kasza) and a variety of breads like the world-renowned bagel. Polish cuisine is hearty and uses a lot of cream and eggs. Festive meals such as the meatless Christmas Eve dinner ("Wigilia") or Easter breakfast could take days to prepare in their entirety.The main course usually includes a serving of meat, such as roast, chicken, or "kotlet schabowy" (breaded pork cutlet), vegetables, side dishes and salads, including "surówka" – shredded root vegetables with lemon and sugar (carrot, celeriac, seared beetroot) or sauerkraut (, ). The side dishes are usually potatoes, rice or cereal. Meals conclude with a dessert such as "sernik" (cheesecake), "makowiec" (poppy seed pastry), or "napoleonka" (cream pie).The Polish national dishes are "bigos" ; "pierogi" ; "kielbasa"; "kotlet schabowy" breaded cutlet; "gołąbki" cabbage rolls; "zrazy" roulade; "pieczeń" roast ; sour cucumber soup ("zupa ogórkowa", ); mushroom soup, ("zupa grzybowa", quite different from the North American cream of mushroom); "zupa pomidorowa" tomato soup ; "rosół" variety of meat broth; "żurek" sour rye soup; "flaki" tripe soup; "barszcz" and "chłodnik" among others.Traditional alcoholic beverages include honey mead, widespread since the 13th century, beer, wine and vodka (old Polish names include "okowita" and "gorzała"). The world's first written mention of vodka originates from Poland. The most popular alcoholic drinks at present are beer and wine which took over from vodka more popular in the years 1980–1998. Tea remains common in Polish society since the 19th century, whilst coffee is drunk widely since the 18th century. Other frequently consumed beverages include various mineral waters and juices, soft drinks popularized by the fast-food chains since the late 20th century, as well as buttermilk, soured milk and kefir.The particular clothing styles in Poland evolved with each century. In the 1600s high-class noblemen and magnates developed a strong sympathy for Orientalism, which was also common in other parts of Europe and became known as Sarmatism. The attire mediated between Western and Ottoman styles and outfits included a żupan, delia, kontusz, pas, decorative karabela swords and less often turbans brought by foreign merchants. The period of Polish Sarmatism eventually faded in the wake of the 18th century.The Polish national dress as well as the fashion and etiquette of Poland also reached the royal court at Versailles in the 1700s. French dresses inspired by Polish attire were called "à la polonaise", meaning "Polish-styled". The most famous example is the "robe à la polonaise", a woman's garment with draped and swagged overskirt, worn over an underskirt or petticoat. Another notable example is the Witzchoura, a long mantle with collar and hood, which was possibly introduced by Napoleon's Polish mistress Maria Walewska. The scope of influence also entailed furniture; rococo Polish beds with canopies became commonplace in French palaces during the 18th century.Several Polish designers and stylists left a lifelong legacy of beauty inventions and cosmetics, most notable being Maksymilian Faktorowicz and Helena Rubinstein. Faktorowicz created a line of cosmetics company in California known as Max Factor and coined the term "make-up" based on the verb phrase "to make up" one's face, now widely used as an alternative for describing cosmetics. Faktorowicz also raised to fame by inventing modern eyelash extensions and by providing services to Hollywood artists.As of 2020, Poland possesses the fifth-largest cosmetic market in Europe. Founded in 1983, Inglot Cosmetics is the country's largest beauty products manufacturer and retailer active in 700 locations worldwide, including retail salons in New York City, London, Milan, Dubai and Las Vegas. Established in 1999, the retail store Reserved is Poland's most successful clothing store chain, operating over 1,700 retail shops in 19 countries. Internationally successful models from Poland include Anja Rubik, Joanna Krupa, Jac Jagaciak, Kasia Struss, Małgosia Bela, and Magdalena Frąckowiak.The history of Polish cinema is as long as the history of cinematography itself. Over the decades, Poland has produced outstanding directors, film producers, cartoonists and actors that achieved world fame, especially in Hollywood. Moreover, Polish inventors played an important role in the development of world cinematography and modern-day television. Among the most famous directors and producers, who worked in Poland as well as abroad are Roman Polański, Andrzej Wajda, Samuel Goldwyn, the Warner brothers (Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack), Max Fleischer, Lee Strasberg, Agnieszka Holland and Krzysztof Kieślowski.In the 19th century, throughout partitioned Poland, numerous amateur inventors, such as Kazimierz Prószyński, were eager to construct a film projector. In 1894, Prószyński was successful in creating a Pleograph, one of the first cameras in the world. The invention, which took photographs and projected pictures, was built before the Lumière brothers lodged their patent. He also patented an Aeroscope, the first successful hand-held operated film camera. In 1897, Jan Szczepanik, obtained a British patent for his Telectroscope. This prototype of television could easily transmit image and sound, thus allowing a live remote view.Polish cinema developed rapidly in the interwar period. The most renowned star of the silent film era was Polish actress Pola Negri. During this time, the Yiddish cinema also evolved in Poland. Films in the Yiddish language with Jewish themes, such as "The Dybbuk" (1937), played an important part in pre-war Polish cinematography. In 1945 the government established 'Film Polski', a state-run film production and distribution organization, with director Aleksander Ford as the head of the company. Ford's "Knights of the Teutonic Order" (1960) was viewed by millions of people in the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and France. This success was followed by the historical films of Jerzy Hoffman and Andrzej Wajda. Wajda's 1975 film "The Promised Land" was nominated at the 48th Academy Awards.In 2015, "Ida" by Paweł Pawlikowski won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2019, Pawlikowski received an Academy Award for Best Director nomination for his historical drama "Cold War". Other well-known Polish Oscar-winning productions include "The Pianist" (2002) by Roman Polański.Poland has a number of major media outlets, chief among which are the national television channels. TVP is Poland's public broadcasting corporation; about a third of its income comes from a broadcast receiver licence, while the rest is made through revenue from commercials and sponsorships. State television operates two mainstream channels, TVP 1 and TVP 2, as well as regional programs for each of the country's 16 voivodeships (as TVP 3). In addition to these general channels, TVP runs a number of genre-specific programmes such as TVP Sport, TVP Historia, TVP Kultura, TVP Rozrywka, TVP Seriale and TVP Polonia, the latter is a state-run channel dedicated to the transmission of Polish language television for the Polish diaspora. Poland has several 24-hour news channels such as Polsat News, TVP Info and TVN 24. Poland also possesses a variety of free-to-air television channels, chiefly TVN, Polsat and TV4.In Poland, there are also daily newspapers like "Gazeta Wyborcza" ("Electoral Gazette"), "Rzeczpospolita" ("The Republic") and "Gazeta Polska Codziennie" ("Polish Daily Newspaper") which provide traditional opinion and news, and tabloids such as "Fakt" and "Super Express". Weeklies include "Tygodnik Angora", "", "Polityka", "Wprost", "Newsweek Polska", "Gość Niedzielny" and "Gazeta Polska".Poland has also emerged as a major hub for video game developers in Europe, with the country now being home to hundreds of studios. Among the most successful ones are CD Projekt, Techland, CI Games and People Can Fly. Some of the most popular video games developed in Poland include The Witcher trilogy. Katowice hosts Intel Extreme Masters, one of the biggest eSports events in the world.Volleyball and Association football are among the country's most popular sports, with a rich history of international competitions. Track and field, basketball, handball, boxing, MMA, motorcycle speedway, ski jumping, cross-country skiing, ice hockey, tennis, fencing, swimming and weightlifting are other popular sports.The golden era of football in Poland occurred throughout the 1970s and went on until the early 1980s when the Polish national football team achieved their best results in any FIFA World Cup competitions finishing 3rd place in the 1974 and the 1982 tournaments. The team won a gold medal in football at the 1972 Summer Olympics and two silver medals, in 1976 and in 1992. In 2012, Poland co-hosted the UEFA European Football Championship.As of May 2021, the Polish men's national volleyball team is ranked as 2nd in the world. Volleyball team won a gold medal in Olympic 1976 Montreal and three gold medals in FIVB World Championship 1974, 2014 and 2018.Mariusz Pudzianowski is a highly successful strongman competitor and has won more World's Strongest Man titles than any other competitor in the world, winning the event in 2008 for the fifth time.Poland has made a distinctive mark in motorcycle speedway racing thanks to Tomasz Gollob and Bartosz Zmarzlik, highly successful Polish riders. The top Ekstraliga division has one of the highest average attendances for any sport in Poland. The national speedway team of Poland is one of the major teams in international speedway.Poles made significant achievements in mountaineering, in particular, in the Himalayas and the winter ascending of the eight-thousanders. Polish mountains are one of the tourist attractions of the country. Hiking, climbing, skiing and mountain biking and attract numerous tourists every year from all over the world. Water sports are the most popular summer recreation activities, with ample locations for fishing, canoeing, kayaking, sailing and windsurfing especially in the northern regions of the country.
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[
"Ewa Kopacz",
"Leszek Miller",
"Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz",
"Mateusz Morawiecki",
"Jan Olszewski",
"Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz",
"Jarosław Kaczyński",
"Jan Krzysztof Bielecki",
"Hanna Suchocka",
"Donald Tusk",
"Beata Szydło",
"Marek Belka",
"Jerzy Buzek",
"Waldemar Pawlak",
"Józef Oleksy"
] |
|
Who was the head of Poland in Jul, 1991?
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July 02, 1991
|
{
"text": [
"Jan Krzysztof Bielecki"
]
}
|
L2_Q36_P6_1
|
Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 2005 to Jul, 2006.
Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz is the head of the government of Poland from Feb, 1996 to Oct, 1997.
Waldemar Pawlak is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 1993 to Mar, 1995.
Jan Krzysztof Bielecki is the head of the government of Poland from Jan, 1991 to Dec, 1991.
Jarosław Kaczyński is the head of the government of Poland from Jul, 2006 to Nov, 2007.
Marek Belka is the head of the government of Poland from May, 2004 to Oct, 2005.
Hanna Suchocka is the head of the government of Poland from Jul, 1992 to Oct, 1993.
Ewa Kopacz is the head of the government of Poland from Sep, 2014 to Nov, 2015.
Donald Tusk is the head of the government of Poland from Nov, 2007 to Sep, 2014.
Beata Szydło is the head of the government of Poland from Nov, 2015 to Dec, 2017.
Jerzy Buzek is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 1997 to Oct, 2001.
Mateusz Morawiecki is the head of the government of Poland from Dec, 2017 to Dec, 2022.
Jan Olszewski is the head of the government of Poland from Dec, 1991 to Jun, 1992.
Józef Oleksy is the head of the government of Poland from Mar, 1995 to Feb, 1996.
Leszek Miller is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 2001 to May, 2004.
Tadeusz Mazowiecki is the head of the government of Poland from Aug, 1989 to Jan, 1991.
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PolandPoland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country located in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces, covering an area of , and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With a population of nearly 38.5 million people, Poland is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union. Poland's capital and largest metropolis is Warsaw. Other major cities include Kraków, Łódź, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk, and Szczecin.Poland's topographically diverse territory extends from the beaches along the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in its south. The country is bordered by Lithuania and Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukraine to the east, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the south, and Germany to the west.The history of human activity on Polish soil spans thousands of years. Throughout the late antiquity period it became extensively diverse, with various cultures and tribes settling on the vast Central European Plain. However, it was the Western Polans who dominated the region and gave Poland its name. The establishment of Polish statehood can be traced to 966, when the pagan ruler of a realm coextensive with the territory of present-day Poland embraced Christianity and converted to Catholicism. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented its longstanding political association with Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest (over in area) and most populous nations of 16th and 17th century Europe, with a uniquely liberal political system which adopted Europe's first modern constitution, the Constitution of 3 May 1791.With the passing of prominence and prosperity, the country was partitioned by neighbouring states at the end of the 18th century, and regained independence in 1918 with the Treaty of Versailles. After a series of territorial conflicts, the new multi-ethnic Poland restored its position as a key player in European politics. In September 1939, World War II began with the invasion of Poland by Germany, followed by the Soviets invading Poland in accordance with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Approximately six million Polish citizens, including three million of the country's Jews, perished during the course of the war. As a member of the Eastern Bloc, the Polish People's Republic proclaimed forthwith was a chief signatory of the Warsaw Treaty amidst global Cold War tensions. In the wake of the 1989 events, notably through the emergence and contributions of the Solidarity movement, the communist government was dissolved and Poland re-established itself as a semi-presidential democratic republic.Poland is a developed market, and a middle power. It has the sixth largest economy in the European Union by nominal GDP and the fifth largest by GDP (PPP). It provides very high standards of living, safety and economic freedom, as well as free university education and a universal health care system. The country has 16 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, 15 of which are cultural. Poland is a member state of the Schengen Area, European Union, European Economic Area, the United Nations, NATO, the OECD, the Three Seas Initiative and the Visegrád Group.The origin of the name "Poland" derives from the West Slavic tribe of Polans ("Polanie"), who inhabited the Warta river basin of the present-day Greater Poland region starting in the mid-6th century. The origin of the name "Polanie" itself derives from the Proto-Slavic word "pole" (field). In some languages, such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian, Russian and Turkish, the country's name is derived from the Lendians ("Lędzianie" or "Lachy") who dwelled on the southeasternmost edge of present-day Lesser Poland. Their name likewise derives from the Old Polish word "lęda" (open land or plain).The early Bronze Age in Poland began around 2400 BC, while the Iron Age commenced in approximately 750 BC. During this time, the Lusatian culture, spanning both the Bronze and Iron Ages, became particularly prominent. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement (now reconstructed as an open-air museum), dating from the Lusatian culture of the late Bronze Age, around 748 BC.Throughout Antiquity, many distinct ancient ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland in an era that dates from about 400 BC to 500 AD. These groups are identified as Celtic, Scythian, Germanic, Sarmatian, Slavic and Baltic tribes. Also, recent archaeological findings in the Kuyavia region confirmed the presence of the Roman Legions on the territory of Poland. These were most likely expeditionary missions sent out to protect the amber trade. The exact time and routes of the original migration and settlement of Slavic peoples lacks written records and can only be defined as fragmented. There is evidence that earlier tribes may have been associated with the ancient Przeworsk culture. Up until the creation of Mieszko's state and his subsequent conversion to Christianity in 966 AD, the main religion of the numerous West Slavic (Lechitic) tribes that inhabited the geographical area of present-day Poland was paganism. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Western Christianity and the religious authority of the Roman Church. However, the transition from paganism was not a smooth and instantaneous process for the rest of the population as evident from the pagan reaction of the 1030s.Poland began to form into a recognizable unitary and territorial entity around the middle of the 10th century under the Piast dynasty. Poland's first historically documented ruler, Mieszko I, accepted Christianity, as the rightful religion of his realm, under the auspices of the Latin Church with the Baptism of Poland in 966. The bulk of the population converted in the course of the next few centuries. In 1000, Boleslaw the Brave, continuing the policy of his father Mieszko, held a Congress of Gniezno and created the metropolis of Gniezno and the dioceses of Kraków, Kołobrzeg, and Wrocław. However, the pagan unrest led to the transfer of the capital to Kraków in 1038 by Casimir I the Restorer.In 1109, Prince Bolesław III Wrymouth defeated the King of Germany Henry V at the Battle of Hundsfeld, stopping the German incursion into Poland. The clash between Bolesław III and Henry V was documented by Gallus Anonymus in his 1118 chronicle. In 1138, Poland fragmented into several smaller duchies when Bolesław divided his lands among his sons. In 1226, Konrad I of Masovia, one of the regional Piast dukes, invited the Teutonic Knights to help him fight the Baltic Prussian pagans; a decision that led to centuries of warfare with the Knights. In 1264, the Statute of Kalisz or the General Charter of Jewish Liberties introduced numerous right for the Jews in Poland, leading to a nearly autonomous "nation within a nation".In the middle of the 13th century, the Silesian branch of the Piast dynasty (Henry I the Bearded and Henry II the Pious, ruled 1238–1241) nearly succeeded in uniting the Polish lands, but the Mongols invaded the country from the east and defeated the combined Polish forces at the Battle of Legnica where Duke Henry II the Pious died. In 1320, after a number of earlier unsuccessful attempts by regional rulers at uniting the Polish dukedoms, Władysław I consolidated his power, took the throne and became the first king of a reunified Poland. His son, Casimir III (reigned 1333–1370), has a reputation as one of the greatest Polish kings, and gained wide recognition for improving the country's infrastructure. He also extended royal protection to Jews, and encouraged their immigration to Poland. Casimir III realized that the nation needed a class of educated people, especially lawyers, who could codify the country's laws and administer the courts and offices. His efforts to create an institution of higher learning in Poland were finally rewarded when Pope Urban V granted him permission to open the University of Kraków.The Golden Liberty of the nobles began to develop under Casimir's rule, when in return for their military support, the king made a series of concessions to the nobility and establishing their legal status as superior to that of the townsfolk. When Casimir the Great died in 1370, leaving no legitimate male heir, the Piast dynasty came to an end.During the 13th and 14th centuries, Poland became a destination for German, Flemish and to a lesser extent Walloon, Danish and Scottish migrants. Also, Jews and Armenians began to settle and flourish in Poland during this era (see History of the Jews in Poland and Armenians in Poland).The Black Death, a plague that ravaged Europe from 1347 to 1351, did not significantly affect Poland, and the country was spared from a major outbreak of the disease. The reason for this was the decision of Casimir the Great to quarantine the nation's borders.The Jagiellon dynasty spanned the late Middle Ages and early Modern Era of Polish history. Beginning with the Lithuanian Grand Duke Jogaila (Władysław II Jagiełło), the Jagiellon dynasty (1386–1572) formed the Polish–Lithuanian union. The partnership brought vast Lithuanian-controlled Rus' areas into Poland's sphere of influence and proved beneficial for the Poles and Lithuanians, who coexisted and cooperated in one of the largest political entities in Europe for the next four centuries.In the Baltic Sea region the struggle of Poland and Lithuania with the Teutonic Knights continued and culminated at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, where a combined Polish-Lithuanian army inflicted a decisive victory against them. In 1466, after the Thirteen Years' War, King Casimir IV Jagiellon gave royal consent to the Peace of Thorn, which created the future Duchy of Prussia under Polish suzerainty. The Jagiellon dynasty at one point also established dynastic control over the kingdoms of Bohemia (1471 onwards) and Hungary. In the south, Poland confronted the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Tatars (by whom they were attacked on 75 separate occasions between 1474 and 1569), and in the east helped Lithuania fight the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Some historians estimate that Crimean Tatar slave-raiding cost Poland-Lithuania one million of its population between the years of 1494 and 1694.Poland was developing as a feudal state, with a predominantly agricultural economy and an increasingly powerful landed nobility. The "Nihil novi" act adopted by the Polish Sejm (parliament) in 1505, transferred most of the legislative power from the monarch to the Sejm, an event which marked the beginning of the period known as "Golden Liberty", when the state was ruled by the "free and equal" Polish nobility. Protestant Reformation movements made deep inroads into Polish Christianity, which resulted in the establishment of policies promoting religious tolerance, unique in Europe at that time. This tolerance allowed the country to avoid most of the religious turmoil that spread over Europe during the 16th century.The European Renaissance evoked in late Jagiellon Poland (under kings Sigismund I the Old and Sigismund II Augustus) a sense of urgency in the need to promote a cultural awakening, and during this period Polish culture and the nation's economy flourished. In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus, an astronomer from Toruń, published his epochal work "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" ("On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres") and thereby became the first proponent of a predictive mathematical model confirming the heliocentric theory, which became the accepted basic model for the practice of modern astronomy. Another major figure associated with the era is the classicist poet Jan Kochanowski.The 1569 Union of Lublin established the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a more closely unified federal state with an elective monarchy, but which was governed largely by the nobility, through a system of local assemblies with a central parliament. The Warsaw Confederation (1573) guaranteed religious freedom for the Polish nobility "(szlachta)" and townsfolk "(mieszczanie)". However, the peasants "(chłopi)" were still subject to severe limitations imposed on them by the nobility. The establishment of the Commonwealth coincided with a period of stability and prosperity in Poland, with the union thereafter becoming a European power and a major cultural entity, occupying approximately one million square kilometers of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as an agent for the dissemination of Western culture through Polonization into areas of modern-day Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Belarus and western Russia.In the 16th and 17th centuries, Poland suffered from a number of dynastic crises during the reigns of the Vasa kings Sigismund III and Władysław IV and found itself engaged in major conflicts with Russia, Sweden and the Ottoman Empire, as well as a series of minor Cossack uprisings. In 1610, a Polish army under the command of Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski seized Moscow after winning the Battle of Klushino. In 1611, the Tsar of Russia paid homage to the King of Poland.After the signing of Truce of Deulino, Poland had in the years 1618–1621 an area of about .From the middle of the 17th century, the nobles' democracy, suffering from internal disorder, gradually declined, thereby leaving the once powerful Commonwealth vulnerable to foreign intervention. Starting in 1648, the Cossack Khmelnytsky Uprising engulfed the south and east, eventually leaving Ukraine divided, with the eastern part, lost by the Commonwealth, becoming a dependency of the Tsardom of Russia. This was followed by the 'Deluge', a Swedish invasion of Poland, which marched through the Polish heartlands and ruined the country's population, culture and infrastructure—around four million of Poland's eleven million inhabitants died in famines and epidemics throughout the 17th century. However, under John III Sobieski the Commonwealth's military prowess was re-established, and in 1683 Polish forces played a major role in the Battle of Vienna against the Ottoman Army, commanded by Kara Mustafa, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.Sobieski's reign marked the end of the nation's golden era. Finding itself subjected to almost constant warfare and suffering enormous population losses as well as massive damage to its economy, the Commonwealth fell into decline. The government became ineffective as a result of large-scale internal conflicts (e.g. Lubomirski Rebellion against John II Casimir and rebellious confederations) and corrupted legislative processes. The nobility fell under the control of a handful of "magnats", and this, compounded with two relatively weak kings of the Saxon Wettin dynasty, Augustus II and Augustus III, as well as the rise of Russia and Prussia after the Great Northern War only served to worsen the Commonwealth's plight. Despite this The Commonwealth-Saxony personal union gave rise to the emergence of the Commonwealth's first reform movement, and laid the foundations for the Polish Enlightenment.During the later part of the 18th century, the Commonwealth made attempts to implement fundamental internal reforms; with the second half of the century bringing a much improved economy, significant population growth and far-reaching progress in the areas of education, intellectual life, art, and especially toward the end of the period, evolution of the social and political system. The most populous capital city of Warsaw replaced Gdańsk (Danzig) as the leading centre of commerce, and the role of the more prosperous urban population increased.The royal election of 1764 resulted in the elevation of Stanisław II August (a Polish aristocrat connected to the "Familia" faction of magnates) to the monarchy. However, elevated to the throne by the Empress Catherine II of Russia, the new king spent much of his reign maneuvering between his desire to implement necessary reforms to save his country, and the necessity to remain in a political relationship and at peace with Russia. This led to the formation of the 1768 Bar Confederation, a "szlachta" rebellion directed against the Polish king and all external influence, which ineptly aimed to preserve Poland's independence and szlachta's privileges. The failed attempts at reform as well as the internal turmoil caused by the Confederation proved the country's weakness and provoked its neighbours. In 1772 the First Partition of the Commonwealth by Prussia, Russia and Austria took place; an act which the "Partition Sejm", under considerable duress, eventually "ratified" "fait accompli". Disregarding this loss, in 1773 the king established the plan of the most necessary reforms, in which the Commission of National Education, the first government education authority in Europe, was established. Corporal punishment of children was officially prohibited in 1783.The Great Sejm convened by Stanisław II August in 1788 successfully adopted the 3 May Constitution, the first set of modern supreme national laws in Europe. However, this document, accused by detractors of harbouring revolutionary sympathies, generated strong opposition from the Commonwealth's nobles and conservatives as well as from Catherine II, who, determined to prevent the rebirth of a strong Commonwealth set about planning the final dismemberment of the Polish-Lithuanian state. Russia was aided in achieving its goal when the Targowica Confederation, an organisation of Polish nobles, appealed to the Empress for help. In May 1792, Russian forces crossed the Commonwealth's frontier, thus beginning the Polish-Russian War.The defensive war fought by the Poles ended prematurely when the King, convinced of the futility of resistance, capitulated and joined the Targowica Confederation, hoping to save the country. The Confederation then took over the government. Russia and Prussia, fearing the mere existence of a Polish state, understanding, that despite the current influence they still cannot control the country, arranged for, and in 1793 executed, the Second Partition of the Commonwealth, which left the country deprived of so much territory that it was practically incapable of independent existence. Eventually, in 1795, following the failed Kościuszko Uprising, the Commonwealth was partitioned one last time by all three of its more powerful neighbours, and with this, effectively ceased to exist. The 18-century British statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke summed up the partitions: "No wise or honest man can approve of that partition, or can contemplate it without prognosticating great mischief from it to all countries at some future time."Poles rebelled several times against the partitioners, particularly near the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. An unsuccessful attempt at defending Poland's sovereignty took place in 1794 during the Kościuszko Uprising, where a popular and distinguished general Tadeusz Kościuszko, who had several years earlier served under Washington in the American Revolutionary War, led Polish insurrectionists against numerically superior Russian forces. Despite the victory at the Battle of Racławice, his ultimate defeat ended Poland's independent existence for 123 years.In 1807, Napoleon I of France temporarily recreated a Polish state as the satellite Duchy of Warsaw, after a successful Greater Poland Uprising of 1806 against Prussian rule. But, after the failed Napoleonic Wars, Poland was again split between the victorious powers at the Congress of Vienna of 1815. The eastern part was ruled by the Russian tsar as Congress Poland, which had a liberal constitution. However, over time the Russian monarch reduced Polish freedoms, and Russia annexed the country in virtually all but name. Meanwhile, the Prussian controlled territory of Poland came under increased Germanization. Thus, in the 19th century, only Habsburg-ruled Austrian Poland, and particularly the Free City of Kraków, allowed free Polish culture to flourish.Throughout the period of the partitions, political and cultural repression of the Polish nation led to the organisation of a number of uprisings against the authorities of the occupying Russian, Prussian and Austrian governments. In 1830, the November Uprising began in Warsaw when, led by Lieutenant Piotr Wysocki, young non-commissioned officers at the Officer Cadet School in Warsaw revolted. They were joined by large segments of Polish society, and together forced Warsaw's Russian garrison to withdraw north of the city.Over the course of the next seven months, Polish forces successfully defeated the Russian armies of Field Marshal Hans Karl von Diebitsch and a number of other Russian commanders; however, finding themselves in a position unsupported by any other foreign powers, save distant France and the newborn United States, and with Prussia and Austria refusing to allow the import of military supplies through their territories, the Poles accepted that the uprising was doomed to failure. Upon the surrender of Warsaw to General Ivan Paskievich, many Polish troops, feeling they could not go on, withdrew into Prussia and there laid down their arms. After the defeat, the semi-independent Congress Poland lost its constitution, army and legislative assembly, and was integrated more closely with the Russian Empire.During the Spring of Nations (a series of revolutions which swept across Europe), Poles took up arms in the Greater Poland Uprising of 1848 to resist Prussian rule. Initially, the uprising manifested itself in the form of civil disobedience but eventually turned into an armed struggle when the Prussian military was sent in to pacify the region. Subsequently, the uprising was suppressed and the semi-autonomous Grand Duchy of Posen, created from the Prussian partition of Poland, was incorporated into Prussia.In 1863, a new Polish uprising against Russian rule began. The January Uprising started out as a spontaneous protest by young Poles against conscription into the Imperial Russian Army. However, the insurrectionists, despite being joined by high-ranking Polish-Lithuanian officers and numerous politicians, were still severely outnumbered and lacking in foreign support. They were forced to resort to guerrilla warfare tactics and failed to win any major military victories. Afterwards no major uprising was witnessed in the Russian-controlled Congress Poland, and Poles resorted instead to fostering economic and cultural self-improvement. Congress Poland was rapidly industrialised towards the end of the 19th century, and successively transformed into the Empire's wealthiest and most developed subject.Despite the political unrest experienced during the partitions, Poland did benefit from large-scale industrialisation and modernisation programs, instituted by the occupying powers, which helped it develop into a more economically coherent and viable entity. This was particularly true in Greater Poland, Silesia and Eastern Pomerania controlled by Prussia (later becoming a part of the German Empire); areas which eventually, thanks largely to the Greater Poland Uprising of 1918 and Silesian Uprisings, were reconstituted as a part of the Second Polish Republic, becoming the country's most prosperous regions.Following World War I all the Allies agreed on the reconstitution of Poland that United States President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed in Point 13 of his Fourteen Points. A total of 2 million Polish troops fought with the armies of the three occupying powers, and 450,000 died. Shortly after the armistice with Germany in November 1918, Poland regained its independence as the Second Polish Republic ("II Rzeczpospolita Polska"). It reaffirmed its independence after a series of military conflicts, the most notable being the Polish–Soviet War (1919–21) when Poland inflicted a crushing defeat on the Red Army at the Battle of Warsaw, an event which is considered to have halted the advance of Communism into Europe and forced Vladimir Lenin to rethink his objective of achieving global socialism. The event is often referred to as the "Miracle at the Vistula".During this period, Poland successfully managed to fuse the territories of the three former partitioning powers into a cohesive nation state. Railways were restructured to direct traffic towards Warsaw instead of the former imperial capitals, a new network of national roads was gradually built up and a major seaport, Gdynia, was opened on the Baltic Coast, so as to allow Polish exports and imports to bypass the politically charged Free City of Danzig. Also, the Polish government embarked on the creation of the Central Industrial Region ("Centralny Okręg Przemysłowy"). The project's goal was to create a heavy industrial center in the middle of the country, which included steal mills, power plants and factories. The inter-war period heralded in a new era of Polish politics. Whilst Polish political activists had faced heavy censorship in the decades up until the First World War, the country now found itself trying to establish a new political tradition. For this reason, many exiled Polish activists, such as Ignacy Paderewski (who would later become prime minister) returned home to help; a significant number of them then went on to take key positions in the newly formed political and governmental structures. Tragedy struck in 1922 when Gabriel Narutowicz, inaugural holder of the presidency, was assassinated at the Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw by a painter and right-wing nationalist Eligiusz Niewiadomski.In 1926, a May coup, led by the hero of the Polish independence campaign Marshal Józef Piłsudski, turned rule of the Second Polish Republic over to the nonpartisan Sanacja ("Healing") movement in an effort to prevent radical political organizations on both the left and the right from destabilizing the country. The movement functioned with relative stability until Piłsudski's death in 1935. Following Marshall Piłsudski's death, Sanation split into several competing factions. By the late 1930s, due to increased threats posed by political extremism inside the country, the Polish government became increasingly heavy-handed, banning a number of radical organizations, including communist and ultra-nationalist political parties, which threatened the stability of the country.World War II began with the Nazi German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, followed by the Soviet invasion of Poland on 17 September. On 28 September 1939, Warsaw fell. As agreed in the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Poland was split into two zones, one occupied by Nazi Germany, the other by the Soviet Union. In 1939–41, the Soviets deported hundreds of thousands of Poles. The Soviet NKVD executed thousands of Polish prisoners of war (inter alia Katyn massacre) ahead of the Operation Barbarossa. German planners had in November 1939 called for "the complete destruction of all Poles" and their fate as outlined in the genocidal "Generalplan Ost".Polish intelligence operatives proved extremely valuable to the Allies, providing much of the intelligence from Europe and beyond, and Polish code breakers were responsible for cracking the Enigma cypher.Poland made the fourth-largest troop contribution in Europe and its troops served both the Polish Government in Exile in the west and Soviet leadership in the east. Polish troops played an important role in the Normandy, Italian and North African Campaigns and are particularly remembered for the Battle of Monte Cassino. In the east, the Soviet-backed Polish 1st Army distinguished itself in the battles for Warsaw and Berlin.The wartime resistance movement, and the Armia Krajowa ("Home Army"), fought against German occupation. It was one of the three largest resistance movements of the entire war, and encompassed a range of clandestine activities, which functioned as an underground state complete with degree-awarding universities and a court system. The resistance was loyal to the exiled government and generally resented the idea of a communist Poland; for this reason, in the summer of 1944 it initiated Operation Tempest, of which the Warsaw Uprising that begun on 1 August 1944 is the best known operation.Nazi German forces under orders from Adolf Hitler set up six German extermination camps in occupied Poland, including Treblinka, Majdanek and Auschwitz. The Germans transported millions of Jews from across occupied Europe to be murdered in those camps.Altogether, 3 million Polish Jews – approximately 90% of Poland's pre-war Jewry – and between 1.8 and 2.8 million ethnic Poles were killed during the German occupation of Poland, including between 50,000 and 100,000 members of the Polish intelligentsia – academics, doctors, lawyers, nobility and priesthood. During the Warsaw Uprising alone, over 150,000 Polish civilians were killed, most were murdered by the Germans during the Wola and Ochota massacres. Around 150,000 Polish civilians were killed by Soviets between 1939 and 1941 during the Soviet Union's occupation of eastern Poland (Kresy), and another estimated 100,000 Poles were murdered by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) between 1943 and 1944 in what became known as the Wołyń Massacres. Of all the countries in the war, Poland lost the highest percentage of its citizens: around 6 million perished – more than one-sixth of Poland's pre-war population – half of them Polish Jews. About 90% of deaths were non-military in nature.In 1945, Poland's borders were shifted westwards. Over two million Polish inhabitants of Kresy were expelled along the Curzon Line by Stalin. The western border became the Oder-Neisse line. As a result, Poland's territory was reduced by 20%, or . The shift forced the migration of millions of other people, most of whom were Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, and Jews.At the insistence of Joseph Stalin, the Yalta Conference sanctioned the formation of a new provisional pro-Communist coalition government in Moscow, which ignored the Polish government-in-exile based in London. This action angered many Poles who considered it a betrayal by the Allies. In 1944, Stalin had made guarantees to Churchill and Roosevelt that he would maintain Poland's sovereignty and allow democratic elections to take place. However, upon achieving victory in 1945, the elections organized by the occupying Soviet authorities were falsified and were used to provide a veneer of legitimacy for Soviet hegemony over Polish affairs. The Soviet Union instituted a new communist government in Poland, analogous to much of the rest of the Eastern Bloc. As elsewhere in Communist Europe, the Soviet influence over Poland was met with armed resistance from the outset which continued into the 1950s.Despite widespread objections, the new Polish government accepted the Soviet annexation of the pre-war eastern regions of Poland (in particular the cities of Wilno and Lwów) and agreed to the permanent garrisoning of Red Army units on Poland's territory. Military alignment within the Warsaw Pact throughout the Cold War came about as a direct result of this change in Poland's political culture. In the European scene, it came to characterize the full-fledged integration of Poland into the brotherhood of communist nations.The new communist government took control with the adoption of the Small Constitution on 19 February 1947. The Polish People's Republic ("Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa") was officially proclaimed in 1952. In 1956, after the death of Bolesław Bierut, the régime of Władysław Gomułka became temporarily more liberal, freeing many people from prison and expanding some personal freedoms. Collectivization in the Polish People's Republic failed. A similar situation repeated itself in the 1970s under Edward Gierek, but most of the time persecution of anti-communist opposition groups persisted. Despite this, Poland was at the time considered to be one of the least oppressive states of the Eastern Bloc.Labour turmoil in 1980 led to the formation of the independent trade union "Solidarity" (""Solidarność""), which over time became a political force. Despite persecution and imposition of martial law in 1981, it eroded the dominance of the Polish United Workers' Party and by 1989 had triumphed in Poland's first partially free and democratic parliamentary elections since the end of the Second World War. Lech Wałęsa, a Solidarity candidate, eventually won the presidency in 1990. The Solidarity movement heralded the collapse of communist regimes and parties across Europe.A shock therapy programme, initiated by Leszek Balcerowicz in the early 1990s, enabled the country to transform its socialist-style planned economy into a market economy. As with other post-communist countries, Poland suffered declines in social and economic standards, but it became the first post-communist country to reach its pre-1989 GDP levels, which it achieved by 1995 thanks largely to its booming economy.Most visibly, there were numerous improvements in human rights, such as freedom of speech, internet freedom (no censorship), civil liberties (1st class) and political rights (1st class), as ranked by Freedom House non-governmental organization. In 1991, Poland became a member of the Visegrád Group and joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance in 1999 along with the Czech Republic and Hungary. Poles then voted to join the European Union in a referendum in June 2003, with Poland becoming a full member on 1 May 2004.Poland joined the Schengen Area in 2007, as a result of which, the country's borders with other member states of the European Union have been dismantled, allowing for full freedom of movement within most of the EU. In contrast to this, a section of Poland's eastern border now constitutes the external EU border with Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. That border has become increasingly well protected, and has led in part to the coining of the phrase 'Fortress Europe', in reference to the seeming 'impossibility' of gaining entry to the EU for citizens of the former Soviet Union.In an effort to strengthen military cooperation with its neighbors, Poland set up the Visegrád Battlegroup with Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia, with a total of 3,000 troops ready for deployment. Also, in eastern Poland, it formed the LITPOLUKRBRIG battle groups with Lithuania and Ukraine. These battle groups will operate outside of NATO and within the European defense initiative framework.On 10 April 2010, the President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, along with 89 other high-ranking Polish officials died in a plane crash near Smolensk, Russia. The president's party was on their way to attend an annual service of commemoration for the victims of the Katyń massacre when the tragedy took place.In 2011, the ruling Civic Platform won parliamentary elections. Poland joined the European Space Agency in 2012, as well as organised the UEFA Euro 2012 (along with Ukraine). In 2013, Poland also became a member of the Development Assistance Committee. In 2014, the Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, was chosen to be President of the European Council, and resigned as prime minister.The 2015 and 2019 elections were won by the conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS), resulting in increased friction between Poland and the EU. In December 2017, Mateusz Morawiecki was sworn in as the new Prime Minister, succeeding Beata Szydlo, in office since 2015. They both represented ruling Law and Justice party, led by party chairman Jarosław Kaczyński. President Andrzej Duda, supported by Law and Justice party, was narrowly re-elected in the 2020 presidential election.Poland's vast territory covers approximately , of which 98.52% is dry land and 1.48% is water. Extending across several geographical regions, the country is the 9th-largest by area in Europe and 69th largest in the world. Topographically, Poland is diverse and has access to the sea, the mountains and open terrain. Although most of the central parts of the country are flat, there is an abundance of lakes, rivers, hills, swamps, beaches, islands and forests elsewhere.In the north-west is the Baltic seacoast spanning from the Bay of Pomerania to the Gulf of Gdańsk. The coast is marked by several spits, coastal lakes (former bays that have been cut off from the sea), and dunes. The largely straight coastline is indented by the Szczecin Lagoon, the Bay of Puck, and the Vistula Lagoon.The central and northern parts of the country lie within the North European Plain. Rising above these lowlands is a geographical region comprising four hilly districts of moraines and moraine-dammed lakes formed during and after the Pleistocene ice age, notably the Pomeranian Lake District, the Greater Polish Lake District, the Kashubian Lake District, and the Masurian Lake District. The Masurian Lake District is the largest of the four and covers much of north-eastern Poland. The lake districts form a series of moraine belts along the southern shore of the Baltic Sea.South of the Northern European Plain are the regions of Lusatia, Silesia and Masovia, which are marked by broad ice-age river valleys. The extreme south of Poland is mountainous; it runs from the Sudetes in the west to the Carpathian Mountains in the east. The highest part of the Carpathian massif is the Tatra Mountain range, along Poland's southern border.The geological structure of Poland has been shaped by the continental collision of Europe and Africa over the past 60 million years and, more recently, by the Quaternary glaciations of northern Europe. Both processes shaped the Sudetes and the Carpathian Mountains. The moraine landscape of northern Poland contains soils made up mostly of sand or loam, while the ice age river valleys of the south often contain loess. The Polish Jura, the Pieniny, and the Western Tatras consist of limestone, whereas the High Tatras, the Beskids, and the Karkonosze mountain ranges are made up mainly of granite and basalts. The Polish Jura Chain has some of the oldest rock formations on the continent of Europe.Poland has over 70 mountains over in elevation, all situated in the Tatras. Poland's highest point is the north-western summit of Mount Rysy at in elevation. At its foot lie the mountain lakes of Czarny Staw (Black Lake) and Morskie Oko (Eye of the Sea), both naturally-made tarns. Other notable uplands include the Pieniny and Holy Cross Mountains, the Table Mountains noted for their unusual rock formations, the Bieszczady in the far southeast of the country in which the highest peak is Tarnica at , and the Gorce Mountains whose highest point is Turbacz at . The highest point of the Sudeten massif is Mount Śnieżka (), shared with the Czech Republic.The lowest point in Poland – at below sea level – is at Raczki Elbląskie, near Elbląg in the Vistula Delta.In the Zagłębie Dąbrowskie (the Coal Fields of Dąbrowa) region in the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland is an area of sparsely vegetated sand known as the Błędów Desert. It covers an area of . It is not a natural desert and was formed by human activity from the Middle Ages onwards.The Baltic Sea activity in Słowiński National Park created sand dunes which in the course of time separated the bay from the sea creating two lakes. As waves and wind carry sand inland the dunes slowly move, at a rate of per year. Some dunes reach the height of up to . The highest peak of the park is Rowokol at above sea level.The longest rivers are the Vistula (), long; the Oder () which forms part of Poland's western border, long; its tributary, the Warta, long; and the Bug, a tributary of the Vistula, long. The Vistula and the Oder flow into the Baltic Sea, as do numerous smaller rivers in Pomerania. Poland's lengthy waterways have been used since early times for navigation; the Vikings ventured up the Polish rivers in their longships. In the Middle Ages and in early modern times, the shipment of tangible goods down the Vistula toward Gdańsk and onward to other parts of Europe took on great importance.With almost ten thousand closed bodies of water covering more than each, Poland has one of the highest numbers of lakes in the world. In Europe, only Finland has a greater density of lakes. The largest lakes, covering more than , are Lake Śniardwy and Lake Mamry in Masuria as well as Lake Łebsko and Lake Drawsko in Pomerania. The lake with the greatest depth—of more than —is Lake Hańcza in the Wigry Lake District, east of Masuria in Podlaskie Voivodeship.The Polish Baltic coast is approximately long and extends from Świnoujście on the islands of Usedom and Wolin in the west to Krynica Morska on the Vistula Spit in the east. For the most part, Poland has a smooth coastline, which has been shaped by the continual movement of sand by currents and winds. This continual erosion and deposition has formed cliffs, dunes, and spits, many of which have migrated landwards to close off former lagoons, such as Łebsko Lake in the Słowiński National Park.The largest spits are Hel Peninsula and the Vistula Spit. The coast line is varied also by Szczecin and Vistula Lagoons and several lakes, including Jamno. The largest Polish Baltic island is Wolin, located within Wolin National Park. The largest sea harbours are Szczecin, Świnoujście, Gdańsk, Gdynia, Police and Kołobrzeg and the main coastal resorts – Świnoujście, Międzydzdroje, Kołobrzeg, Łeba, Sopot, Władysławowo and the Hel Peninsula.In the valley of Pilica river in Tomaszów Mazowiecki there is a unique natural karst spring of water containing calcium salts, that is an object of protection at Blue Springs Nature Reserve in the Sulejów Landscape Park. The red waves are absorbed by water, hence only blue and green are reflected from the bottom of the spring, giving the water atypical colour.Forests cover about 29.6% of Poland's land area based on international standards. Its overall percentage is still increasing. Forests of Poland are managed by the national program of reforestation (KPZL), aiming at an increase of forest-cover to 33% in 2050. The largest forest complex in Poland is Lower Silesian Wilderness.More than 1% of Poland's territory, , is protected within 23 Polish national parks. Three more national parks are projected for Masuria, the Polish Jura, and the eastern Beskids. In addition, wetlands along lakes and rivers in central Poland are legally protected, as are coastal areas in the north. There are 123 areas designated as landscape parks, along with numerous nature reserves and other protected areas under the Natura 2000 network.In 2017, approximately of land was occupied by farms and farmsteads, over half of Poland's total area.Phytogeographically, Poland belongs to the Central European province of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the territory of Poland belongs to three Palearctic Ecoregions of the continental forest spanning Central and Northern European temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregions, as well as the Carpathian montane conifer forest. The most common deciduous trees found across the country are oak, maple, and beech; the most common conifers are pine, spruce, and fir. An estimated 68.7% of all forests are coniferous.Poland has historically been home to rare species of animals, as well as the two largest European mammals: the wisent ("żubr") and aurochs ("tur"). The last aurochs of Europe became extinct in 1627 in the Polish Jaktorów Forest, while the wisent survived until the 20th century only at Białowieża. It has been since reintroduced to other countries. Other wild species include the brown bear in Białowieża, in the Tatras, and in the Beskids; the gray wolf and the Eurasian lynx in various forests; the moose in northern Poland; and the beaver in Masuria, Pomerania, and Podlaskie.Game animals such as red deer, roe deer, and wild boar are found in most woodlands. Eastern Poland abounds in ancient woods, like the Białowieża Forest, that have not been disturbed by human or industrial activity. There are also large forested areas in the mountains, Greater Poland, Pomerania, Lubusz Land, and Lower Silesia. The Lubusz Voivodeship is currently the most arboraceous province in the country; 52% of its territory is occupied by forests.Poland is also a significant breeding ground for a variety of European migratory birds. One quarter of the global population of white storks (40,000 breeding pairs) live in Poland, particularly in the lake districts and the wetlands along the Biebrza, the Narew, and the Warta, which are part of nature reserves or national parks.The climate is mostly temperate throughout the country. The climate is oceanic in the north-west and becomes gradually warmer and continental towards the south-east. Summers are generally warm, with average temperatures between depending on the region. Winters are rather cold, with average temperatures around in the northwest and in the northeast. Precipitation falls throughout the year, although, especially in the east, winter is drier than summer.The warmest region in Poland is Lower Silesia in the southwest of the country, where temperatures in the summer average between but can go as high as on some days in the warmest months of July and August. The warmest cities in Poland are Tarnów in Lesser Poland, and Wrocław in Lower Silesia. The average temperatures in Wrocław are in the summer and in the winter, but Tarnów has the longest summer in all of Poland, which lasts for 115 days, from mid-May to mid-September. The coldest region of Poland is in the northeast, around the area of Suwałki within the Podlaskie Voivodeship, where the climate is affected by cold fronts coming from Scandinavia and Siberia. The average temperature in the winter in Podlaskie ranges from . The biggest impact of the oceanic climate is observed in Świnoujście and Baltic Sea seashore area from Police to Słupsk.Poland is a representative democracy, with a president as the head of state. The government structure centers on the Council of Ministers, led by a prime minister. The president appoints the cabinet according to the proposals of the prime minister, typically from the majority coalition in the Sejm. The president is elected by popular vote every five years. The current president is Andrzej Duda and the prime minister is Mateusz Morawiecki.Polish voters elect a bicameral parliament consisting of a 460-member lower house (Sejm) and a 100-member Senate (Senat). The Sejm is elected under proportional representation according to the d'Hondt method, a method similar to that used in many parliamentary political systems. The Senat, on the other hand, is elected under the first-past-the-post voting method, with one senator being returned from each of the 100 constituencies.With the exception of ethnic minority parties, only candidates of political parties receiving at least 5% of the total national vote can enter the Sejm. When sitting in joint session, members of the Sejm and Senat form the National Assembly (the "Zgromadzenie Narodowe"). The National Assembly is formed on three occasions: when a new president takes the oath of office; when an indictment against the President of the Republic is brought to the State Tribunal ("Trybunał Stanu"); and when a president's permanent incapacity to exercise his duties due to the state of his health is declared. To date only the first instance has occurred.The judicial branch plays an important role in decision-making. Its major institutions include the Supreme Court ("Sąd Najwyższy"); the Supreme Administrative Court ("Naczelny Sąd Administracyjny"); the Constitutional Tribunal ("Trybunał Konstytucyjny"); and the State Tribunal ("Trybunał Stanu"). On the approval of the Senat, the Sejm also appoints the ombudsman or the Commissioner for Civil Rights Protection ("Rzecznik Praw Obywatelskich") for a five-year term. The ombudsman has the duty of guarding the observance and implementation of the rights and liberties of Polish citizens and residents, of the law and of principles of community life and social justice.The Constitution of Poland is the enacted supreme law, and the Polish legal system is based on the principle of civil rights, governed by the code of civil law. The current democratic constitution was adopted by the National Assembly of Poland on 2 April 1997; it guarantees a multi-party state with freedoms of religion, speech and assembly, prohibits the practices of forced medical experimentation, torture or corporal punishment, and acknowledges the inviolability of the home, the right to form trade unions, and the right to strike.The judiciary incorporates a four-tier court system composed of the Supreme Court, the Supreme Administrative Court, Common Courts (District, Regional, Appellate) and the Military Court. Judges are nominated by the National Council of the Judiciary and are appointed for life by the president. The Constitutional and State Tribunals are separate judicial bodies, which rule the constitutional liability of people holding the highest offices of state and supervise the compliance of statutory law, thus protecting the Constitution.Historically, the most significant Polish legal act is the Constitution of 3 May 1791, the first modern constitution in Europe. Instituted as a Government Act, it was designed to redress long-standing political defects of the federative Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and its Golden Liberty. Previously, only the Henrician Articles (1573) signed by each of Poland's elected monarchs could perform the function of a set of basic laws. The new Constitution introduced political equality between townspeople and the nobility ("szlachta"), and placed the peasants under the protection of the government. It abolished pernicious parliamentary policies such as the "liberum veto", which permitted any deputy to rescind all the legislation passed in the interest of a foreign power. The 3 May Constitution sought to supplant the existing anarchy fostered by some of the country's reactionary magnates, with a more egalitarian and democratic constitutional monarchy. The influenced many later democratic movements across the globe. Tax-paying women were allowed to take part in Polish political life until the third partition in 1795. In 1918 the Second Polish Republic became one of the first countries to introduce universal women's suffrage.Poland has a low homicide rate at 0.7 murders per 100,000 people, as of 2018. Rape, assault and violent crime remain at a very low level, although not all cases are recorded by the authorities.Abortion is permitted only in cases of rape, incest or when the woman's life is in danger. Congenital disorder and stillbirth are not covered by the law, forcing some women to seek abortion abroad, and others to seek the assistance of psychiatrists willing to testify on the negative psychological impact of stillbirth. Poland does not criminalize homosexuality, and its legality was confirmed in 1932. The Polish Constitution defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.Poland is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union and has a grand total of 52 representatives in the European Parliament as of 2020. Since joining the union in 2004, successive Polish governments have pursued policies to extend the country's role in European and international affairs. Poland is an emerging regional power in Central Europe. The capital of Warsaw serves as the headquarters for Frontex, the European Union's agency for external border security as well as ODIHR, one of the principal institutions of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.Apart from the European Union, Poland has been a member of NATO since 1999, the UN, the World Trade Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since 1996, European Economic Area, International Energy Agency, Council of Europe, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, International Atomic Energy Agency, European Space Agency, G6, Council of the Baltic Sea States, Visegrád Group, Weimar Triangle, Schengen Agreement, Lublin Triangle and Bucharest Nine.Over the past two decades, Poland significantly strengthened its ties with the United States, thus becoming one of its closest allies in Europe. Poland was part of the US-led coalition force during the Iraq War in 2003, and sent its troops in the first phase of the conflict, jointly with the United Kingdom and Australia. Along with NATO, Poland maintains military presence in the Middle East, the Baltic states and in the Balkans.The Polish Armed Forces are composed of five branches – Land Forces ("Wojska Lądowe"), Navy ("Marynarka Wojenna"), Air Force ("Siły Powietrzne"), Special Forces ("Wojska Specjalne") and the Territorial Defence Force ("Wojska Obrony Terytorialnej"). The military is subordinate to the Ministry of National Defence of the Republic of Poland. However, its commander-in-chief in peacetime is the President of the Republic, who nominates officers, the Minister for National Defence and the chief of staff.As of 2018, the Polish Armed Forces have a combined strength of 144,142 soldiers. The Polish Navy primarily operates on the Baltic Sea and conducts operations such as maritime patrol, search and rescue for the section of the Baltic under Polish sovereignty, as well as hydrographic measurements and research. The Polish Air Force routinely takes part in Baltic Air Policing assignments. In 2003, the F-16C Block 52 was selected as the new general multi-role fighter for the air force. In January 2020, Poland has approved the delivery for F-35 Lightning II combat aircraft. Poland is currently spending 2% of its GDP on defence (approximately US$13.5 billion in 2020), which is expected to grow to 2.5% by 2030. According to SIPRI, the country exported EUR€487 million worth of arms and armaments to other countries, primarily to the United States, Chile, France and South Africa.The mission of the armed forces is the defence of Poland's territorial integrity and Polish interests abroad. The country's national security goal is to further integrate with NATO and European defence, economic, and political institutions. Compulsory military service for men was discontinued in 2008. From 2007, until conscription ended in 2008, the mandatory service was nine months. Polish military doctrine reflects the same defensive nature as that of its NATO partners and the country actively hosts NATO's military exercises. From 1953 to 2009 Poland was a large contributor to various United Nations peacekeeping missions. The Polish Armed Forces took part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, deploying 2,500 soldiers in the south of that country and commanding the 17-nation multinational force in Iraq. Poland also maintains troops in the Middle East, the Baltic states and in the Balkans; 1,650 soldiers were deployed in 2019.Law enforcement in Poland is performed by several agencies which are subordinate to the Ministry of Interior and Administration – the State Police ("Policja"), assigned to investigate crimes or transgression; the Municipal City Guard, which maintains public order; and several specialized agencies, such as the Polish Border Guard. Private security firms are also common, although they possess no legal authority to arrest or detain a suspect. Municipal guards are primarily headed by provincial, regional or city councils; individual guards are not permitted to carry firearms unless instructed by their superior commanding officer or commandant.The Internal Security Agency (ABW, or ISA in English) is the chief counter-intelligence instrument safeguarding Poland's internal security, along with Agencja Wywiadu (AW) which identifies threats and collects secret information abroad. The Central Investigation Bureau of Police (CBŚP) and the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) are responsible for countering organized crime and corruption in state and private institutions.Emergency services in Poland consist of the emergency medical services, search and rescue units of the Polish Armed Forces and State Fire Service. Emergency medical services in Poland are provided for by local and regional governments.All emergency services personnel are uniformed and security services can be easily recognized during regular patrols in both large urban areas or smaller suburban localities.Poland's current voivodeships (provinces) are largely based on the country's historic regions, whereas those of the past two decades (to 1998) had been centred on and named for individual cities. The new units range in area from less than for Opole Voivodeship to more than for Masovian Voivodeship. Administrative authority at the voivodeship level is shared between a government-appointed voivode (governor), an elected regional assembly ("sejmik") and a voivodeship marshal, an executive elected by that assembly.The voivodeships are subdivided into "powiats" (often referred to in English as counties), and these are further divided into "gminas" (also known as communes or municipalities). Major cities normally have the status of both "gmina" and "powiat". Poland has 16 voivodeships, 380 powiats (including 66 cities with "powiat" status), and 2,478 "gminas".Poland's economy and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is currently the sixth largest in the European Union by nominal standards, and the fifth largest by purchasing power parity. It is also one of the fastest growing within the Union. Around 60% of the employed population belongs to the tertiary service sector, 30% to industry and manufacturing, and the remaining 10% to the agricultural sector. Although Poland is a member of EU's single market, the country has not adopted the Euro as legal tender and maintains its own currency – the Polish złoty (zł, PLN).Poland is the regional economic leader in Central Europe, with nearly 40 per cent of the 500 biggest companies in the region (by revenues) as well as a high globalisation rate. The country's largest firms compose the WIG20 and WIG30 indexes, which is traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. According to reports made by the National Bank of Poland, the value of Polish foreign direct investments reached almost 300 billion PLN at the end of 2014. The Central Statistical Office estimated that in 2014 there were 1,437 Polish corporations with interests in 3,194 foreign entities.Having a strong domestic market, low private debt, low unemployment rate, flexible currency, and not being dependent on a single export sector, Poland is the only European economy to have avoided the recession of 2008. The country is the 20th largest exporter of goods and services in the world and its most successful exports include machinery, furniture, food products, clothing, shoes, cosmetics and videogames. These account to approximately 56% of the total GDP, as of 2018. Poland's largest trading partners include Germany, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, France and Italy. Warsaw leads Central Europe in foreign investment. In September 2018, the unemployment rate was estimated at 5.7%, one of the lowest in the European Union. In 2019, Poland passed a law that would exempt workers under the age of 26 from income tax.The Polish banking sector is the largest in the region, with 32.3 branches per 100,000 adults.World Bank, Financial Inclusion Data. Country Dashboard: Poland. The World Bank Group. Retrieved 6 November 2014. The banks are the largest and most developed sector of the country's financial markets. They are regulated by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority. Poland's banking sector has approximately 5 national banks, a network of nearly 600 cooperative banks and 18 branches of foreign-owned banks. In addition, foreign investors have controlling stakes in nearly 40 commercial banks, which make up 68% of the banking capital.Products and goods manufactured in Poland include: electronics, buses and trams (Solaris, Solbus), helicopters and planes (PZL Świdnik, PZL Mielec), trains (Pesa, Newag), ships (Gdańsk Shipyard, Szczecin Shipyard), military equipment (FB "Łucznik" Radom, , Jelcz), medicines (, ), food (Tymbark, Hortex, E. Wedel), clothes (LLP), glass, pottery (Bolesławiec), chemical products and others. Well-known brands and companies include Alior Bank, Orlen&Lotos Group, Inglot Cosmetics, Plus, Play, Brainly, Netguru, GOG.com, CD Projekt, Trefl and Allegro. Poland is also one of the world's biggest producers of copper, silver, coal, furniture, automotive parts and soft drink.Poland experienced a significant increase in the number of tourists after joining the European Union in 2004. With nearly 21 million international arrivals in 2019, tourism contributes considerably to the overall economy and makes up a relatively large proportion of the country's service market.Tourist attractions in Poland vary, from the mountains in the south to the sandy beaches in the north, with a trail of nearly every architectural style. The most visited city is Kraków, which was the former capital of Poland and serves as a relic of the Polish Golden Age and the Renaissance. Kraków also held royal coronations of most Polish kings and monarchs at Wawel, the nation's chief historical landmark. Among other notable sites in the country is Wrocław, one of the oldest cities in Poland which was a model for the founding of Kraków. Wrocław is famous for its dwarfs, a large market square with two town halls, and the oldest Zoological Gardens with one of the world's largest number of animal species. The Polish capital Warsaw and its historical Old Town were entirely reconstructed after wartime destruction. Other cities attracting countless tourists include Gdańsk, Poznań, Lublin, Toruń as well as the site of the German Auschwitz concentration camp in Oświęcim. A notable highlight is the 13th-century Wieliczka Salt Mine with its labyrinthine tunnels, a subterranean lake and chapels carved by miners out of rock salt beneath the ground.Poland's main tourist offerings include outdoor activities such as skiing, sailing, mountain hiking and climbing, as well as agritourism, sightseeing historical monuments. Tourist destinations include the Baltic Sea coast in the north; the Masurian Lake District and Białowieża Forest in the east; on the south Karkonosze, the Table Mountains and the Tatra Mountains, where Rysy – the highest peak of Poland, and Eagle's Path mountain trail are located. The Pieniny and Bieszczady Mountains lie in the extreme south-east. There are over 100 castles in the country, most in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship (inter alia ), and also on the Trail of the Eagles' Nests. The largest castle in the world by land area is situated in Malbork, in north-central Poland.The electricity generation sector in Poland is largely fossil-fuel–based. Many power plants nationwide use Poland's position as a major European exporter of coal to their advantage by continuing to use coal as the primary raw material in the production of their energy. In 2013, Poland scored 48 out of 129 states in the Energy Sustainability Index. The three largest Polish coal mining firms (Węglokoks, Kompania Węglowa and JSW) extract around 100 million tonnes of coal annually.Renewable forms of energy account for a smaller proportion of Poland's full energy generation capacity. However, the national government has set targets for the development of renewable energy sources in Poland (the share of energy from renewable sources in the gross final energy consumption in 2019 was – 12,18%). Increasing the share of energy from renewable sources and a significant reduction in CO2 emissions to be achieved with the help of biofuels, photovoltaics, construction of wind farms on the land and the Baltic Sea, hydroelectric stations and nuclear power plant.Poland has around 164,800,000,000 m of proven natural gas reserves and around 96,380,000 barrels of proven oil reserves. These reserves are exploited by energy supply companies such as PKN Orlen ("the only Polish company listed in the Fortune Global 500"), PGNiG. However, the small amounts of fossil fuels naturally occurring in Poland are insufficient to satisfy the full energy consumption needs of the population and industry. Consequently, the country is a net importer of oil and natural gas. Therefore, since the second decade of the 21st century, Poland has been strongly developing the so-called North Gate in which the most important components are the Baltic Pipe, the Świnoujście LNG terminal and Floating Storage and Regasification Unit in Port of Gdańsk.The 5 largest companies supplying Poland electricity are PGE, Tauron, Enea, and Innogy Poland.Transport in Poland is provided by means of rail, road, marine shipping and air travel. The country is part of EU's Schengen Area and is an important transport hub along neighbouring Germany due to its strategic position in Central Europe. Some of the longest European routes, including the E40, run through Poland.The country has a good network of highways, composed of express roads and motorways. At the start of 2020, Poland had of highways in use. In addition, all local and regional roads are monitored by the National Road Rebuilding Programme, which aims to improve the quality of travel in the countryside and suburban localities.In 2017, the nation had of railway track, the third longest in Europe after Germany and France. The Polish State Railways (PKP) is the dominant railway operator in the country. In December 2014, Poland began to implement high–speed rail routes connecting major Polish cities, and started passenger service using the New Pendolino train, operating at 200 km/h on the Central Rail Line (CMK). Polish regulations allow trains without ETCS to travel at speeds up to 160 km/h, trains with ETCS1 up to 200 km/h, and trains with ETCS2 at over 200 km/h. Most inter-regional connections rail routes in Poland are operated by PKP Intercity, whilst regional trains are run by a number of private operators, the largest of which is Polregio. The largest passenger train station in terms of the number of travelers is Wrocław Główny.The air and maritime transport markets in Poland are largely well developed. Poland has a number of international airports, the largest of which is Warsaw Chopin Airport, the primary global hub for LOT Polish Airlines. It was established in 1928 from a merger of Aerolloyd (1922) and Aero (1925). Other major airports with international connections include John Paul II International Airport Kraków–Balice, Copernicus Airport Wrocław, Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport. Poland has begun preparations for a construction that can handle 100 million passengers of the Central Communication Port.Seaports exist all along Poland's Baltic coast, with most freight operations using Świnoujście, Police, Szczecin, Kołobrzeg, Gdynia, Gdańsk and Elbląg as their base.Passenger ferries link Poland with Scandinavia all year round; these services are provided from Gdańsk and Świnoujście by Polferries, Stena Line from Gdynia and Unity Line from the Świnoujście. The Port of Gdańsk is the only port in the Baltic Sea adapted to receive oceanic vessels.Over the course of history, the Polish people have made considerable contributions in the fields of science, technology and mathematics. Perhaps the most renowned Pole to support this theory was Nicolaus Copernicus ("Mikołaj Kopernik"), who triggered the Copernican Revolution by placing the Sun rather than the Earth at the center of the universe. He also derived a quantity theory of money, which made him a pioneer of economics. Copernicus' achievements and discoveries are considered the basis of Polish culture and cultural identity.Poland's tertiary education institutions; traditional universities, as well as technical, medical, and economic institutions, employ around tens of thousands of researchers and staff members. There are hundreds of research and development institutes. However, in the 19th and 20th centuries many Polish scientists worked abroad; one of the most important of these exiles was Maria Skłodowska-Curie, a physicist and chemist who lived much of her life in France. In 1925 she established Poland's Radium Institute.In the first half of the 20th century, Poland was a flourishing centre of mathematics. Outstanding Polish mathematicians formed the Lwów School of Mathematics (with Stefan Banach, Stanisław Mazur, Hugo Steinhaus, Stanisław Ulam) and Warsaw School of Mathematics (with Alfred Tarski, Kazimierz Kuratowski, Wacław Sierpiński and Antoni Zygmund). Numerous mathematicians, scientists, chemists or economists emigrated due to historic vicissitudes, among them Benoit Mandelbrot, Leonid Hurwicz, Alfred Tarski, Joseph Rotblat and Nobel Prize laureates Roald Hoffmann, Georges Charpak and Tadeusz Reichstein. In the 1930s, mathematician and cryptologist Marian Rejewski invented the Cryptographic Bomb which formed the basis of the effort that allowed the Allies to crack the Enigma code.Over 40 research and development centers and 4,500 researchers make Poland the biggest research and development hub in Central and Eastern Europe. Multinational companies such as: ABB, Delphi, GlaxoSmithKline, Google, Hewlett–Packard, IBM, Intel, LG Electronics, Microsoft, Motorola, Siemens and Samsung all have set up research and development centres in Poland. Companies chose Poland because of the availability of highly qualified labour force, presence of universities, support of authorities, and the largest market in East-Central Europe. According to a KPMG report from 2011, 80% of Poland's current investors are content with their choice and willing to reinvest. Poland has a very well-developed e-administration, thanks to which many official matters can be easily and quickly settled via the Internet. In the UN ranking, Poland is in the top twenty countries with the best-rated e-administration in the world.Poland, with approximately 38.5 million inhabitants, has the ninth-largest population in Europe and the fifth-largest in the European Union. It has a population density of 122 inhabitants per square kilometre (328 per square mile). The total fertility rate in 2020 was estimated at 1.44 children born to a woman, a considerable rise from previous years. In contrast, the total fertility rate in 1925 was 4.68. Furthermore, Poland's population is aging significantly and the median age in 2018 was 41.1 years. The crude death rate in 2020 stood at 10.3 per 1,000 people.Around 60% of Poles and Polish citizens reside in urban areas or major cities and 40% in more rural zones. The most populous administrative province or state is the Masovian Voivodeship and the most populous city is the capital, Warsaw, at 1.8 million inhabitants with a further 2-3 million people living in its metropolitan area. The metropolitan area of Katowice is the largest urban conurbation in Poland with a population between 2.7 million and 5.3 million residents. The least populous and the smallest province in size is the Opole Voivodeship, with just under 1 million people living within its borders. Hence, a substantial portion of the total population is concentrated in the south of Poland, roughly between the cities of Wrocław and Kraków.In the 2011 Polish census, 37,310,341 people reported Polish identity, 846,719 Silesian, 232,547 Kashubian and 147,814 German. Other identities were reported by 163,363 people (0.41%) and 521,470 people (1.35%) did not specify any nationality. Once prominent but now statistically insignificant minority groups include Polish Jews, Lipka Tatars, Armenians, Greeks, Lemkos, the Romani people and the Vietnamese. Ethnic Poles themselves can be divided into many diverse regional ethnographic sub-groups, most notable being the Kashubians, Silesians and Gorals (Highlanders). The statistics do not include recently arrived migrant workers. More than 1.7 million Ukrainian citizens worked legally in Poland in 2017.There is a very strong Polish diaspora around the world, notably in the United States, Germany, United Kingdom and Canada. A strong Polish minority is still present in the territories of contemporary western Ukraine and Belarus, eastern Lithuania, eastern and central Latvia, and northeastern Czech Republic, which were part of Poland in the past. Altogether, the number of ethnic Poles living abroad is estimated to be around 20 million.Polish is the only official and predominant spoken language in Poland, but it is also used throughout the world by Polish minorities in other countries as well as being one of the official languages of the European Union. The deaf communities use Polish Sign Language belonging to the German family of Sign Languages. Polish is also a second language in Lithuania, where it is taught in schools and universities. Contemporary Poland is a linguistically homogeneous nation, with nearly 97% of respondents declaring Polish as their mother tongue.Poland's once multi-ethnic population communicated in numerous languages and lects which faded or disappeared along the course of history. There are currently 15 minority languages in Poland, including one recognized regional language, Kashubian, which is spoken by around 366,000 people in the northern regions of Kashubia and Pomerania.Languages having the status of national minority's language are Armenian, Belarusian, Czech, German, Yiddish, Hebrew, Lithuanian, Russian, Slovak and Ukrainian. Languages having the status of ethnic minority's language are Karaim, Lemko-Rusyn, Tatar and two Romani languages; Polska Roma and Bergitka Roma. Official recognition of a language provides certain rights under conditions prescribed by Polish law, including education and state financial support for promoting that language. Poland recognized secondary administrative languages or auxiliary languages in bilingual municipalities. Currently, German and Kashubian hold such status in 19 municipalities ("gminas"), Belarusian in 9 and Lithuanian in 1. Bilingual signs, names and advertisements are commonplace in those localities. Silesian and Wymysorys (Vilamovian) are not legally recognized or acknowledged as separate languages with a minority status.More than 50% of Polish citizens declare at least basic knowledge of the English language, followed by German (38%).According to the 2015 census, 92.9% of all Polish citizens adhere to the Roman Catholic Church. An estimated 94.2% of the population are believers and 3.1% are irreligious, making Poland one of the more devout countries in Europe. Around 61.6% of all respondents outlined that religion is of high or very high importance. However, church attendance has decreased in recent years; only 38% of worshippers attended mass regularly on Sunday in 2018. Freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Polish Constitution, and the concordat guarantees the teaching of religion in state schools.For centuries the tribes inhabiting the lands of modern-day Poland have practiced various forms of paganism known as "Rodzimowierstwo", or "native faith". In the year 966, Duke Mieszko I converted to Christianity, and submitted to the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. This event came to be known as the Baptism of Poland. However, this did not put an end to pagan beliefs in the country. The persistence was demonstrated by a series of rebellions in the 1030s known as the pagan reaction, which also showed elements of a peasant uprising against medieval feudalism.Religious tolerance was an important part of Polish political culture, though it varied at times. In 1264, the Statute of Kalisz granted Jews unprecedented legal rights not found anywhere in Europe. In 1573, the Warsaw Confederation marked the formal beginning of extensive religious freedoms in Poland. It was partially influenced by the 1572 St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in France, which prompted the nobility to prevent the monarch from carrying out reprehensible atrocities in Poland based on religious affiliation. The religious tolerance also spurred many theological movements such as the Calvinist Polish Brethren, a number of Protestant groups and atheists like Casimir Liszinski, one of the first atheist thinkers in Europe. Anabaptists fleeing 16th-century persecution in the Netherlands and Germany settled in Poland and became known as the Vistula delta Mennonites. From 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła was head of the Roman Catholic Church as Pope John Paul II.Contemporary religious minorities include Christian Orthodox (506,800), various Protestants (150,000) — including 77,500 Lutherans of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church, 23,000 Pentecostals in the Pentecostal Church in Poland, 10,000 Adventists in the Seventh-day Adventist Church and other smaller Evangelical denominations — Jehovah's Witnesses (126,827), Eastern Catholics, Mariavites, Jews, Muslims (Tatars) and neopagans, some of whom are members of the Native Polish Church.Famous sites of Roman Catholic pilgrimage in Poland include the Monastery of Jasna Góra in the city of Częstochowa, Basilica of Our Lady of Licheń, Kraków's Sanctuary of Divine Mercy and Święta Lipka (Holy Linden) in Masuria. Tourists also visit the family home of John Paul II in Wadowice outside Kraków. Christ the King in Świebodzin is the tallest statue of Jesus in the world. Christian Orthodox pilgrims visit Mount Grabarka near Grabarka-Klasztor and the Hasidic Jews travel annually to the grave of a great rabbi in Leżajsk.Medical service providers and hospitals ("szpitale") in Poland are subordinate to the Ministry of Health; it provides administrative oversight and scrutiny of general medical practice, and is obliged to maintain a high standard of hygiene and patient care. Poland has a universal healthcare system based on an all-inclusive insurance system; state subsidised healthcare is available to all citizens covered by the general health insurance program of the National Health Fund (NFZ). Private medical complexes exist nationwide; over 50% of the population uses both public and private sectors.Hospitals are organised according to the regional administrative structure, resultantly most towns, counties or municipalities possess their own provincial hospital or medical clinics. There are six types of hospital facilities, each with a particular area of medical expertise – I Grade Hospitals for general surgery, internal illnesses and obstetrics; II Grade Hospitals for child surgery, neurology, cardiology and ophthalmology; III Grade Hospitals including teaching hospitals for infectious diseases, nephrology, orthopedics, toxicology and transplantology; Oncology Hospitals for cancer treatment and brachytherapy; Pediatric Hospitals for child care; and Nationwide Hospitals for general and acute care.According to the Human Development Report from 2020, the average life expectancy at birth is 79 years (around 75 years for an infant male and 83 years for an infant female); the country has a low infant mortality rate (4 per 1,000 births). In 2019, the principal cause of death was ischemic heart disease; diseases of the circulatory system accounted for 45% of all deaths. In the same year, Poland was also the 15th-largest importer of medications and pharmaceutical products.The Jagiellonian University founded in 1364 by Casimir III in Kraków was the first institution of higher learning established in Poland, and is one of the oldest universities still in continuous operation. Poland's Commission of National Education ("Komisja Edukacji Narodowej"), established in 1773, was the world's first state ministry of education. The framework for primary and secondary schooling in contemporary Poland is established by the Ministry of National Education. Kindergarten attendance is optional for children aged between three and five, with one year being compulsory for six-year-olds. Primary education traditionally begins at the age of seven, although children aged six can attend at the request of their parents or guardians. Elementary school spans eight grades, at the end of which an obligatory three-part exam on Polish, mathematics and a foreign language is to be undertaken. Secondary schooling is dependent on student preference – either a four-year high school ("liceum"), a five-year technical school ("technikum") or various vocational studies ("szkoła branżowa") can be pursued by each individual pupil. A liceum or technikum is concluded with a maturity exit exam ("matura"), which must be passed in order to apply for a university or other institutions of higher learning.The standards of higher tertiary education are imposed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. In Poland, there are over 500 university-level institutions, with technical, medical, economic, agricultural, pedagogical, theological, musical, maritime and military faculties. The University of Warsaw and Warsaw Polytechnic, the University of Wrocław, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and the University of Technology in Gdańsk are among the most prominent. There are three conventional academic degrees in Poland – "licencjat" or "inżynier" (first cycle qualification), "magister" (second cycle qualification) and "doktor" (third cycle qualification).In 2018, the Programme for International Student Assessment, coordinated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, ranked Poland's educational system higher than the OECD average; the study showed that students in Poland perform better academically than in most OECD countries.The culture of Poland is closely connected with its intricate 1,000-year history and forms an important constituent in western civilization. The Poles take great pride in their national identity which is often associated with the colours white and red, and exuded by the expression "biało-czerwoni" ("whitereds"). National symbols, chiefly the crowned white-tailed eagle, are often visible on clothing, insignia and emblems. The appreciation of Poland's traditions and cultural heritage is commonly known as Polonophilia.With origins in the customs of the tribal Lechites, over time the culture of Poland has been influenced by its connection to Western culture and trends, as well as developing its own unique traditions such as Sarmatism. The people of Poland have traditionally been seen as hospitable to artists from abroad and eager to follow cultural and artistic trends popular in foreign countries, for instance, the 16th- and 17th-century tradition of coffin portraits ("portret trumienny") was only observed in Poland and Roman Egypt. In the 19th and 20th centuries the Polish focus on cultural advancement often took precedence over political and economic activity. These factors have contributed to the versatile nature of Polish art.The architectural monuments of great importance are protected by the National Heritage Board of Poland. Over 100 of the country's most significant tangible wonders were enlisted onto the Historic Monuments Register, with further 16 being recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. Poland is renowned for its brick Gothic castles, granaries and churches as well as diversely-styled tenements, market squares and town halls. The majority of Polish cities founded on Magdeburg Law in the Middle Ages evolved around central marketplaces, a distinguishable urban characteristic which can be observed to this day. Medieval and Renaissance cloth halls were once an abundant feature of many towns.There are 13 government-approved annual public holidays – New Year on 1 January, Three Kings' Day on 6 January, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, Labour Day on 1 May, Constitution Day on 3 May, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, Armed Forces Day on 15 August, All Saints' Day on 1 November, Independence Day on 11 November and Christmastide on 25 and 26 December.Particular traditions and superstitious customs observed in Poland are not found elsewhere in Europe. Though Christmas Eve ("Wigilia") is not a public holiday, it remains the most memorable day of the entire year. Trees are decorated on 24 December, hay is placed under the tablecloth to resemble Jesus' manger, Christmas wafers ("opłatek") are shared between gathered guests and a twelve-dish meatless supper is served that same evening when the first star appears. An empty plate and seat are symbolically left at the table for an unexpected guest. On occasion, carolers journey around smaller towns with a folk Turoń creature until the Lent period.A widely-popular doughnut and sweet pastry feast occurs on Fat Thursday, usually 52 days prior to Easter. Eggs for Holy Sunday are painted and placed in decorated baskets that are previously blessed by clergymen in churches on Easter Saturday. Easter Monday is celebrated with pagan "dyngus" festivities, where the youth is engaged in water fights and some girls are gently spanked by colleagues with pussy willows to stimulate fertility.Cemeteries and graves of the deceased are annually visited by family members on All Saints' Day; tombstones are cleaned as a sign of respect and candles are lit to honour the dead on an unprecedented scale.Artists from Poland, including famous musicians such as Chopin, Rubinstein, Paderewski, Penderecki and Wieniawski, and traditional, regionalized folk composers create a lively and diverse music scene, which even recognizes its own music genres, such as sung poetry and disco polo.The origins of Polish music can be traced to the 13th century; manuscripts have been found in Stary Sącz containing polyphonic compositions related to the Parisian Notre Dame School. Other early compositions, such as the melody of "Bogurodzica" and "God Is Born" (a coronation polonaise tune for Polish kings by an unknown composer), may also date back to this period, however, the first known notable composer, Nicholas of Radom, lived in the 15th century. Diomedes Cato, a native-born Italian who lived in Kraków, became a renowned lutenist at the court of Sigismund III; he not only imported some of the musical styles from southern Europe but blended them with native folk music.In the 17th and 18th centuries, Polish baroque composers wrote liturgical music and secular compositions such as concertos and sonatas for voices or instruments. At the end of the 18th century, Polish classical music evolved into national forms like the polonaise. Wojciech Bogusławski is accredited with composing the first Polish national opera, titled "", which premiered in 1794.Traditional Polish folk music has had a major effect on the works of many Polish composers, and no more so than on Fryderyk Chopin, a widely recognised national hero of the arts. All of Chopin's works involve the piano and are technically demanding, emphasising nuance and expressive depth. As a great composer, Chopin invented the musical form known as the instrumental ballade and made major innovations to the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, polonaise, étude, impromptu and prélude, he was also the composer of a number of polonaises which borrowed heavily from traditional Polish folk music. It is largely thanks to him that such pieces gained great popularity throughout Europe during the 19th century. Several Polish composers such as Szymanowski drew inspiration from Chopin's folk-influenced style. Nowadays the most distinctive folk music can be heard in the towns and villages of the mountainous south, particularly in the region surrounding the winter resort town of Zakopane.Poland today has an active music scene, with the jazz and metal genres being particularly popular among the contemporary populace. Polish jazz musicians such as Krzysztof Komeda created a unique style, which was most famous in the 1960s and 1970s and continues to be popular to this day. Poland has also become a major venue for large-scale music festivals, chief among which are the Open'er Festival, Opole Festival and Sopot Festival.Art in Poland has always reflected European trends while maintaining its unique character. The Kraków Academy of Fine Arts, later developed by Jan Matejko, produced monumental portrayals of customs and significant events in Polish history. Other institutions such as the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw were more innovative and focused on both historical and contemporary styles. Notable art academies include the Kraków School of Art and Fashion Design, Art Academy of Szczecin, University of Fine Arts in Poznań and the Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław.Perhaps the most prominent and internationally admired Polish artist was Tamara de Lempicka, who specialized in the style of Art Deco. Lempicka was described as "the first woman artist to become a glamour star." Another notable was Caziel, born Zielenkiewicz, who represented Cubism and Abstraction in France and England.Prior to the 19th century only Daniel Schultz and Italian-born Marcello Bacciarelli had the privilege of being recognized abroad. The Young Poland movement witnessed the birth of modern Polish art, and engaged in a great deal of formal experimentation led by Jacek Malczewski, Stanisław Wyspiański, Józef Mehoffer, and a group of Polish Impressionists. Stanisław Witkiewicz was an ardent supporter of Realism, its main representative being Józef Chełmoński, while Artur Grottger specialized in Romanticism. Within historically-orientated circles, Henryk Siemiradzki dominated with his monumental Academic Art and ancient Roman theme.Since the inter-war years, Polish art and documentary photography has enjoyed worldwide fame and in the 1960s the Polish School of Posters was formed. Throughout the entire country, many national museum and art institutions hold valuable works by famous masters. Major museums in Poland include the National Museum in Warsaw, Poznań, Wrocław, Kraków, and Gdańsk, as well as the Museum of John Paul II Collection, and the Wilanów Museum. Important collections are also held at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Wawel Castle and in the Palace on the Isle. Contemporary art galleries include Zachęta, Ujazdów, and MOCAK. The most distinguished painting of Poland is "Lady with an Ermine" by Leonardo da Vinci, held at the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków. Although not Polish, the work had a strong influence on Polish culture and has been often associated with Polish identity.Polish cities and towns reflect a whole spectrum of European architectural styles. Romanesque architecture is represented by St. Andrew's Church, Kraków, and St. Mary's Church, Gdańsk, is characteristic for the Brick Gothic style found in Poland. Richly decorated attics and arcade loggias are the common elements of the Polish Renaissance architecture, as evident in the City Hall in Poznań. For some time the late renaissance style known as mannerism, most notably in the Bishop's Palace in Kielce, coexisted with the early baroque style, typified in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Kraków.History has not been kind to Poland's architectural monuments. Nonetheless, a number of ancient structures have survived: castles, churches, and stately homes, often unique in the regional or European context. Some of them have been painstakingly restored, like Wawel Castle, or completely reconstructed, including the Old Town and Royal Castle of Warsaw and the Old Town of Gdańsk.The architecture of Gdańsk is mostly of the Hanseatic variety, a Gothic style common among the former trading cities along the Baltic Sea and in the northern part of Central Europe. The architectural style of Wrocław is mainly representative of German architecture since it was for centuries located within the Holy Roman Empire. The centres of Kazimierz Dolny and Sandomierz on the Vistula are good examples of well-preserved medieval towns. Poland's ancient capital, Kraków, ranks among the best-preserved Gothic and Renaissance urban complexes in Europe.The second half of the 17th century is marked by baroque architecture. Side towers, such as those of Branicki Palace in Białystok, are typical for the Polish baroque. The classical Silesian baroque is represented by the University in Wrocław. The profuse decorations of the Branicki Palace in Warsaw are characteristic of the rococo style. The centre of Polish classicism was Warsaw under the rule of the last Polish king Stanisław II Augustus.The Palace on the Isle is a chief example of Polish neoclassical architecture. Lublin Castle represents the Gothic Revival style in architecture, while the Izrael Poznański Palace in Łódź is an example of eclecticism.Traditional folk architecture in the villages and small towns scattered across the vast Polish countryside was characterized by its extensive use of wood and red brick as primary building materials, common for Central Europe. Some of the best preserved and oldest structures include ancient stone temples in Silesia and fortified wooden churches across southeastern Poland in the Beskids and Bieszczady regions of the Carpathian mountains. Numerous examples of secular structures such as Polish manor houses ("dworek"), farmhouses (), granaries, mills, barns and country inns () can still be found in some Polish regions. However, traditional construction methods faded in the early-mid 20th century, when Poland's population experienced a demographic shift to urban dwelling away from the countryside.The earliest examples of Polish literature date to the 12th century, when Poland's official language was Latin, and early published works were predominantly written by foreigners. Gallus Anonymus, a monk of disputed origin, was the first chronicler who meticulously described Poland's culture, language and territories in "Gesta principum Polonorum" (c. 1112–1118). Latin remained the principal tool of literary expression in Poland until the 18th century, when it was replaced in favour of Polish and French. Historically, Polish literature concentrated extensively around the themes of true drama and poetic-expressive romanticism than on fiction. Patriotism, spirituality and aphorisms were paramount and political or social allegories were common moral narratives.The first documented phrase in the Polish language reads ""Day ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai"" ("Let me grind, and you take a rest"), reflecting the use of quern-stone in early Poland. The phrase was recorded by an abbot in the Latin-based "Liber fundationis" from 1269 to 1273, which outlined the history of a Cistercian monastery in the Silesian village of Henryków. The sentence has been included in the UNESCO Memory of World Register. The oldest extant manuscript of fine prose in Old Polish is the "Holy Cross Sermons", and the earliest religious text is the Bible of Queen Sophia. One of the first printing houses was established by Kasper Straube in the 1470s, while Jan Haller was considered the pioneer of commercial print in Poland. Haller's Calendarium cracoviense, an astronomical wall calendar from 1474, is Poland's oldest surviving print.The tradition of extending Polish historiography in Latin was subsequently inherited by Vincent Kadłubek, Bishop of Kraków in the 13th century, and Jan Długosz in the 15th century. This practice, however, was abandoned by Jan Kochanowski, who became one of the first Polish Renaissance authors to write most of his works in Polish, along with Nicholas Rey. Other writers of the Polish Renaissance include Johannes Dantiscus, Andreus Fricius Modrevius, Matthias Sarbievius, Piotr Skarga and Klemens "Ianicius" Janicki, who was laureled by the Pope. The leading figure of the Polish Reformation was theologian and writer John Laski, who, with the permission of King Edward VI of England, created the European Protestant Congregation of London in 1550.During the Baroque era, the Jesuits greatly influenced Polish literature and literary techniques, often relying on God and religious matters. The leading baroque poet was Jan Andrzej Morsztyn, who incorporated Marinism into his publications. Jan Chryzostom Pasek, also a respected baroque writer, is mostly remembered for his tales and memoirs reflecting sarmatian culture in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Subsequently, the Polish Enlightenment was headed by Samuel Linde, Hugo Kołłątaj, Izabela Czartoryska and Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz. In 1776, Ignacy Krasicki composed the first milestone novel entitled "The Adventures of Mr. Nicholas Wisdom".Among the best known Polish Romantics are the "Three Bards" – the three national poets active in the age of foreign partitions – Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki and Zygmunt Krasiński. The narrative poem "Pan Tadeusz" by Mickiewicz is Poland's national epic and a compulsory reading ("lektura") in the country's schools. Joseph Conrad, the son of dramatist Apollo Korzeniowski, came to fame with his English-language novels and stories that are informed with elements of the Polish national experience. Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", "Nostromo" and "Lord Jim" are believed to be one of the finest works ever written, placing him among the greatest novelists of all time. Modern Polish literature is versatile, with its fantasy genre having been particularly praised. The philosophical sci-fi novel "Solaris" is an acclaimed example of Stanisław Lem's literary legacy, whereas "The Witcher", a fantasy series by Andrzej Sapkowski, is a much-celebrated work of contemporary Polish fiction.In the 20th century, five Polish authors were awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature – Henryk Sienkiewicz for "Quo Vadis", Władysław Reymont for "The Peasants", Isaac Bashevis Singer, Czesław Miłosz and Wisława Szymborska. In 2019, Polish author Olga Tokarczuk was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 2018.Polish cuisine has evolved over the centuries to become highly eclectic due to Poland's history. Polish cuisine shares many similarities with other Central European cuisines, especially German and Austrian as well as Jewish, French, Italian and Turkish culinary traditions. Polish-styled cooking in other cultures is often referred to as "cuisine à la polonaise".Polish dishes are usually rich in meat, especially pork, chicken and beef (depending on the region), winter vegetables (sauerkraut cabbage in "bigos"), and spices. It is also characteristic in its use of various kinds of noodles, the most notable of which are kluski, as well as cereals such as "kasha" (from the Polish word kasza) and a variety of breads like the world-renowned bagel. Polish cuisine is hearty and uses a lot of cream and eggs. Festive meals such as the meatless Christmas Eve dinner ("Wigilia") or Easter breakfast could take days to prepare in their entirety.The main course usually includes a serving of meat, such as roast, chicken, or "kotlet schabowy" (breaded pork cutlet), vegetables, side dishes and salads, including "surówka" – shredded root vegetables with lemon and sugar (carrot, celeriac, seared beetroot) or sauerkraut (, ). The side dishes are usually potatoes, rice or cereal. Meals conclude with a dessert such as "sernik" (cheesecake), "makowiec" (poppy seed pastry), or "napoleonka" (cream pie).The Polish national dishes are "bigos" ; "pierogi" ; "kielbasa"; "kotlet schabowy" breaded cutlet; "gołąbki" cabbage rolls; "zrazy" roulade; "pieczeń" roast ; sour cucumber soup ("zupa ogórkowa", ); mushroom soup, ("zupa grzybowa", quite different from the North American cream of mushroom); "zupa pomidorowa" tomato soup ; "rosół" variety of meat broth; "żurek" sour rye soup; "flaki" tripe soup; "barszcz" and "chłodnik" among others.Traditional alcoholic beverages include honey mead, widespread since the 13th century, beer, wine and vodka (old Polish names include "okowita" and "gorzała"). The world's first written mention of vodka originates from Poland. The most popular alcoholic drinks at present are beer and wine which took over from vodka more popular in the years 1980–1998. Tea remains common in Polish society since the 19th century, whilst coffee is drunk widely since the 18th century. Other frequently consumed beverages include various mineral waters and juices, soft drinks popularized by the fast-food chains since the late 20th century, as well as buttermilk, soured milk and kefir.The particular clothing styles in Poland evolved with each century. In the 1600s high-class noblemen and magnates developed a strong sympathy for Orientalism, which was also common in other parts of Europe and became known as Sarmatism. The attire mediated between Western and Ottoman styles and outfits included a żupan, delia, kontusz, pas, decorative karabela swords and less often turbans brought by foreign merchants. The period of Polish Sarmatism eventually faded in the wake of the 18th century.The Polish national dress as well as the fashion and etiquette of Poland also reached the royal court at Versailles in the 1700s. French dresses inspired by Polish attire were called "à la polonaise", meaning "Polish-styled". The most famous example is the "robe à la polonaise", a woman's garment with draped and swagged overskirt, worn over an underskirt or petticoat. Another notable example is the Witzchoura, a long mantle with collar and hood, which was possibly introduced by Napoleon's Polish mistress Maria Walewska. The scope of influence also entailed furniture; rococo Polish beds with canopies became commonplace in French palaces during the 18th century.Several Polish designers and stylists left a lifelong legacy of beauty inventions and cosmetics, most notable being Maksymilian Faktorowicz and Helena Rubinstein. Faktorowicz created a line of cosmetics company in California known as Max Factor and coined the term "make-up" based on the verb phrase "to make up" one's face, now widely used as an alternative for describing cosmetics. Faktorowicz also raised to fame by inventing modern eyelash extensions and by providing services to Hollywood artists.As of 2020, Poland possesses the fifth-largest cosmetic market in Europe. Founded in 1983, Inglot Cosmetics is the country's largest beauty products manufacturer and retailer active in 700 locations worldwide, including retail salons in New York City, London, Milan, Dubai and Las Vegas. Established in 1999, the retail store Reserved is Poland's most successful clothing store chain, operating over 1,700 retail shops in 19 countries. Internationally successful models from Poland include Anja Rubik, Joanna Krupa, Jac Jagaciak, Kasia Struss, Małgosia Bela, and Magdalena Frąckowiak.The history of Polish cinema is as long as the history of cinematography itself. Over the decades, Poland has produced outstanding directors, film producers, cartoonists and actors that achieved world fame, especially in Hollywood. Moreover, Polish inventors played an important role in the development of world cinematography and modern-day television. Among the most famous directors and producers, who worked in Poland as well as abroad are Roman Polański, Andrzej Wajda, Samuel Goldwyn, the Warner brothers (Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack), Max Fleischer, Lee Strasberg, Agnieszka Holland and Krzysztof Kieślowski.In the 19th century, throughout partitioned Poland, numerous amateur inventors, such as Kazimierz Prószyński, were eager to construct a film projector. In 1894, Prószyński was successful in creating a Pleograph, one of the first cameras in the world. The invention, which took photographs and projected pictures, was built before the Lumière brothers lodged their patent. He also patented an Aeroscope, the first successful hand-held operated film camera. In 1897, Jan Szczepanik, obtained a British patent for his Telectroscope. This prototype of television could easily transmit image and sound, thus allowing a live remote view.Polish cinema developed rapidly in the interwar period. The most renowned star of the silent film era was Polish actress Pola Negri. During this time, the Yiddish cinema also evolved in Poland. Films in the Yiddish language with Jewish themes, such as "The Dybbuk" (1937), played an important part in pre-war Polish cinematography. In 1945 the government established 'Film Polski', a state-run film production and distribution organization, with director Aleksander Ford as the head of the company. Ford's "Knights of the Teutonic Order" (1960) was viewed by millions of people in the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and France. This success was followed by the historical films of Jerzy Hoffman and Andrzej Wajda. Wajda's 1975 film "The Promised Land" was nominated at the 48th Academy Awards.In 2015, "Ida" by Paweł Pawlikowski won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2019, Pawlikowski received an Academy Award for Best Director nomination for his historical drama "Cold War". Other well-known Polish Oscar-winning productions include "The Pianist" (2002) by Roman Polański.Poland has a number of major media outlets, chief among which are the national television channels. TVP is Poland's public broadcasting corporation; about a third of its income comes from a broadcast receiver licence, while the rest is made through revenue from commercials and sponsorships. State television operates two mainstream channels, TVP 1 and TVP 2, as well as regional programs for each of the country's 16 voivodeships (as TVP 3). In addition to these general channels, TVP runs a number of genre-specific programmes such as TVP Sport, TVP Historia, TVP Kultura, TVP Rozrywka, TVP Seriale and TVP Polonia, the latter is a state-run channel dedicated to the transmission of Polish language television for the Polish diaspora. Poland has several 24-hour news channels such as Polsat News, TVP Info and TVN 24. Poland also possesses a variety of free-to-air television channels, chiefly TVN, Polsat and TV4.In Poland, there are also daily newspapers like "Gazeta Wyborcza" ("Electoral Gazette"), "Rzeczpospolita" ("The Republic") and "Gazeta Polska Codziennie" ("Polish Daily Newspaper") which provide traditional opinion and news, and tabloids such as "Fakt" and "Super Express". Weeklies include "Tygodnik Angora", "", "Polityka", "Wprost", "Newsweek Polska", "Gość Niedzielny" and "Gazeta Polska".Poland has also emerged as a major hub for video game developers in Europe, with the country now being home to hundreds of studios. Among the most successful ones are CD Projekt, Techland, CI Games and People Can Fly. Some of the most popular video games developed in Poland include The Witcher trilogy. Katowice hosts Intel Extreme Masters, one of the biggest eSports events in the world.Volleyball and Association football are among the country's most popular sports, with a rich history of international competitions. Track and field, basketball, handball, boxing, MMA, motorcycle speedway, ski jumping, cross-country skiing, ice hockey, tennis, fencing, swimming and weightlifting are other popular sports.The golden era of football in Poland occurred throughout the 1970s and went on until the early 1980s when the Polish national football team achieved their best results in any FIFA World Cup competitions finishing 3rd place in the 1974 and the 1982 tournaments. The team won a gold medal in football at the 1972 Summer Olympics and two silver medals, in 1976 and in 1992. In 2012, Poland co-hosted the UEFA European Football Championship.As of May 2021, the Polish men's national volleyball team is ranked as 2nd in the world. Volleyball team won a gold medal in Olympic 1976 Montreal and three gold medals in FIVB World Championship 1974, 2014 and 2018.Mariusz Pudzianowski is a highly successful strongman competitor and has won more World's Strongest Man titles than any other competitor in the world, winning the event in 2008 for the fifth time.Poland has made a distinctive mark in motorcycle speedway racing thanks to Tomasz Gollob and Bartosz Zmarzlik, highly successful Polish riders. The top Ekstraliga division has one of the highest average attendances for any sport in Poland. The national speedway team of Poland is one of the major teams in international speedway.Poles made significant achievements in mountaineering, in particular, in the Himalayas and the winter ascending of the eight-thousanders. Polish mountains are one of the tourist attractions of the country. Hiking, climbing, skiing and mountain biking and attract numerous tourists every year from all over the world. Water sports are the most popular summer recreation activities, with ample locations for fishing, canoeing, kayaking, sailing and windsurfing especially in the northern regions of the country.
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[
"Ewa Kopacz",
"Leszek Miller",
"Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz",
"Mateusz Morawiecki",
"Jan Olszewski",
"Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz",
"Tadeusz Mazowiecki",
"Jarosław Kaczyński",
"Hanna Suchocka",
"Donald Tusk",
"Beata Szydło",
"Marek Belka",
"Jerzy Buzek",
"Waldemar Pawlak",
"Józef Oleksy"
] |
|
Who was the head of Poland in Mar, 1992?
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March 17, 1992
|
{
"text": [
"Jan Olszewski"
]
}
|
L2_Q36_P6_2
|
Jarosław Kaczyński is the head of the government of Poland from Jul, 2006 to Nov, 2007.
Beata Szydło is the head of the government of Poland from Nov, 2015 to Dec, 2017.
Jerzy Buzek is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 1997 to Oct, 2001.
Jan Olszewski is the head of the government of Poland from Dec, 1991 to Jun, 1992.
Marek Belka is the head of the government of Poland from May, 2004 to Oct, 2005.
Tadeusz Mazowiecki is the head of the government of Poland from Aug, 1989 to Jan, 1991.
Donald Tusk is the head of the government of Poland from Nov, 2007 to Sep, 2014.
Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 2005 to Jul, 2006.
Waldemar Pawlak is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 1993 to Mar, 1995.
Hanna Suchocka is the head of the government of Poland from Jul, 1992 to Oct, 1993.
Ewa Kopacz is the head of the government of Poland from Sep, 2014 to Nov, 2015.
Leszek Miller is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 2001 to May, 2004.
Mateusz Morawiecki is the head of the government of Poland from Dec, 2017 to Dec, 2022.
Jan Krzysztof Bielecki is the head of the government of Poland from Jan, 1991 to Dec, 1991.
Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz is the head of the government of Poland from Feb, 1996 to Oct, 1997.
Józef Oleksy is the head of the government of Poland from Mar, 1995 to Feb, 1996.
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PolandPoland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country located in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces, covering an area of , and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With a population of nearly 38.5 million people, Poland is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union. Poland's capital and largest metropolis is Warsaw. Other major cities include Kraków, Łódź, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk, and Szczecin.Poland's topographically diverse territory extends from the beaches along the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in its south. The country is bordered by Lithuania and Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukraine to the east, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the south, and Germany to the west.The history of human activity on Polish soil spans thousands of years. Throughout the late antiquity period it became extensively diverse, with various cultures and tribes settling on the vast Central European Plain. However, it was the Western Polans who dominated the region and gave Poland its name. The establishment of Polish statehood can be traced to 966, when the pagan ruler of a realm coextensive with the territory of present-day Poland embraced Christianity and converted to Catholicism. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented its longstanding political association with Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest (over in area) and most populous nations of 16th and 17th century Europe, with a uniquely liberal political system which adopted Europe's first modern constitution, the Constitution of 3 May 1791.With the passing of prominence and prosperity, the country was partitioned by neighbouring states at the end of the 18th century, and regained independence in 1918 with the Treaty of Versailles. After a series of territorial conflicts, the new multi-ethnic Poland restored its position as a key player in European politics. In September 1939, World War II began with the invasion of Poland by Germany, followed by the Soviets invading Poland in accordance with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Approximately six million Polish citizens, including three million of the country's Jews, perished during the course of the war. As a member of the Eastern Bloc, the Polish People's Republic proclaimed forthwith was a chief signatory of the Warsaw Treaty amidst global Cold War tensions. In the wake of the 1989 events, notably through the emergence and contributions of the Solidarity movement, the communist government was dissolved and Poland re-established itself as a semi-presidential democratic republic.Poland is a developed market, and a middle power. It has the sixth largest economy in the European Union by nominal GDP and the fifth largest by GDP (PPP). It provides very high standards of living, safety and economic freedom, as well as free university education and a universal health care system. The country has 16 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, 15 of which are cultural. Poland is a member state of the Schengen Area, European Union, European Economic Area, the United Nations, NATO, the OECD, the Three Seas Initiative and the Visegrád Group.The origin of the name "Poland" derives from the West Slavic tribe of Polans ("Polanie"), who inhabited the Warta river basin of the present-day Greater Poland region starting in the mid-6th century. The origin of the name "Polanie" itself derives from the Proto-Slavic word "pole" (field). In some languages, such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian, Russian and Turkish, the country's name is derived from the Lendians ("Lędzianie" or "Lachy") who dwelled on the southeasternmost edge of present-day Lesser Poland. Their name likewise derives from the Old Polish word "lęda" (open land or plain).The early Bronze Age in Poland began around 2400 BC, while the Iron Age commenced in approximately 750 BC. During this time, the Lusatian culture, spanning both the Bronze and Iron Ages, became particularly prominent. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement (now reconstructed as an open-air museum), dating from the Lusatian culture of the late Bronze Age, around 748 BC.Throughout Antiquity, many distinct ancient ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland in an era that dates from about 400 BC to 500 AD. These groups are identified as Celtic, Scythian, Germanic, Sarmatian, Slavic and Baltic tribes. Also, recent archaeological findings in the Kuyavia region confirmed the presence of the Roman Legions on the territory of Poland. These were most likely expeditionary missions sent out to protect the amber trade. The exact time and routes of the original migration and settlement of Slavic peoples lacks written records and can only be defined as fragmented. There is evidence that earlier tribes may have been associated with the ancient Przeworsk culture. Up until the creation of Mieszko's state and his subsequent conversion to Christianity in 966 AD, the main religion of the numerous West Slavic (Lechitic) tribes that inhabited the geographical area of present-day Poland was paganism. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Western Christianity and the religious authority of the Roman Church. However, the transition from paganism was not a smooth and instantaneous process for the rest of the population as evident from the pagan reaction of the 1030s.Poland began to form into a recognizable unitary and territorial entity around the middle of the 10th century under the Piast dynasty. Poland's first historically documented ruler, Mieszko I, accepted Christianity, as the rightful religion of his realm, under the auspices of the Latin Church with the Baptism of Poland in 966. The bulk of the population converted in the course of the next few centuries. In 1000, Boleslaw the Brave, continuing the policy of his father Mieszko, held a Congress of Gniezno and created the metropolis of Gniezno and the dioceses of Kraków, Kołobrzeg, and Wrocław. However, the pagan unrest led to the transfer of the capital to Kraków in 1038 by Casimir I the Restorer.In 1109, Prince Bolesław III Wrymouth defeated the King of Germany Henry V at the Battle of Hundsfeld, stopping the German incursion into Poland. The clash between Bolesław III and Henry V was documented by Gallus Anonymus in his 1118 chronicle. In 1138, Poland fragmented into several smaller duchies when Bolesław divided his lands among his sons. In 1226, Konrad I of Masovia, one of the regional Piast dukes, invited the Teutonic Knights to help him fight the Baltic Prussian pagans; a decision that led to centuries of warfare with the Knights. In 1264, the Statute of Kalisz or the General Charter of Jewish Liberties introduced numerous right for the Jews in Poland, leading to a nearly autonomous "nation within a nation".In the middle of the 13th century, the Silesian branch of the Piast dynasty (Henry I the Bearded and Henry II the Pious, ruled 1238–1241) nearly succeeded in uniting the Polish lands, but the Mongols invaded the country from the east and defeated the combined Polish forces at the Battle of Legnica where Duke Henry II the Pious died. In 1320, after a number of earlier unsuccessful attempts by regional rulers at uniting the Polish dukedoms, Władysław I consolidated his power, took the throne and became the first king of a reunified Poland. His son, Casimir III (reigned 1333–1370), has a reputation as one of the greatest Polish kings, and gained wide recognition for improving the country's infrastructure. He also extended royal protection to Jews, and encouraged their immigration to Poland. Casimir III realized that the nation needed a class of educated people, especially lawyers, who could codify the country's laws and administer the courts and offices. His efforts to create an institution of higher learning in Poland were finally rewarded when Pope Urban V granted him permission to open the University of Kraków.The Golden Liberty of the nobles began to develop under Casimir's rule, when in return for their military support, the king made a series of concessions to the nobility and establishing their legal status as superior to that of the townsfolk. When Casimir the Great died in 1370, leaving no legitimate male heir, the Piast dynasty came to an end.During the 13th and 14th centuries, Poland became a destination for German, Flemish and to a lesser extent Walloon, Danish and Scottish migrants. Also, Jews and Armenians began to settle and flourish in Poland during this era (see History of the Jews in Poland and Armenians in Poland).The Black Death, a plague that ravaged Europe from 1347 to 1351, did not significantly affect Poland, and the country was spared from a major outbreak of the disease. The reason for this was the decision of Casimir the Great to quarantine the nation's borders.The Jagiellon dynasty spanned the late Middle Ages and early Modern Era of Polish history. Beginning with the Lithuanian Grand Duke Jogaila (Władysław II Jagiełło), the Jagiellon dynasty (1386–1572) formed the Polish–Lithuanian union. The partnership brought vast Lithuanian-controlled Rus' areas into Poland's sphere of influence and proved beneficial for the Poles and Lithuanians, who coexisted and cooperated in one of the largest political entities in Europe for the next four centuries.In the Baltic Sea region the struggle of Poland and Lithuania with the Teutonic Knights continued and culminated at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, where a combined Polish-Lithuanian army inflicted a decisive victory against them. In 1466, after the Thirteen Years' War, King Casimir IV Jagiellon gave royal consent to the Peace of Thorn, which created the future Duchy of Prussia under Polish suzerainty. The Jagiellon dynasty at one point also established dynastic control over the kingdoms of Bohemia (1471 onwards) and Hungary. In the south, Poland confronted the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Tatars (by whom they were attacked on 75 separate occasions between 1474 and 1569), and in the east helped Lithuania fight the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Some historians estimate that Crimean Tatar slave-raiding cost Poland-Lithuania one million of its population between the years of 1494 and 1694.Poland was developing as a feudal state, with a predominantly agricultural economy and an increasingly powerful landed nobility. The "Nihil novi" act adopted by the Polish Sejm (parliament) in 1505, transferred most of the legislative power from the monarch to the Sejm, an event which marked the beginning of the period known as "Golden Liberty", when the state was ruled by the "free and equal" Polish nobility. Protestant Reformation movements made deep inroads into Polish Christianity, which resulted in the establishment of policies promoting religious tolerance, unique in Europe at that time. This tolerance allowed the country to avoid most of the religious turmoil that spread over Europe during the 16th century.The European Renaissance evoked in late Jagiellon Poland (under kings Sigismund I the Old and Sigismund II Augustus) a sense of urgency in the need to promote a cultural awakening, and during this period Polish culture and the nation's economy flourished. In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus, an astronomer from Toruń, published his epochal work "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" ("On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres") and thereby became the first proponent of a predictive mathematical model confirming the heliocentric theory, which became the accepted basic model for the practice of modern astronomy. Another major figure associated with the era is the classicist poet Jan Kochanowski.The 1569 Union of Lublin established the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a more closely unified federal state with an elective monarchy, but which was governed largely by the nobility, through a system of local assemblies with a central parliament. The Warsaw Confederation (1573) guaranteed religious freedom for the Polish nobility "(szlachta)" and townsfolk "(mieszczanie)". However, the peasants "(chłopi)" were still subject to severe limitations imposed on them by the nobility. The establishment of the Commonwealth coincided with a period of stability and prosperity in Poland, with the union thereafter becoming a European power and a major cultural entity, occupying approximately one million square kilometers of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as an agent for the dissemination of Western culture through Polonization into areas of modern-day Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Belarus and western Russia.In the 16th and 17th centuries, Poland suffered from a number of dynastic crises during the reigns of the Vasa kings Sigismund III and Władysław IV and found itself engaged in major conflicts with Russia, Sweden and the Ottoman Empire, as well as a series of minor Cossack uprisings. In 1610, a Polish army under the command of Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski seized Moscow after winning the Battle of Klushino. In 1611, the Tsar of Russia paid homage to the King of Poland.After the signing of Truce of Deulino, Poland had in the years 1618–1621 an area of about .From the middle of the 17th century, the nobles' democracy, suffering from internal disorder, gradually declined, thereby leaving the once powerful Commonwealth vulnerable to foreign intervention. Starting in 1648, the Cossack Khmelnytsky Uprising engulfed the south and east, eventually leaving Ukraine divided, with the eastern part, lost by the Commonwealth, becoming a dependency of the Tsardom of Russia. This was followed by the 'Deluge', a Swedish invasion of Poland, which marched through the Polish heartlands and ruined the country's population, culture and infrastructure—around four million of Poland's eleven million inhabitants died in famines and epidemics throughout the 17th century. However, under John III Sobieski the Commonwealth's military prowess was re-established, and in 1683 Polish forces played a major role in the Battle of Vienna against the Ottoman Army, commanded by Kara Mustafa, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.Sobieski's reign marked the end of the nation's golden era. Finding itself subjected to almost constant warfare and suffering enormous population losses as well as massive damage to its economy, the Commonwealth fell into decline. The government became ineffective as a result of large-scale internal conflicts (e.g. Lubomirski Rebellion against John II Casimir and rebellious confederations) and corrupted legislative processes. The nobility fell under the control of a handful of "magnats", and this, compounded with two relatively weak kings of the Saxon Wettin dynasty, Augustus II and Augustus III, as well as the rise of Russia and Prussia after the Great Northern War only served to worsen the Commonwealth's plight. Despite this The Commonwealth-Saxony personal union gave rise to the emergence of the Commonwealth's first reform movement, and laid the foundations for the Polish Enlightenment.During the later part of the 18th century, the Commonwealth made attempts to implement fundamental internal reforms; with the second half of the century bringing a much improved economy, significant population growth and far-reaching progress in the areas of education, intellectual life, art, and especially toward the end of the period, evolution of the social and political system. The most populous capital city of Warsaw replaced Gdańsk (Danzig) as the leading centre of commerce, and the role of the more prosperous urban population increased.The royal election of 1764 resulted in the elevation of Stanisław II August (a Polish aristocrat connected to the "Familia" faction of magnates) to the monarchy. However, elevated to the throne by the Empress Catherine II of Russia, the new king spent much of his reign maneuvering between his desire to implement necessary reforms to save his country, and the necessity to remain in a political relationship and at peace with Russia. This led to the formation of the 1768 Bar Confederation, a "szlachta" rebellion directed against the Polish king and all external influence, which ineptly aimed to preserve Poland's independence and szlachta's privileges. The failed attempts at reform as well as the internal turmoil caused by the Confederation proved the country's weakness and provoked its neighbours. In 1772 the First Partition of the Commonwealth by Prussia, Russia and Austria took place; an act which the "Partition Sejm", under considerable duress, eventually "ratified" "fait accompli". Disregarding this loss, in 1773 the king established the plan of the most necessary reforms, in which the Commission of National Education, the first government education authority in Europe, was established. Corporal punishment of children was officially prohibited in 1783.The Great Sejm convened by Stanisław II August in 1788 successfully adopted the 3 May Constitution, the first set of modern supreme national laws in Europe. However, this document, accused by detractors of harbouring revolutionary sympathies, generated strong opposition from the Commonwealth's nobles and conservatives as well as from Catherine II, who, determined to prevent the rebirth of a strong Commonwealth set about planning the final dismemberment of the Polish-Lithuanian state. Russia was aided in achieving its goal when the Targowica Confederation, an organisation of Polish nobles, appealed to the Empress for help. In May 1792, Russian forces crossed the Commonwealth's frontier, thus beginning the Polish-Russian War.The defensive war fought by the Poles ended prematurely when the King, convinced of the futility of resistance, capitulated and joined the Targowica Confederation, hoping to save the country. The Confederation then took over the government. Russia and Prussia, fearing the mere existence of a Polish state, understanding, that despite the current influence they still cannot control the country, arranged for, and in 1793 executed, the Second Partition of the Commonwealth, which left the country deprived of so much territory that it was practically incapable of independent existence. Eventually, in 1795, following the failed Kościuszko Uprising, the Commonwealth was partitioned one last time by all three of its more powerful neighbours, and with this, effectively ceased to exist. The 18-century British statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke summed up the partitions: "No wise or honest man can approve of that partition, or can contemplate it without prognosticating great mischief from it to all countries at some future time."Poles rebelled several times against the partitioners, particularly near the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. An unsuccessful attempt at defending Poland's sovereignty took place in 1794 during the Kościuszko Uprising, where a popular and distinguished general Tadeusz Kościuszko, who had several years earlier served under Washington in the American Revolutionary War, led Polish insurrectionists against numerically superior Russian forces. Despite the victory at the Battle of Racławice, his ultimate defeat ended Poland's independent existence for 123 years.In 1807, Napoleon I of France temporarily recreated a Polish state as the satellite Duchy of Warsaw, after a successful Greater Poland Uprising of 1806 against Prussian rule. But, after the failed Napoleonic Wars, Poland was again split between the victorious powers at the Congress of Vienna of 1815. The eastern part was ruled by the Russian tsar as Congress Poland, which had a liberal constitution. However, over time the Russian monarch reduced Polish freedoms, and Russia annexed the country in virtually all but name. Meanwhile, the Prussian controlled territory of Poland came under increased Germanization. Thus, in the 19th century, only Habsburg-ruled Austrian Poland, and particularly the Free City of Kraków, allowed free Polish culture to flourish.Throughout the period of the partitions, political and cultural repression of the Polish nation led to the organisation of a number of uprisings against the authorities of the occupying Russian, Prussian and Austrian governments. In 1830, the November Uprising began in Warsaw when, led by Lieutenant Piotr Wysocki, young non-commissioned officers at the Officer Cadet School in Warsaw revolted. They were joined by large segments of Polish society, and together forced Warsaw's Russian garrison to withdraw north of the city.Over the course of the next seven months, Polish forces successfully defeated the Russian armies of Field Marshal Hans Karl von Diebitsch and a number of other Russian commanders; however, finding themselves in a position unsupported by any other foreign powers, save distant France and the newborn United States, and with Prussia and Austria refusing to allow the import of military supplies through their territories, the Poles accepted that the uprising was doomed to failure. Upon the surrender of Warsaw to General Ivan Paskievich, many Polish troops, feeling they could not go on, withdrew into Prussia and there laid down their arms. After the defeat, the semi-independent Congress Poland lost its constitution, army and legislative assembly, and was integrated more closely with the Russian Empire.During the Spring of Nations (a series of revolutions which swept across Europe), Poles took up arms in the Greater Poland Uprising of 1848 to resist Prussian rule. Initially, the uprising manifested itself in the form of civil disobedience but eventually turned into an armed struggle when the Prussian military was sent in to pacify the region. Subsequently, the uprising was suppressed and the semi-autonomous Grand Duchy of Posen, created from the Prussian partition of Poland, was incorporated into Prussia.In 1863, a new Polish uprising against Russian rule began. The January Uprising started out as a spontaneous protest by young Poles against conscription into the Imperial Russian Army. However, the insurrectionists, despite being joined by high-ranking Polish-Lithuanian officers and numerous politicians, were still severely outnumbered and lacking in foreign support. They were forced to resort to guerrilla warfare tactics and failed to win any major military victories. Afterwards no major uprising was witnessed in the Russian-controlled Congress Poland, and Poles resorted instead to fostering economic and cultural self-improvement. Congress Poland was rapidly industrialised towards the end of the 19th century, and successively transformed into the Empire's wealthiest and most developed subject.Despite the political unrest experienced during the partitions, Poland did benefit from large-scale industrialisation and modernisation programs, instituted by the occupying powers, which helped it develop into a more economically coherent and viable entity. This was particularly true in Greater Poland, Silesia and Eastern Pomerania controlled by Prussia (later becoming a part of the German Empire); areas which eventually, thanks largely to the Greater Poland Uprising of 1918 and Silesian Uprisings, were reconstituted as a part of the Second Polish Republic, becoming the country's most prosperous regions.Following World War I all the Allies agreed on the reconstitution of Poland that United States President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed in Point 13 of his Fourteen Points. A total of 2 million Polish troops fought with the armies of the three occupying powers, and 450,000 died. Shortly after the armistice with Germany in November 1918, Poland regained its independence as the Second Polish Republic ("II Rzeczpospolita Polska"). It reaffirmed its independence after a series of military conflicts, the most notable being the Polish–Soviet War (1919–21) when Poland inflicted a crushing defeat on the Red Army at the Battle of Warsaw, an event which is considered to have halted the advance of Communism into Europe and forced Vladimir Lenin to rethink his objective of achieving global socialism. The event is often referred to as the "Miracle at the Vistula".During this period, Poland successfully managed to fuse the territories of the three former partitioning powers into a cohesive nation state. Railways were restructured to direct traffic towards Warsaw instead of the former imperial capitals, a new network of national roads was gradually built up and a major seaport, Gdynia, was opened on the Baltic Coast, so as to allow Polish exports and imports to bypass the politically charged Free City of Danzig. Also, the Polish government embarked on the creation of the Central Industrial Region ("Centralny Okręg Przemysłowy"). The project's goal was to create a heavy industrial center in the middle of the country, which included steal mills, power plants and factories. The inter-war period heralded in a new era of Polish politics. Whilst Polish political activists had faced heavy censorship in the decades up until the First World War, the country now found itself trying to establish a new political tradition. For this reason, many exiled Polish activists, such as Ignacy Paderewski (who would later become prime minister) returned home to help; a significant number of them then went on to take key positions in the newly formed political and governmental structures. Tragedy struck in 1922 when Gabriel Narutowicz, inaugural holder of the presidency, was assassinated at the Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw by a painter and right-wing nationalist Eligiusz Niewiadomski.In 1926, a May coup, led by the hero of the Polish independence campaign Marshal Józef Piłsudski, turned rule of the Second Polish Republic over to the nonpartisan Sanacja ("Healing") movement in an effort to prevent radical political organizations on both the left and the right from destabilizing the country. The movement functioned with relative stability until Piłsudski's death in 1935. Following Marshall Piłsudski's death, Sanation split into several competing factions. By the late 1930s, due to increased threats posed by political extremism inside the country, the Polish government became increasingly heavy-handed, banning a number of radical organizations, including communist and ultra-nationalist political parties, which threatened the stability of the country.World War II began with the Nazi German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, followed by the Soviet invasion of Poland on 17 September. On 28 September 1939, Warsaw fell. As agreed in the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Poland was split into two zones, one occupied by Nazi Germany, the other by the Soviet Union. In 1939–41, the Soviets deported hundreds of thousands of Poles. The Soviet NKVD executed thousands of Polish prisoners of war (inter alia Katyn massacre) ahead of the Operation Barbarossa. German planners had in November 1939 called for "the complete destruction of all Poles" and their fate as outlined in the genocidal "Generalplan Ost".Polish intelligence operatives proved extremely valuable to the Allies, providing much of the intelligence from Europe and beyond, and Polish code breakers were responsible for cracking the Enigma cypher.Poland made the fourth-largest troop contribution in Europe and its troops served both the Polish Government in Exile in the west and Soviet leadership in the east. Polish troops played an important role in the Normandy, Italian and North African Campaigns and are particularly remembered for the Battle of Monte Cassino. In the east, the Soviet-backed Polish 1st Army distinguished itself in the battles for Warsaw and Berlin.The wartime resistance movement, and the Armia Krajowa ("Home Army"), fought against German occupation. It was one of the three largest resistance movements of the entire war, and encompassed a range of clandestine activities, which functioned as an underground state complete with degree-awarding universities and a court system. The resistance was loyal to the exiled government and generally resented the idea of a communist Poland; for this reason, in the summer of 1944 it initiated Operation Tempest, of which the Warsaw Uprising that begun on 1 August 1944 is the best known operation.Nazi German forces under orders from Adolf Hitler set up six German extermination camps in occupied Poland, including Treblinka, Majdanek and Auschwitz. The Germans transported millions of Jews from across occupied Europe to be murdered in those camps.Altogether, 3 million Polish Jews – approximately 90% of Poland's pre-war Jewry – and between 1.8 and 2.8 million ethnic Poles were killed during the German occupation of Poland, including between 50,000 and 100,000 members of the Polish intelligentsia – academics, doctors, lawyers, nobility and priesthood. During the Warsaw Uprising alone, over 150,000 Polish civilians were killed, most were murdered by the Germans during the Wola and Ochota massacres. Around 150,000 Polish civilians were killed by Soviets between 1939 and 1941 during the Soviet Union's occupation of eastern Poland (Kresy), and another estimated 100,000 Poles were murdered by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) between 1943 and 1944 in what became known as the Wołyń Massacres. Of all the countries in the war, Poland lost the highest percentage of its citizens: around 6 million perished – more than one-sixth of Poland's pre-war population – half of them Polish Jews. About 90% of deaths were non-military in nature.In 1945, Poland's borders were shifted westwards. Over two million Polish inhabitants of Kresy were expelled along the Curzon Line by Stalin. The western border became the Oder-Neisse line. As a result, Poland's territory was reduced by 20%, or . The shift forced the migration of millions of other people, most of whom were Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, and Jews.At the insistence of Joseph Stalin, the Yalta Conference sanctioned the formation of a new provisional pro-Communist coalition government in Moscow, which ignored the Polish government-in-exile based in London. This action angered many Poles who considered it a betrayal by the Allies. In 1944, Stalin had made guarantees to Churchill and Roosevelt that he would maintain Poland's sovereignty and allow democratic elections to take place. However, upon achieving victory in 1945, the elections organized by the occupying Soviet authorities were falsified and were used to provide a veneer of legitimacy for Soviet hegemony over Polish affairs. The Soviet Union instituted a new communist government in Poland, analogous to much of the rest of the Eastern Bloc. As elsewhere in Communist Europe, the Soviet influence over Poland was met with armed resistance from the outset which continued into the 1950s.Despite widespread objections, the new Polish government accepted the Soviet annexation of the pre-war eastern regions of Poland (in particular the cities of Wilno and Lwów) and agreed to the permanent garrisoning of Red Army units on Poland's territory. Military alignment within the Warsaw Pact throughout the Cold War came about as a direct result of this change in Poland's political culture. In the European scene, it came to characterize the full-fledged integration of Poland into the brotherhood of communist nations.The new communist government took control with the adoption of the Small Constitution on 19 February 1947. The Polish People's Republic ("Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa") was officially proclaimed in 1952. In 1956, after the death of Bolesław Bierut, the régime of Władysław Gomułka became temporarily more liberal, freeing many people from prison and expanding some personal freedoms. Collectivization in the Polish People's Republic failed. A similar situation repeated itself in the 1970s under Edward Gierek, but most of the time persecution of anti-communist opposition groups persisted. Despite this, Poland was at the time considered to be one of the least oppressive states of the Eastern Bloc.Labour turmoil in 1980 led to the formation of the independent trade union "Solidarity" (""Solidarność""), which over time became a political force. Despite persecution and imposition of martial law in 1981, it eroded the dominance of the Polish United Workers' Party and by 1989 had triumphed in Poland's first partially free and democratic parliamentary elections since the end of the Second World War. Lech Wałęsa, a Solidarity candidate, eventually won the presidency in 1990. The Solidarity movement heralded the collapse of communist regimes and parties across Europe.A shock therapy programme, initiated by Leszek Balcerowicz in the early 1990s, enabled the country to transform its socialist-style planned economy into a market economy. As with other post-communist countries, Poland suffered declines in social and economic standards, but it became the first post-communist country to reach its pre-1989 GDP levels, which it achieved by 1995 thanks largely to its booming economy.Most visibly, there were numerous improvements in human rights, such as freedom of speech, internet freedom (no censorship), civil liberties (1st class) and political rights (1st class), as ranked by Freedom House non-governmental organization. In 1991, Poland became a member of the Visegrád Group and joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance in 1999 along with the Czech Republic and Hungary. Poles then voted to join the European Union in a referendum in June 2003, with Poland becoming a full member on 1 May 2004.Poland joined the Schengen Area in 2007, as a result of which, the country's borders with other member states of the European Union have been dismantled, allowing for full freedom of movement within most of the EU. In contrast to this, a section of Poland's eastern border now constitutes the external EU border with Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. That border has become increasingly well protected, and has led in part to the coining of the phrase 'Fortress Europe', in reference to the seeming 'impossibility' of gaining entry to the EU for citizens of the former Soviet Union.In an effort to strengthen military cooperation with its neighbors, Poland set up the Visegrád Battlegroup with Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia, with a total of 3,000 troops ready for deployment. Also, in eastern Poland, it formed the LITPOLUKRBRIG battle groups with Lithuania and Ukraine. These battle groups will operate outside of NATO and within the European defense initiative framework.On 10 April 2010, the President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, along with 89 other high-ranking Polish officials died in a plane crash near Smolensk, Russia. The president's party was on their way to attend an annual service of commemoration for the victims of the Katyń massacre when the tragedy took place.In 2011, the ruling Civic Platform won parliamentary elections. Poland joined the European Space Agency in 2012, as well as organised the UEFA Euro 2012 (along with Ukraine). In 2013, Poland also became a member of the Development Assistance Committee. In 2014, the Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, was chosen to be President of the European Council, and resigned as prime minister.The 2015 and 2019 elections were won by the conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS), resulting in increased friction between Poland and the EU. In December 2017, Mateusz Morawiecki was sworn in as the new Prime Minister, succeeding Beata Szydlo, in office since 2015. They both represented ruling Law and Justice party, led by party chairman Jarosław Kaczyński. President Andrzej Duda, supported by Law and Justice party, was narrowly re-elected in the 2020 presidential election.Poland's vast territory covers approximately , of which 98.52% is dry land and 1.48% is water. Extending across several geographical regions, the country is the 9th-largest by area in Europe and 69th largest in the world. Topographically, Poland is diverse and has access to the sea, the mountains and open terrain. Although most of the central parts of the country are flat, there is an abundance of lakes, rivers, hills, swamps, beaches, islands and forests elsewhere.In the north-west is the Baltic seacoast spanning from the Bay of Pomerania to the Gulf of Gdańsk. The coast is marked by several spits, coastal lakes (former bays that have been cut off from the sea), and dunes. The largely straight coastline is indented by the Szczecin Lagoon, the Bay of Puck, and the Vistula Lagoon.The central and northern parts of the country lie within the North European Plain. Rising above these lowlands is a geographical region comprising four hilly districts of moraines and moraine-dammed lakes formed during and after the Pleistocene ice age, notably the Pomeranian Lake District, the Greater Polish Lake District, the Kashubian Lake District, and the Masurian Lake District. The Masurian Lake District is the largest of the four and covers much of north-eastern Poland. The lake districts form a series of moraine belts along the southern shore of the Baltic Sea.South of the Northern European Plain are the regions of Lusatia, Silesia and Masovia, which are marked by broad ice-age river valleys. The extreme south of Poland is mountainous; it runs from the Sudetes in the west to the Carpathian Mountains in the east. The highest part of the Carpathian massif is the Tatra Mountain range, along Poland's southern border.The geological structure of Poland has been shaped by the continental collision of Europe and Africa over the past 60 million years and, more recently, by the Quaternary glaciations of northern Europe. Both processes shaped the Sudetes and the Carpathian Mountains. The moraine landscape of northern Poland contains soils made up mostly of sand or loam, while the ice age river valleys of the south often contain loess. The Polish Jura, the Pieniny, and the Western Tatras consist of limestone, whereas the High Tatras, the Beskids, and the Karkonosze mountain ranges are made up mainly of granite and basalts. The Polish Jura Chain has some of the oldest rock formations on the continent of Europe.Poland has over 70 mountains over in elevation, all situated in the Tatras. Poland's highest point is the north-western summit of Mount Rysy at in elevation. At its foot lie the mountain lakes of Czarny Staw (Black Lake) and Morskie Oko (Eye of the Sea), both naturally-made tarns. Other notable uplands include the Pieniny and Holy Cross Mountains, the Table Mountains noted for their unusual rock formations, the Bieszczady in the far southeast of the country in which the highest peak is Tarnica at , and the Gorce Mountains whose highest point is Turbacz at . The highest point of the Sudeten massif is Mount Śnieżka (), shared with the Czech Republic.The lowest point in Poland – at below sea level – is at Raczki Elbląskie, near Elbląg in the Vistula Delta.In the Zagłębie Dąbrowskie (the Coal Fields of Dąbrowa) region in the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland is an area of sparsely vegetated sand known as the Błędów Desert. It covers an area of . It is not a natural desert and was formed by human activity from the Middle Ages onwards.The Baltic Sea activity in Słowiński National Park created sand dunes which in the course of time separated the bay from the sea creating two lakes. As waves and wind carry sand inland the dunes slowly move, at a rate of per year. Some dunes reach the height of up to . The highest peak of the park is Rowokol at above sea level.The longest rivers are the Vistula (), long; the Oder () which forms part of Poland's western border, long; its tributary, the Warta, long; and the Bug, a tributary of the Vistula, long. The Vistula and the Oder flow into the Baltic Sea, as do numerous smaller rivers in Pomerania. Poland's lengthy waterways have been used since early times for navigation; the Vikings ventured up the Polish rivers in their longships. In the Middle Ages and in early modern times, the shipment of tangible goods down the Vistula toward Gdańsk and onward to other parts of Europe took on great importance.With almost ten thousand closed bodies of water covering more than each, Poland has one of the highest numbers of lakes in the world. In Europe, only Finland has a greater density of lakes. The largest lakes, covering more than , are Lake Śniardwy and Lake Mamry in Masuria as well as Lake Łebsko and Lake Drawsko in Pomerania. The lake with the greatest depth—of more than —is Lake Hańcza in the Wigry Lake District, east of Masuria in Podlaskie Voivodeship.The Polish Baltic coast is approximately long and extends from Świnoujście on the islands of Usedom and Wolin in the west to Krynica Morska on the Vistula Spit in the east. For the most part, Poland has a smooth coastline, which has been shaped by the continual movement of sand by currents and winds. This continual erosion and deposition has formed cliffs, dunes, and spits, many of which have migrated landwards to close off former lagoons, such as Łebsko Lake in the Słowiński National Park.The largest spits are Hel Peninsula and the Vistula Spit. The coast line is varied also by Szczecin and Vistula Lagoons and several lakes, including Jamno. The largest Polish Baltic island is Wolin, located within Wolin National Park. The largest sea harbours are Szczecin, Świnoujście, Gdańsk, Gdynia, Police and Kołobrzeg and the main coastal resorts – Świnoujście, Międzydzdroje, Kołobrzeg, Łeba, Sopot, Władysławowo and the Hel Peninsula.In the valley of Pilica river in Tomaszów Mazowiecki there is a unique natural karst spring of water containing calcium salts, that is an object of protection at Blue Springs Nature Reserve in the Sulejów Landscape Park. The red waves are absorbed by water, hence only blue and green are reflected from the bottom of the spring, giving the water atypical colour.Forests cover about 29.6% of Poland's land area based on international standards. Its overall percentage is still increasing. Forests of Poland are managed by the national program of reforestation (KPZL), aiming at an increase of forest-cover to 33% in 2050. The largest forest complex in Poland is Lower Silesian Wilderness.More than 1% of Poland's territory, , is protected within 23 Polish national parks. Three more national parks are projected for Masuria, the Polish Jura, and the eastern Beskids. In addition, wetlands along lakes and rivers in central Poland are legally protected, as are coastal areas in the north. There are 123 areas designated as landscape parks, along with numerous nature reserves and other protected areas under the Natura 2000 network.In 2017, approximately of land was occupied by farms and farmsteads, over half of Poland's total area.Phytogeographically, Poland belongs to the Central European province of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the territory of Poland belongs to three Palearctic Ecoregions of the continental forest spanning Central and Northern European temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregions, as well as the Carpathian montane conifer forest. The most common deciduous trees found across the country are oak, maple, and beech; the most common conifers are pine, spruce, and fir. An estimated 68.7% of all forests are coniferous.Poland has historically been home to rare species of animals, as well as the two largest European mammals: the wisent ("żubr") and aurochs ("tur"). The last aurochs of Europe became extinct in 1627 in the Polish Jaktorów Forest, while the wisent survived until the 20th century only at Białowieża. It has been since reintroduced to other countries. Other wild species include the brown bear in Białowieża, in the Tatras, and in the Beskids; the gray wolf and the Eurasian lynx in various forests; the moose in northern Poland; and the beaver in Masuria, Pomerania, and Podlaskie.Game animals such as red deer, roe deer, and wild boar are found in most woodlands. Eastern Poland abounds in ancient woods, like the Białowieża Forest, that have not been disturbed by human or industrial activity. There are also large forested areas in the mountains, Greater Poland, Pomerania, Lubusz Land, and Lower Silesia. The Lubusz Voivodeship is currently the most arboraceous province in the country; 52% of its territory is occupied by forests.Poland is also a significant breeding ground for a variety of European migratory birds. One quarter of the global population of white storks (40,000 breeding pairs) live in Poland, particularly in the lake districts and the wetlands along the Biebrza, the Narew, and the Warta, which are part of nature reserves or national parks.The climate is mostly temperate throughout the country. The climate is oceanic in the north-west and becomes gradually warmer and continental towards the south-east. Summers are generally warm, with average temperatures between depending on the region. Winters are rather cold, with average temperatures around in the northwest and in the northeast. Precipitation falls throughout the year, although, especially in the east, winter is drier than summer.The warmest region in Poland is Lower Silesia in the southwest of the country, where temperatures in the summer average between but can go as high as on some days in the warmest months of July and August. The warmest cities in Poland are Tarnów in Lesser Poland, and Wrocław in Lower Silesia. The average temperatures in Wrocław are in the summer and in the winter, but Tarnów has the longest summer in all of Poland, which lasts for 115 days, from mid-May to mid-September. The coldest region of Poland is in the northeast, around the area of Suwałki within the Podlaskie Voivodeship, where the climate is affected by cold fronts coming from Scandinavia and Siberia. The average temperature in the winter in Podlaskie ranges from . The biggest impact of the oceanic climate is observed in Świnoujście and Baltic Sea seashore area from Police to Słupsk.Poland is a representative democracy, with a president as the head of state. The government structure centers on the Council of Ministers, led by a prime minister. The president appoints the cabinet according to the proposals of the prime minister, typically from the majority coalition in the Sejm. The president is elected by popular vote every five years. The current president is Andrzej Duda and the prime minister is Mateusz Morawiecki.Polish voters elect a bicameral parliament consisting of a 460-member lower house (Sejm) and a 100-member Senate (Senat). The Sejm is elected under proportional representation according to the d'Hondt method, a method similar to that used in many parliamentary political systems. The Senat, on the other hand, is elected under the first-past-the-post voting method, with one senator being returned from each of the 100 constituencies.With the exception of ethnic minority parties, only candidates of political parties receiving at least 5% of the total national vote can enter the Sejm. When sitting in joint session, members of the Sejm and Senat form the National Assembly (the "Zgromadzenie Narodowe"). The National Assembly is formed on three occasions: when a new president takes the oath of office; when an indictment against the President of the Republic is brought to the State Tribunal ("Trybunał Stanu"); and when a president's permanent incapacity to exercise his duties due to the state of his health is declared. To date only the first instance has occurred.The judicial branch plays an important role in decision-making. Its major institutions include the Supreme Court ("Sąd Najwyższy"); the Supreme Administrative Court ("Naczelny Sąd Administracyjny"); the Constitutional Tribunal ("Trybunał Konstytucyjny"); and the State Tribunal ("Trybunał Stanu"). On the approval of the Senat, the Sejm also appoints the ombudsman or the Commissioner for Civil Rights Protection ("Rzecznik Praw Obywatelskich") for a five-year term. The ombudsman has the duty of guarding the observance and implementation of the rights and liberties of Polish citizens and residents, of the law and of principles of community life and social justice.The Constitution of Poland is the enacted supreme law, and the Polish legal system is based on the principle of civil rights, governed by the code of civil law. The current democratic constitution was adopted by the National Assembly of Poland on 2 April 1997; it guarantees a multi-party state with freedoms of religion, speech and assembly, prohibits the practices of forced medical experimentation, torture or corporal punishment, and acknowledges the inviolability of the home, the right to form trade unions, and the right to strike.The judiciary incorporates a four-tier court system composed of the Supreme Court, the Supreme Administrative Court, Common Courts (District, Regional, Appellate) and the Military Court. Judges are nominated by the National Council of the Judiciary and are appointed for life by the president. The Constitutional and State Tribunals are separate judicial bodies, which rule the constitutional liability of people holding the highest offices of state and supervise the compliance of statutory law, thus protecting the Constitution.Historically, the most significant Polish legal act is the Constitution of 3 May 1791, the first modern constitution in Europe. Instituted as a Government Act, it was designed to redress long-standing political defects of the federative Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and its Golden Liberty. Previously, only the Henrician Articles (1573) signed by each of Poland's elected monarchs could perform the function of a set of basic laws. The new Constitution introduced political equality between townspeople and the nobility ("szlachta"), and placed the peasants under the protection of the government. It abolished pernicious parliamentary policies such as the "liberum veto", which permitted any deputy to rescind all the legislation passed in the interest of a foreign power. The 3 May Constitution sought to supplant the existing anarchy fostered by some of the country's reactionary magnates, with a more egalitarian and democratic constitutional monarchy. The influenced many later democratic movements across the globe. Tax-paying women were allowed to take part in Polish political life until the third partition in 1795. In 1918 the Second Polish Republic became one of the first countries to introduce universal women's suffrage.Poland has a low homicide rate at 0.7 murders per 100,000 people, as of 2018. Rape, assault and violent crime remain at a very low level, although not all cases are recorded by the authorities.Abortion is permitted only in cases of rape, incest or when the woman's life is in danger. Congenital disorder and stillbirth are not covered by the law, forcing some women to seek abortion abroad, and others to seek the assistance of psychiatrists willing to testify on the negative psychological impact of stillbirth. Poland does not criminalize homosexuality, and its legality was confirmed in 1932. The Polish Constitution defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.Poland is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union and has a grand total of 52 representatives in the European Parliament as of 2020. Since joining the union in 2004, successive Polish governments have pursued policies to extend the country's role in European and international affairs. Poland is an emerging regional power in Central Europe. The capital of Warsaw serves as the headquarters for Frontex, the European Union's agency for external border security as well as ODIHR, one of the principal institutions of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.Apart from the European Union, Poland has been a member of NATO since 1999, the UN, the World Trade Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since 1996, European Economic Area, International Energy Agency, Council of Europe, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, International Atomic Energy Agency, European Space Agency, G6, Council of the Baltic Sea States, Visegrád Group, Weimar Triangle, Schengen Agreement, Lublin Triangle and Bucharest Nine.Over the past two decades, Poland significantly strengthened its ties with the United States, thus becoming one of its closest allies in Europe. Poland was part of the US-led coalition force during the Iraq War in 2003, and sent its troops in the first phase of the conflict, jointly with the United Kingdom and Australia. Along with NATO, Poland maintains military presence in the Middle East, the Baltic states and in the Balkans.The Polish Armed Forces are composed of five branches – Land Forces ("Wojska Lądowe"), Navy ("Marynarka Wojenna"), Air Force ("Siły Powietrzne"), Special Forces ("Wojska Specjalne") and the Territorial Defence Force ("Wojska Obrony Terytorialnej"). The military is subordinate to the Ministry of National Defence of the Republic of Poland. However, its commander-in-chief in peacetime is the President of the Republic, who nominates officers, the Minister for National Defence and the chief of staff.As of 2018, the Polish Armed Forces have a combined strength of 144,142 soldiers. The Polish Navy primarily operates on the Baltic Sea and conducts operations such as maritime patrol, search and rescue for the section of the Baltic under Polish sovereignty, as well as hydrographic measurements and research. The Polish Air Force routinely takes part in Baltic Air Policing assignments. In 2003, the F-16C Block 52 was selected as the new general multi-role fighter for the air force. In January 2020, Poland has approved the delivery for F-35 Lightning II combat aircraft. Poland is currently spending 2% of its GDP on defence (approximately US$13.5 billion in 2020), which is expected to grow to 2.5% by 2030. According to SIPRI, the country exported EUR€487 million worth of arms and armaments to other countries, primarily to the United States, Chile, France and South Africa.The mission of the armed forces is the defence of Poland's territorial integrity and Polish interests abroad. The country's national security goal is to further integrate with NATO and European defence, economic, and political institutions. Compulsory military service for men was discontinued in 2008. From 2007, until conscription ended in 2008, the mandatory service was nine months. Polish military doctrine reflects the same defensive nature as that of its NATO partners and the country actively hosts NATO's military exercises. From 1953 to 2009 Poland was a large contributor to various United Nations peacekeeping missions. The Polish Armed Forces took part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, deploying 2,500 soldiers in the south of that country and commanding the 17-nation multinational force in Iraq. Poland also maintains troops in the Middle East, the Baltic states and in the Balkans; 1,650 soldiers were deployed in 2019.Law enforcement in Poland is performed by several agencies which are subordinate to the Ministry of Interior and Administration – the State Police ("Policja"), assigned to investigate crimes or transgression; the Municipal City Guard, which maintains public order; and several specialized agencies, such as the Polish Border Guard. Private security firms are also common, although they possess no legal authority to arrest or detain a suspect. Municipal guards are primarily headed by provincial, regional or city councils; individual guards are not permitted to carry firearms unless instructed by their superior commanding officer or commandant.The Internal Security Agency (ABW, or ISA in English) is the chief counter-intelligence instrument safeguarding Poland's internal security, along with Agencja Wywiadu (AW) which identifies threats and collects secret information abroad. The Central Investigation Bureau of Police (CBŚP) and the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) are responsible for countering organized crime and corruption in state and private institutions.Emergency services in Poland consist of the emergency medical services, search and rescue units of the Polish Armed Forces and State Fire Service. Emergency medical services in Poland are provided for by local and regional governments.All emergency services personnel are uniformed and security services can be easily recognized during regular patrols in both large urban areas or smaller suburban localities.Poland's current voivodeships (provinces) are largely based on the country's historic regions, whereas those of the past two decades (to 1998) had been centred on and named for individual cities. The new units range in area from less than for Opole Voivodeship to more than for Masovian Voivodeship. Administrative authority at the voivodeship level is shared between a government-appointed voivode (governor), an elected regional assembly ("sejmik") and a voivodeship marshal, an executive elected by that assembly.The voivodeships are subdivided into "powiats" (often referred to in English as counties), and these are further divided into "gminas" (also known as communes or municipalities). Major cities normally have the status of both "gmina" and "powiat". Poland has 16 voivodeships, 380 powiats (including 66 cities with "powiat" status), and 2,478 "gminas".Poland's economy and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is currently the sixth largest in the European Union by nominal standards, and the fifth largest by purchasing power parity. It is also one of the fastest growing within the Union. Around 60% of the employed population belongs to the tertiary service sector, 30% to industry and manufacturing, and the remaining 10% to the agricultural sector. Although Poland is a member of EU's single market, the country has not adopted the Euro as legal tender and maintains its own currency – the Polish złoty (zł, PLN).Poland is the regional economic leader in Central Europe, with nearly 40 per cent of the 500 biggest companies in the region (by revenues) as well as a high globalisation rate. The country's largest firms compose the WIG20 and WIG30 indexes, which is traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. According to reports made by the National Bank of Poland, the value of Polish foreign direct investments reached almost 300 billion PLN at the end of 2014. The Central Statistical Office estimated that in 2014 there were 1,437 Polish corporations with interests in 3,194 foreign entities.Having a strong domestic market, low private debt, low unemployment rate, flexible currency, and not being dependent on a single export sector, Poland is the only European economy to have avoided the recession of 2008. The country is the 20th largest exporter of goods and services in the world and its most successful exports include machinery, furniture, food products, clothing, shoes, cosmetics and videogames. These account to approximately 56% of the total GDP, as of 2018. Poland's largest trading partners include Germany, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, France and Italy. Warsaw leads Central Europe in foreign investment. In September 2018, the unemployment rate was estimated at 5.7%, one of the lowest in the European Union. In 2019, Poland passed a law that would exempt workers under the age of 26 from income tax.The Polish banking sector is the largest in the region, with 32.3 branches per 100,000 adults.World Bank, Financial Inclusion Data. Country Dashboard: Poland. The World Bank Group. Retrieved 6 November 2014. The banks are the largest and most developed sector of the country's financial markets. They are regulated by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority. Poland's banking sector has approximately 5 national banks, a network of nearly 600 cooperative banks and 18 branches of foreign-owned banks. In addition, foreign investors have controlling stakes in nearly 40 commercial banks, which make up 68% of the banking capital.Products and goods manufactured in Poland include: electronics, buses and trams (Solaris, Solbus), helicopters and planes (PZL Świdnik, PZL Mielec), trains (Pesa, Newag), ships (Gdańsk Shipyard, Szczecin Shipyard), military equipment (FB "Łucznik" Radom, , Jelcz), medicines (, ), food (Tymbark, Hortex, E. Wedel), clothes (LLP), glass, pottery (Bolesławiec), chemical products and others. Well-known brands and companies include Alior Bank, Orlen&Lotos Group, Inglot Cosmetics, Plus, Play, Brainly, Netguru, GOG.com, CD Projekt, Trefl and Allegro. Poland is also one of the world's biggest producers of copper, silver, coal, furniture, automotive parts and soft drink.Poland experienced a significant increase in the number of tourists after joining the European Union in 2004. With nearly 21 million international arrivals in 2019, tourism contributes considerably to the overall economy and makes up a relatively large proportion of the country's service market.Tourist attractions in Poland vary, from the mountains in the south to the sandy beaches in the north, with a trail of nearly every architectural style. The most visited city is Kraków, which was the former capital of Poland and serves as a relic of the Polish Golden Age and the Renaissance. Kraków also held royal coronations of most Polish kings and monarchs at Wawel, the nation's chief historical landmark. Among other notable sites in the country is Wrocław, one of the oldest cities in Poland which was a model for the founding of Kraków. Wrocław is famous for its dwarfs, a large market square with two town halls, and the oldest Zoological Gardens with one of the world's largest number of animal species. The Polish capital Warsaw and its historical Old Town were entirely reconstructed after wartime destruction. Other cities attracting countless tourists include Gdańsk, Poznań, Lublin, Toruń as well as the site of the German Auschwitz concentration camp in Oświęcim. A notable highlight is the 13th-century Wieliczka Salt Mine with its labyrinthine tunnels, a subterranean lake and chapels carved by miners out of rock salt beneath the ground.Poland's main tourist offerings include outdoor activities such as skiing, sailing, mountain hiking and climbing, as well as agritourism, sightseeing historical monuments. Tourist destinations include the Baltic Sea coast in the north; the Masurian Lake District and Białowieża Forest in the east; on the south Karkonosze, the Table Mountains and the Tatra Mountains, where Rysy – the highest peak of Poland, and Eagle's Path mountain trail are located. The Pieniny and Bieszczady Mountains lie in the extreme south-east. There are over 100 castles in the country, most in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship (inter alia ), and also on the Trail of the Eagles' Nests. The largest castle in the world by land area is situated in Malbork, in north-central Poland.The electricity generation sector in Poland is largely fossil-fuel–based. Many power plants nationwide use Poland's position as a major European exporter of coal to their advantage by continuing to use coal as the primary raw material in the production of their energy. In 2013, Poland scored 48 out of 129 states in the Energy Sustainability Index. The three largest Polish coal mining firms (Węglokoks, Kompania Węglowa and JSW) extract around 100 million tonnes of coal annually.Renewable forms of energy account for a smaller proportion of Poland's full energy generation capacity. However, the national government has set targets for the development of renewable energy sources in Poland (the share of energy from renewable sources in the gross final energy consumption in 2019 was – 12,18%). Increasing the share of energy from renewable sources and a significant reduction in CO2 emissions to be achieved with the help of biofuels, photovoltaics, construction of wind farms on the land and the Baltic Sea, hydroelectric stations and nuclear power plant.Poland has around 164,800,000,000 m of proven natural gas reserves and around 96,380,000 barrels of proven oil reserves. These reserves are exploited by energy supply companies such as PKN Orlen ("the only Polish company listed in the Fortune Global 500"), PGNiG. However, the small amounts of fossil fuels naturally occurring in Poland are insufficient to satisfy the full energy consumption needs of the population and industry. Consequently, the country is a net importer of oil and natural gas. Therefore, since the second decade of the 21st century, Poland has been strongly developing the so-called North Gate in which the most important components are the Baltic Pipe, the Świnoujście LNG terminal and Floating Storage and Regasification Unit in Port of Gdańsk.The 5 largest companies supplying Poland electricity are PGE, Tauron, Enea, and Innogy Poland.Transport in Poland is provided by means of rail, road, marine shipping and air travel. The country is part of EU's Schengen Area and is an important transport hub along neighbouring Germany due to its strategic position in Central Europe. Some of the longest European routes, including the E40, run through Poland.The country has a good network of highways, composed of express roads and motorways. At the start of 2020, Poland had of highways in use. In addition, all local and regional roads are monitored by the National Road Rebuilding Programme, which aims to improve the quality of travel in the countryside and suburban localities.In 2017, the nation had of railway track, the third longest in Europe after Germany and France. The Polish State Railways (PKP) is the dominant railway operator in the country. In December 2014, Poland began to implement high–speed rail routes connecting major Polish cities, and started passenger service using the New Pendolino train, operating at 200 km/h on the Central Rail Line (CMK). Polish regulations allow trains without ETCS to travel at speeds up to 160 km/h, trains with ETCS1 up to 200 km/h, and trains with ETCS2 at over 200 km/h. Most inter-regional connections rail routes in Poland are operated by PKP Intercity, whilst regional trains are run by a number of private operators, the largest of which is Polregio. The largest passenger train station in terms of the number of travelers is Wrocław Główny.The air and maritime transport markets in Poland are largely well developed. Poland has a number of international airports, the largest of which is Warsaw Chopin Airport, the primary global hub for LOT Polish Airlines. It was established in 1928 from a merger of Aerolloyd (1922) and Aero (1925). Other major airports with international connections include John Paul II International Airport Kraków–Balice, Copernicus Airport Wrocław, Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport. Poland has begun preparations for a construction that can handle 100 million passengers of the Central Communication Port.Seaports exist all along Poland's Baltic coast, with most freight operations using Świnoujście, Police, Szczecin, Kołobrzeg, Gdynia, Gdańsk and Elbląg as their base.Passenger ferries link Poland with Scandinavia all year round; these services are provided from Gdańsk and Świnoujście by Polferries, Stena Line from Gdynia and Unity Line from the Świnoujście. The Port of Gdańsk is the only port in the Baltic Sea adapted to receive oceanic vessels.Over the course of history, the Polish people have made considerable contributions in the fields of science, technology and mathematics. Perhaps the most renowned Pole to support this theory was Nicolaus Copernicus ("Mikołaj Kopernik"), who triggered the Copernican Revolution by placing the Sun rather than the Earth at the center of the universe. He also derived a quantity theory of money, which made him a pioneer of economics. Copernicus' achievements and discoveries are considered the basis of Polish culture and cultural identity.Poland's tertiary education institutions; traditional universities, as well as technical, medical, and economic institutions, employ around tens of thousands of researchers and staff members. There are hundreds of research and development institutes. However, in the 19th and 20th centuries many Polish scientists worked abroad; one of the most important of these exiles was Maria Skłodowska-Curie, a physicist and chemist who lived much of her life in France. In 1925 she established Poland's Radium Institute.In the first half of the 20th century, Poland was a flourishing centre of mathematics. Outstanding Polish mathematicians formed the Lwów School of Mathematics (with Stefan Banach, Stanisław Mazur, Hugo Steinhaus, Stanisław Ulam) and Warsaw School of Mathematics (with Alfred Tarski, Kazimierz Kuratowski, Wacław Sierpiński and Antoni Zygmund). Numerous mathematicians, scientists, chemists or economists emigrated due to historic vicissitudes, among them Benoit Mandelbrot, Leonid Hurwicz, Alfred Tarski, Joseph Rotblat and Nobel Prize laureates Roald Hoffmann, Georges Charpak and Tadeusz Reichstein. In the 1930s, mathematician and cryptologist Marian Rejewski invented the Cryptographic Bomb which formed the basis of the effort that allowed the Allies to crack the Enigma code.Over 40 research and development centers and 4,500 researchers make Poland the biggest research and development hub in Central and Eastern Europe. Multinational companies such as: ABB, Delphi, GlaxoSmithKline, Google, Hewlett–Packard, IBM, Intel, LG Electronics, Microsoft, Motorola, Siemens and Samsung all have set up research and development centres in Poland. Companies chose Poland because of the availability of highly qualified labour force, presence of universities, support of authorities, and the largest market in East-Central Europe. According to a KPMG report from 2011, 80% of Poland's current investors are content with their choice and willing to reinvest. Poland has a very well-developed e-administration, thanks to which many official matters can be easily and quickly settled via the Internet. In the UN ranking, Poland is in the top twenty countries with the best-rated e-administration in the world.Poland, with approximately 38.5 million inhabitants, has the ninth-largest population in Europe and the fifth-largest in the European Union. It has a population density of 122 inhabitants per square kilometre (328 per square mile). The total fertility rate in 2020 was estimated at 1.44 children born to a woman, a considerable rise from previous years. In contrast, the total fertility rate in 1925 was 4.68. Furthermore, Poland's population is aging significantly and the median age in 2018 was 41.1 years. The crude death rate in 2020 stood at 10.3 per 1,000 people.Around 60% of Poles and Polish citizens reside in urban areas or major cities and 40% in more rural zones. The most populous administrative province or state is the Masovian Voivodeship and the most populous city is the capital, Warsaw, at 1.8 million inhabitants with a further 2-3 million people living in its metropolitan area. The metropolitan area of Katowice is the largest urban conurbation in Poland with a population between 2.7 million and 5.3 million residents. The least populous and the smallest province in size is the Opole Voivodeship, with just under 1 million people living within its borders. Hence, a substantial portion of the total population is concentrated in the south of Poland, roughly between the cities of Wrocław and Kraków.In the 2011 Polish census, 37,310,341 people reported Polish identity, 846,719 Silesian, 232,547 Kashubian and 147,814 German. Other identities were reported by 163,363 people (0.41%) and 521,470 people (1.35%) did not specify any nationality. Once prominent but now statistically insignificant minority groups include Polish Jews, Lipka Tatars, Armenians, Greeks, Lemkos, the Romani people and the Vietnamese. Ethnic Poles themselves can be divided into many diverse regional ethnographic sub-groups, most notable being the Kashubians, Silesians and Gorals (Highlanders). The statistics do not include recently arrived migrant workers. More than 1.7 million Ukrainian citizens worked legally in Poland in 2017.There is a very strong Polish diaspora around the world, notably in the United States, Germany, United Kingdom and Canada. A strong Polish minority is still present in the territories of contemporary western Ukraine and Belarus, eastern Lithuania, eastern and central Latvia, and northeastern Czech Republic, which were part of Poland in the past. Altogether, the number of ethnic Poles living abroad is estimated to be around 20 million.Polish is the only official and predominant spoken language in Poland, but it is also used throughout the world by Polish minorities in other countries as well as being one of the official languages of the European Union. The deaf communities use Polish Sign Language belonging to the German family of Sign Languages. Polish is also a second language in Lithuania, where it is taught in schools and universities. Contemporary Poland is a linguistically homogeneous nation, with nearly 97% of respondents declaring Polish as their mother tongue.Poland's once multi-ethnic population communicated in numerous languages and lects which faded or disappeared along the course of history. There are currently 15 minority languages in Poland, including one recognized regional language, Kashubian, which is spoken by around 366,000 people in the northern regions of Kashubia and Pomerania.Languages having the status of national minority's language are Armenian, Belarusian, Czech, German, Yiddish, Hebrew, Lithuanian, Russian, Slovak and Ukrainian. Languages having the status of ethnic minority's language are Karaim, Lemko-Rusyn, Tatar and two Romani languages; Polska Roma and Bergitka Roma. Official recognition of a language provides certain rights under conditions prescribed by Polish law, including education and state financial support for promoting that language. Poland recognized secondary administrative languages or auxiliary languages in bilingual municipalities. Currently, German and Kashubian hold such status in 19 municipalities ("gminas"), Belarusian in 9 and Lithuanian in 1. Bilingual signs, names and advertisements are commonplace in those localities. Silesian and Wymysorys (Vilamovian) are not legally recognized or acknowledged as separate languages with a minority status.More than 50% of Polish citizens declare at least basic knowledge of the English language, followed by German (38%).According to the 2015 census, 92.9% of all Polish citizens adhere to the Roman Catholic Church. An estimated 94.2% of the population are believers and 3.1% are irreligious, making Poland one of the more devout countries in Europe. Around 61.6% of all respondents outlined that religion is of high or very high importance. However, church attendance has decreased in recent years; only 38% of worshippers attended mass regularly on Sunday in 2018. Freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Polish Constitution, and the concordat guarantees the teaching of religion in state schools.For centuries the tribes inhabiting the lands of modern-day Poland have practiced various forms of paganism known as "Rodzimowierstwo", or "native faith". In the year 966, Duke Mieszko I converted to Christianity, and submitted to the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. This event came to be known as the Baptism of Poland. However, this did not put an end to pagan beliefs in the country. The persistence was demonstrated by a series of rebellions in the 1030s known as the pagan reaction, which also showed elements of a peasant uprising against medieval feudalism.Religious tolerance was an important part of Polish political culture, though it varied at times. In 1264, the Statute of Kalisz granted Jews unprecedented legal rights not found anywhere in Europe. In 1573, the Warsaw Confederation marked the formal beginning of extensive religious freedoms in Poland. It was partially influenced by the 1572 St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in France, which prompted the nobility to prevent the monarch from carrying out reprehensible atrocities in Poland based on religious affiliation. The religious tolerance also spurred many theological movements such as the Calvinist Polish Brethren, a number of Protestant groups and atheists like Casimir Liszinski, one of the first atheist thinkers in Europe. Anabaptists fleeing 16th-century persecution in the Netherlands and Germany settled in Poland and became known as the Vistula delta Mennonites. From 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła was head of the Roman Catholic Church as Pope John Paul II.Contemporary religious minorities include Christian Orthodox (506,800), various Protestants (150,000) — including 77,500 Lutherans of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church, 23,000 Pentecostals in the Pentecostal Church in Poland, 10,000 Adventists in the Seventh-day Adventist Church and other smaller Evangelical denominations — Jehovah's Witnesses (126,827), Eastern Catholics, Mariavites, Jews, Muslims (Tatars) and neopagans, some of whom are members of the Native Polish Church.Famous sites of Roman Catholic pilgrimage in Poland include the Monastery of Jasna Góra in the city of Częstochowa, Basilica of Our Lady of Licheń, Kraków's Sanctuary of Divine Mercy and Święta Lipka (Holy Linden) in Masuria. Tourists also visit the family home of John Paul II in Wadowice outside Kraków. Christ the King in Świebodzin is the tallest statue of Jesus in the world. Christian Orthodox pilgrims visit Mount Grabarka near Grabarka-Klasztor and the Hasidic Jews travel annually to the grave of a great rabbi in Leżajsk.Medical service providers and hospitals ("szpitale") in Poland are subordinate to the Ministry of Health; it provides administrative oversight and scrutiny of general medical practice, and is obliged to maintain a high standard of hygiene and patient care. Poland has a universal healthcare system based on an all-inclusive insurance system; state subsidised healthcare is available to all citizens covered by the general health insurance program of the National Health Fund (NFZ). Private medical complexes exist nationwide; over 50% of the population uses both public and private sectors.Hospitals are organised according to the regional administrative structure, resultantly most towns, counties or municipalities possess their own provincial hospital or medical clinics. There are six types of hospital facilities, each with a particular area of medical expertise – I Grade Hospitals for general surgery, internal illnesses and obstetrics; II Grade Hospitals for child surgery, neurology, cardiology and ophthalmology; III Grade Hospitals including teaching hospitals for infectious diseases, nephrology, orthopedics, toxicology and transplantology; Oncology Hospitals for cancer treatment and brachytherapy; Pediatric Hospitals for child care; and Nationwide Hospitals for general and acute care.According to the Human Development Report from 2020, the average life expectancy at birth is 79 years (around 75 years for an infant male and 83 years for an infant female); the country has a low infant mortality rate (4 per 1,000 births). In 2019, the principal cause of death was ischemic heart disease; diseases of the circulatory system accounted for 45% of all deaths. In the same year, Poland was also the 15th-largest importer of medications and pharmaceutical products.The Jagiellonian University founded in 1364 by Casimir III in Kraków was the first institution of higher learning established in Poland, and is one of the oldest universities still in continuous operation. Poland's Commission of National Education ("Komisja Edukacji Narodowej"), established in 1773, was the world's first state ministry of education. The framework for primary and secondary schooling in contemporary Poland is established by the Ministry of National Education. Kindergarten attendance is optional for children aged between three and five, with one year being compulsory for six-year-olds. Primary education traditionally begins at the age of seven, although children aged six can attend at the request of their parents or guardians. Elementary school spans eight grades, at the end of which an obligatory three-part exam on Polish, mathematics and a foreign language is to be undertaken. Secondary schooling is dependent on student preference – either a four-year high school ("liceum"), a five-year technical school ("technikum") or various vocational studies ("szkoła branżowa") can be pursued by each individual pupil. A liceum or technikum is concluded with a maturity exit exam ("matura"), which must be passed in order to apply for a university or other institutions of higher learning.The standards of higher tertiary education are imposed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. In Poland, there are over 500 university-level institutions, with technical, medical, economic, agricultural, pedagogical, theological, musical, maritime and military faculties. The University of Warsaw and Warsaw Polytechnic, the University of Wrocław, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and the University of Technology in Gdańsk are among the most prominent. There are three conventional academic degrees in Poland – "licencjat" or "inżynier" (first cycle qualification), "magister" (second cycle qualification) and "doktor" (third cycle qualification).In 2018, the Programme for International Student Assessment, coordinated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, ranked Poland's educational system higher than the OECD average; the study showed that students in Poland perform better academically than in most OECD countries.The culture of Poland is closely connected with its intricate 1,000-year history and forms an important constituent in western civilization. The Poles take great pride in their national identity which is often associated with the colours white and red, and exuded by the expression "biało-czerwoni" ("whitereds"). National symbols, chiefly the crowned white-tailed eagle, are often visible on clothing, insignia and emblems. The appreciation of Poland's traditions and cultural heritage is commonly known as Polonophilia.With origins in the customs of the tribal Lechites, over time the culture of Poland has been influenced by its connection to Western culture and trends, as well as developing its own unique traditions such as Sarmatism. The people of Poland have traditionally been seen as hospitable to artists from abroad and eager to follow cultural and artistic trends popular in foreign countries, for instance, the 16th- and 17th-century tradition of coffin portraits ("portret trumienny") was only observed in Poland and Roman Egypt. In the 19th and 20th centuries the Polish focus on cultural advancement often took precedence over political and economic activity. These factors have contributed to the versatile nature of Polish art.The architectural monuments of great importance are protected by the National Heritage Board of Poland. Over 100 of the country's most significant tangible wonders were enlisted onto the Historic Monuments Register, with further 16 being recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. Poland is renowned for its brick Gothic castles, granaries and churches as well as diversely-styled tenements, market squares and town halls. The majority of Polish cities founded on Magdeburg Law in the Middle Ages evolved around central marketplaces, a distinguishable urban characteristic which can be observed to this day. Medieval and Renaissance cloth halls were once an abundant feature of many towns.There are 13 government-approved annual public holidays – New Year on 1 January, Three Kings' Day on 6 January, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, Labour Day on 1 May, Constitution Day on 3 May, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, Armed Forces Day on 15 August, All Saints' Day on 1 November, Independence Day on 11 November and Christmastide on 25 and 26 December.Particular traditions and superstitious customs observed in Poland are not found elsewhere in Europe. Though Christmas Eve ("Wigilia") is not a public holiday, it remains the most memorable day of the entire year. Trees are decorated on 24 December, hay is placed under the tablecloth to resemble Jesus' manger, Christmas wafers ("opłatek") are shared between gathered guests and a twelve-dish meatless supper is served that same evening when the first star appears. An empty plate and seat are symbolically left at the table for an unexpected guest. On occasion, carolers journey around smaller towns with a folk Turoń creature until the Lent period.A widely-popular doughnut and sweet pastry feast occurs on Fat Thursday, usually 52 days prior to Easter. Eggs for Holy Sunday are painted and placed in decorated baskets that are previously blessed by clergymen in churches on Easter Saturday. Easter Monday is celebrated with pagan "dyngus" festivities, where the youth is engaged in water fights and some girls are gently spanked by colleagues with pussy willows to stimulate fertility.Cemeteries and graves of the deceased are annually visited by family members on All Saints' Day; tombstones are cleaned as a sign of respect and candles are lit to honour the dead on an unprecedented scale.Artists from Poland, including famous musicians such as Chopin, Rubinstein, Paderewski, Penderecki and Wieniawski, and traditional, regionalized folk composers create a lively and diverse music scene, which even recognizes its own music genres, such as sung poetry and disco polo.The origins of Polish music can be traced to the 13th century; manuscripts have been found in Stary Sącz containing polyphonic compositions related to the Parisian Notre Dame School. Other early compositions, such as the melody of "Bogurodzica" and "God Is Born" (a coronation polonaise tune for Polish kings by an unknown composer), may also date back to this period, however, the first known notable composer, Nicholas of Radom, lived in the 15th century. Diomedes Cato, a native-born Italian who lived in Kraków, became a renowned lutenist at the court of Sigismund III; he not only imported some of the musical styles from southern Europe but blended them with native folk music.In the 17th and 18th centuries, Polish baroque composers wrote liturgical music and secular compositions such as concertos and sonatas for voices or instruments. At the end of the 18th century, Polish classical music evolved into national forms like the polonaise. Wojciech Bogusławski is accredited with composing the first Polish national opera, titled "", which premiered in 1794.Traditional Polish folk music has had a major effect on the works of many Polish composers, and no more so than on Fryderyk Chopin, a widely recognised national hero of the arts. All of Chopin's works involve the piano and are technically demanding, emphasising nuance and expressive depth. As a great composer, Chopin invented the musical form known as the instrumental ballade and made major innovations to the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, polonaise, étude, impromptu and prélude, he was also the composer of a number of polonaises which borrowed heavily from traditional Polish folk music. It is largely thanks to him that such pieces gained great popularity throughout Europe during the 19th century. Several Polish composers such as Szymanowski drew inspiration from Chopin's folk-influenced style. Nowadays the most distinctive folk music can be heard in the towns and villages of the mountainous south, particularly in the region surrounding the winter resort town of Zakopane.Poland today has an active music scene, with the jazz and metal genres being particularly popular among the contemporary populace. Polish jazz musicians such as Krzysztof Komeda created a unique style, which was most famous in the 1960s and 1970s and continues to be popular to this day. Poland has also become a major venue for large-scale music festivals, chief among which are the Open'er Festival, Opole Festival and Sopot Festival.Art in Poland has always reflected European trends while maintaining its unique character. The Kraków Academy of Fine Arts, later developed by Jan Matejko, produced monumental portrayals of customs and significant events in Polish history. Other institutions such as the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw were more innovative and focused on both historical and contemporary styles. Notable art academies include the Kraków School of Art and Fashion Design, Art Academy of Szczecin, University of Fine Arts in Poznań and the Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław.Perhaps the most prominent and internationally admired Polish artist was Tamara de Lempicka, who specialized in the style of Art Deco. Lempicka was described as "the first woman artist to become a glamour star." Another notable was Caziel, born Zielenkiewicz, who represented Cubism and Abstraction in France and England.Prior to the 19th century only Daniel Schultz and Italian-born Marcello Bacciarelli had the privilege of being recognized abroad. The Young Poland movement witnessed the birth of modern Polish art, and engaged in a great deal of formal experimentation led by Jacek Malczewski, Stanisław Wyspiański, Józef Mehoffer, and a group of Polish Impressionists. Stanisław Witkiewicz was an ardent supporter of Realism, its main representative being Józef Chełmoński, while Artur Grottger specialized in Romanticism. Within historically-orientated circles, Henryk Siemiradzki dominated with his monumental Academic Art and ancient Roman theme.Since the inter-war years, Polish art and documentary photography has enjoyed worldwide fame and in the 1960s the Polish School of Posters was formed. Throughout the entire country, many national museum and art institutions hold valuable works by famous masters. Major museums in Poland include the National Museum in Warsaw, Poznań, Wrocław, Kraków, and Gdańsk, as well as the Museum of John Paul II Collection, and the Wilanów Museum. Important collections are also held at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Wawel Castle and in the Palace on the Isle. Contemporary art galleries include Zachęta, Ujazdów, and MOCAK. The most distinguished painting of Poland is "Lady with an Ermine" by Leonardo da Vinci, held at the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków. Although not Polish, the work had a strong influence on Polish culture and has been often associated with Polish identity.Polish cities and towns reflect a whole spectrum of European architectural styles. Romanesque architecture is represented by St. Andrew's Church, Kraków, and St. Mary's Church, Gdańsk, is characteristic for the Brick Gothic style found in Poland. Richly decorated attics and arcade loggias are the common elements of the Polish Renaissance architecture, as evident in the City Hall in Poznań. For some time the late renaissance style known as mannerism, most notably in the Bishop's Palace in Kielce, coexisted with the early baroque style, typified in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Kraków.History has not been kind to Poland's architectural monuments. Nonetheless, a number of ancient structures have survived: castles, churches, and stately homes, often unique in the regional or European context. Some of them have been painstakingly restored, like Wawel Castle, or completely reconstructed, including the Old Town and Royal Castle of Warsaw and the Old Town of Gdańsk.The architecture of Gdańsk is mostly of the Hanseatic variety, a Gothic style common among the former trading cities along the Baltic Sea and in the northern part of Central Europe. The architectural style of Wrocław is mainly representative of German architecture since it was for centuries located within the Holy Roman Empire. The centres of Kazimierz Dolny and Sandomierz on the Vistula are good examples of well-preserved medieval towns. Poland's ancient capital, Kraków, ranks among the best-preserved Gothic and Renaissance urban complexes in Europe.The second half of the 17th century is marked by baroque architecture. Side towers, such as those of Branicki Palace in Białystok, are typical for the Polish baroque. The classical Silesian baroque is represented by the University in Wrocław. The profuse decorations of the Branicki Palace in Warsaw are characteristic of the rococo style. The centre of Polish classicism was Warsaw under the rule of the last Polish king Stanisław II Augustus.The Palace on the Isle is a chief example of Polish neoclassical architecture. Lublin Castle represents the Gothic Revival style in architecture, while the Izrael Poznański Palace in Łódź is an example of eclecticism.Traditional folk architecture in the villages and small towns scattered across the vast Polish countryside was characterized by its extensive use of wood and red brick as primary building materials, common for Central Europe. Some of the best preserved and oldest structures include ancient stone temples in Silesia and fortified wooden churches across southeastern Poland in the Beskids and Bieszczady regions of the Carpathian mountains. Numerous examples of secular structures such as Polish manor houses ("dworek"), farmhouses (), granaries, mills, barns and country inns () can still be found in some Polish regions. However, traditional construction methods faded in the early-mid 20th century, when Poland's population experienced a demographic shift to urban dwelling away from the countryside.The earliest examples of Polish literature date to the 12th century, when Poland's official language was Latin, and early published works were predominantly written by foreigners. Gallus Anonymus, a monk of disputed origin, was the first chronicler who meticulously described Poland's culture, language and territories in "Gesta principum Polonorum" (c. 1112–1118). Latin remained the principal tool of literary expression in Poland until the 18th century, when it was replaced in favour of Polish and French. Historically, Polish literature concentrated extensively around the themes of true drama and poetic-expressive romanticism than on fiction. Patriotism, spirituality and aphorisms were paramount and political or social allegories were common moral narratives.The first documented phrase in the Polish language reads ""Day ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai"" ("Let me grind, and you take a rest"), reflecting the use of quern-stone in early Poland. The phrase was recorded by an abbot in the Latin-based "Liber fundationis" from 1269 to 1273, which outlined the history of a Cistercian monastery in the Silesian village of Henryków. The sentence has been included in the UNESCO Memory of World Register. The oldest extant manuscript of fine prose in Old Polish is the "Holy Cross Sermons", and the earliest religious text is the Bible of Queen Sophia. One of the first printing houses was established by Kasper Straube in the 1470s, while Jan Haller was considered the pioneer of commercial print in Poland. Haller's Calendarium cracoviense, an astronomical wall calendar from 1474, is Poland's oldest surviving print.The tradition of extending Polish historiography in Latin was subsequently inherited by Vincent Kadłubek, Bishop of Kraków in the 13th century, and Jan Długosz in the 15th century. This practice, however, was abandoned by Jan Kochanowski, who became one of the first Polish Renaissance authors to write most of his works in Polish, along with Nicholas Rey. Other writers of the Polish Renaissance include Johannes Dantiscus, Andreus Fricius Modrevius, Matthias Sarbievius, Piotr Skarga and Klemens "Ianicius" Janicki, who was laureled by the Pope. The leading figure of the Polish Reformation was theologian and writer John Laski, who, with the permission of King Edward VI of England, created the European Protestant Congregation of London in 1550.During the Baroque era, the Jesuits greatly influenced Polish literature and literary techniques, often relying on God and religious matters. The leading baroque poet was Jan Andrzej Morsztyn, who incorporated Marinism into his publications. Jan Chryzostom Pasek, also a respected baroque writer, is mostly remembered for his tales and memoirs reflecting sarmatian culture in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Subsequently, the Polish Enlightenment was headed by Samuel Linde, Hugo Kołłątaj, Izabela Czartoryska and Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz. In 1776, Ignacy Krasicki composed the first milestone novel entitled "The Adventures of Mr. Nicholas Wisdom".Among the best known Polish Romantics are the "Three Bards" – the three national poets active in the age of foreign partitions – Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki and Zygmunt Krasiński. The narrative poem "Pan Tadeusz" by Mickiewicz is Poland's national epic and a compulsory reading ("lektura") in the country's schools. Joseph Conrad, the son of dramatist Apollo Korzeniowski, came to fame with his English-language novels and stories that are informed with elements of the Polish national experience. Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", "Nostromo" and "Lord Jim" are believed to be one of the finest works ever written, placing him among the greatest novelists of all time. Modern Polish literature is versatile, with its fantasy genre having been particularly praised. The philosophical sci-fi novel "Solaris" is an acclaimed example of Stanisław Lem's literary legacy, whereas "The Witcher", a fantasy series by Andrzej Sapkowski, is a much-celebrated work of contemporary Polish fiction.In the 20th century, five Polish authors were awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature – Henryk Sienkiewicz for "Quo Vadis", Władysław Reymont for "The Peasants", Isaac Bashevis Singer, Czesław Miłosz and Wisława Szymborska. In 2019, Polish author Olga Tokarczuk was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 2018.Polish cuisine has evolved over the centuries to become highly eclectic due to Poland's history. Polish cuisine shares many similarities with other Central European cuisines, especially German and Austrian as well as Jewish, French, Italian and Turkish culinary traditions. Polish-styled cooking in other cultures is often referred to as "cuisine à la polonaise".Polish dishes are usually rich in meat, especially pork, chicken and beef (depending on the region), winter vegetables (sauerkraut cabbage in "bigos"), and spices. It is also characteristic in its use of various kinds of noodles, the most notable of which are kluski, as well as cereals such as "kasha" (from the Polish word kasza) and a variety of breads like the world-renowned bagel. Polish cuisine is hearty and uses a lot of cream and eggs. Festive meals such as the meatless Christmas Eve dinner ("Wigilia") or Easter breakfast could take days to prepare in their entirety.The main course usually includes a serving of meat, such as roast, chicken, or "kotlet schabowy" (breaded pork cutlet), vegetables, side dishes and salads, including "surówka" – shredded root vegetables with lemon and sugar (carrot, celeriac, seared beetroot) or sauerkraut (, ). The side dishes are usually potatoes, rice or cereal. Meals conclude with a dessert such as "sernik" (cheesecake), "makowiec" (poppy seed pastry), or "napoleonka" (cream pie).The Polish national dishes are "bigos" ; "pierogi" ; "kielbasa"; "kotlet schabowy" breaded cutlet; "gołąbki" cabbage rolls; "zrazy" roulade; "pieczeń" roast ; sour cucumber soup ("zupa ogórkowa", ); mushroom soup, ("zupa grzybowa", quite different from the North American cream of mushroom); "zupa pomidorowa" tomato soup ; "rosół" variety of meat broth; "żurek" sour rye soup; "flaki" tripe soup; "barszcz" and "chłodnik" among others.Traditional alcoholic beverages include honey mead, widespread since the 13th century, beer, wine and vodka (old Polish names include "okowita" and "gorzała"). The world's first written mention of vodka originates from Poland. The most popular alcoholic drinks at present are beer and wine which took over from vodka more popular in the years 1980–1998. Tea remains common in Polish society since the 19th century, whilst coffee is drunk widely since the 18th century. Other frequently consumed beverages include various mineral waters and juices, soft drinks popularized by the fast-food chains since the late 20th century, as well as buttermilk, soured milk and kefir.The particular clothing styles in Poland evolved with each century. In the 1600s high-class noblemen and magnates developed a strong sympathy for Orientalism, which was also common in other parts of Europe and became known as Sarmatism. The attire mediated between Western and Ottoman styles and outfits included a żupan, delia, kontusz, pas, decorative karabela swords and less often turbans brought by foreign merchants. The period of Polish Sarmatism eventually faded in the wake of the 18th century.The Polish national dress as well as the fashion and etiquette of Poland also reached the royal court at Versailles in the 1700s. French dresses inspired by Polish attire were called "à la polonaise", meaning "Polish-styled". The most famous example is the "robe à la polonaise", a woman's garment with draped and swagged overskirt, worn over an underskirt or petticoat. Another notable example is the Witzchoura, a long mantle with collar and hood, which was possibly introduced by Napoleon's Polish mistress Maria Walewska. The scope of influence also entailed furniture; rococo Polish beds with canopies became commonplace in French palaces during the 18th century.Several Polish designers and stylists left a lifelong legacy of beauty inventions and cosmetics, most notable being Maksymilian Faktorowicz and Helena Rubinstein. Faktorowicz created a line of cosmetics company in California known as Max Factor and coined the term "make-up" based on the verb phrase "to make up" one's face, now widely used as an alternative for describing cosmetics. Faktorowicz also raised to fame by inventing modern eyelash extensions and by providing services to Hollywood artists.As of 2020, Poland possesses the fifth-largest cosmetic market in Europe. Founded in 1983, Inglot Cosmetics is the country's largest beauty products manufacturer and retailer active in 700 locations worldwide, including retail salons in New York City, London, Milan, Dubai and Las Vegas. Established in 1999, the retail store Reserved is Poland's most successful clothing store chain, operating over 1,700 retail shops in 19 countries. Internationally successful models from Poland include Anja Rubik, Joanna Krupa, Jac Jagaciak, Kasia Struss, Małgosia Bela, and Magdalena Frąckowiak.The history of Polish cinema is as long as the history of cinematography itself. Over the decades, Poland has produced outstanding directors, film producers, cartoonists and actors that achieved world fame, especially in Hollywood. Moreover, Polish inventors played an important role in the development of world cinematography and modern-day television. Among the most famous directors and producers, who worked in Poland as well as abroad are Roman Polański, Andrzej Wajda, Samuel Goldwyn, the Warner brothers (Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack), Max Fleischer, Lee Strasberg, Agnieszka Holland and Krzysztof Kieślowski.In the 19th century, throughout partitioned Poland, numerous amateur inventors, such as Kazimierz Prószyński, were eager to construct a film projector. In 1894, Prószyński was successful in creating a Pleograph, one of the first cameras in the world. The invention, which took photographs and projected pictures, was built before the Lumière brothers lodged their patent. He also patented an Aeroscope, the first successful hand-held operated film camera. In 1897, Jan Szczepanik, obtained a British patent for his Telectroscope. This prototype of television could easily transmit image and sound, thus allowing a live remote view.Polish cinema developed rapidly in the interwar period. The most renowned star of the silent film era was Polish actress Pola Negri. During this time, the Yiddish cinema also evolved in Poland. Films in the Yiddish language with Jewish themes, such as "The Dybbuk" (1937), played an important part in pre-war Polish cinematography. In 1945 the government established 'Film Polski', a state-run film production and distribution organization, with director Aleksander Ford as the head of the company. Ford's "Knights of the Teutonic Order" (1960) was viewed by millions of people in the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and France. This success was followed by the historical films of Jerzy Hoffman and Andrzej Wajda. Wajda's 1975 film "The Promised Land" was nominated at the 48th Academy Awards.In 2015, "Ida" by Paweł Pawlikowski won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2019, Pawlikowski received an Academy Award for Best Director nomination for his historical drama "Cold War". Other well-known Polish Oscar-winning productions include "The Pianist" (2002) by Roman Polański.Poland has a number of major media outlets, chief among which are the national television channels. TVP is Poland's public broadcasting corporation; about a third of its income comes from a broadcast receiver licence, while the rest is made through revenue from commercials and sponsorships. State television operates two mainstream channels, TVP 1 and TVP 2, as well as regional programs for each of the country's 16 voivodeships (as TVP 3). In addition to these general channels, TVP runs a number of genre-specific programmes such as TVP Sport, TVP Historia, TVP Kultura, TVP Rozrywka, TVP Seriale and TVP Polonia, the latter is a state-run channel dedicated to the transmission of Polish language television for the Polish diaspora. Poland has several 24-hour news channels such as Polsat News, TVP Info and TVN 24. Poland also possesses a variety of free-to-air television channels, chiefly TVN, Polsat and TV4.In Poland, there are also daily newspapers like "Gazeta Wyborcza" ("Electoral Gazette"), "Rzeczpospolita" ("The Republic") and "Gazeta Polska Codziennie" ("Polish Daily Newspaper") which provide traditional opinion and news, and tabloids such as "Fakt" and "Super Express". Weeklies include "Tygodnik Angora", "", "Polityka", "Wprost", "Newsweek Polska", "Gość Niedzielny" and "Gazeta Polska".Poland has also emerged as a major hub for video game developers in Europe, with the country now being home to hundreds of studios. Among the most successful ones are CD Projekt, Techland, CI Games and People Can Fly. Some of the most popular video games developed in Poland include The Witcher trilogy. Katowice hosts Intel Extreme Masters, one of the biggest eSports events in the world.Volleyball and Association football are among the country's most popular sports, with a rich history of international competitions. Track and field, basketball, handball, boxing, MMA, motorcycle speedway, ski jumping, cross-country skiing, ice hockey, tennis, fencing, swimming and weightlifting are other popular sports.The golden era of football in Poland occurred throughout the 1970s and went on until the early 1980s when the Polish national football team achieved their best results in any FIFA World Cup competitions finishing 3rd place in the 1974 and the 1982 tournaments. The team won a gold medal in football at the 1972 Summer Olympics and two silver medals, in 1976 and in 1992. In 2012, Poland co-hosted the UEFA European Football Championship.As of May 2021, the Polish men's national volleyball team is ranked as 2nd in the world. Volleyball team won a gold medal in Olympic 1976 Montreal and three gold medals in FIVB World Championship 1974, 2014 and 2018.Mariusz Pudzianowski is a highly successful strongman competitor and has won more World's Strongest Man titles than any other competitor in the world, winning the event in 2008 for the fifth time.Poland has made a distinctive mark in motorcycle speedway racing thanks to Tomasz Gollob and Bartosz Zmarzlik, highly successful Polish riders. The top Ekstraliga division has one of the highest average attendances for any sport in Poland. The national speedway team of Poland is one of the major teams in international speedway.Poles made significant achievements in mountaineering, in particular, in the Himalayas and the winter ascending of the eight-thousanders. Polish mountains are one of the tourist attractions of the country. Hiking, climbing, skiing and mountain biking and attract numerous tourists every year from all over the world. Water sports are the most popular summer recreation activities, with ample locations for fishing, canoeing, kayaking, sailing and windsurfing especially in the northern regions of the country.
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[
"Ewa Kopacz",
"Leszek Miller",
"Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz",
"Mateusz Morawiecki",
"Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz",
"Tadeusz Mazowiecki",
"Jarosław Kaczyński",
"Jan Krzysztof Bielecki",
"Hanna Suchocka",
"Donald Tusk",
"Beata Szydło",
"Marek Belka",
"Jerzy Buzek",
"Waldemar Pawlak",
"Józef Oleksy"
] |
|
Who was the head of Poland in Jul, 1993?
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July 16, 1993
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{
"text": [
"Hanna Suchocka"
]
}
|
L2_Q36_P6_3
|
Ewa Kopacz is the head of the government of Poland from Sep, 2014 to Nov, 2015.
Waldemar Pawlak is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 1993 to Mar, 1995.
Hanna Suchocka is the head of the government of Poland from Jul, 1992 to Oct, 1993.
Beata Szydło is the head of the government of Poland from Nov, 2015 to Dec, 2017.
Tadeusz Mazowiecki is the head of the government of Poland from Aug, 1989 to Jan, 1991.
Leszek Miller is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 2001 to May, 2004.
Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 2005 to Jul, 2006.
Donald Tusk is the head of the government of Poland from Nov, 2007 to Sep, 2014.
Jarosław Kaczyński is the head of the government of Poland from Jul, 2006 to Nov, 2007.
Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz is the head of the government of Poland from Feb, 1996 to Oct, 1997.
Jan Krzysztof Bielecki is the head of the government of Poland from Jan, 1991 to Dec, 1991.
Józef Oleksy is the head of the government of Poland from Mar, 1995 to Feb, 1996.
Marek Belka is the head of the government of Poland from May, 2004 to Oct, 2005.
Jerzy Buzek is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 1997 to Oct, 2001.
Mateusz Morawiecki is the head of the government of Poland from Dec, 2017 to Dec, 2022.
Jan Olszewski is the head of the government of Poland from Dec, 1991 to Jun, 1992.
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PolandPoland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country located in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces, covering an area of , and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With a population of nearly 38.5 million people, Poland is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union. Poland's capital and largest metropolis is Warsaw. Other major cities include Kraków, Łódź, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk, and Szczecin.Poland's topographically diverse territory extends from the beaches along the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in its south. The country is bordered by Lithuania and Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukraine to the east, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the south, and Germany to the west.The history of human activity on Polish soil spans thousands of years. Throughout the late antiquity period it became extensively diverse, with various cultures and tribes settling on the vast Central European Plain. However, it was the Western Polans who dominated the region and gave Poland its name. The establishment of Polish statehood can be traced to 966, when the pagan ruler of a realm coextensive with the territory of present-day Poland embraced Christianity and converted to Catholicism. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented its longstanding political association with Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest (over in area) and most populous nations of 16th and 17th century Europe, with a uniquely liberal political system which adopted Europe's first modern constitution, the Constitution of 3 May 1791.With the passing of prominence and prosperity, the country was partitioned by neighbouring states at the end of the 18th century, and regained independence in 1918 with the Treaty of Versailles. After a series of territorial conflicts, the new multi-ethnic Poland restored its position as a key player in European politics. In September 1939, World War II began with the invasion of Poland by Germany, followed by the Soviets invading Poland in accordance with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Approximately six million Polish citizens, including three million of the country's Jews, perished during the course of the war. As a member of the Eastern Bloc, the Polish People's Republic proclaimed forthwith was a chief signatory of the Warsaw Treaty amidst global Cold War tensions. In the wake of the 1989 events, notably through the emergence and contributions of the Solidarity movement, the communist government was dissolved and Poland re-established itself as a semi-presidential democratic republic.Poland is a developed market, and a middle power. It has the sixth largest economy in the European Union by nominal GDP and the fifth largest by GDP (PPP). It provides very high standards of living, safety and economic freedom, as well as free university education and a universal health care system. The country has 16 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, 15 of which are cultural. Poland is a member state of the Schengen Area, European Union, European Economic Area, the United Nations, NATO, the OECD, the Three Seas Initiative and the Visegrád Group.The origin of the name "Poland" derives from the West Slavic tribe of Polans ("Polanie"), who inhabited the Warta river basin of the present-day Greater Poland region starting in the mid-6th century. The origin of the name "Polanie" itself derives from the Proto-Slavic word "pole" (field). In some languages, such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian, Russian and Turkish, the country's name is derived from the Lendians ("Lędzianie" or "Lachy") who dwelled on the southeasternmost edge of present-day Lesser Poland. Their name likewise derives from the Old Polish word "lęda" (open land or plain).The early Bronze Age in Poland began around 2400 BC, while the Iron Age commenced in approximately 750 BC. During this time, the Lusatian culture, spanning both the Bronze and Iron Ages, became particularly prominent. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement (now reconstructed as an open-air museum), dating from the Lusatian culture of the late Bronze Age, around 748 BC.Throughout Antiquity, many distinct ancient ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland in an era that dates from about 400 BC to 500 AD. These groups are identified as Celtic, Scythian, Germanic, Sarmatian, Slavic and Baltic tribes. Also, recent archaeological findings in the Kuyavia region confirmed the presence of the Roman Legions on the territory of Poland. These were most likely expeditionary missions sent out to protect the amber trade. The exact time and routes of the original migration and settlement of Slavic peoples lacks written records and can only be defined as fragmented. There is evidence that earlier tribes may have been associated with the ancient Przeworsk culture. Up until the creation of Mieszko's state and his subsequent conversion to Christianity in 966 AD, the main religion of the numerous West Slavic (Lechitic) tribes that inhabited the geographical area of present-day Poland was paganism. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Western Christianity and the religious authority of the Roman Church. However, the transition from paganism was not a smooth and instantaneous process for the rest of the population as evident from the pagan reaction of the 1030s.Poland began to form into a recognizable unitary and territorial entity around the middle of the 10th century under the Piast dynasty. Poland's first historically documented ruler, Mieszko I, accepted Christianity, as the rightful religion of his realm, under the auspices of the Latin Church with the Baptism of Poland in 966. The bulk of the population converted in the course of the next few centuries. In 1000, Boleslaw the Brave, continuing the policy of his father Mieszko, held a Congress of Gniezno and created the metropolis of Gniezno and the dioceses of Kraków, Kołobrzeg, and Wrocław. However, the pagan unrest led to the transfer of the capital to Kraków in 1038 by Casimir I the Restorer.In 1109, Prince Bolesław III Wrymouth defeated the King of Germany Henry V at the Battle of Hundsfeld, stopping the German incursion into Poland. The clash between Bolesław III and Henry V was documented by Gallus Anonymus in his 1118 chronicle. In 1138, Poland fragmented into several smaller duchies when Bolesław divided his lands among his sons. In 1226, Konrad I of Masovia, one of the regional Piast dukes, invited the Teutonic Knights to help him fight the Baltic Prussian pagans; a decision that led to centuries of warfare with the Knights. In 1264, the Statute of Kalisz or the General Charter of Jewish Liberties introduced numerous right for the Jews in Poland, leading to a nearly autonomous "nation within a nation".In the middle of the 13th century, the Silesian branch of the Piast dynasty (Henry I the Bearded and Henry II the Pious, ruled 1238–1241) nearly succeeded in uniting the Polish lands, but the Mongols invaded the country from the east and defeated the combined Polish forces at the Battle of Legnica where Duke Henry II the Pious died. In 1320, after a number of earlier unsuccessful attempts by regional rulers at uniting the Polish dukedoms, Władysław I consolidated his power, took the throne and became the first king of a reunified Poland. His son, Casimir III (reigned 1333–1370), has a reputation as one of the greatest Polish kings, and gained wide recognition for improving the country's infrastructure. He also extended royal protection to Jews, and encouraged their immigration to Poland. Casimir III realized that the nation needed a class of educated people, especially lawyers, who could codify the country's laws and administer the courts and offices. His efforts to create an institution of higher learning in Poland were finally rewarded when Pope Urban V granted him permission to open the University of Kraków.The Golden Liberty of the nobles began to develop under Casimir's rule, when in return for their military support, the king made a series of concessions to the nobility and establishing their legal status as superior to that of the townsfolk. When Casimir the Great died in 1370, leaving no legitimate male heir, the Piast dynasty came to an end.During the 13th and 14th centuries, Poland became a destination for German, Flemish and to a lesser extent Walloon, Danish and Scottish migrants. Also, Jews and Armenians began to settle and flourish in Poland during this era (see History of the Jews in Poland and Armenians in Poland).The Black Death, a plague that ravaged Europe from 1347 to 1351, did not significantly affect Poland, and the country was spared from a major outbreak of the disease. The reason for this was the decision of Casimir the Great to quarantine the nation's borders.The Jagiellon dynasty spanned the late Middle Ages and early Modern Era of Polish history. Beginning with the Lithuanian Grand Duke Jogaila (Władysław II Jagiełło), the Jagiellon dynasty (1386–1572) formed the Polish–Lithuanian union. The partnership brought vast Lithuanian-controlled Rus' areas into Poland's sphere of influence and proved beneficial for the Poles and Lithuanians, who coexisted and cooperated in one of the largest political entities in Europe for the next four centuries.In the Baltic Sea region the struggle of Poland and Lithuania with the Teutonic Knights continued and culminated at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, where a combined Polish-Lithuanian army inflicted a decisive victory against them. In 1466, after the Thirteen Years' War, King Casimir IV Jagiellon gave royal consent to the Peace of Thorn, which created the future Duchy of Prussia under Polish suzerainty. The Jagiellon dynasty at one point also established dynastic control over the kingdoms of Bohemia (1471 onwards) and Hungary. In the south, Poland confronted the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Tatars (by whom they were attacked on 75 separate occasions between 1474 and 1569), and in the east helped Lithuania fight the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Some historians estimate that Crimean Tatar slave-raiding cost Poland-Lithuania one million of its population between the years of 1494 and 1694.Poland was developing as a feudal state, with a predominantly agricultural economy and an increasingly powerful landed nobility. The "Nihil novi" act adopted by the Polish Sejm (parliament) in 1505, transferred most of the legislative power from the monarch to the Sejm, an event which marked the beginning of the period known as "Golden Liberty", when the state was ruled by the "free and equal" Polish nobility. Protestant Reformation movements made deep inroads into Polish Christianity, which resulted in the establishment of policies promoting religious tolerance, unique in Europe at that time. This tolerance allowed the country to avoid most of the religious turmoil that spread over Europe during the 16th century.The European Renaissance evoked in late Jagiellon Poland (under kings Sigismund I the Old and Sigismund II Augustus) a sense of urgency in the need to promote a cultural awakening, and during this period Polish culture and the nation's economy flourished. In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus, an astronomer from Toruń, published his epochal work "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" ("On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres") and thereby became the first proponent of a predictive mathematical model confirming the heliocentric theory, which became the accepted basic model for the practice of modern astronomy. Another major figure associated with the era is the classicist poet Jan Kochanowski.The 1569 Union of Lublin established the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a more closely unified federal state with an elective monarchy, but which was governed largely by the nobility, through a system of local assemblies with a central parliament. The Warsaw Confederation (1573) guaranteed religious freedom for the Polish nobility "(szlachta)" and townsfolk "(mieszczanie)". However, the peasants "(chłopi)" were still subject to severe limitations imposed on them by the nobility. The establishment of the Commonwealth coincided with a period of stability and prosperity in Poland, with the union thereafter becoming a European power and a major cultural entity, occupying approximately one million square kilometers of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as an agent for the dissemination of Western culture through Polonization into areas of modern-day Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Belarus and western Russia.In the 16th and 17th centuries, Poland suffered from a number of dynastic crises during the reigns of the Vasa kings Sigismund III and Władysław IV and found itself engaged in major conflicts with Russia, Sweden and the Ottoman Empire, as well as a series of minor Cossack uprisings. In 1610, a Polish army under the command of Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski seized Moscow after winning the Battle of Klushino. In 1611, the Tsar of Russia paid homage to the King of Poland.After the signing of Truce of Deulino, Poland had in the years 1618–1621 an area of about .From the middle of the 17th century, the nobles' democracy, suffering from internal disorder, gradually declined, thereby leaving the once powerful Commonwealth vulnerable to foreign intervention. Starting in 1648, the Cossack Khmelnytsky Uprising engulfed the south and east, eventually leaving Ukraine divided, with the eastern part, lost by the Commonwealth, becoming a dependency of the Tsardom of Russia. This was followed by the 'Deluge', a Swedish invasion of Poland, which marched through the Polish heartlands and ruined the country's population, culture and infrastructure—around four million of Poland's eleven million inhabitants died in famines and epidemics throughout the 17th century. However, under John III Sobieski the Commonwealth's military prowess was re-established, and in 1683 Polish forces played a major role in the Battle of Vienna against the Ottoman Army, commanded by Kara Mustafa, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.Sobieski's reign marked the end of the nation's golden era. Finding itself subjected to almost constant warfare and suffering enormous population losses as well as massive damage to its economy, the Commonwealth fell into decline. The government became ineffective as a result of large-scale internal conflicts (e.g. Lubomirski Rebellion against John II Casimir and rebellious confederations) and corrupted legislative processes. The nobility fell under the control of a handful of "magnats", and this, compounded with two relatively weak kings of the Saxon Wettin dynasty, Augustus II and Augustus III, as well as the rise of Russia and Prussia after the Great Northern War only served to worsen the Commonwealth's plight. Despite this The Commonwealth-Saxony personal union gave rise to the emergence of the Commonwealth's first reform movement, and laid the foundations for the Polish Enlightenment.During the later part of the 18th century, the Commonwealth made attempts to implement fundamental internal reforms; with the second half of the century bringing a much improved economy, significant population growth and far-reaching progress in the areas of education, intellectual life, art, and especially toward the end of the period, evolution of the social and political system. The most populous capital city of Warsaw replaced Gdańsk (Danzig) as the leading centre of commerce, and the role of the more prosperous urban population increased.The royal election of 1764 resulted in the elevation of Stanisław II August (a Polish aristocrat connected to the "Familia" faction of magnates) to the monarchy. However, elevated to the throne by the Empress Catherine II of Russia, the new king spent much of his reign maneuvering between his desire to implement necessary reforms to save his country, and the necessity to remain in a political relationship and at peace with Russia. This led to the formation of the 1768 Bar Confederation, a "szlachta" rebellion directed against the Polish king and all external influence, which ineptly aimed to preserve Poland's independence and szlachta's privileges. The failed attempts at reform as well as the internal turmoil caused by the Confederation proved the country's weakness and provoked its neighbours. In 1772 the First Partition of the Commonwealth by Prussia, Russia and Austria took place; an act which the "Partition Sejm", under considerable duress, eventually "ratified" "fait accompli". Disregarding this loss, in 1773 the king established the plan of the most necessary reforms, in which the Commission of National Education, the first government education authority in Europe, was established. Corporal punishment of children was officially prohibited in 1783.The Great Sejm convened by Stanisław II August in 1788 successfully adopted the 3 May Constitution, the first set of modern supreme national laws in Europe. However, this document, accused by detractors of harbouring revolutionary sympathies, generated strong opposition from the Commonwealth's nobles and conservatives as well as from Catherine II, who, determined to prevent the rebirth of a strong Commonwealth set about planning the final dismemberment of the Polish-Lithuanian state. Russia was aided in achieving its goal when the Targowica Confederation, an organisation of Polish nobles, appealed to the Empress for help. In May 1792, Russian forces crossed the Commonwealth's frontier, thus beginning the Polish-Russian War.The defensive war fought by the Poles ended prematurely when the King, convinced of the futility of resistance, capitulated and joined the Targowica Confederation, hoping to save the country. The Confederation then took over the government. Russia and Prussia, fearing the mere existence of a Polish state, understanding, that despite the current influence they still cannot control the country, arranged for, and in 1793 executed, the Second Partition of the Commonwealth, which left the country deprived of so much territory that it was practically incapable of independent existence. Eventually, in 1795, following the failed Kościuszko Uprising, the Commonwealth was partitioned one last time by all three of its more powerful neighbours, and with this, effectively ceased to exist. The 18-century British statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke summed up the partitions: "No wise or honest man can approve of that partition, or can contemplate it without prognosticating great mischief from it to all countries at some future time."Poles rebelled several times against the partitioners, particularly near the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. An unsuccessful attempt at defending Poland's sovereignty took place in 1794 during the Kościuszko Uprising, where a popular and distinguished general Tadeusz Kościuszko, who had several years earlier served under Washington in the American Revolutionary War, led Polish insurrectionists against numerically superior Russian forces. Despite the victory at the Battle of Racławice, his ultimate defeat ended Poland's independent existence for 123 years.In 1807, Napoleon I of France temporarily recreated a Polish state as the satellite Duchy of Warsaw, after a successful Greater Poland Uprising of 1806 against Prussian rule. But, after the failed Napoleonic Wars, Poland was again split between the victorious powers at the Congress of Vienna of 1815. The eastern part was ruled by the Russian tsar as Congress Poland, which had a liberal constitution. However, over time the Russian monarch reduced Polish freedoms, and Russia annexed the country in virtually all but name. Meanwhile, the Prussian controlled territory of Poland came under increased Germanization. Thus, in the 19th century, only Habsburg-ruled Austrian Poland, and particularly the Free City of Kraków, allowed free Polish culture to flourish.Throughout the period of the partitions, political and cultural repression of the Polish nation led to the organisation of a number of uprisings against the authorities of the occupying Russian, Prussian and Austrian governments. In 1830, the November Uprising began in Warsaw when, led by Lieutenant Piotr Wysocki, young non-commissioned officers at the Officer Cadet School in Warsaw revolted. They were joined by large segments of Polish society, and together forced Warsaw's Russian garrison to withdraw north of the city.Over the course of the next seven months, Polish forces successfully defeated the Russian armies of Field Marshal Hans Karl von Diebitsch and a number of other Russian commanders; however, finding themselves in a position unsupported by any other foreign powers, save distant France and the newborn United States, and with Prussia and Austria refusing to allow the import of military supplies through their territories, the Poles accepted that the uprising was doomed to failure. Upon the surrender of Warsaw to General Ivan Paskievich, many Polish troops, feeling they could not go on, withdrew into Prussia and there laid down their arms. After the defeat, the semi-independent Congress Poland lost its constitution, army and legislative assembly, and was integrated more closely with the Russian Empire.During the Spring of Nations (a series of revolutions which swept across Europe), Poles took up arms in the Greater Poland Uprising of 1848 to resist Prussian rule. Initially, the uprising manifested itself in the form of civil disobedience but eventually turned into an armed struggle when the Prussian military was sent in to pacify the region. Subsequently, the uprising was suppressed and the semi-autonomous Grand Duchy of Posen, created from the Prussian partition of Poland, was incorporated into Prussia.In 1863, a new Polish uprising against Russian rule began. The January Uprising started out as a spontaneous protest by young Poles against conscription into the Imperial Russian Army. However, the insurrectionists, despite being joined by high-ranking Polish-Lithuanian officers and numerous politicians, were still severely outnumbered and lacking in foreign support. They were forced to resort to guerrilla warfare tactics and failed to win any major military victories. Afterwards no major uprising was witnessed in the Russian-controlled Congress Poland, and Poles resorted instead to fostering economic and cultural self-improvement. Congress Poland was rapidly industrialised towards the end of the 19th century, and successively transformed into the Empire's wealthiest and most developed subject.Despite the political unrest experienced during the partitions, Poland did benefit from large-scale industrialisation and modernisation programs, instituted by the occupying powers, which helped it develop into a more economically coherent and viable entity. This was particularly true in Greater Poland, Silesia and Eastern Pomerania controlled by Prussia (later becoming a part of the German Empire); areas which eventually, thanks largely to the Greater Poland Uprising of 1918 and Silesian Uprisings, were reconstituted as a part of the Second Polish Republic, becoming the country's most prosperous regions.Following World War I all the Allies agreed on the reconstitution of Poland that United States President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed in Point 13 of his Fourteen Points. A total of 2 million Polish troops fought with the armies of the three occupying powers, and 450,000 died. Shortly after the armistice with Germany in November 1918, Poland regained its independence as the Second Polish Republic ("II Rzeczpospolita Polska"). It reaffirmed its independence after a series of military conflicts, the most notable being the Polish–Soviet War (1919–21) when Poland inflicted a crushing defeat on the Red Army at the Battle of Warsaw, an event which is considered to have halted the advance of Communism into Europe and forced Vladimir Lenin to rethink his objective of achieving global socialism. The event is often referred to as the "Miracle at the Vistula".During this period, Poland successfully managed to fuse the territories of the three former partitioning powers into a cohesive nation state. Railways were restructured to direct traffic towards Warsaw instead of the former imperial capitals, a new network of national roads was gradually built up and a major seaport, Gdynia, was opened on the Baltic Coast, so as to allow Polish exports and imports to bypass the politically charged Free City of Danzig. Also, the Polish government embarked on the creation of the Central Industrial Region ("Centralny Okręg Przemysłowy"). The project's goal was to create a heavy industrial center in the middle of the country, which included steal mills, power plants and factories. The inter-war period heralded in a new era of Polish politics. Whilst Polish political activists had faced heavy censorship in the decades up until the First World War, the country now found itself trying to establish a new political tradition. For this reason, many exiled Polish activists, such as Ignacy Paderewski (who would later become prime minister) returned home to help; a significant number of them then went on to take key positions in the newly formed political and governmental structures. Tragedy struck in 1922 when Gabriel Narutowicz, inaugural holder of the presidency, was assassinated at the Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw by a painter and right-wing nationalist Eligiusz Niewiadomski.In 1926, a May coup, led by the hero of the Polish independence campaign Marshal Józef Piłsudski, turned rule of the Second Polish Republic over to the nonpartisan Sanacja ("Healing") movement in an effort to prevent radical political organizations on both the left and the right from destabilizing the country. The movement functioned with relative stability until Piłsudski's death in 1935. Following Marshall Piłsudski's death, Sanation split into several competing factions. By the late 1930s, due to increased threats posed by political extremism inside the country, the Polish government became increasingly heavy-handed, banning a number of radical organizations, including communist and ultra-nationalist political parties, which threatened the stability of the country.World War II began with the Nazi German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, followed by the Soviet invasion of Poland on 17 September. On 28 September 1939, Warsaw fell. As agreed in the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Poland was split into two zones, one occupied by Nazi Germany, the other by the Soviet Union. In 1939–41, the Soviets deported hundreds of thousands of Poles. The Soviet NKVD executed thousands of Polish prisoners of war (inter alia Katyn massacre) ahead of the Operation Barbarossa. German planners had in November 1939 called for "the complete destruction of all Poles" and their fate as outlined in the genocidal "Generalplan Ost".Polish intelligence operatives proved extremely valuable to the Allies, providing much of the intelligence from Europe and beyond, and Polish code breakers were responsible for cracking the Enigma cypher.Poland made the fourth-largest troop contribution in Europe and its troops served both the Polish Government in Exile in the west and Soviet leadership in the east. Polish troops played an important role in the Normandy, Italian and North African Campaigns and are particularly remembered for the Battle of Monte Cassino. In the east, the Soviet-backed Polish 1st Army distinguished itself in the battles for Warsaw and Berlin.The wartime resistance movement, and the Armia Krajowa ("Home Army"), fought against German occupation. It was one of the three largest resistance movements of the entire war, and encompassed a range of clandestine activities, which functioned as an underground state complete with degree-awarding universities and a court system. The resistance was loyal to the exiled government and generally resented the idea of a communist Poland; for this reason, in the summer of 1944 it initiated Operation Tempest, of which the Warsaw Uprising that begun on 1 August 1944 is the best known operation.Nazi German forces under orders from Adolf Hitler set up six German extermination camps in occupied Poland, including Treblinka, Majdanek and Auschwitz. The Germans transported millions of Jews from across occupied Europe to be murdered in those camps.Altogether, 3 million Polish Jews – approximately 90% of Poland's pre-war Jewry – and between 1.8 and 2.8 million ethnic Poles were killed during the German occupation of Poland, including between 50,000 and 100,000 members of the Polish intelligentsia – academics, doctors, lawyers, nobility and priesthood. During the Warsaw Uprising alone, over 150,000 Polish civilians were killed, most were murdered by the Germans during the Wola and Ochota massacres. Around 150,000 Polish civilians were killed by Soviets between 1939 and 1941 during the Soviet Union's occupation of eastern Poland (Kresy), and another estimated 100,000 Poles were murdered by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) between 1943 and 1944 in what became known as the Wołyń Massacres. Of all the countries in the war, Poland lost the highest percentage of its citizens: around 6 million perished – more than one-sixth of Poland's pre-war population – half of them Polish Jews. About 90% of deaths were non-military in nature.In 1945, Poland's borders were shifted westwards. Over two million Polish inhabitants of Kresy were expelled along the Curzon Line by Stalin. The western border became the Oder-Neisse line. As a result, Poland's territory was reduced by 20%, or . The shift forced the migration of millions of other people, most of whom were Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, and Jews.At the insistence of Joseph Stalin, the Yalta Conference sanctioned the formation of a new provisional pro-Communist coalition government in Moscow, which ignored the Polish government-in-exile based in London. This action angered many Poles who considered it a betrayal by the Allies. In 1944, Stalin had made guarantees to Churchill and Roosevelt that he would maintain Poland's sovereignty and allow democratic elections to take place. However, upon achieving victory in 1945, the elections organized by the occupying Soviet authorities were falsified and were used to provide a veneer of legitimacy for Soviet hegemony over Polish affairs. The Soviet Union instituted a new communist government in Poland, analogous to much of the rest of the Eastern Bloc. As elsewhere in Communist Europe, the Soviet influence over Poland was met with armed resistance from the outset which continued into the 1950s.Despite widespread objections, the new Polish government accepted the Soviet annexation of the pre-war eastern regions of Poland (in particular the cities of Wilno and Lwów) and agreed to the permanent garrisoning of Red Army units on Poland's territory. Military alignment within the Warsaw Pact throughout the Cold War came about as a direct result of this change in Poland's political culture. In the European scene, it came to characterize the full-fledged integration of Poland into the brotherhood of communist nations.The new communist government took control with the adoption of the Small Constitution on 19 February 1947. The Polish People's Republic ("Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa") was officially proclaimed in 1952. In 1956, after the death of Bolesław Bierut, the régime of Władysław Gomułka became temporarily more liberal, freeing many people from prison and expanding some personal freedoms. Collectivization in the Polish People's Republic failed. A similar situation repeated itself in the 1970s under Edward Gierek, but most of the time persecution of anti-communist opposition groups persisted. Despite this, Poland was at the time considered to be one of the least oppressive states of the Eastern Bloc.Labour turmoil in 1980 led to the formation of the independent trade union "Solidarity" (""Solidarność""), which over time became a political force. Despite persecution and imposition of martial law in 1981, it eroded the dominance of the Polish United Workers' Party and by 1989 had triumphed in Poland's first partially free and democratic parliamentary elections since the end of the Second World War. Lech Wałęsa, a Solidarity candidate, eventually won the presidency in 1990. The Solidarity movement heralded the collapse of communist regimes and parties across Europe.A shock therapy programme, initiated by Leszek Balcerowicz in the early 1990s, enabled the country to transform its socialist-style planned economy into a market economy. As with other post-communist countries, Poland suffered declines in social and economic standards, but it became the first post-communist country to reach its pre-1989 GDP levels, which it achieved by 1995 thanks largely to its booming economy.Most visibly, there were numerous improvements in human rights, such as freedom of speech, internet freedom (no censorship), civil liberties (1st class) and political rights (1st class), as ranked by Freedom House non-governmental organization. In 1991, Poland became a member of the Visegrád Group and joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance in 1999 along with the Czech Republic and Hungary. Poles then voted to join the European Union in a referendum in June 2003, with Poland becoming a full member on 1 May 2004.Poland joined the Schengen Area in 2007, as a result of which, the country's borders with other member states of the European Union have been dismantled, allowing for full freedom of movement within most of the EU. In contrast to this, a section of Poland's eastern border now constitutes the external EU border with Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. That border has become increasingly well protected, and has led in part to the coining of the phrase 'Fortress Europe', in reference to the seeming 'impossibility' of gaining entry to the EU for citizens of the former Soviet Union.In an effort to strengthen military cooperation with its neighbors, Poland set up the Visegrád Battlegroup with Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia, with a total of 3,000 troops ready for deployment. Also, in eastern Poland, it formed the LITPOLUKRBRIG battle groups with Lithuania and Ukraine. These battle groups will operate outside of NATO and within the European defense initiative framework.On 10 April 2010, the President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, along with 89 other high-ranking Polish officials died in a plane crash near Smolensk, Russia. The president's party was on their way to attend an annual service of commemoration for the victims of the Katyń massacre when the tragedy took place.In 2011, the ruling Civic Platform won parliamentary elections. Poland joined the European Space Agency in 2012, as well as organised the UEFA Euro 2012 (along with Ukraine). In 2013, Poland also became a member of the Development Assistance Committee. In 2014, the Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, was chosen to be President of the European Council, and resigned as prime minister.The 2015 and 2019 elections were won by the conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS), resulting in increased friction between Poland and the EU. In December 2017, Mateusz Morawiecki was sworn in as the new Prime Minister, succeeding Beata Szydlo, in office since 2015. They both represented ruling Law and Justice party, led by party chairman Jarosław Kaczyński. President Andrzej Duda, supported by Law and Justice party, was narrowly re-elected in the 2020 presidential election.Poland's vast territory covers approximately , of which 98.52% is dry land and 1.48% is water. Extending across several geographical regions, the country is the 9th-largest by area in Europe and 69th largest in the world. Topographically, Poland is diverse and has access to the sea, the mountains and open terrain. Although most of the central parts of the country are flat, there is an abundance of lakes, rivers, hills, swamps, beaches, islands and forests elsewhere.In the north-west is the Baltic seacoast spanning from the Bay of Pomerania to the Gulf of Gdańsk. The coast is marked by several spits, coastal lakes (former bays that have been cut off from the sea), and dunes. The largely straight coastline is indented by the Szczecin Lagoon, the Bay of Puck, and the Vistula Lagoon.The central and northern parts of the country lie within the North European Plain. Rising above these lowlands is a geographical region comprising four hilly districts of moraines and moraine-dammed lakes formed during and after the Pleistocene ice age, notably the Pomeranian Lake District, the Greater Polish Lake District, the Kashubian Lake District, and the Masurian Lake District. The Masurian Lake District is the largest of the four and covers much of north-eastern Poland. The lake districts form a series of moraine belts along the southern shore of the Baltic Sea.South of the Northern European Plain are the regions of Lusatia, Silesia and Masovia, which are marked by broad ice-age river valleys. The extreme south of Poland is mountainous; it runs from the Sudetes in the west to the Carpathian Mountains in the east. The highest part of the Carpathian massif is the Tatra Mountain range, along Poland's southern border.The geological structure of Poland has been shaped by the continental collision of Europe and Africa over the past 60 million years and, more recently, by the Quaternary glaciations of northern Europe. Both processes shaped the Sudetes and the Carpathian Mountains. The moraine landscape of northern Poland contains soils made up mostly of sand or loam, while the ice age river valleys of the south often contain loess. The Polish Jura, the Pieniny, and the Western Tatras consist of limestone, whereas the High Tatras, the Beskids, and the Karkonosze mountain ranges are made up mainly of granite and basalts. The Polish Jura Chain has some of the oldest rock formations on the continent of Europe.Poland has over 70 mountains over in elevation, all situated in the Tatras. Poland's highest point is the north-western summit of Mount Rysy at in elevation. At its foot lie the mountain lakes of Czarny Staw (Black Lake) and Morskie Oko (Eye of the Sea), both naturally-made tarns. Other notable uplands include the Pieniny and Holy Cross Mountains, the Table Mountains noted for their unusual rock formations, the Bieszczady in the far southeast of the country in which the highest peak is Tarnica at , and the Gorce Mountains whose highest point is Turbacz at . The highest point of the Sudeten massif is Mount Śnieżka (), shared with the Czech Republic.The lowest point in Poland – at below sea level – is at Raczki Elbląskie, near Elbląg in the Vistula Delta.In the Zagłębie Dąbrowskie (the Coal Fields of Dąbrowa) region in the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland is an area of sparsely vegetated sand known as the Błędów Desert. It covers an area of . It is not a natural desert and was formed by human activity from the Middle Ages onwards.The Baltic Sea activity in Słowiński National Park created sand dunes which in the course of time separated the bay from the sea creating two lakes. As waves and wind carry sand inland the dunes slowly move, at a rate of per year. Some dunes reach the height of up to . The highest peak of the park is Rowokol at above sea level.The longest rivers are the Vistula (), long; the Oder () which forms part of Poland's western border, long; its tributary, the Warta, long; and the Bug, a tributary of the Vistula, long. The Vistula and the Oder flow into the Baltic Sea, as do numerous smaller rivers in Pomerania. Poland's lengthy waterways have been used since early times for navigation; the Vikings ventured up the Polish rivers in their longships. In the Middle Ages and in early modern times, the shipment of tangible goods down the Vistula toward Gdańsk and onward to other parts of Europe took on great importance.With almost ten thousand closed bodies of water covering more than each, Poland has one of the highest numbers of lakes in the world. In Europe, only Finland has a greater density of lakes. The largest lakes, covering more than , are Lake Śniardwy and Lake Mamry in Masuria as well as Lake Łebsko and Lake Drawsko in Pomerania. The lake with the greatest depth—of more than —is Lake Hańcza in the Wigry Lake District, east of Masuria in Podlaskie Voivodeship.The Polish Baltic coast is approximately long and extends from Świnoujście on the islands of Usedom and Wolin in the west to Krynica Morska on the Vistula Spit in the east. For the most part, Poland has a smooth coastline, which has been shaped by the continual movement of sand by currents and winds. This continual erosion and deposition has formed cliffs, dunes, and spits, many of which have migrated landwards to close off former lagoons, such as Łebsko Lake in the Słowiński National Park.The largest spits are Hel Peninsula and the Vistula Spit. The coast line is varied also by Szczecin and Vistula Lagoons and several lakes, including Jamno. The largest Polish Baltic island is Wolin, located within Wolin National Park. The largest sea harbours are Szczecin, Świnoujście, Gdańsk, Gdynia, Police and Kołobrzeg and the main coastal resorts – Świnoujście, Międzydzdroje, Kołobrzeg, Łeba, Sopot, Władysławowo and the Hel Peninsula.In the valley of Pilica river in Tomaszów Mazowiecki there is a unique natural karst spring of water containing calcium salts, that is an object of protection at Blue Springs Nature Reserve in the Sulejów Landscape Park. The red waves are absorbed by water, hence only blue and green are reflected from the bottom of the spring, giving the water atypical colour.Forests cover about 29.6% of Poland's land area based on international standards. Its overall percentage is still increasing. Forests of Poland are managed by the national program of reforestation (KPZL), aiming at an increase of forest-cover to 33% in 2050. The largest forest complex in Poland is Lower Silesian Wilderness.More than 1% of Poland's territory, , is protected within 23 Polish national parks. Three more national parks are projected for Masuria, the Polish Jura, and the eastern Beskids. In addition, wetlands along lakes and rivers in central Poland are legally protected, as are coastal areas in the north. There are 123 areas designated as landscape parks, along with numerous nature reserves and other protected areas under the Natura 2000 network.In 2017, approximately of land was occupied by farms and farmsteads, over half of Poland's total area.Phytogeographically, Poland belongs to the Central European province of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the territory of Poland belongs to three Palearctic Ecoregions of the continental forest spanning Central and Northern European temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregions, as well as the Carpathian montane conifer forest. The most common deciduous trees found across the country are oak, maple, and beech; the most common conifers are pine, spruce, and fir. An estimated 68.7% of all forests are coniferous.Poland has historically been home to rare species of animals, as well as the two largest European mammals: the wisent ("żubr") and aurochs ("tur"). The last aurochs of Europe became extinct in 1627 in the Polish Jaktorów Forest, while the wisent survived until the 20th century only at Białowieża. It has been since reintroduced to other countries. Other wild species include the brown bear in Białowieża, in the Tatras, and in the Beskids; the gray wolf and the Eurasian lynx in various forests; the moose in northern Poland; and the beaver in Masuria, Pomerania, and Podlaskie.Game animals such as red deer, roe deer, and wild boar are found in most woodlands. Eastern Poland abounds in ancient woods, like the Białowieża Forest, that have not been disturbed by human or industrial activity. There are also large forested areas in the mountains, Greater Poland, Pomerania, Lubusz Land, and Lower Silesia. The Lubusz Voivodeship is currently the most arboraceous province in the country; 52% of its territory is occupied by forests.Poland is also a significant breeding ground for a variety of European migratory birds. One quarter of the global population of white storks (40,000 breeding pairs) live in Poland, particularly in the lake districts and the wetlands along the Biebrza, the Narew, and the Warta, which are part of nature reserves or national parks.The climate is mostly temperate throughout the country. The climate is oceanic in the north-west and becomes gradually warmer and continental towards the south-east. Summers are generally warm, with average temperatures between depending on the region. Winters are rather cold, with average temperatures around in the northwest and in the northeast. Precipitation falls throughout the year, although, especially in the east, winter is drier than summer.The warmest region in Poland is Lower Silesia in the southwest of the country, where temperatures in the summer average between but can go as high as on some days in the warmest months of July and August. The warmest cities in Poland are Tarnów in Lesser Poland, and Wrocław in Lower Silesia. The average temperatures in Wrocław are in the summer and in the winter, but Tarnów has the longest summer in all of Poland, which lasts for 115 days, from mid-May to mid-September. The coldest region of Poland is in the northeast, around the area of Suwałki within the Podlaskie Voivodeship, where the climate is affected by cold fronts coming from Scandinavia and Siberia. The average temperature in the winter in Podlaskie ranges from . The biggest impact of the oceanic climate is observed in Świnoujście and Baltic Sea seashore area from Police to Słupsk.Poland is a representative democracy, with a president as the head of state. The government structure centers on the Council of Ministers, led by a prime minister. The president appoints the cabinet according to the proposals of the prime minister, typically from the majority coalition in the Sejm. The president is elected by popular vote every five years. The current president is Andrzej Duda and the prime minister is Mateusz Morawiecki.Polish voters elect a bicameral parliament consisting of a 460-member lower house (Sejm) and a 100-member Senate (Senat). The Sejm is elected under proportional representation according to the d'Hondt method, a method similar to that used in many parliamentary political systems. The Senat, on the other hand, is elected under the first-past-the-post voting method, with one senator being returned from each of the 100 constituencies.With the exception of ethnic minority parties, only candidates of political parties receiving at least 5% of the total national vote can enter the Sejm. When sitting in joint session, members of the Sejm and Senat form the National Assembly (the "Zgromadzenie Narodowe"). The National Assembly is formed on three occasions: when a new president takes the oath of office; when an indictment against the President of the Republic is brought to the State Tribunal ("Trybunał Stanu"); and when a president's permanent incapacity to exercise his duties due to the state of his health is declared. To date only the first instance has occurred.The judicial branch plays an important role in decision-making. Its major institutions include the Supreme Court ("Sąd Najwyższy"); the Supreme Administrative Court ("Naczelny Sąd Administracyjny"); the Constitutional Tribunal ("Trybunał Konstytucyjny"); and the State Tribunal ("Trybunał Stanu"). On the approval of the Senat, the Sejm also appoints the ombudsman or the Commissioner for Civil Rights Protection ("Rzecznik Praw Obywatelskich") for a five-year term. The ombudsman has the duty of guarding the observance and implementation of the rights and liberties of Polish citizens and residents, of the law and of principles of community life and social justice.The Constitution of Poland is the enacted supreme law, and the Polish legal system is based on the principle of civil rights, governed by the code of civil law. The current democratic constitution was adopted by the National Assembly of Poland on 2 April 1997; it guarantees a multi-party state with freedoms of religion, speech and assembly, prohibits the practices of forced medical experimentation, torture or corporal punishment, and acknowledges the inviolability of the home, the right to form trade unions, and the right to strike.The judiciary incorporates a four-tier court system composed of the Supreme Court, the Supreme Administrative Court, Common Courts (District, Regional, Appellate) and the Military Court. Judges are nominated by the National Council of the Judiciary and are appointed for life by the president. The Constitutional and State Tribunals are separate judicial bodies, which rule the constitutional liability of people holding the highest offices of state and supervise the compliance of statutory law, thus protecting the Constitution.Historically, the most significant Polish legal act is the Constitution of 3 May 1791, the first modern constitution in Europe. Instituted as a Government Act, it was designed to redress long-standing political defects of the federative Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and its Golden Liberty. Previously, only the Henrician Articles (1573) signed by each of Poland's elected monarchs could perform the function of a set of basic laws. The new Constitution introduced political equality between townspeople and the nobility ("szlachta"), and placed the peasants under the protection of the government. It abolished pernicious parliamentary policies such as the "liberum veto", which permitted any deputy to rescind all the legislation passed in the interest of a foreign power. The 3 May Constitution sought to supplant the existing anarchy fostered by some of the country's reactionary magnates, with a more egalitarian and democratic constitutional monarchy. The influenced many later democratic movements across the globe. Tax-paying women were allowed to take part in Polish political life until the third partition in 1795. In 1918 the Second Polish Republic became one of the first countries to introduce universal women's suffrage.Poland has a low homicide rate at 0.7 murders per 100,000 people, as of 2018. Rape, assault and violent crime remain at a very low level, although not all cases are recorded by the authorities.Abortion is permitted only in cases of rape, incest or when the woman's life is in danger. Congenital disorder and stillbirth are not covered by the law, forcing some women to seek abortion abroad, and others to seek the assistance of psychiatrists willing to testify on the negative psychological impact of stillbirth. Poland does not criminalize homosexuality, and its legality was confirmed in 1932. The Polish Constitution defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.Poland is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union and has a grand total of 52 representatives in the European Parliament as of 2020. Since joining the union in 2004, successive Polish governments have pursued policies to extend the country's role in European and international affairs. Poland is an emerging regional power in Central Europe. The capital of Warsaw serves as the headquarters for Frontex, the European Union's agency for external border security as well as ODIHR, one of the principal institutions of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.Apart from the European Union, Poland has been a member of NATO since 1999, the UN, the World Trade Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since 1996, European Economic Area, International Energy Agency, Council of Europe, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, International Atomic Energy Agency, European Space Agency, G6, Council of the Baltic Sea States, Visegrád Group, Weimar Triangle, Schengen Agreement, Lublin Triangle and Bucharest Nine.Over the past two decades, Poland significantly strengthened its ties with the United States, thus becoming one of its closest allies in Europe. Poland was part of the US-led coalition force during the Iraq War in 2003, and sent its troops in the first phase of the conflict, jointly with the United Kingdom and Australia. Along with NATO, Poland maintains military presence in the Middle East, the Baltic states and in the Balkans.The Polish Armed Forces are composed of five branches – Land Forces ("Wojska Lądowe"), Navy ("Marynarka Wojenna"), Air Force ("Siły Powietrzne"), Special Forces ("Wojska Specjalne") and the Territorial Defence Force ("Wojska Obrony Terytorialnej"). The military is subordinate to the Ministry of National Defence of the Republic of Poland. However, its commander-in-chief in peacetime is the President of the Republic, who nominates officers, the Minister for National Defence and the chief of staff.As of 2018, the Polish Armed Forces have a combined strength of 144,142 soldiers. The Polish Navy primarily operates on the Baltic Sea and conducts operations such as maritime patrol, search and rescue for the section of the Baltic under Polish sovereignty, as well as hydrographic measurements and research. The Polish Air Force routinely takes part in Baltic Air Policing assignments. In 2003, the F-16C Block 52 was selected as the new general multi-role fighter for the air force. In January 2020, Poland has approved the delivery for F-35 Lightning II combat aircraft. Poland is currently spending 2% of its GDP on defence (approximately US$13.5 billion in 2020), which is expected to grow to 2.5% by 2030. According to SIPRI, the country exported EUR€487 million worth of arms and armaments to other countries, primarily to the United States, Chile, France and South Africa.The mission of the armed forces is the defence of Poland's territorial integrity and Polish interests abroad. The country's national security goal is to further integrate with NATO and European defence, economic, and political institutions. Compulsory military service for men was discontinued in 2008. From 2007, until conscription ended in 2008, the mandatory service was nine months. Polish military doctrine reflects the same defensive nature as that of its NATO partners and the country actively hosts NATO's military exercises. From 1953 to 2009 Poland was a large contributor to various United Nations peacekeeping missions. The Polish Armed Forces took part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, deploying 2,500 soldiers in the south of that country and commanding the 17-nation multinational force in Iraq. Poland also maintains troops in the Middle East, the Baltic states and in the Balkans; 1,650 soldiers were deployed in 2019.Law enforcement in Poland is performed by several agencies which are subordinate to the Ministry of Interior and Administration – the State Police ("Policja"), assigned to investigate crimes or transgression; the Municipal City Guard, which maintains public order; and several specialized agencies, such as the Polish Border Guard. Private security firms are also common, although they possess no legal authority to arrest or detain a suspect. Municipal guards are primarily headed by provincial, regional or city councils; individual guards are not permitted to carry firearms unless instructed by their superior commanding officer or commandant.The Internal Security Agency (ABW, or ISA in English) is the chief counter-intelligence instrument safeguarding Poland's internal security, along with Agencja Wywiadu (AW) which identifies threats and collects secret information abroad. The Central Investigation Bureau of Police (CBŚP) and the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) are responsible for countering organized crime and corruption in state and private institutions.Emergency services in Poland consist of the emergency medical services, search and rescue units of the Polish Armed Forces and State Fire Service. Emergency medical services in Poland are provided for by local and regional governments.All emergency services personnel are uniformed and security services can be easily recognized during regular patrols in both large urban areas or smaller suburban localities.Poland's current voivodeships (provinces) are largely based on the country's historic regions, whereas those of the past two decades (to 1998) had been centred on and named for individual cities. The new units range in area from less than for Opole Voivodeship to more than for Masovian Voivodeship. Administrative authority at the voivodeship level is shared between a government-appointed voivode (governor), an elected regional assembly ("sejmik") and a voivodeship marshal, an executive elected by that assembly.The voivodeships are subdivided into "powiats" (often referred to in English as counties), and these are further divided into "gminas" (also known as communes or municipalities). Major cities normally have the status of both "gmina" and "powiat". Poland has 16 voivodeships, 380 powiats (including 66 cities with "powiat" status), and 2,478 "gminas".Poland's economy and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is currently the sixth largest in the European Union by nominal standards, and the fifth largest by purchasing power parity. It is also one of the fastest growing within the Union. Around 60% of the employed population belongs to the tertiary service sector, 30% to industry and manufacturing, and the remaining 10% to the agricultural sector. Although Poland is a member of EU's single market, the country has not adopted the Euro as legal tender and maintains its own currency – the Polish złoty (zł, PLN).Poland is the regional economic leader in Central Europe, with nearly 40 per cent of the 500 biggest companies in the region (by revenues) as well as a high globalisation rate. The country's largest firms compose the WIG20 and WIG30 indexes, which is traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. According to reports made by the National Bank of Poland, the value of Polish foreign direct investments reached almost 300 billion PLN at the end of 2014. The Central Statistical Office estimated that in 2014 there were 1,437 Polish corporations with interests in 3,194 foreign entities.Having a strong domestic market, low private debt, low unemployment rate, flexible currency, and not being dependent on a single export sector, Poland is the only European economy to have avoided the recession of 2008. The country is the 20th largest exporter of goods and services in the world and its most successful exports include machinery, furniture, food products, clothing, shoes, cosmetics and videogames. These account to approximately 56% of the total GDP, as of 2018. Poland's largest trading partners include Germany, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, France and Italy. Warsaw leads Central Europe in foreign investment. In September 2018, the unemployment rate was estimated at 5.7%, one of the lowest in the European Union. In 2019, Poland passed a law that would exempt workers under the age of 26 from income tax.The Polish banking sector is the largest in the region, with 32.3 branches per 100,000 adults.World Bank, Financial Inclusion Data. Country Dashboard: Poland. The World Bank Group. Retrieved 6 November 2014. The banks are the largest and most developed sector of the country's financial markets. They are regulated by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority. Poland's banking sector has approximately 5 national banks, a network of nearly 600 cooperative banks and 18 branches of foreign-owned banks. In addition, foreign investors have controlling stakes in nearly 40 commercial banks, which make up 68% of the banking capital.Products and goods manufactured in Poland include: electronics, buses and trams (Solaris, Solbus), helicopters and planes (PZL Świdnik, PZL Mielec), trains (Pesa, Newag), ships (Gdańsk Shipyard, Szczecin Shipyard), military equipment (FB "Łucznik" Radom, , Jelcz), medicines (, ), food (Tymbark, Hortex, E. Wedel), clothes (LLP), glass, pottery (Bolesławiec), chemical products and others. Well-known brands and companies include Alior Bank, Orlen&Lotos Group, Inglot Cosmetics, Plus, Play, Brainly, Netguru, GOG.com, CD Projekt, Trefl and Allegro. Poland is also one of the world's biggest producers of copper, silver, coal, furniture, automotive parts and soft drink.Poland experienced a significant increase in the number of tourists after joining the European Union in 2004. With nearly 21 million international arrivals in 2019, tourism contributes considerably to the overall economy and makes up a relatively large proportion of the country's service market.Tourist attractions in Poland vary, from the mountains in the south to the sandy beaches in the north, with a trail of nearly every architectural style. The most visited city is Kraków, which was the former capital of Poland and serves as a relic of the Polish Golden Age and the Renaissance. Kraków also held royal coronations of most Polish kings and monarchs at Wawel, the nation's chief historical landmark. Among other notable sites in the country is Wrocław, one of the oldest cities in Poland which was a model for the founding of Kraków. Wrocław is famous for its dwarfs, a large market square with two town halls, and the oldest Zoological Gardens with one of the world's largest number of animal species. The Polish capital Warsaw and its historical Old Town were entirely reconstructed after wartime destruction. Other cities attracting countless tourists include Gdańsk, Poznań, Lublin, Toruń as well as the site of the German Auschwitz concentration camp in Oświęcim. A notable highlight is the 13th-century Wieliczka Salt Mine with its labyrinthine tunnels, a subterranean lake and chapels carved by miners out of rock salt beneath the ground.Poland's main tourist offerings include outdoor activities such as skiing, sailing, mountain hiking and climbing, as well as agritourism, sightseeing historical monuments. Tourist destinations include the Baltic Sea coast in the north; the Masurian Lake District and Białowieża Forest in the east; on the south Karkonosze, the Table Mountains and the Tatra Mountains, where Rysy – the highest peak of Poland, and Eagle's Path mountain trail are located. The Pieniny and Bieszczady Mountains lie in the extreme south-east. There are over 100 castles in the country, most in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship (inter alia ), and also on the Trail of the Eagles' Nests. The largest castle in the world by land area is situated in Malbork, in north-central Poland.The electricity generation sector in Poland is largely fossil-fuel–based. Many power plants nationwide use Poland's position as a major European exporter of coal to their advantage by continuing to use coal as the primary raw material in the production of their energy. In 2013, Poland scored 48 out of 129 states in the Energy Sustainability Index. The three largest Polish coal mining firms (Węglokoks, Kompania Węglowa and JSW) extract around 100 million tonnes of coal annually.Renewable forms of energy account for a smaller proportion of Poland's full energy generation capacity. However, the national government has set targets for the development of renewable energy sources in Poland (the share of energy from renewable sources in the gross final energy consumption in 2019 was – 12,18%). Increasing the share of energy from renewable sources and a significant reduction in CO2 emissions to be achieved with the help of biofuels, photovoltaics, construction of wind farms on the land and the Baltic Sea, hydroelectric stations and nuclear power plant.Poland has around 164,800,000,000 m of proven natural gas reserves and around 96,380,000 barrels of proven oil reserves. These reserves are exploited by energy supply companies such as PKN Orlen ("the only Polish company listed in the Fortune Global 500"), PGNiG. However, the small amounts of fossil fuels naturally occurring in Poland are insufficient to satisfy the full energy consumption needs of the population and industry. Consequently, the country is a net importer of oil and natural gas. Therefore, since the second decade of the 21st century, Poland has been strongly developing the so-called North Gate in which the most important components are the Baltic Pipe, the Świnoujście LNG terminal and Floating Storage and Regasification Unit in Port of Gdańsk.The 5 largest companies supplying Poland electricity are PGE, Tauron, Enea, and Innogy Poland.Transport in Poland is provided by means of rail, road, marine shipping and air travel. The country is part of EU's Schengen Area and is an important transport hub along neighbouring Germany due to its strategic position in Central Europe. Some of the longest European routes, including the E40, run through Poland.The country has a good network of highways, composed of express roads and motorways. At the start of 2020, Poland had of highways in use. In addition, all local and regional roads are monitored by the National Road Rebuilding Programme, which aims to improve the quality of travel in the countryside and suburban localities.In 2017, the nation had of railway track, the third longest in Europe after Germany and France. The Polish State Railways (PKP) is the dominant railway operator in the country. In December 2014, Poland began to implement high–speed rail routes connecting major Polish cities, and started passenger service using the New Pendolino train, operating at 200 km/h on the Central Rail Line (CMK). Polish regulations allow trains without ETCS to travel at speeds up to 160 km/h, trains with ETCS1 up to 200 km/h, and trains with ETCS2 at over 200 km/h. Most inter-regional connections rail routes in Poland are operated by PKP Intercity, whilst regional trains are run by a number of private operators, the largest of which is Polregio. The largest passenger train station in terms of the number of travelers is Wrocław Główny.The air and maritime transport markets in Poland are largely well developed. Poland has a number of international airports, the largest of which is Warsaw Chopin Airport, the primary global hub for LOT Polish Airlines. It was established in 1928 from a merger of Aerolloyd (1922) and Aero (1925). Other major airports with international connections include John Paul II International Airport Kraków–Balice, Copernicus Airport Wrocław, Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport. Poland has begun preparations for a construction that can handle 100 million passengers of the Central Communication Port.Seaports exist all along Poland's Baltic coast, with most freight operations using Świnoujście, Police, Szczecin, Kołobrzeg, Gdynia, Gdańsk and Elbląg as their base.Passenger ferries link Poland with Scandinavia all year round; these services are provided from Gdańsk and Świnoujście by Polferries, Stena Line from Gdynia and Unity Line from the Świnoujście. The Port of Gdańsk is the only port in the Baltic Sea adapted to receive oceanic vessels.Over the course of history, the Polish people have made considerable contributions in the fields of science, technology and mathematics. Perhaps the most renowned Pole to support this theory was Nicolaus Copernicus ("Mikołaj Kopernik"), who triggered the Copernican Revolution by placing the Sun rather than the Earth at the center of the universe. He also derived a quantity theory of money, which made him a pioneer of economics. Copernicus' achievements and discoveries are considered the basis of Polish culture and cultural identity.Poland's tertiary education institutions; traditional universities, as well as technical, medical, and economic institutions, employ around tens of thousands of researchers and staff members. There are hundreds of research and development institutes. However, in the 19th and 20th centuries many Polish scientists worked abroad; one of the most important of these exiles was Maria Skłodowska-Curie, a physicist and chemist who lived much of her life in France. In 1925 she established Poland's Radium Institute.In the first half of the 20th century, Poland was a flourishing centre of mathematics. Outstanding Polish mathematicians formed the Lwów School of Mathematics (with Stefan Banach, Stanisław Mazur, Hugo Steinhaus, Stanisław Ulam) and Warsaw School of Mathematics (with Alfred Tarski, Kazimierz Kuratowski, Wacław Sierpiński and Antoni Zygmund). Numerous mathematicians, scientists, chemists or economists emigrated due to historic vicissitudes, among them Benoit Mandelbrot, Leonid Hurwicz, Alfred Tarski, Joseph Rotblat and Nobel Prize laureates Roald Hoffmann, Georges Charpak and Tadeusz Reichstein. In the 1930s, mathematician and cryptologist Marian Rejewski invented the Cryptographic Bomb which formed the basis of the effort that allowed the Allies to crack the Enigma code.Over 40 research and development centers and 4,500 researchers make Poland the biggest research and development hub in Central and Eastern Europe. Multinational companies such as: ABB, Delphi, GlaxoSmithKline, Google, Hewlett–Packard, IBM, Intel, LG Electronics, Microsoft, Motorola, Siemens and Samsung all have set up research and development centres in Poland. Companies chose Poland because of the availability of highly qualified labour force, presence of universities, support of authorities, and the largest market in East-Central Europe. According to a KPMG report from 2011, 80% of Poland's current investors are content with their choice and willing to reinvest. Poland has a very well-developed e-administration, thanks to which many official matters can be easily and quickly settled via the Internet. In the UN ranking, Poland is in the top twenty countries with the best-rated e-administration in the world.Poland, with approximately 38.5 million inhabitants, has the ninth-largest population in Europe and the fifth-largest in the European Union. It has a population density of 122 inhabitants per square kilometre (328 per square mile). The total fertility rate in 2020 was estimated at 1.44 children born to a woman, a considerable rise from previous years. In contrast, the total fertility rate in 1925 was 4.68. Furthermore, Poland's population is aging significantly and the median age in 2018 was 41.1 years. The crude death rate in 2020 stood at 10.3 per 1,000 people.Around 60% of Poles and Polish citizens reside in urban areas or major cities and 40% in more rural zones. The most populous administrative province or state is the Masovian Voivodeship and the most populous city is the capital, Warsaw, at 1.8 million inhabitants with a further 2-3 million people living in its metropolitan area. The metropolitan area of Katowice is the largest urban conurbation in Poland with a population between 2.7 million and 5.3 million residents. The least populous and the smallest province in size is the Opole Voivodeship, with just under 1 million people living within its borders. Hence, a substantial portion of the total population is concentrated in the south of Poland, roughly between the cities of Wrocław and Kraków.In the 2011 Polish census, 37,310,341 people reported Polish identity, 846,719 Silesian, 232,547 Kashubian and 147,814 German. Other identities were reported by 163,363 people (0.41%) and 521,470 people (1.35%) did not specify any nationality. Once prominent but now statistically insignificant minority groups include Polish Jews, Lipka Tatars, Armenians, Greeks, Lemkos, the Romani people and the Vietnamese. Ethnic Poles themselves can be divided into many diverse regional ethnographic sub-groups, most notable being the Kashubians, Silesians and Gorals (Highlanders). The statistics do not include recently arrived migrant workers. More than 1.7 million Ukrainian citizens worked legally in Poland in 2017.There is a very strong Polish diaspora around the world, notably in the United States, Germany, United Kingdom and Canada. A strong Polish minority is still present in the territories of contemporary western Ukraine and Belarus, eastern Lithuania, eastern and central Latvia, and northeastern Czech Republic, which were part of Poland in the past. Altogether, the number of ethnic Poles living abroad is estimated to be around 20 million.Polish is the only official and predominant spoken language in Poland, but it is also used throughout the world by Polish minorities in other countries as well as being one of the official languages of the European Union. The deaf communities use Polish Sign Language belonging to the German family of Sign Languages. Polish is also a second language in Lithuania, where it is taught in schools and universities. Contemporary Poland is a linguistically homogeneous nation, with nearly 97% of respondents declaring Polish as their mother tongue.Poland's once multi-ethnic population communicated in numerous languages and lects which faded or disappeared along the course of history. There are currently 15 minority languages in Poland, including one recognized regional language, Kashubian, which is spoken by around 366,000 people in the northern regions of Kashubia and Pomerania.Languages having the status of national minority's language are Armenian, Belarusian, Czech, German, Yiddish, Hebrew, Lithuanian, Russian, Slovak and Ukrainian. Languages having the status of ethnic minority's language are Karaim, Lemko-Rusyn, Tatar and two Romani languages; Polska Roma and Bergitka Roma. Official recognition of a language provides certain rights under conditions prescribed by Polish law, including education and state financial support for promoting that language. Poland recognized secondary administrative languages or auxiliary languages in bilingual municipalities. Currently, German and Kashubian hold such status in 19 municipalities ("gminas"), Belarusian in 9 and Lithuanian in 1. Bilingual signs, names and advertisements are commonplace in those localities. Silesian and Wymysorys (Vilamovian) are not legally recognized or acknowledged as separate languages with a minority status.More than 50% of Polish citizens declare at least basic knowledge of the English language, followed by German (38%).According to the 2015 census, 92.9% of all Polish citizens adhere to the Roman Catholic Church. An estimated 94.2% of the population are believers and 3.1% are irreligious, making Poland one of the more devout countries in Europe. Around 61.6% of all respondents outlined that religion is of high or very high importance. However, church attendance has decreased in recent years; only 38% of worshippers attended mass regularly on Sunday in 2018. Freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Polish Constitution, and the concordat guarantees the teaching of religion in state schools.For centuries the tribes inhabiting the lands of modern-day Poland have practiced various forms of paganism known as "Rodzimowierstwo", or "native faith". In the year 966, Duke Mieszko I converted to Christianity, and submitted to the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. This event came to be known as the Baptism of Poland. However, this did not put an end to pagan beliefs in the country. The persistence was demonstrated by a series of rebellions in the 1030s known as the pagan reaction, which also showed elements of a peasant uprising against medieval feudalism.Religious tolerance was an important part of Polish political culture, though it varied at times. In 1264, the Statute of Kalisz granted Jews unprecedented legal rights not found anywhere in Europe. In 1573, the Warsaw Confederation marked the formal beginning of extensive religious freedoms in Poland. It was partially influenced by the 1572 St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in France, which prompted the nobility to prevent the monarch from carrying out reprehensible atrocities in Poland based on religious affiliation. The religious tolerance also spurred many theological movements such as the Calvinist Polish Brethren, a number of Protestant groups and atheists like Casimir Liszinski, one of the first atheist thinkers in Europe. Anabaptists fleeing 16th-century persecution in the Netherlands and Germany settled in Poland and became known as the Vistula delta Mennonites. From 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła was head of the Roman Catholic Church as Pope John Paul II.Contemporary religious minorities include Christian Orthodox (506,800), various Protestants (150,000) — including 77,500 Lutherans of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church, 23,000 Pentecostals in the Pentecostal Church in Poland, 10,000 Adventists in the Seventh-day Adventist Church and other smaller Evangelical denominations — Jehovah's Witnesses (126,827), Eastern Catholics, Mariavites, Jews, Muslims (Tatars) and neopagans, some of whom are members of the Native Polish Church.Famous sites of Roman Catholic pilgrimage in Poland include the Monastery of Jasna Góra in the city of Częstochowa, Basilica of Our Lady of Licheń, Kraków's Sanctuary of Divine Mercy and Święta Lipka (Holy Linden) in Masuria. Tourists also visit the family home of John Paul II in Wadowice outside Kraków. Christ the King in Świebodzin is the tallest statue of Jesus in the world. Christian Orthodox pilgrims visit Mount Grabarka near Grabarka-Klasztor and the Hasidic Jews travel annually to the grave of a great rabbi in Leżajsk.Medical service providers and hospitals ("szpitale") in Poland are subordinate to the Ministry of Health; it provides administrative oversight and scrutiny of general medical practice, and is obliged to maintain a high standard of hygiene and patient care. Poland has a universal healthcare system based on an all-inclusive insurance system; state subsidised healthcare is available to all citizens covered by the general health insurance program of the National Health Fund (NFZ). Private medical complexes exist nationwide; over 50% of the population uses both public and private sectors.Hospitals are organised according to the regional administrative structure, resultantly most towns, counties or municipalities possess their own provincial hospital or medical clinics. There are six types of hospital facilities, each with a particular area of medical expertise – I Grade Hospitals for general surgery, internal illnesses and obstetrics; II Grade Hospitals for child surgery, neurology, cardiology and ophthalmology; III Grade Hospitals including teaching hospitals for infectious diseases, nephrology, orthopedics, toxicology and transplantology; Oncology Hospitals for cancer treatment and brachytherapy; Pediatric Hospitals for child care; and Nationwide Hospitals for general and acute care.According to the Human Development Report from 2020, the average life expectancy at birth is 79 years (around 75 years for an infant male and 83 years for an infant female); the country has a low infant mortality rate (4 per 1,000 births). In 2019, the principal cause of death was ischemic heart disease; diseases of the circulatory system accounted for 45% of all deaths. In the same year, Poland was also the 15th-largest importer of medications and pharmaceutical products.The Jagiellonian University founded in 1364 by Casimir III in Kraków was the first institution of higher learning established in Poland, and is one of the oldest universities still in continuous operation. Poland's Commission of National Education ("Komisja Edukacji Narodowej"), established in 1773, was the world's first state ministry of education. The framework for primary and secondary schooling in contemporary Poland is established by the Ministry of National Education. Kindergarten attendance is optional for children aged between three and five, with one year being compulsory for six-year-olds. Primary education traditionally begins at the age of seven, although children aged six can attend at the request of their parents or guardians. Elementary school spans eight grades, at the end of which an obligatory three-part exam on Polish, mathematics and a foreign language is to be undertaken. Secondary schooling is dependent on student preference – either a four-year high school ("liceum"), a five-year technical school ("technikum") or various vocational studies ("szkoła branżowa") can be pursued by each individual pupil. A liceum or technikum is concluded with a maturity exit exam ("matura"), which must be passed in order to apply for a university or other institutions of higher learning.The standards of higher tertiary education are imposed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. In Poland, there are over 500 university-level institutions, with technical, medical, economic, agricultural, pedagogical, theological, musical, maritime and military faculties. The University of Warsaw and Warsaw Polytechnic, the University of Wrocław, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and the University of Technology in Gdańsk are among the most prominent. There are three conventional academic degrees in Poland – "licencjat" or "inżynier" (first cycle qualification), "magister" (second cycle qualification) and "doktor" (third cycle qualification).In 2018, the Programme for International Student Assessment, coordinated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, ranked Poland's educational system higher than the OECD average; the study showed that students in Poland perform better academically than in most OECD countries.The culture of Poland is closely connected with its intricate 1,000-year history and forms an important constituent in western civilization. The Poles take great pride in their national identity which is often associated with the colours white and red, and exuded by the expression "biało-czerwoni" ("whitereds"). National symbols, chiefly the crowned white-tailed eagle, are often visible on clothing, insignia and emblems. The appreciation of Poland's traditions and cultural heritage is commonly known as Polonophilia.With origins in the customs of the tribal Lechites, over time the culture of Poland has been influenced by its connection to Western culture and trends, as well as developing its own unique traditions such as Sarmatism. The people of Poland have traditionally been seen as hospitable to artists from abroad and eager to follow cultural and artistic trends popular in foreign countries, for instance, the 16th- and 17th-century tradition of coffin portraits ("portret trumienny") was only observed in Poland and Roman Egypt. In the 19th and 20th centuries the Polish focus on cultural advancement often took precedence over political and economic activity. These factors have contributed to the versatile nature of Polish art.The architectural monuments of great importance are protected by the National Heritage Board of Poland. Over 100 of the country's most significant tangible wonders were enlisted onto the Historic Monuments Register, with further 16 being recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. Poland is renowned for its brick Gothic castles, granaries and churches as well as diversely-styled tenements, market squares and town halls. The majority of Polish cities founded on Magdeburg Law in the Middle Ages evolved around central marketplaces, a distinguishable urban characteristic which can be observed to this day. Medieval and Renaissance cloth halls were once an abundant feature of many towns.There are 13 government-approved annual public holidays – New Year on 1 January, Three Kings' Day on 6 January, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, Labour Day on 1 May, Constitution Day on 3 May, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, Armed Forces Day on 15 August, All Saints' Day on 1 November, Independence Day on 11 November and Christmastide on 25 and 26 December.Particular traditions and superstitious customs observed in Poland are not found elsewhere in Europe. Though Christmas Eve ("Wigilia") is not a public holiday, it remains the most memorable day of the entire year. Trees are decorated on 24 December, hay is placed under the tablecloth to resemble Jesus' manger, Christmas wafers ("opłatek") are shared between gathered guests and a twelve-dish meatless supper is served that same evening when the first star appears. An empty plate and seat are symbolically left at the table for an unexpected guest. On occasion, carolers journey around smaller towns with a folk Turoń creature until the Lent period.A widely-popular doughnut and sweet pastry feast occurs on Fat Thursday, usually 52 days prior to Easter. Eggs for Holy Sunday are painted and placed in decorated baskets that are previously blessed by clergymen in churches on Easter Saturday. Easter Monday is celebrated with pagan "dyngus" festivities, where the youth is engaged in water fights and some girls are gently spanked by colleagues with pussy willows to stimulate fertility.Cemeteries and graves of the deceased are annually visited by family members on All Saints' Day; tombstones are cleaned as a sign of respect and candles are lit to honour the dead on an unprecedented scale.Artists from Poland, including famous musicians such as Chopin, Rubinstein, Paderewski, Penderecki and Wieniawski, and traditional, regionalized folk composers create a lively and diverse music scene, which even recognizes its own music genres, such as sung poetry and disco polo.The origins of Polish music can be traced to the 13th century; manuscripts have been found in Stary Sącz containing polyphonic compositions related to the Parisian Notre Dame School. Other early compositions, such as the melody of "Bogurodzica" and "God Is Born" (a coronation polonaise tune for Polish kings by an unknown composer), may also date back to this period, however, the first known notable composer, Nicholas of Radom, lived in the 15th century. Diomedes Cato, a native-born Italian who lived in Kraków, became a renowned lutenist at the court of Sigismund III; he not only imported some of the musical styles from southern Europe but blended them with native folk music.In the 17th and 18th centuries, Polish baroque composers wrote liturgical music and secular compositions such as concertos and sonatas for voices or instruments. At the end of the 18th century, Polish classical music evolved into national forms like the polonaise. Wojciech Bogusławski is accredited with composing the first Polish national opera, titled "", which premiered in 1794.Traditional Polish folk music has had a major effect on the works of many Polish composers, and no more so than on Fryderyk Chopin, a widely recognised national hero of the arts. All of Chopin's works involve the piano and are technically demanding, emphasising nuance and expressive depth. As a great composer, Chopin invented the musical form known as the instrumental ballade and made major innovations to the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, polonaise, étude, impromptu and prélude, he was also the composer of a number of polonaises which borrowed heavily from traditional Polish folk music. It is largely thanks to him that such pieces gained great popularity throughout Europe during the 19th century. Several Polish composers such as Szymanowski drew inspiration from Chopin's folk-influenced style. Nowadays the most distinctive folk music can be heard in the towns and villages of the mountainous south, particularly in the region surrounding the winter resort town of Zakopane.Poland today has an active music scene, with the jazz and metal genres being particularly popular among the contemporary populace. Polish jazz musicians such as Krzysztof Komeda created a unique style, which was most famous in the 1960s and 1970s and continues to be popular to this day. Poland has also become a major venue for large-scale music festivals, chief among which are the Open'er Festival, Opole Festival and Sopot Festival.Art in Poland has always reflected European trends while maintaining its unique character. The Kraków Academy of Fine Arts, later developed by Jan Matejko, produced monumental portrayals of customs and significant events in Polish history. Other institutions such as the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw were more innovative and focused on both historical and contemporary styles. Notable art academies include the Kraków School of Art and Fashion Design, Art Academy of Szczecin, University of Fine Arts in Poznań and the Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław.Perhaps the most prominent and internationally admired Polish artist was Tamara de Lempicka, who specialized in the style of Art Deco. Lempicka was described as "the first woman artist to become a glamour star." Another notable was Caziel, born Zielenkiewicz, who represented Cubism and Abstraction in France and England.Prior to the 19th century only Daniel Schultz and Italian-born Marcello Bacciarelli had the privilege of being recognized abroad. The Young Poland movement witnessed the birth of modern Polish art, and engaged in a great deal of formal experimentation led by Jacek Malczewski, Stanisław Wyspiański, Józef Mehoffer, and a group of Polish Impressionists. Stanisław Witkiewicz was an ardent supporter of Realism, its main representative being Józef Chełmoński, while Artur Grottger specialized in Romanticism. Within historically-orientated circles, Henryk Siemiradzki dominated with his monumental Academic Art and ancient Roman theme.Since the inter-war years, Polish art and documentary photography has enjoyed worldwide fame and in the 1960s the Polish School of Posters was formed. Throughout the entire country, many national museum and art institutions hold valuable works by famous masters. Major museums in Poland include the National Museum in Warsaw, Poznań, Wrocław, Kraków, and Gdańsk, as well as the Museum of John Paul II Collection, and the Wilanów Museum. Important collections are also held at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Wawel Castle and in the Palace on the Isle. Contemporary art galleries include Zachęta, Ujazdów, and MOCAK. The most distinguished painting of Poland is "Lady with an Ermine" by Leonardo da Vinci, held at the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków. Although not Polish, the work had a strong influence on Polish culture and has been often associated with Polish identity.Polish cities and towns reflect a whole spectrum of European architectural styles. Romanesque architecture is represented by St. Andrew's Church, Kraków, and St. Mary's Church, Gdańsk, is characteristic for the Brick Gothic style found in Poland. Richly decorated attics and arcade loggias are the common elements of the Polish Renaissance architecture, as evident in the City Hall in Poznań. For some time the late renaissance style known as mannerism, most notably in the Bishop's Palace in Kielce, coexisted with the early baroque style, typified in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Kraków.History has not been kind to Poland's architectural monuments. Nonetheless, a number of ancient structures have survived: castles, churches, and stately homes, often unique in the regional or European context. Some of them have been painstakingly restored, like Wawel Castle, or completely reconstructed, including the Old Town and Royal Castle of Warsaw and the Old Town of Gdańsk.The architecture of Gdańsk is mostly of the Hanseatic variety, a Gothic style common among the former trading cities along the Baltic Sea and in the northern part of Central Europe. The architectural style of Wrocław is mainly representative of German architecture since it was for centuries located within the Holy Roman Empire. The centres of Kazimierz Dolny and Sandomierz on the Vistula are good examples of well-preserved medieval towns. Poland's ancient capital, Kraków, ranks among the best-preserved Gothic and Renaissance urban complexes in Europe.The second half of the 17th century is marked by baroque architecture. Side towers, such as those of Branicki Palace in Białystok, are typical for the Polish baroque. The classical Silesian baroque is represented by the University in Wrocław. The profuse decorations of the Branicki Palace in Warsaw are characteristic of the rococo style. The centre of Polish classicism was Warsaw under the rule of the last Polish king Stanisław II Augustus.The Palace on the Isle is a chief example of Polish neoclassical architecture. Lublin Castle represents the Gothic Revival style in architecture, while the Izrael Poznański Palace in Łódź is an example of eclecticism.Traditional folk architecture in the villages and small towns scattered across the vast Polish countryside was characterized by its extensive use of wood and red brick as primary building materials, common for Central Europe. Some of the best preserved and oldest structures include ancient stone temples in Silesia and fortified wooden churches across southeastern Poland in the Beskids and Bieszczady regions of the Carpathian mountains. Numerous examples of secular structures such as Polish manor houses ("dworek"), farmhouses (), granaries, mills, barns and country inns () can still be found in some Polish regions. However, traditional construction methods faded in the early-mid 20th century, when Poland's population experienced a demographic shift to urban dwelling away from the countryside.The earliest examples of Polish literature date to the 12th century, when Poland's official language was Latin, and early published works were predominantly written by foreigners. Gallus Anonymus, a monk of disputed origin, was the first chronicler who meticulously described Poland's culture, language and territories in "Gesta principum Polonorum" (c. 1112–1118). Latin remained the principal tool of literary expression in Poland until the 18th century, when it was replaced in favour of Polish and French. Historically, Polish literature concentrated extensively around the themes of true drama and poetic-expressive romanticism than on fiction. Patriotism, spirituality and aphorisms were paramount and political or social allegories were common moral narratives.The first documented phrase in the Polish language reads ""Day ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai"" ("Let me grind, and you take a rest"), reflecting the use of quern-stone in early Poland. The phrase was recorded by an abbot in the Latin-based "Liber fundationis" from 1269 to 1273, which outlined the history of a Cistercian monastery in the Silesian village of Henryków. The sentence has been included in the UNESCO Memory of World Register. The oldest extant manuscript of fine prose in Old Polish is the "Holy Cross Sermons", and the earliest religious text is the Bible of Queen Sophia. One of the first printing houses was established by Kasper Straube in the 1470s, while Jan Haller was considered the pioneer of commercial print in Poland. Haller's Calendarium cracoviense, an astronomical wall calendar from 1474, is Poland's oldest surviving print.The tradition of extending Polish historiography in Latin was subsequently inherited by Vincent Kadłubek, Bishop of Kraków in the 13th century, and Jan Długosz in the 15th century. This practice, however, was abandoned by Jan Kochanowski, who became one of the first Polish Renaissance authors to write most of his works in Polish, along with Nicholas Rey. Other writers of the Polish Renaissance include Johannes Dantiscus, Andreus Fricius Modrevius, Matthias Sarbievius, Piotr Skarga and Klemens "Ianicius" Janicki, who was laureled by the Pope. The leading figure of the Polish Reformation was theologian and writer John Laski, who, with the permission of King Edward VI of England, created the European Protestant Congregation of London in 1550.During the Baroque era, the Jesuits greatly influenced Polish literature and literary techniques, often relying on God and religious matters. The leading baroque poet was Jan Andrzej Morsztyn, who incorporated Marinism into his publications. Jan Chryzostom Pasek, also a respected baroque writer, is mostly remembered for his tales and memoirs reflecting sarmatian culture in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Subsequently, the Polish Enlightenment was headed by Samuel Linde, Hugo Kołłątaj, Izabela Czartoryska and Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz. In 1776, Ignacy Krasicki composed the first milestone novel entitled "The Adventures of Mr. Nicholas Wisdom".Among the best known Polish Romantics are the "Three Bards" – the three national poets active in the age of foreign partitions – Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki and Zygmunt Krasiński. The narrative poem "Pan Tadeusz" by Mickiewicz is Poland's national epic and a compulsory reading ("lektura") in the country's schools. Joseph Conrad, the son of dramatist Apollo Korzeniowski, came to fame with his English-language novels and stories that are informed with elements of the Polish national experience. Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", "Nostromo" and "Lord Jim" are believed to be one of the finest works ever written, placing him among the greatest novelists of all time. Modern Polish literature is versatile, with its fantasy genre having been particularly praised. The philosophical sci-fi novel "Solaris" is an acclaimed example of Stanisław Lem's literary legacy, whereas "The Witcher", a fantasy series by Andrzej Sapkowski, is a much-celebrated work of contemporary Polish fiction.In the 20th century, five Polish authors were awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature – Henryk Sienkiewicz for "Quo Vadis", Władysław Reymont for "The Peasants", Isaac Bashevis Singer, Czesław Miłosz and Wisława Szymborska. In 2019, Polish author Olga Tokarczuk was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 2018.Polish cuisine has evolved over the centuries to become highly eclectic due to Poland's history. Polish cuisine shares many similarities with other Central European cuisines, especially German and Austrian as well as Jewish, French, Italian and Turkish culinary traditions. Polish-styled cooking in other cultures is often referred to as "cuisine à la polonaise".Polish dishes are usually rich in meat, especially pork, chicken and beef (depending on the region), winter vegetables (sauerkraut cabbage in "bigos"), and spices. It is also characteristic in its use of various kinds of noodles, the most notable of which are kluski, as well as cereals such as "kasha" (from the Polish word kasza) and a variety of breads like the world-renowned bagel. Polish cuisine is hearty and uses a lot of cream and eggs. Festive meals such as the meatless Christmas Eve dinner ("Wigilia") or Easter breakfast could take days to prepare in their entirety.The main course usually includes a serving of meat, such as roast, chicken, or "kotlet schabowy" (breaded pork cutlet), vegetables, side dishes and salads, including "surówka" – shredded root vegetables with lemon and sugar (carrot, celeriac, seared beetroot) or sauerkraut (, ). The side dishes are usually potatoes, rice or cereal. Meals conclude with a dessert such as "sernik" (cheesecake), "makowiec" (poppy seed pastry), or "napoleonka" (cream pie).The Polish national dishes are "bigos" ; "pierogi" ; "kielbasa"; "kotlet schabowy" breaded cutlet; "gołąbki" cabbage rolls; "zrazy" roulade; "pieczeń" roast ; sour cucumber soup ("zupa ogórkowa", ); mushroom soup, ("zupa grzybowa", quite different from the North American cream of mushroom); "zupa pomidorowa" tomato soup ; "rosół" variety of meat broth; "żurek" sour rye soup; "flaki" tripe soup; "barszcz" and "chłodnik" among others.Traditional alcoholic beverages include honey mead, widespread since the 13th century, beer, wine and vodka (old Polish names include "okowita" and "gorzała"). The world's first written mention of vodka originates from Poland. The most popular alcoholic drinks at present are beer and wine which took over from vodka more popular in the years 1980–1998. Tea remains common in Polish society since the 19th century, whilst coffee is drunk widely since the 18th century. Other frequently consumed beverages include various mineral waters and juices, soft drinks popularized by the fast-food chains since the late 20th century, as well as buttermilk, soured milk and kefir.The particular clothing styles in Poland evolved with each century. In the 1600s high-class noblemen and magnates developed a strong sympathy for Orientalism, which was also common in other parts of Europe and became known as Sarmatism. The attire mediated between Western and Ottoman styles and outfits included a żupan, delia, kontusz, pas, decorative karabela swords and less often turbans brought by foreign merchants. The period of Polish Sarmatism eventually faded in the wake of the 18th century.The Polish national dress as well as the fashion and etiquette of Poland also reached the royal court at Versailles in the 1700s. French dresses inspired by Polish attire were called "à la polonaise", meaning "Polish-styled". The most famous example is the "robe à la polonaise", a woman's garment with draped and swagged overskirt, worn over an underskirt or petticoat. Another notable example is the Witzchoura, a long mantle with collar and hood, which was possibly introduced by Napoleon's Polish mistress Maria Walewska. The scope of influence also entailed furniture; rococo Polish beds with canopies became commonplace in French palaces during the 18th century.Several Polish designers and stylists left a lifelong legacy of beauty inventions and cosmetics, most notable being Maksymilian Faktorowicz and Helena Rubinstein. Faktorowicz created a line of cosmetics company in California known as Max Factor and coined the term "make-up" based on the verb phrase "to make up" one's face, now widely used as an alternative for describing cosmetics. Faktorowicz also raised to fame by inventing modern eyelash extensions and by providing services to Hollywood artists.As of 2020, Poland possesses the fifth-largest cosmetic market in Europe. Founded in 1983, Inglot Cosmetics is the country's largest beauty products manufacturer and retailer active in 700 locations worldwide, including retail salons in New York City, London, Milan, Dubai and Las Vegas. Established in 1999, the retail store Reserved is Poland's most successful clothing store chain, operating over 1,700 retail shops in 19 countries. Internationally successful models from Poland include Anja Rubik, Joanna Krupa, Jac Jagaciak, Kasia Struss, Małgosia Bela, and Magdalena Frąckowiak.The history of Polish cinema is as long as the history of cinematography itself. Over the decades, Poland has produced outstanding directors, film producers, cartoonists and actors that achieved world fame, especially in Hollywood. Moreover, Polish inventors played an important role in the development of world cinematography and modern-day television. Among the most famous directors and producers, who worked in Poland as well as abroad are Roman Polański, Andrzej Wajda, Samuel Goldwyn, the Warner brothers (Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack), Max Fleischer, Lee Strasberg, Agnieszka Holland and Krzysztof Kieślowski.In the 19th century, throughout partitioned Poland, numerous amateur inventors, such as Kazimierz Prószyński, were eager to construct a film projector. In 1894, Prószyński was successful in creating a Pleograph, one of the first cameras in the world. The invention, which took photographs and projected pictures, was built before the Lumière brothers lodged their patent. He also patented an Aeroscope, the first successful hand-held operated film camera. In 1897, Jan Szczepanik, obtained a British patent for his Telectroscope. This prototype of television could easily transmit image and sound, thus allowing a live remote view.Polish cinema developed rapidly in the interwar period. The most renowned star of the silent film era was Polish actress Pola Negri. During this time, the Yiddish cinema also evolved in Poland. Films in the Yiddish language with Jewish themes, such as "The Dybbuk" (1937), played an important part in pre-war Polish cinematography. In 1945 the government established 'Film Polski', a state-run film production and distribution organization, with director Aleksander Ford as the head of the company. Ford's "Knights of the Teutonic Order" (1960) was viewed by millions of people in the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and France. This success was followed by the historical films of Jerzy Hoffman and Andrzej Wajda. Wajda's 1975 film "The Promised Land" was nominated at the 48th Academy Awards.In 2015, "Ida" by Paweł Pawlikowski won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2019, Pawlikowski received an Academy Award for Best Director nomination for his historical drama "Cold War". Other well-known Polish Oscar-winning productions include "The Pianist" (2002) by Roman Polański.Poland has a number of major media outlets, chief among which are the national television channels. TVP is Poland's public broadcasting corporation; about a third of its income comes from a broadcast receiver licence, while the rest is made through revenue from commercials and sponsorships. State television operates two mainstream channels, TVP 1 and TVP 2, as well as regional programs for each of the country's 16 voivodeships (as TVP 3). In addition to these general channels, TVP runs a number of genre-specific programmes such as TVP Sport, TVP Historia, TVP Kultura, TVP Rozrywka, TVP Seriale and TVP Polonia, the latter is a state-run channel dedicated to the transmission of Polish language television for the Polish diaspora. Poland has several 24-hour news channels such as Polsat News, TVP Info and TVN 24. Poland also possesses a variety of free-to-air television channels, chiefly TVN, Polsat and TV4.In Poland, there are also daily newspapers like "Gazeta Wyborcza" ("Electoral Gazette"), "Rzeczpospolita" ("The Republic") and "Gazeta Polska Codziennie" ("Polish Daily Newspaper") which provide traditional opinion and news, and tabloids such as "Fakt" and "Super Express". Weeklies include "Tygodnik Angora", "", "Polityka", "Wprost", "Newsweek Polska", "Gość Niedzielny" and "Gazeta Polska".Poland has also emerged as a major hub for video game developers in Europe, with the country now being home to hundreds of studios. Among the most successful ones are CD Projekt, Techland, CI Games and People Can Fly. Some of the most popular video games developed in Poland include The Witcher trilogy. Katowice hosts Intel Extreme Masters, one of the biggest eSports events in the world.Volleyball and Association football are among the country's most popular sports, with a rich history of international competitions. Track and field, basketball, handball, boxing, MMA, motorcycle speedway, ski jumping, cross-country skiing, ice hockey, tennis, fencing, swimming and weightlifting are other popular sports.The golden era of football in Poland occurred throughout the 1970s and went on until the early 1980s when the Polish national football team achieved their best results in any FIFA World Cup competitions finishing 3rd place in the 1974 and the 1982 tournaments. The team won a gold medal in football at the 1972 Summer Olympics and two silver medals, in 1976 and in 1992. In 2012, Poland co-hosted the UEFA European Football Championship.As of May 2021, the Polish men's national volleyball team is ranked as 2nd in the world. Volleyball team won a gold medal in Olympic 1976 Montreal and three gold medals in FIVB World Championship 1974, 2014 and 2018.Mariusz Pudzianowski is a highly successful strongman competitor and has won more World's Strongest Man titles than any other competitor in the world, winning the event in 2008 for the fifth time.Poland has made a distinctive mark in motorcycle speedway racing thanks to Tomasz Gollob and Bartosz Zmarzlik, highly successful Polish riders. The top Ekstraliga division has one of the highest average attendances for any sport in Poland. The national speedway team of Poland is one of the major teams in international speedway.Poles made significant achievements in mountaineering, in particular, in the Himalayas and the winter ascending of the eight-thousanders. Polish mountains are one of the tourist attractions of the country. Hiking, climbing, skiing and mountain biking and attract numerous tourists every year from all over the world. Water sports are the most popular summer recreation activities, with ample locations for fishing, canoeing, kayaking, sailing and windsurfing especially in the northern regions of the country.
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[
"Ewa Kopacz",
"Leszek Miller",
"Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz",
"Mateusz Morawiecki",
"Jan Olszewski",
"Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz",
"Tadeusz Mazowiecki",
"Jarosław Kaczyński",
"Jan Krzysztof Bielecki",
"Donald Tusk",
"Beata Szydło",
"Marek Belka",
"Jerzy Buzek",
"Waldemar Pawlak",
"Józef Oleksy"
] |
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Who was the head of Poland in Jan, 1995?
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January 14, 1995
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{
"text": [
"Waldemar Pawlak"
]
}
|
L2_Q36_P6_4
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Tadeusz Mazowiecki is the head of the government of Poland from Aug, 1989 to Jan, 1991.
Mateusz Morawiecki is the head of the government of Poland from Dec, 2017 to Dec, 2022.
Jan Krzysztof Bielecki is the head of the government of Poland from Jan, 1991 to Dec, 1991.
Donald Tusk is the head of the government of Poland from Nov, 2007 to Sep, 2014.
Beata Szydło is the head of the government of Poland from Nov, 2015 to Dec, 2017.
Hanna Suchocka is the head of the government of Poland from Jul, 1992 to Oct, 1993.
Waldemar Pawlak is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 1993 to Mar, 1995.
Marek Belka is the head of the government of Poland from May, 2004 to Oct, 2005.
Jarosław Kaczyński is the head of the government of Poland from Jul, 2006 to Nov, 2007.
Ewa Kopacz is the head of the government of Poland from Sep, 2014 to Nov, 2015.
Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz is the head of the government of Poland from Feb, 1996 to Oct, 1997.
Józef Oleksy is the head of the government of Poland from Mar, 1995 to Feb, 1996.
Leszek Miller is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 2001 to May, 2004.
Jan Olszewski is the head of the government of Poland from Dec, 1991 to Jun, 1992.
Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 2005 to Jul, 2006.
Jerzy Buzek is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 1997 to Oct, 2001.
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PolandPoland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country located in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces, covering an area of , and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With a population of nearly 38.5 million people, Poland is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union. Poland's capital and largest metropolis is Warsaw. Other major cities include Kraków, Łódź, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk, and Szczecin.Poland's topographically diverse territory extends from the beaches along the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in its south. The country is bordered by Lithuania and Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukraine to the east, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the south, and Germany to the west.The history of human activity on Polish soil spans thousands of years. Throughout the late antiquity period it became extensively diverse, with various cultures and tribes settling on the vast Central European Plain. However, it was the Western Polans who dominated the region and gave Poland its name. The establishment of Polish statehood can be traced to 966, when the pagan ruler of a realm coextensive with the territory of present-day Poland embraced Christianity and converted to Catholicism. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented its longstanding political association with Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest (over in area) and most populous nations of 16th and 17th century Europe, with a uniquely liberal political system which adopted Europe's first modern constitution, the Constitution of 3 May 1791.With the passing of prominence and prosperity, the country was partitioned by neighbouring states at the end of the 18th century, and regained independence in 1918 with the Treaty of Versailles. After a series of territorial conflicts, the new multi-ethnic Poland restored its position as a key player in European politics. In September 1939, World War II began with the invasion of Poland by Germany, followed by the Soviets invading Poland in accordance with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Approximately six million Polish citizens, including three million of the country's Jews, perished during the course of the war. As a member of the Eastern Bloc, the Polish People's Republic proclaimed forthwith was a chief signatory of the Warsaw Treaty amidst global Cold War tensions. In the wake of the 1989 events, notably through the emergence and contributions of the Solidarity movement, the communist government was dissolved and Poland re-established itself as a semi-presidential democratic republic.Poland is a developed market, and a middle power. It has the sixth largest economy in the European Union by nominal GDP and the fifth largest by GDP (PPP). It provides very high standards of living, safety and economic freedom, as well as free university education and a universal health care system. The country has 16 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, 15 of which are cultural. Poland is a member state of the Schengen Area, European Union, European Economic Area, the United Nations, NATO, the OECD, the Three Seas Initiative and the Visegrád Group.The origin of the name "Poland" derives from the West Slavic tribe of Polans ("Polanie"), who inhabited the Warta river basin of the present-day Greater Poland region starting in the mid-6th century. The origin of the name "Polanie" itself derives from the Proto-Slavic word "pole" (field). In some languages, such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian, Russian and Turkish, the country's name is derived from the Lendians ("Lędzianie" or "Lachy") who dwelled on the southeasternmost edge of present-day Lesser Poland. Their name likewise derives from the Old Polish word "lęda" (open land or plain).The early Bronze Age in Poland began around 2400 BC, while the Iron Age commenced in approximately 750 BC. During this time, the Lusatian culture, spanning both the Bronze and Iron Ages, became particularly prominent. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement (now reconstructed as an open-air museum), dating from the Lusatian culture of the late Bronze Age, around 748 BC.Throughout Antiquity, many distinct ancient ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland in an era that dates from about 400 BC to 500 AD. These groups are identified as Celtic, Scythian, Germanic, Sarmatian, Slavic and Baltic tribes. Also, recent archaeological findings in the Kuyavia region confirmed the presence of the Roman Legions on the territory of Poland. These were most likely expeditionary missions sent out to protect the amber trade. The exact time and routes of the original migration and settlement of Slavic peoples lacks written records and can only be defined as fragmented. There is evidence that earlier tribes may have been associated with the ancient Przeworsk culture. Up until the creation of Mieszko's state and his subsequent conversion to Christianity in 966 AD, the main religion of the numerous West Slavic (Lechitic) tribes that inhabited the geographical area of present-day Poland was paganism. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Western Christianity and the religious authority of the Roman Church. However, the transition from paganism was not a smooth and instantaneous process for the rest of the population as evident from the pagan reaction of the 1030s.Poland began to form into a recognizable unitary and territorial entity around the middle of the 10th century under the Piast dynasty. Poland's first historically documented ruler, Mieszko I, accepted Christianity, as the rightful religion of his realm, under the auspices of the Latin Church with the Baptism of Poland in 966. The bulk of the population converted in the course of the next few centuries. In 1000, Boleslaw the Brave, continuing the policy of his father Mieszko, held a Congress of Gniezno and created the metropolis of Gniezno and the dioceses of Kraków, Kołobrzeg, and Wrocław. However, the pagan unrest led to the transfer of the capital to Kraków in 1038 by Casimir I the Restorer.In 1109, Prince Bolesław III Wrymouth defeated the King of Germany Henry V at the Battle of Hundsfeld, stopping the German incursion into Poland. The clash between Bolesław III and Henry V was documented by Gallus Anonymus in his 1118 chronicle. In 1138, Poland fragmented into several smaller duchies when Bolesław divided his lands among his sons. In 1226, Konrad I of Masovia, one of the regional Piast dukes, invited the Teutonic Knights to help him fight the Baltic Prussian pagans; a decision that led to centuries of warfare with the Knights. In 1264, the Statute of Kalisz or the General Charter of Jewish Liberties introduced numerous right for the Jews in Poland, leading to a nearly autonomous "nation within a nation".In the middle of the 13th century, the Silesian branch of the Piast dynasty (Henry I the Bearded and Henry II the Pious, ruled 1238–1241) nearly succeeded in uniting the Polish lands, but the Mongols invaded the country from the east and defeated the combined Polish forces at the Battle of Legnica where Duke Henry II the Pious died. In 1320, after a number of earlier unsuccessful attempts by regional rulers at uniting the Polish dukedoms, Władysław I consolidated his power, took the throne and became the first king of a reunified Poland. His son, Casimir III (reigned 1333–1370), has a reputation as one of the greatest Polish kings, and gained wide recognition for improving the country's infrastructure. He also extended royal protection to Jews, and encouraged their immigration to Poland. Casimir III realized that the nation needed a class of educated people, especially lawyers, who could codify the country's laws and administer the courts and offices. His efforts to create an institution of higher learning in Poland were finally rewarded when Pope Urban V granted him permission to open the University of Kraków.The Golden Liberty of the nobles began to develop under Casimir's rule, when in return for their military support, the king made a series of concessions to the nobility and establishing their legal status as superior to that of the townsfolk. When Casimir the Great died in 1370, leaving no legitimate male heir, the Piast dynasty came to an end.During the 13th and 14th centuries, Poland became a destination for German, Flemish and to a lesser extent Walloon, Danish and Scottish migrants. Also, Jews and Armenians began to settle and flourish in Poland during this era (see History of the Jews in Poland and Armenians in Poland).The Black Death, a plague that ravaged Europe from 1347 to 1351, did not significantly affect Poland, and the country was spared from a major outbreak of the disease. The reason for this was the decision of Casimir the Great to quarantine the nation's borders.The Jagiellon dynasty spanned the late Middle Ages and early Modern Era of Polish history. Beginning with the Lithuanian Grand Duke Jogaila (Władysław II Jagiełło), the Jagiellon dynasty (1386–1572) formed the Polish–Lithuanian union. The partnership brought vast Lithuanian-controlled Rus' areas into Poland's sphere of influence and proved beneficial for the Poles and Lithuanians, who coexisted and cooperated in one of the largest political entities in Europe for the next four centuries.In the Baltic Sea region the struggle of Poland and Lithuania with the Teutonic Knights continued and culminated at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, where a combined Polish-Lithuanian army inflicted a decisive victory against them. In 1466, after the Thirteen Years' War, King Casimir IV Jagiellon gave royal consent to the Peace of Thorn, which created the future Duchy of Prussia under Polish suzerainty. The Jagiellon dynasty at one point also established dynastic control over the kingdoms of Bohemia (1471 onwards) and Hungary. In the south, Poland confronted the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Tatars (by whom they were attacked on 75 separate occasions between 1474 and 1569), and in the east helped Lithuania fight the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Some historians estimate that Crimean Tatar slave-raiding cost Poland-Lithuania one million of its population between the years of 1494 and 1694.Poland was developing as a feudal state, with a predominantly agricultural economy and an increasingly powerful landed nobility. The "Nihil novi" act adopted by the Polish Sejm (parliament) in 1505, transferred most of the legislative power from the monarch to the Sejm, an event which marked the beginning of the period known as "Golden Liberty", when the state was ruled by the "free and equal" Polish nobility. Protestant Reformation movements made deep inroads into Polish Christianity, which resulted in the establishment of policies promoting religious tolerance, unique in Europe at that time. This tolerance allowed the country to avoid most of the religious turmoil that spread over Europe during the 16th century.The European Renaissance evoked in late Jagiellon Poland (under kings Sigismund I the Old and Sigismund II Augustus) a sense of urgency in the need to promote a cultural awakening, and during this period Polish culture and the nation's economy flourished. In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus, an astronomer from Toruń, published his epochal work "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" ("On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres") and thereby became the first proponent of a predictive mathematical model confirming the heliocentric theory, which became the accepted basic model for the practice of modern astronomy. Another major figure associated with the era is the classicist poet Jan Kochanowski.The 1569 Union of Lublin established the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a more closely unified federal state with an elective monarchy, but which was governed largely by the nobility, through a system of local assemblies with a central parliament. The Warsaw Confederation (1573) guaranteed religious freedom for the Polish nobility "(szlachta)" and townsfolk "(mieszczanie)". However, the peasants "(chłopi)" were still subject to severe limitations imposed on them by the nobility. The establishment of the Commonwealth coincided with a period of stability and prosperity in Poland, with the union thereafter becoming a European power and a major cultural entity, occupying approximately one million square kilometers of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as an agent for the dissemination of Western culture through Polonization into areas of modern-day Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Belarus and western Russia.In the 16th and 17th centuries, Poland suffered from a number of dynastic crises during the reigns of the Vasa kings Sigismund III and Władysław IV and found itself engaged in major conflicts with Russia, Sweden and the Ottoman Empire, as well as a series of minor Cossack uprisings. In 1610, a Polish army under the command of Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski seized Moscow after winning the Battle of Klushino. In 1611, the Tsar of Russia paid homage to the King of Poland.After the signing of Truce of Deulino, Poland had in the years 1618–1621 an area of about .From the middle of the 17th century, the nobles' democracy, suffering from internal disorder, gradually declined, thereby leaving the once powerful Commonwealth vulnerable to foreign intervention. Starting in 1648, the Cossack Khmelnytsky Uprising engulfed the south and east, eventually leaving Ukraine divided, with the eastern part, lost by the Commonwealth, becoming a dependency of the Tsardom of Russia. This was followed by the 'Deluge', a Swedish invasion of Poland, which marched through the Polish heartlands and ruined the country's population, culture and infrastructure—around four million of Poland's eleven million inhabitants died in famines and epidemics throughout the 17th century. However, under John III Sobieski the Commonwealth's military prowess was re-established, and in 1683 Polish forces played a major role in the Battle of Vienna against the Ottoman Army, commanded by Kara Mustafa, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.Sobieski's reign marked the end of the nation's golden era. Finding itself subjected to almost constant warfare and suffering enormous population losses as well as massive damage to its economy, the Commonwealth fell into decline. The government became ineffective as a result of large-scale internal conflicts (e.g. Lubomirski Rebellion against John II Casimir and rebellious confederations) and corrupted legislative processes. The nobility fell under the control of a handful of "magnats", and this, compounded with two relatively weak kings of the Saxon Wettin dynasty, Augustus II and Augustus III, as well as the rise of Russia and Prussia after the Great Northern War only served to worsen the Commonwealth's plight. Despite this The Commonwealth-Saxony personal union gave rise to the emergence of the Commonwealth's first reform movement, and laid the foundations for the Polish Enlightenment.During the later part of the 18th century, the Commonwealth made attempts to implement fundamental internal reforms; with the second half of the century bringing a much improved economy, significant population growth and far-reaching progress in the areas of education, intellectual life, art, and especially toward the end of the period, evolution of the social and political system. The most populous capital city of Warsaw replaced Gdańsk (Danzig) as the leading centre of commerce, and the role of the more prosperous urban population increased.The royal election of 1764 resulted in the elevation of Stanisław II August (a Polish aristocrat connected to the "Familia" faction of magnates) to the monarchy. However, elevated to the throne by the Empress Catherine II of Russia, the new king spent much of his reign maneuvering between his desire to implement necessary reforms to save his country, and the necessity to remain in a political relationship and at peace with Russia. This led to the formation of the 1768 Bar Confederation, a "szlachta" rebellion directed against the Polish king and all external influence, which ineptly aimed to preserve Poland's independence and szlachta's privileges. The failed attempts at reform as well as the internal turmoil caused by the Confederation proved the country's weakness and provoked its neighbours. In 1772 the First Partition of the Commonwealth by Prussia, Russia and Austria took place; an act which the "Partition Sejm", under considerable duress, eventually "ratified" "fait accompli". Disregarding this loss, in 1773 the king established the plan of the most necessary reforms, in which the Commission of National Education, the first government education authority in Europe, was established. Corporal punishment of children was officially prohibited in 1783.The Great Sejm convened by Stanisław II August in 1788 successfully adopted the 3 May Constitution, the first set of modern supreme national laws in Europe. However, this document, accused by detractors of harbouring revolutionary sympathies, generated strong opposition from the Commonwealth's nobles and conservatives as well as from Catherine II, who, determined to prevent the rebirth of a strong Commonwealth set about planning the final dismemberment of the Polish-Lithuanian state. Russia was aided in achieving its goal when the Targowica Confederation, an organisation of Polish nobles, appealed to the Empress for help. In May 1792, Russian forces crossed the Commonwealth's frontier, thus beginning the Polish-Russian War.The defensive war fought by the Poles ended prematurely when the King, convinced of the futility of resistance, capitulated and joined the Targowica Confederation, hoping to save the country. The Confederation then took over the government. Russia and Prussia, fearing the mere existence of a Polish state, understanding, that despite the current influence they still cannot control the country, arranged for, and in 1793 executed, the Second Partition of the Commonwealth, which left the country deprived of so much territory that it was practically incapable of independent existence. Eventually, in 1795, following the failed Kościuszko Uprising, the Commonwealth was partitioned one last time by all three of its more powerful neighbours, and with this, effectively ceased to exist. The 18-century British statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke summed up the partitions: "No wise or honest man can approve of that partition, or can contemplate it without prognosticating great mischief from it to all countries at some future time."Poles rebelled several times against the partitioners, particularly near the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. An unsuccessful attempt at defending Poland's sovereignty took place in 1794 during the Kościuszko Uprising, where a popular and distinguished general Tadeusz Kościuszko, who had several years earlier served under Washington in the American Revolutionary War, led Polish insurrectionists against numerically superior Russian forces. Despite the victory at the Battle of Racławice, his ultimate defeat ended Poland's independent existence for 123 years.In 1807, Napoleon I of France temporarily recreated a Polish state as the satellite Duchy of Warsaw, after a successful Greater Poland Uprising of 1806 against Prussian rule. But, after the failed Napoleonic Wars, Poland was again split between the victorious powers at the Congress of Vienna of 1815. The eastern part was ruled by the Russian tsar as Congress Poland, which had a liberal constitution. However, over time the Russian monarch reduced Polish freedoms, and Russia annexed the country in virtually all but name. Meanwhile, the Prussian controlled territory of Poland came under increased Germanization. Thus, in the 19th century, only Habsburg-ruled Austrian Poland, and particularly the Free City of Kraków, allowed free Polish culture to flourish.Throughout the period of the partitions, political and cultural repression of the Polish nation led to the organisation of a number of uprisings against the authorities of the occupying Russian, Prussian and Austrian governments. In 1830, the November Uprising began in Warsaw when, led by Lieutenant Piotr Wysocki, young non-commissioned officers at the Officer Cadet School in Warsaw revolted. They were joined by large segments of Polish society, and together forced Warsaw's Russian garrison to withdraw north of the city.Over the course of the next seven months, Polish forces successfully defeated the Russian armies of Field Marshal Hans Karl von Diebitsch and a number of other Russian commanders; however, finding themselves in a position unsupported by any other foreign powers, save distant France and the newborn United States, and with Prussia and Austria refusing to allow the import of military supplies through their territories, the Poles accepted that the uprising was doomed to failure. Upon the surrender of Warsaw to General Ivan Paskievich, many Polish troops, feeling they could not go on, withdrew into Prussia and there laid down their arms. After the defeat, the semi-independent Congress Poland lost its constitution, army and legislative assembly, and was integrated more closely with the Russian Empire.During the Spring of Nations (a series of revolutions which swept across Europe), Poles took up arms in the Greater Poland Uprising of 1848 to resist Prussian rule. Initially, the uprising manifested itself in the form of civil disobedience but eventually turned into an armed struggle when the Prussian military was sent in to pacify the region. Subsequently, the uprising was suppressed and the semi-autonomous Grand Duchy of Posen, created from the Prussian partition of Poland, was incorporated into Prussia.In 1863, a new Polish uprising against Russian rule began. The January Uprising started out as a spontaneous protest by young Poles against conscription into the Imperial Russian Army. However, the insurrectionists, despite being joined by high-ranking Polish-Lithuanian officers and numerous politicians, were still severely outnumbered and lacking in foreign support. They were forced to resort to guerrilla warfare tactics and failed to win any major military victories. Afterwards no major uprising was witnessed in the Russian-controlled Congress Poland, and Poles resorted instead to fostering economic and cultural self-improvement. Congress Poland was rapidly industrialised towards the end of the 19th century, and successively transformed into the Empire's wealthiest and most developed subject.Despite the political unrest experienced during the partitions, Poland did benefit from large-scale industrialisation and modernisation programs, instituted by the occupying powers, which helped it develop into a more economically coherent and viable entity. This was particularly true in Greater Poland, Silesia and Eastern Pomerania controlled by Prussia (later becoming a part of the German Empire); areas which eventually, thanks largely to the Greater Poland Uprising of 1918 and Silesian Uprisings, were reconstituted as a part of the Second Polish Republic, becoming the country's most prosperous regions.Following World War I all the Allies agreed on the reconstitution of Poland that United States President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed in Point 13 of his Fourteen Points. A total of 2 million Polish troops fought with the armies of the three occupying powers, and 450,000 died. Shortly after the armistice with Germany in November 1918, Poland regained its independence as the Second Polish Republic ("II Rzeczpospolita Polska"). It reaffirmed its independence after a series of military conflicts, the most notable being the Polish–Soviet War (1919–21) when Poland inflicted a crushing defeat on the Red Army at the Battle of Warsaw, an event which is considered to have halted the advance of Communism into Europe and forced Vladimir Lenin to rethink his objective of achieving global socialism. The event is often referred to as the "Miracle at the Vistula".During this period, Poland successfully managed to fuse the territories of the three former partitioning powers into a cohesive nation state. Railways were restructured to direct traffic towards Warsaw instead of the former imperial capitals, a new network of national roads was gradually built up and a major seaport, Gdynia, was opened on the Baltic Coast, so as to allow Polish exports and imports to bypass the politically charged Free City of Danzig. Also, the Polish government embarked on the creation of the Central Industrial Region ("Centralny Okręg Przemysłowy"). The project's goal was to create a heavy industrial center in the middle of the country, which included steal mills, power plants and factories. The inter-war period heralded in a new era of Polish politics. Whilst Polish political activists had faced heavy censorship in the decades up until the First World War, the country now found itself trying to establish a new political tradition. For this reason, many exiled Polish activists, such as Ignacy Paderewski (who would later become prime minister) returned home to help; a significant number of them then went on to take key positions in the newly formed political and governmental structures. Tragedy struck in 1922 when Gabriel Narutowicz, inaugural holder of the presidency, was assassinated at the Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw by a painter and right-wing nationalist Eligiusz Niewiadomski.In 1926, a May coup, led by the hero of the Polish independence campaign Marshal Józef Piłsudski, turned rule of the Second Polish Republic over to the nonpartisan Sanacja ("Healing") movement in an effort to prevent radical political organizations on both the left and the right from destabilizing the country. The movement functioned with relative stability until Piłsudski's death in 1935. Following Marshall Piłsudski's death, Sanation split into several competing factions. By the late 1930s, due to increased threats posed by political extremism inside the country, the Polish government became increasingly heavy-handed, banning a number of radical organizations, including communist and ultra-nationalist political parties, which threatened the stability of the country.World War II began with the Nazi German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, followed by the Soviet invasion of Poland on 17 September. On 28 September 1939, Warsaw fell. As agreed in the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Poland was split into two zones, one occupied by Nazi Germany, the other by the Soviet Union. In 1939–41, the Soviets deported hundreds of thousands of Poles. The Soviet NKVD executed thousands of Polish prisoners of war (inter alia Katyn massacre) ahead of the Operation Barbarossa. German planners had in November 1939 called for "the complete destruction of all Poles" and their fate as outlined in the genocidal "Generalplan Ost".Polish intelligence operatives proved extremely valuable to the Allies, providing much of the intelligence from Europe and beyond, and Polish code breakers were responsible for cracking the Enigma cypher.Poland made the fourth-largest troop contribution in Europe and its troops served both the Polish Government in Exile in the west and Soviet leadership in the east. Polish troops played an important role in the Normandy, Italian and North African Campaigns and are particularly remembered for the Battle of Monte Cassino. In the east, the Soviet-backed Polish 1st Army distinguished itself in the battles for Warsaw and Berlin.The wartime resistance movement, and the Armia Krajowa ("Home Army"), fought against German occupation. It was one of the three largest resistance movements of the entire war, and encompassed a range of clandestine activities, which functioned as an underground state complete with degree-awarding universities and a court system. The resistance was loyal to the exiled government and generally resented the idea of a communist Poland; for this reason, in the summer of 1944 it initiated Operation Tempest, of which the Warsaw Uprising that begun on 1 August 1944 is the best known operation.Nazi German forces under orders from Adolf Hitler set up six German extermination camps in occupied Poland, including Treblinka, Majdanek and Auschwitz. The Germans transported millions of Jews from across occupied Europe to be murdered in those camps.Altogether, 3 million Polish Jews – approximately 90% of Poland's pre-war Jewry – and between 1.8 and 2.8 million ethnic Poles were killed during the German occupation of Poland, including between 50,000 and 100,000 members of the Polish intelligentsia – academics, doctors, lawyers, nobility and priesthood. During the Warsaw Uprising alone, over 150,000 Polish civilians were killed, most were murdered by the Germans during the Wola and Ochota massacres. Around 150,000 Polish civilians were killed by Soviets between 1939 and 1941 during the Soviet Union's occupation of eastern Poland (Kresy), and another estimated 100,000 Poles were murdered by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) between 1943 and 1944 in what became known as the Wołyń Massacres. Of all the countries in the war, Poland lost the highest percentage of its citizens: around 6 million perished – more than one-sixth of Poland's pre-war population – half of them Polish Jews. About 90% of deaths were non-military in nature.In 1945, Poland's borders were shifted westwards. Over two million Polish inhabitants of Kresy were expelled along the Curzon Line by Stalin. The western border became the Oder-Neisse line. As a result, Poland's territory was reduced by 20%, or . The shift forced the migration of millions of other people, most of whom were Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, and Jews.At the insistence of Joseph Stalin, the Yalta Conference sanctioned the formation of a new provisional pro-Communist coalition government in Moscow, which ignored the Polish government-in-exile based in London. This action angered many Poles who considered it a betrayal by the Allies. In 1944, Stalin had made guarantees to Churchill and Roosevelt that he would maintain Poland's sovereignty and allow democratic elections to take place. However, upon achieving victory in 1945, the elections organized by the occupying Soviet authorities were falsified and were used to provide a veneer of legitimacy for Soviet hegemony over Polish affairs. The Soviet Union instituted a new communist government in Poland, analogous to much of the rest of the Eastern Bloc. As elsewhere in Communist Europe, the Soviet influence over Poland was met with armed resistance from the outset which continued into the 1950s.Despite widespread objections, the new Polish government accepted the Soviet annexation of the pre-war eastern regions of Poland (in particular the cities of Wilno and Lwów) and agreed to the permanent garrisoning of Red Army units on Poland's territory. Military alignment within the Warsaw Pact throughout the Cold War came about as a direct result of this change in Poland's political culture. In the European scene, it came to characterize the full-fledged integration of Poland into the brotherhood of communist nations.The new communist government took control with the adoption of the Small Constitution on 19 February 1947. The Polish People's Republic ("Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa") was officially proclaimed in 1952. In 1956, after the death of Bolesław Bierut, the régime of Władysław Gomułka became temporarily more liberal, freeing many people from prison and expanding some personal freedoms. Collectivization in the Polish People's Republic failed. A similar situation repeated itself in the 1970s under Edward Gierek, but most of the time persecution of anti-communist opposition groups persisted. Despite this, Poland was at the time considered to be one of the least oppressive states of the Eastern Bloc.Labour turmoil in 1980 led to the formation of the independent trade union "Solidarity" (""Solidarność""), which over time became a political force. Despite persecution and imposition of martial law in 1981, it eroded the dominance of the Polish United Workers' Party and by 1989 had triumphed in Poland's first partially free and democratic parliamentary elections since the end of the Second World War. Lech Wałęsa, a Solidarity candidate, eventually won the presidency in 1990. The Solidarity movement heralded the collapse of communist regimes and parties across Europe.A shock therapy programme, initiated by Leszek Balcerowicz in the early 1990s, enabled the country to transform its socialist-style planned economy into a market economy. As with other post-communist countries, Poland suffered declines in social and economic standards, but it became the first post-communist country to reach its pre-1989 GDP levels, which it achieved by 1995 thanks largely to its booming economy.Most visibly, there were numerous improvements in human rights, such as freedom of speech, internet freedom (no censorship), civil liberties (1st class) and political rights (1st class), as ranked by Freedom House non-governmental organization. In 1991, Poland became a member of the Visegrád Group and joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance in 1999 along with the Czech Republic and Hungary. Poles then voted to join the European Union in a referendum in June 2003, with Poland becoming a full member on 1 May 2004.Poland joined the Schengen Area in 2007, as a result of which, the country's borders with other member states of the European Union have been dismantled, allowing for full freedom of movement within most of the EU. In contrast to this, a section of Poland's eastern border now constitutes the external EU border with Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. That border has become increasingly well protected, and has led in part to the coining of the phrase 'Fortress Europe', in reference to the seeming 'impossibility' of gaining entry to the EU for citizens of the former Soviet Union.In an effort to strengthen military cooperation with its neighbors, Poland set up the Visegrád Battlegroup with Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia, with a total of 3,000 troops ready for deployment. Also, in eastern Poland, it formed the LITPOLUKRBRIG battle groups with Lithuania and Ukraine. These battle groups will operate outside of NATO and within the European defense initiative framework.On 10 April 2010, the President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, along with 89 other high-ranking Polish officials died in a plane crash near Smolensk, Russia. The president's party was on their way to attend an annual service of commemoration for the victims of the Katyń massacre when the tragedy took place.In 2011, the ruling Civic Platform won parliamentary elections. Poland joined the European Space Agency in 2012, as well as organised the UEFA Euro 2012 (along with Ukraine). In 2013, Poland also became a member of the Development Assistance Committee. In 2014, the Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, was chosen to be President of the European Council, and resigned as prime minister.The 2015 and 2019 elections were won by the conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS), resulting in increased friction between Poland and the EU. In December 2017, Mateusz Morawiecki was sworn in as the new Prime Minister, succeeding Beata Szydlo, in office since 2015. They both represented ruling Law and Justice party, led by party chairman Jarosław Kaczyński. President Andrzej Duda, supported by Law and Justice party, was narrowly re-elected in the 2020 presidential election.Poland's vast territory covers approximately , of which 98.52% is dry land and 1.48% is water. Extending across several geographical regions, the country is the 9th-largest by area in Europe and 69th largest in the world. Topographically, Poland is diverse and has access to the sea, the mountains and open terrain. Although most of the central parts of the country are flat, there is an abundance of lakes, rivers, hills, swamps, beaches, islands and forests elsewhere.In the north-west is the Baltic seacoast spanning from the Bay of Pomerania to the Gulf of Gdańsk. The coast is marked by several spits, coastal lakes (former bays that have been cut off from the sea), and dunes. The largely straight coastline is indented by the Szczecin Lagoon, the Bay of Puck, and the Vistula Lagoon.The central and northern parts of the country lie within the North European Plain. Rising above these lowlands is a geographical region comprising four hilly districts of moraines and moraine-dammed lakes formed during and after the Pleistocene ice age, notably the Pomeranian Lake District, the Greater Polish Lake District, the Kashubian Lake District, and the Masurian Lake District. The Masurian Lake District is the largest of the four and covers much of north-eastern Poland. The lake districts form a series of moraine belts along the southern shore of the Baltic Sea.South of the Northern European Plain are the regions of Lusatia, Silesia and Masovia, which are marked by broad ice-age river valleys. The extreme south of Poland is mountainous; it runs from the Sudetes in the west to the Carpathian Mountains in the east. The highest part of the Carpathian massif is the Tatra Mountain range, along Poland's southern border.The geological structure of Poland has been shaped by the continental collision of Europe and Africa over the past 60 million years and, more recently, by the Quaternary glaciations of northern Europe. Both processes shaped the Sudetes and the Carpathian Mountains. The moraine landscape of northern Poland contains soils made up mostly of sand or loam, while the ice age river valleys of the south often contain loess. The Polish Jura, the Pieniny, and the Western Tatras consist of limestone, whereas the High Tatras, the Beskids, and the Karkonosze mountain ranges are made up mainly of granite and basalts. The Polish Jura Chain has some of the oldest rock formations on the continent of Europe.Poland has over 70 mountains over in elevation, all situated in the Tatras. Poland's highest point is the north-western summit of Mount Rysy at in elevation. At its foot lie the mountain lakes of Czarny Staw (Black Lake) and Morskie Oko (Eye of the Sea), both naturally-made tarns. Other notable uplands include the Pieniny and Holy Cross Mountains, the Table Mountains noted for their unusual rock formations, the Bieszczady in the far southeast of the country in which the highest peak is Tarnica at , and the Gorce Mountains whose highest point is Turbacz at . The highest point of the Sudeten massif is Mount Śnieżka (), shared with the Czech Republic.The lowest point in Poland – at below sea level – is at Raczki Elbląskie, near Elbląg in the Vistula Delta.In the Zagłębie Dąbrowskie (the Coal Fields of Dąbrowa) region in the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland is an area of sparsely vegetated sand known as the Błędów Desert. It covers an area of . It is not a natural desert and was formed by human activity from the Middle Ages onwards.The Baltic Sea activity in Słowiński National Park created sand dunes which in the course of time separated the bay from the sea creating two lakes. As waves and wind carry sand inland the dunes slowly move, at a rate of per year. Some dunes reach the height of up to . The highest peak of the park is Rowokol at above sea level.The longest rivers are the Vistula (), long; the Oder () which forms part of Poland's western border, long; its tributary, the Warta, long; and the Bug, a tributary of the Vistula, long. The Vistula and the Oder flow into the Baltic Sea, as do numerous smaller rivers in Pomerania. Poland's lengthy waterways have been used since early times for navigation; the Vikings ventured up the Polish rivers in their longships. In the Middle Ages and in early modern times, the shipment of tangible goods down the Vistula toward Gdańsk and onward to other parts of Europe took on great importance.With almost ten thousand closed bodies of water covering more than each, Poland has one of the highest numbers of lakes in the world. In Europe, only Finland has a greater density of lakes. The largest lakes, covering more than , are Lake Śniardwy and Lake Mamry in Masuria as well as Lake Łebsko and Lake Drawsko in Pomerania. The lake with the greatest depth—of more than —is Lake Hańcza in the Wigry Lake District, east of Masuria in Podlaskie Voivodeship.The Polish Baltic coast is approximately long and extends from Świnoujście on the islands of Usedom and Wolin in the west to Krynica Morska on the Vistula Spit in the east. For the most part, Poland has a smooth coastline, which has been shaped by the continual movement of sand by currents and winds. This continual erosion and deposition has formed cliffs, dunes, and spits, many of which have migrated landwards to close off former lagoons, such as Łebsko Lake in the Słowiński National Park.The largest spits are Hel Peninsula and the Vistula Spit. The coast line is varied also by Szczecin and Vistula Lagoons and several lakes, including Jamno. The largest Polish Baltic island is Wolin, located within Wolin National Park. The largest sea harbours are Szczecin, Świnoujście, Gdańsk, Gdynia, Police and Kołobrzeg and the main coastal resorts – Świnoujście, Międzydzdroje, Kołobrzeg, Łeba, Sopot, Władysławowo and the Hel Peninsula.In the valley of Pilica river in Tomaszów Mazowiecki there is a unique natural karst spring of water containing calcium salts, that is an object of protection at Blue Springs Nature Reserve in the Sulejów Landscape Park. The red waves are absorbed by water, hence only blue and green are reflected from the bottom of the spring, giving the water atypical colour.Forests cover about 29.6% of Poland's land area based on international standards. Its overall percentage is still increasing. Forests of Poland are managed by the national program of reforestation (KPZL), aiming at an increase of forest-cover to 33% in 2050. The largest forest complex in Poland is Lower Silesian Wilderness.More than 1% of Poland's territory, , is protected within 23 Polish national parks. Three more national parks are projected for Masuria, the Polish Jura, and the eastern Beskids. In addition, wetlands along lakes and rivers in central Poland are legally protected, as are coastal areas in the north. There are 123 areas designated as landscape parks, along with numerous nature reserves and other protected areas under the Natura 2000 network.In 2017, approximately of land was occupied by farms and farmsteads, over half of Poland's total area.Phytogeographically, Poland belongs to the Central European province of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the territory of Poland belongs to three Palearctic Ecoregions of the continental forest spanning Central and Northern European temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregions, as well as the Carpathian montane conifer forest. The most common deciduous trees found across the country are oak, maple, and beech; the most common conifers are pine, spruce, and fir. An estimated 68.7% of all forests are coniferous.Poland has historically been home to rare species of animals, as well as the two largest European mammals: the wisent ("żubr") and aurochs ("tur"). The last aurochs of Europe became extinct in 1627 in the Polish Jaktorów Forest, while the wisent survived until the 20th century only at Białowieża. It has been since reintroduced to other countries. Other wild species include the brown bear in Białowieża, in the Tatras, and in the Beskids; the gray wolf and the Eurasian lynx in various forests; the moose in northern Poland; and the beaver in Masuria, Pomerania, and Podlaskie.Game animals such as red deer, roe deer, and wild boar are found in most woodlands. Eastern Poland abounds in ancient woods, like the Białowieża Forest, that have not been disturbed by human or industrial activity. There are also large forested areas in the mountains, Greater Poland, Pomerania, Lubusz Land, and Lower Silesia. The Lubusz Voivodeship is currently the most arboraceous province in the country; 52% of its territory is occupied by forests.Poland is also a significant breeding ground for a variety of European migratory birds. One quarter of the global population of white storks (40,000 breeding pairs) live in Poland, particularly in the lake districts and the wetlands along the Biebrza, the Narew, and the Warta, which are part of nature reserves or national parks.The climate is mostly temperate throughout the country. The climate is oceanic in the north-west and becomes gradually warmer and continental towards the south-east. Summers are generally warm, with average temperatures between depending on the region. Winters are rather cold, with average temperatures around in the northwest and in the northeast. Precipitation falls throughout the year, although, especially in the east, winter is drier than summer.The warmest region in Poland is Lower Silesia in the southwest of the country, where temperatures in the summer average between but can go as high as on some days in the warmest months of July and August. The warmest cities in Poland are Tarnów in Lesser Poland, and Wrocław in Lower Silesia. The average temperatures in Wrocław are in the summer and in the winter, but Tarnów has the longest summer in all of Poland, which lasts for 115 days, from mid-May to mid-September. The coldest region of Poland is in the northeast, around the area of Suwałki within the Podlaskie Voivodeship, where the climate is affected by cold fronts coming from Scandinavia and Siberia. The average temperature in the winter in Podlaskie ranges from . The biggest impact of the oceanic climate is observed in Świnoujście and Baltic Sea seashore area from Police to Słupsk.Poland is a representative democracy, with a president as the head of state. The government structure centers on the Council of Ministers, led by a prime minister. The president appoints the cabinet according to the proposals of the prime minister, typically from the majority coalition in the Sejm. The president is elected by popular vote every five years. The current president is Andrzej Duda and the prime minister is Mateusz Morawiecki.Polish voters elect a bicameral parliament consisting of a 460-member lower house (Sejm) and a 100-member Senate (Senat). The Sejm is elected under proportional representation according to the d'Hondt method, a method similar to that used in many parliamentary political systems. The Senat, on the other hand, is elected under the first-past-the-post voting method, with one senator being returned from each of the 100 constituencies.With the exception of ethnic minority parties, only candidates of political parties receiving at least 5% of the total national vote can enter the Sejm. When sitting in joint session, members of the Sejm and Senat form the National Assembly (the "Zgromadzenie Narodowe"). The National Assembly is formed on three occasions: when a new president takes the oath of office; when an indictment against the President of the Republic is brought to the State Tribunal ("Trybunał Stanu"); and when a president's permanent incapacity to exercise his duties due to the state of his health is declared. To date only the first instance has occurred.The judicial branch plays an important role in decision-making. Its major institutions include the Supreme Court ("Sąd Najwyższy"); the Supreme Administrative Court ("Naczelny Sąd Administracyjny"); the Constitutional Tribunal ("Trybunał Konstytucyjny"); and the State Tribunal ("Trybunał Stanu"). On the approval of the Senat, the Sejm also appoints the ombudsman or the Commissioner for Civil Rights Protection ("Rzecznik Praw Obywatelskich") for a five-year term. The ombudsman has the duty of guarding the observance and implementation of the rights and liberties of Polish citizens and residents, of the law and of principles of community life and social justice.The Constitution of Poland is the enacted supreme law, and the Polish legal system is based on the principle of civil rights, governed by the code of civil law. The current democratic constitution was adopted by the National Assembly of Poland on 2 April 1997; it guarantees a multi-party state with freedoms of religion, speech and assembly, prohibits the practices of forced medical experimentation, torture or corporal punishment, and acknowledges the inviolability of the home, the right to form trade unions, and the right to strike.The judiciary incorporates a four-tier court system composed of the Supreme Court, the Supreme Administrative Court, Common Courts (District, Regional, Appellate) and the Military Court. Judges are nominated by the National Council of the Judiciary and are appointed for life by the president. The Constitutional and State Tribunals are separate judicial bodies, which rule the constitutional liability of people holding the highest offices of state and supervise the compliance of statutory law, thus protecting the Constitution.Historically, the most significant Polish legal act is the Constitution of 3 May 1791, the first modern constitution in Europe. Instituted as a Government Act, it was designed to redress long-standing political defects of the federative Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and its Golden Liberty. Previously, only the Henrician Articles (1573) signed by each of Poland's elected monarchs could perform the function of a set of basic laws. The new Constitution introduced political equality between townspeople and the nobility ("szlachta"), and placed the peasants under the protection of the government. It abolished pernicious parliamentary policies such as the "liberum veto", which permitted any deputy to rescind all the legislation passed in the interest of a foreign power. The 3 May Constitution sought to supplant the existing anarchy fostered by some of the country's reactionary magnates, with a more egalitarian and democratic constitutional monarchy. The influenced many later democratic movements across the globe. Tax-paying women were allowed to take part in Polish political life until the third partition in 1795. In 1918 the Second Polish Republic became one of the first countries to introduce universal women's suffrage.Poland has a low homicide rate at 0.7 murders per 100,000 people, as of 2018. Rape, assault and violent crime remain at a very low level, although not all cases are recorded by the authorities.Abortion is permitted only in cases of rape, incest or when the woman's life is in danger. Congenital disorder and stillbirth are not covered by the law, forcing some women to seek abortion abroad, and others to seek the assistance of psychiatrists willing to testify on the negative psychological impact of stillbirth. Poland does not criminalize homosexuality, and its legality was confirmed in 1932. The Polish Constitution defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.Poland is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union and has a grand total of 52 representatives in the European Parliament as of 2020. Since joining the union in 2004, successive Polish governments have pursued policies to extend the country's role in European and international affairs. Poland is an emerging regional power in Central Europe. The capital of Warsaw serves as the headquarters for Frontex, the European Union's agency for external border security as well as ODIHR, one of the principal institutions of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.Apart from the European Union, Poland has been a member of NATO since 1999, the UN, the World Trade Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since 1996, European Economic Area, International Energy Agency, Council of Europe, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, International Atomic Energy Agency, European Space Agency, G6, Council of the Baltic Sea States, Visegrád Group, Weimar Triangle, Schengen Agreement, Lublin Triangle and Bucharest Nine.Over the past two decades, Poland significantly strengthened its ties with the United States, thus becoming one of its closest allies in Europe. Poland was part of the US-led coalition force during the Iraq War in 2003, and sent its troops in the first phase of the conflict, jointly with the United Kingdom and Australia. Along with NATO, Poland maintains military presence in the Middle East, the Baltic states and in the Balkans.The Polish Armed Forces are composed of five branches – Land Forces ("Wojska Lądowe"), Navy ("Marynarka Wojenna"), Air Force ("Siły Powietrzne"), Special Forces ("Wojska Specjalne") and the Territorial Defence Force ("Wojska Obrony Terytorialnej"). The military is subordinate to the Ministry of National Defence of the Republic of Poland. However, its commander-in-chief in peacetime is the President of the Republic, who nominates officers, the Minister for National Defence and the chief of staff.As of 2018, the Polish Armed Forces have a combined strength of 144,142 soldiers. The Polish Navy primarily operates on the Baltic Sea and conducts operations such as maritime patrol, search and rescue for the section of the Baltic under Polish sovereignty, as well as hydrographic measurements and research. The Polish Air Force routinely takes part in Baltic Air Policing assignments. In 2003, the F-16C Block 52 was selected as the new general multi-role fighter for the air force. In January 2020, Poland has approved the delivery for F-35 Lightning II combat aircraft. Poland is currently spending 2% of its GDP on defence (approximately US$13.5 billion in 2020), which is expected to grow to 2.5% by 2030. According to SIPRI, the country exported EUR€487 million worth of arms and armaments to other countries, primarily to the United States, Chile, France and South Africa.The mission of the armed forces is the defence of Poland's territorial integrity and Polish interests abroad. The country's national security goal is to further integrate with NATO and European defence, economic, and political institutions. Compulsory military service for men was discontinued in 2008. From 2007, until conscription ended in 2008, the mandatory service was nine months. Polish military doctrine reflects the same defensive nature as that of its NATO partners and the country actively hosts NATO's military exercises. From 1953 to 2009 Poland was a large contributor to various United Nations peacekeeping missions. The Polish Armed Forces took part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, deploying 2,500 soldiers in the south of that country and commanding the 17-nation multinational force in Iraq. Poland also maintains troops in the Middle East, the Baltic states and in the Balkans; 1,650 soldiers were deployed in 2019.Law enforcement in Poland is performed by several agencies which are subordinate to the Ministry of Interior and Administration – the State Police ("Policja"), assigned to investigate crimes or transgression; the Municipal City Guard, which maintains public order; and several specialized agencies, such as the Polish Border Guard. Private security firms are also common, although they possess no legal authority to arrest or detain a suspect. Municipal guards are primarily headed by provincial, regional or city councils; individual guards are not permitted to carry firearms unless instructed by their superior commanding officer or commandant.The Internal Security Agency (ABW, or ISA in English) is the chief counter-intelligence instrument safeguarding Poland's internal security, along with Agencja Wywiadu (AW) which identifies threats and collects secret information abroad. The Central Investigation Bureau of Police (CBŚP) and the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) are responsible for countering organized crime and corruption in state and private institutions.Emergency services in Poland consist of the emergency medical services, search and rescue units of the Polish Armed Forces and State Fire Service. Emergency medical services in Poland are provided for by local and regional governments.All emergency services personnel are uniformed and security services can be easily recognized during regular patrols in both large urban areas or smaller suburban localities.Poland's current voivodeships (provinces) are largely based on the country's historic regions, whereas those of the past two decades (to 1998) had been centred on and named for individual cities. The new units range in area from less than for Opole Voivodeship to more than for Masovian Voivodeship. Administrative authority at the voivodeship level is shared between a government-appointed voivode (governor), an elected regional assembly ("sejmik") and a voivodeship marshal, an executive elected by that assembly.The voivodeships are subdivided into "powiats" (often referred to in English as counties), and these are further divided into "gminas" (also known as communes or municipalities). Major cities normally have the status of both "gmina" and "powiat". Poland has 16 voivodeships, 380 powiats (including 66 cities with "powiat" status), and 2,478 "gminas".Poland's economy and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is currently the sixth largest in the European Union by nominal standards, and the fifth largest by purchasing power parity. It is also one of the fastest growing within the Union. Around 60% of the employed population belongs to the tertiary service sector, 30% to industry and manufacturing, and the remaining 10% to the agricultural sector. Although Poland is a member of EU's single market, the country has not adopted the Euro as legal tender and maintains its own currency – the Polish złoty (zł, PLN).Poland is the regional economic leader in Central Europe, with nearly 40 per cent of the 500 biggest companies in the region (by revenues) as well as a high globalisation rate. The country's largest firms compose the WIG20 and WIG30 indexes, which is traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. According to reports made by the National Bank of Poland, the value of Polish foreign direct investments reached almost 300 billion PLN at the end of 2014. The Central Statistical Office estimated that in 2014 there were 1,437 Polish corporations with interests in 3,194 foreign entities.Having a strong domestic market, low private debt, low unemployment rate, flexible currency, and not being dependent on a single export sector, Poland is the only European economy to have avoided the recession of 2008. The country is the 20th largest exporter of goods and services in the world and its most successful exports include machinery, furniture, food products, clothing, shoes, cosmetics and videogames. These account to approximately 56% of the total GDP, as of 2018. Poland's largest trading partners include Germany, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, France and Italy. Warsaw leads Central Europe in foreign investment. In September 2018, the unemployment rate was estimated at 5.7%, one of the lowest in the European Union. In 2019, Poland passed a law that would exempt workers under the age of 26 from income tax.The Polish banking sector is the largest in the region, with 32.3 branches per 100,000 adults.World Bank, Financial Inclusion Data. Country Dashboard: Poland. The World Bank Group. Retrieved 6 November 2014. The banks are the largest and most developed sector of the country's financial markets. They are regulated by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority. Poland's banking sector has approximately 5 national banks, a network of nearly 600 cooperative banks and 18 branches of foreign-owned banks. In addition, foreign investors have controlling stakes in nearly 40 commercial banks, which make up 68% of the banking capital.Products and goods manufactured in Poland include: electronics, buses and trams (Solaris, Solbus), helicopters and planes (PZL Świdnik, PZL Mielec), trains (Pesa, Newag), ships (Gdańsk Shipyard, Szczecin Shipyard), military equipment (FB "Łucznik" Radom, , Jelcz), medicines (, ), food (Tymbark, Hortex, E. Wedel), clothes (LLP), glass, pottery (Bolesławiec), chemical products and others. Well-known brands and companies include Alior Bank, Orlen&Lotos Group, Inglot Cosmetics, Plus, Play, Brainly, Netguru, GOG.com, CD Projekt, Trefl and Allegro. Poland is also one of the world's biggest producers of copper, silver, coal, furniture, automotive parts and soft drink.Poland experienced a significant increase in the number of tourists after joining the European Union in 2004. With nearly 21 million international arrivals in 2019, tourism contributes considerably to the overall economy and makes up a relatively large proportion of the country's service market.Tourist attractions in Poland vary, from the mountains in the south to the sandy beaches in the north, with a trail of nearly every architectural style. The most visited city is Kraków, which was the former capital of Poland and serves as a relic of the Polish Golden Age and the Renaissance. Kraków also held royal coronations of most Polish kings and monarchs at Wawel, the nation's chief historical landmark. Among other notable sites in the country is Wrocław, one of the oldest cities in Poland which was a model for the founding of Kraków. Wrocław is famous for its dwarfs, a large market square with two town halls, and the oldest Zoological Gardens with one of the world's largest number of animal species. The Polish capital Warsaw and its historical Old Town were entirely reconstructed after wartime destruction. Other cities attracting countless tourists include Gdańsk, Poznań, Lublin, Toruń as well as the site of the German Auschwitz concentration camp in Oświęcim. A notable highlight is the 13th-century Wieliczka Salt Mine with its labyrinthine tunnels, a subterranean lake and chapels carved by miners out of rock salt beneath the ground.Poland's main tourist offerings include outdoor activities such as skiing, sailing, mountain hiking and climbing, as well as agritourism, sightseeing historical monuments. Tourist destinations include the Baltic Sea coast in the north; the Masurian Lake District and Białowieża Forest in the east; on the south Karkonosze, the Table Mountains and the Tatra Mountains, where Rysy – the highest peak of Poland, and Eagle's Path mountain trail are located. The Pieniny and Bieszczady Mountains lie in the extreme south-east. There are over 100 castles in the country, most in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship (inter alia ), and also on the Trail of the Eagles' Nests. The largest castle in the world by land area is situated in Malbork, in north-central Poland.The electricity generation sector in Poland is largely fossil-fuel–based. Many power plants nationwide use Poland's position as a major European exporter of coal to their advantage by continuing to use coal as the primary raw material in the production of their energy. In 2013, Poland scored 48 out of 129 states in the Energy Sustainability Index. The three largest Polish coal mining firms (Węglokoks, Kompania Węglowa and JSW) extract around 100 million tonnes of coal annually.Renewable forms of energy account for a smaller proportion of Poland's full energy generation capacity. However, the national government has set targets for the development of renewable energy sources in Poland (the share of energy from renewable sources in the gross final energy consumption in 2019 was – 12,18%). Increasing the share of energy from renewable sources and a significant reduction in CO2 emissions to be achieved with the help of biofuels, photovoltaics, construction of wind farms on the land and the Baltic Sea, hydroelectric stations and nuclear power plant.Poland has around 164,800,000,000 m of proven natural gas reserves and around 96,380,000 barrels of proven oil reserves. These reserves are exploited by energy supply companies such as PKN Orlen ("the only Polish company listed in the Fortune Global 500"), PGNiG. However, the small amounts of fossil fuels naturally occurring in Poland are insufficient to satisfy the full energy consumption needs of the population and industry. Consequently, the country is a net importer of oil and natural gas. Therefore, since the second decade of the 21st century, Poland has been strongly developing the so-called North Gate in which the most important components are the Baltic Pipe, the Świnoujście LNG terminal and Floating Storage and Regasification Unit in Port of Gdańsk.The 5 largest companies supplying Poland electricity are PGE, Tauron, Enea, and Innogy Poland.Transport in Poland is provided by means of rail, road, marine shipping and air travel. The country is part of EU's Schengen Area and is an important transport hub along neighbouring Germany due to its strategic position in Central Europe. Some of the longest European routes, including the E40, run through Poland.The country has a good network of highways, composed of express roads and motorways. At the start of 2020, Poland had of highways in use. In addition, all local and regional roads are monitored by the National Road Rebuilding Programme, which aims to improve the quality of travel in the countryside and suburban localities.In 2017, the nation had of railway track, the third longest in Europe after Germany and France. The Polish State Railways (PKP) is the dominant railway operator in the country. In December 2014, Poland began to implement high–speed rail routes connecting major Polish cities, and started passenger service using the New Pendolino train, operating at 200 km/h on the Central Rail Line (CMK). Polish regulations allow trains without ETCS to travel at speeds up to 160 km/h, trains with ETCS1 up to 200 km/h, and trains with ETCS2 at over 200 km/h. Most inter-regional connections rail routes in Poland are operated by PKP Intercity, whilst regional trains are run by a number of private operators, the largest of which is Polregio. The largest passenger train station in terms of the number of travelers is Wrocław Główny.The air and maritime transport markets in Poland are largely well developed. Poland has a number of international airports, the largest of which is Warsaw Chopin Airport, the primary global hub for LOT Polish Airlines. It was established in 1928 from a merger of Aerolloyd (1922) and Aero (1925). Other major airports with international connections include John Paul II International Airport Kraków–Balice, Copernicus Airport Wrocław, Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport. Poland has begun preparations for a construction that can handle 100 million passengers of the Central Communication Port.Seaports exist all along Poland's Baltic coast, with most freight operations using Świnoujście, Police, Szczecin, Kołobrzeg, Gdynia, Gdańsk and Elbląg as their base.Passenger ferries link Poland with Scandinavia all year round; these services are provided from Gdańsk and Świnoujście by Polferries, Stena Line from Gdynia and Unity Line from the Świnoujście. The Port of Gdańsk is the only port in the Baltic Sea adapted to receive oceanic vessels.Over the course of history, the Polish people have made considerable contributions in the fields of science, technology and mathematics. Perhaps the most renowned Pole to support this theory was Nicolaus Copernicus ("Mikołaj Kopernik"), who triggered the Copernican Revolution by placing the Sun rather than the Earth at the center of the universe. He also derived a quantity theory of money, which made him a pioneer of economics. Copernicus' achievements and discoveries are considered the basis of Polish culture and cultural identity.Poland's tertiary education institutions; traditional universities, as well as technical, medical, and economic institutions, employ around tens of thousands of researchers and staff members. There are hundreds of research and development institutes. However, in the 19th and 20th centuries many Polish scientists worked abroad; one of the most important of these exiles was Maria Skłodowska-Curie, a physicist and chemist who lived much of her life in France. In 1925 she established Poland's Radium Institute.In the first half of the 20th century, Poland was a flourishing centre of mathematics. Outstanding Polish mathematicians formed the Lwów School of Mathematics (with Stefan Banach, Stanisław Mazur, Hugo Steinhaus, Stanisław Ulam) and Warsaw School of Mathematics (with Alfred Tarski, Kazimierz Kuratowski, Wacław Sierpiński and Antoni Zygmund). Numerous mathematicians, scientists, chemists or economists emigrated due to historic vicissitudes, among them Benoit Mandelbrot, Leonid Hurwicz, Alfred Tarski, Joseph Rotblat and Nobel Prize laureates Roald Hoffmann, Georges Charpak and Tadeusz Reichstein. In the 1930s, mathematician and cryptologist Marian Rejewski invented the Cryptographic Bomb which formed the basis of the effort that allowed the Allies to crack the Enigma code.Over 40 research and development centers and 4,500 researchers make Poland the biggest research and development hub in Central and Eastern Europe. Multinational companies such as: ABB, Delphi, GlaxoSmithKline, Google, Hewlett–Packard, IBM, Intel, LG Electronics, Microsoft, Motorola, Siemens and Samsung all have set up research and development centres in Poland. Companies chose Poland because of the availability of highly qualified labour force, presence of universities, support of authorities, and the largest market in East-Central Europe. According to a KPMG report from 2011, 80% of Poland's current investors are content with their choice and willing to reinvest. Poland has a very well-developed e-administration, thanks to which many official matters can be easily and quickly settled via the Internet. In the UN ranking, Poland is in the top twenty countries with the best-rated e-administration in the world.Poland, with approximately 38.5 million inhabitants, has the ninth-largest population in Europe and the fifth-largest in the European Union. It has a population density of 122 inhabitants per square kilometre (328 per square mile). The total fertility rate in 2020 was estimated at 1.44 children born to a woman, a considerable rise from previous years. In contrast, the total fertility rate in 1925 was 4.68. Furthermore, Poland's population is aging significantly and the median age in 2018 was 41.1 years. The crude death rate in 2020 stood at 10.3 per 1,000 people.Around 60% of Poles and Polish citizens reside in urban areas or major cities and 40% in more rural zones. The most populous administrative province or state is the Masovian Voivodeship and the most populous city is the capital, Warsaw, at 1.8 million inhabitants with a further 2-3 million people living in its metropolitan area. The metropolitan area of Katowice is the largest urban conurbation in Poland with a population between 2.7 million and 5.3 million residents. The least populous and the smallest province in size is the Opole Voivodeship, with just under 1 million people living within its borders. Hence, a substantial portion of the total population is concentrated in the south of Poland, roughly between the cities of Wrocław and Kraków.In the 2011 Polish census, 37,310,341 people reported Polish identity, 846,719 Silesian, 232,547 Kashubian and 147,814 German. Other identities were reported by 163,363 people (0.41%) and 521,470 people (1.35%) did not specify any nationality. Once prominent but now statistically insignificant minority groups include Polish Jews, Lipka Tatars, Armenians, Greeks, Lemkos, the Romani people and the Vietnamese. Ethnic Poles themselves can be divided into many diverse regional ethnographic sub-groups, most notable being the Kashubians, Silesians and Gorals (Highlanders). The statistics do not include recently arrived migrant workers. More than 1.7 million Ukrainian citizens worked legally in Poland in 2017.There is a very strong Polish diaspora around the world, notably in the United States, Germany, United Kingdom and Canada. A strong Polish minority is still present in the territories of contemporary western Ukraine and Belarus, eastern Lithuania, eastern and central Latvia, and northeastern Czech Republic, which were part of Poland in the past. Altogether, the number of ethnic Poles living abroad is estimated to be around 20 million.Polish is the only official and predominant spoken language in Poland, but it is also used throughout the world by Polish minorities in other countries as well as being one of the official languages of the European Union. The deaf communities use Polish Sign Language belonging to the German family of Sign Languages. Polish is also a second language in Lithuania, where it is taught in schools and universities. Contemporary Poland is a linguistically homogeneous nation, with nearly 97% of respondents declaring Polish as their mother tongue.Poland's once multi-ethnic population communicated in numerous languages and lects which faded or disappeared along the course of history. There are currently 15 minority languages in Poland, including one recognized regional language, Kashubian, which is spoken by around 366,000 people in the northern regions of Kashubia and Pomerania.Languages having the status of national minority's language are Armenian, Belarusian, Czech, German, Yiddish, Hebrew, Lithuanian, Russian, Slovak and Ukrainian. Languages having the status of ethnic minority's language are Karaim, Lemko-Rusyn, Tatar and two Romani languages; Polska Roma and Bergitka Roma. Official recognition of a language provides certain rights under conditions prescribed by Polish law, including education and state financial support for promoting that language. Poland recognized secondary administrative languages or auxiliary languages in bilingual municipalities. Currently, German and Kashubian hold such status in 19 municipalities ("gminas"), Belarusian in 9 and Lithuanian in 1. Bilingual signs, names and advertisements are commonplace in those localities. Silesian and Wymysorys (Vilamovian) are not legally recognized or acknowledged as separate languages with a minority status.More than 50% of Polish citizens declare at least basic knowledge of the English language, followed by German (38%).According to the 2015 census, 92.9% of all Polish citizens adhere to the Roman Catholic Church. An estimated 94.2% of the population are believers and 3.1% are irreligious, making Poland one of the more devout countries in Europe. Around 61.6% of all respondents outlined that religion is of high or very high importance. However, church attendance has decreased in recent years; only 38% of worshippers attended mass regularly on Sunday in 2018. Freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Polish Constitution, and the concordat guarantees the teaching of religion in state schools.For centuries the tribes inhabiting the lands of modern-day Poland have practiced various forms of paganism known as "Rodzimowierstwo", or "native faith". In the year 966, Duke Mieszko I converted to Christianity, and submitted to the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. This event came to be known as the Baptism of Poland. However, this did not put an end to pagan beliefs in the country. The persistence was demonstrated by a series of rebellions in the 1030s known as the pagan reaction, which also showed elements of a peasant uprising against medieval feudalism.Religious tolerance was an important part of Polish political culture, though it varied at times. In 1264, the Statute of Kalisz granted Jews unprecedented legal rights not found anywhere in Europe. In 1573, the Warsaw Confederation marked the formal beginning of extensive religious freedoms in Poland. It was partially influenced by the 1572 St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in France, which prompted the nobility to prevent the monarch from carrying out reprehensible atrocities in Poland based on religious affiliation. The religious tolerance also spurred many theological movements such as the Calvinist Polish Brethren, a number of Protestant groups and atheists like Casimir Liszinski, one of the first atheist thinkers in Europe. Anabaptists fleeing 16th-century persecution in the Netherlands and Germany settled in Poland and became known as the Vistula delta Mennonites. From 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła was head of the Roman Catholic Church as Pope John Paul II.Contemporary religious minorities include Christian Orthodox (506,800), various Protestants (150,000) — including 77,500 Lutherans of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church, 23,000 Pentecostals in the Pentecostal Church in Poland, 10,000 Adventists in the Seventh-day Adventist Church and other smaller Evangelical denominations — Jehovah's Witnesses (126,827), Eastern Catholics, Mariavites, Jews, Muslims (Tatars) and neopagans, some of whom are members of the Native Polish Church.Famous sites of Roman Catholic pilgrimage in Poland include the Monastery of Jasna Góra in the city of Częstochowa, Basilica of Our Lady of Licheń, Kraków's Sanctuary of Divine Mercy and Święta Lipka (Holy Linden) in Masuria. Tourists also visit the family home of John Paul II in Wadowice outside Kraków. Christ the King in Świebodzin is the tallest statue of Jesus in the world. Christian Orthodox pilgrims visit Mount Grabarka near Grabarka-Klasztor and the Hasidic Jews travel annually to the grave of a great rabbi in Leżajsk.Medical service providers and hospitals ("szpitale") in Poland are subordinate to the Ministry of Health; it provides administrative oversight and scrutiny of general medical practice, and is obliged to maintain a high standard of hygiene and patient care. Poland has a universal healthcare system based on an all-inclusive insurance system; state subsidised healthcare is available to all citizens covered by the general health insurance program of the National Health Fund (NFZ). Private medical complexes exist nationwide; over 50% of the population uses both public and private sectors.Hospitals are organised according to the regional administrative structure, resultantly most towns, counties or municipalities possess their own provincial hospital or medical clinics. There are six types of hospital facilities, each with a particular area of medical expertise – I Grade Hospitals for general surgery, internal illnesses and obstetrics; II Grade Hospitals for child surgery, neurology, cardiology and ophthalmology; III Grade Hospitals including teaching hospitals for infectious diseases, nephrology, orthopedics, toxicology and transplantology; Oncology Hospitals for cancer treatment and brachytherapy; Pediatric Hospitals for child care; and Nationwide Hospitals for general and acute care.According to the Human Development Report from 2020, the average life expectancy at birth is 79 years (around 75 years for an infant male and 83 years for an infant female); the country has a low infant mortality rate (4 per 1,000 births). In 2019, the principal cause of death was ischemic heart disease; diseases of the circulatory system accounted for 45% of all deaths. In the same year, Poland was also the 15th-largest importer of medications and pharmaceutical products.The Jagiellonian University founded in 1364 by Casimir III in Kraków was the first institution of higher learning established in Poland, and is one of the oldest universities still in continuous operation. Poland's Commission of National Education ("Komisja Edukacji Narodowej"), established in 1773, was the world's first state ministry of education. The framework for primary and secondary schooling in contemporary Poland is established by the Ministry of National Education. Kindergarten attendance is optional for children aged between three and five, with one year being compulsory for six-year-olds. Primary education traditionally begins at the age of seven, although children aged six can attend at the request of their parents or guardians. Elementary school spans eight grades, at the end of which an obligatory three-part exam on Polish, mathematics and a foreign language is to be undertaken. Secondary schooling is dependent on student preference – either a four-year high school ("liceum"), a five-year technical school ("technikum") or various vocational studies ("szkoła branżowa") can be pursued by each individual pupil. A liceum or technikum is concluded with a maturity exit exam ("matura"), which must be passed in order to apply for a university or other institutions of higher learning.The standards of higher tertiary education are imposed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. In Poland, there are over 500 university-level institutions, with technical, medical, economic, agricultural, pedagogical, theological, musical, maritime and military faculties. The University of Warsaw and Warsaw Polytechnic, the University of Wrocław, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and the University of Technology in Gdańsk are among the most prominent. There are three conventional academic degrees in Poland – "licencjat" or "inżynier" (first cycle qualification), "magister" (second cycle qualification) and "doktor" (third cycle qualification).In 2018, the Programme for International Student Assessment, coordinated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, ranked Poland's educational system higher than the OECD average; the study showed that students in Poland perform better academically than in most OECD countries.The culture of Poland is closely connected with its intricate 1,000-year history and forms an important constituent in western civilization. The Poles take great pride in their national identity which is often associated with the colours white and red, and exuded by the expression "biało-czerwoni" ("whitereds"). National symbols, chiefly the crowned white-tailed eagle, are often visible on clothing, insignia and emblems. The appreciation of Poland's traditions and cultural heritage is commonly known as Polonophilia.With origins in the customs of the tribal Lechites, over time the culture of Poland has been influenced by its connection to Western culture and trends, as well as developing its own unique traditions such as Sarmatism. The people of Poland have traditionally been seen as hospitable to artists from abroad and eager to follow cultural and artistic trends popular in foreign countries, for instance, the 16th- and 17th-century tradition of coffin portraits ("portret trumienny") was only observed in Poland and Roman Egypt. In the 19th and 20th centuries the Polish focus on cultural advancement often took precedence over political and economic activity. These factors have contributed to the versatile nature of Polish art.The architectural monuments of great importance are protected by the National Heritage Board of Poland. Over 100 of the country's most significant tangible wonders were enlisted onto the Historic Monuments Register, with further 16 being recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. Poland is renowned for its brick Gothic castles, granaries and churches as well as diversely-styled tenements, market squares and town halls. The majority of Polish cities founded on Magdeburg Law in the Middle Ages evolved around central marketplaces, a distinguishable urban characteristic which can be observed to this day. Medieval and Renaissance cloth halls were once an abundant feature of many towns.There are 13 government-approved annual public holidays – New Year on 1 January, Three Kings' Day on 6 January, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, Labour Day on 1 May, Constitution Day on 3 May, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, Armed Forces Day on 15 August, All Saints' Day on 1 November, Independence Day on 11 November and Christmastide on 25 and 26 December.Particular traditions and superstitious customs observed in Poland are not found elsewhere in Europe. Though Christmas Eve ("Wigilia") is not a public holiday, it remains the most memorable day of the entire year. Trees are decorated on 24 December, hay is placed under the tablecloth to resemble Jesus' manger, Christmas wafers ("opłatek") are shared between gathered guests and a twelve-dish meatless supper is served that same evening when the first star appears. An empty plate and seat are symbolically left at the table for an unexpected guest. On occasion, carolers journey around smaller towns with a folk Turoń creature until the Lent period.A widely-popular doughnut and sweet pastry feast occurs on Fat Thursday, usually 52 days prior to Easter. Eggs for Holy Sunday are painted and placed in decorated baskets that are previously blessed by clergymen in churches on Easter Saturday. Easter Monday is celebrated with pagan "dyngus" festivities, where the youth is engaged in water fights and some girls are gently spanked by colleagues with pussy willows to stimulate fertility.Cemeteries and graves of the deceased are annually visited by family members on All Saints' Day; tombstones are cleaned as a sign of respect and candles are lit to honour the dead on an unprecedented scale.Artists from Poland, including famous musicians such as Chopin, Rubinstein, Paderewski, Penderecki and Wieniawski, and traditional, regionalized folk composers create a lively and diverse music scene, which even recognizes its own music genres, such as sung poetry and disco polo.The origins of Polish music can be traced to the 13th century; manuscripts have been found in Stary Sącz containing polyphonic compositions related to the Parisian Notre Dame School. Other early compositions, such as the melody of "Bogurodzica" and "God Is Born" (a coronation polonaise tune for Polish kings by an unknown composer), may also date back to this period, however, the first known notable composer, Nicholas of Radom, lived in the 15th century. Diomedes Cato, a native-born Italian who lived in Kraków, became a renowned lutenist at the court of Sigismund III; he not only imported some of the musical styles from southern Europe but blended them with native folk music.In the 17th and 18th centuries, Polish baroque composers wrote liturgical music and secular compositions such as concertos and sonatas for voices or instruments. At the end of the 18th century, Polish classical music evolved into national forms like the polonaise. Wojciech Bogusławski is accredited with composing the first Polish national opera, titled "", which premiered in 1794.Traditional Polish folk music has had a major effect on the works of many Polish composers, and no more so than on Fryderyk Chopin, a widely recognised national hero of the arts. All of Chopin's works involve the piano and are technically demanding, emphasising nuance and expressive depth. As a great composer, Chopin invented the musical form known as the instrumental ballade and made major innovations to the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, polonaise, étude, impromptu and prélude, he was also the composer of a number of polonaises which borrowed heavily from traditional Polish folk music. It is largely thanks to him that such pieces gained great popularity throughout Europe during the 19th century. Several Polish composers such as Szymanowski drew inspiration from Chopin's folk-influenced style. Nowadays the most distinctive folk music can be heard in the towns and villages of the mountainous south, particularly in the region surrounding the winter resort town of Zakopane.Poland today has an active music scene, with the jazz and metal genres being particularly popular among the contemporary populace. Polish jazz musicians such as Krzysztof Komeda created a unique style, which was most famous in the 1960s and 1970s and continues to be popular to this day. Poland has also become a major venue for large-scale music festivals, chief among which are the Open'er Festival, Opole Festival and Sopot Festival.Art in Poland has always reflected European trends while maintaining its unique character. The Kraków Academy of Fine Arts, later developed by Jan Matejko, produced monumental portrayals of customs and significant events in Polish history. Other institutions such as the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw were more innovative and focused on both historical and contemporary styles. Notable art academies include the Kraków School of Art and Fashion Design, Art Academy of Szczecin, University of Fine Arts in Poznań and the Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław.Perhaps the most prominent and internationally admired Polish artist was Tamara de Lempicka, who specialized in the style of Art Deco. Lempicka was described as "the first woman artist to become a glamour star." Another notable was Caziel, born Zielenkiewicz, who represented Cubism and Abstraction in France and England.Prior to the 19th century only Daniel Schultz and Italian-born Marcello Bacciarelli had the privilege of being recognized abroad. The Young Poland movement witnessed the birth of modern Polish art, and engaged in a great deal of formal experimentation led by Jacek Malczewski, Stanisław Wyspiański, Józef Mehoffer, and a group of Polish Impressionists. Stanisław Witkiewicz was an ardent supporter of Realism, its main representative being Józef Chełmoński, while Artur Grottger specialized in Romanticism. Within historically-orientated circles, Henryk Siemiradzki dominated with his monumental Academic Art and ancient Roman theme.Since the inter-war years, Polish art and documentary photography has enjoyed worldwide fame and in the 1960s the Polish School of Posters was formed. Throughout the entire country, many national museum and art institutions hold valuable works by famous masters. Major museums in Poland include the National Museum in Warsaw, Poznań, Wrocław, Kraków, and Gdańsk, as well as the Museum of John Paul II Collection, and the Wilanów Museum. Important collections are also held at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Wawel Castle and in the Palace on the Isle. Contemporary art galleries include Zachęta, Ujazdów, and MOCAK. The most distinguished painting of Poland is "Lady with an Ermine" by Leonardo da Vinci, held at the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków. Although not Polish, the work had a strong influence on Polish culture and has been often associated with Polish identity.Polish cities and towns reflect a whole spectrum of European architectural styles. Romanesque architecture is represented by St. Andrew's Church, Kraków, and St. Mary's Church, Gdańsk, is characteristic for the Brick Gothic style found in Poland. Richly decorated attics and arcade loggias are the common elements of the Polish Renaissance architecture, as evident in the City Hall in Poznań. For some time the late renaissance style known as mannerism, most notably in the Bishop's Palace in Kielce, coexisted with the early baroque style, typified in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Kraków.History has not been kind to Poland's architectural monuments. Nonetheless, a number of ancient structures have survived: castles, churches, and stately homes, often unique in the regional or European context. Some of them have been painstakingly restored, like Wawel Castle, or completely reconstructed, including the Old Town and Royal Castle of Warsaw and the Old Town of Gdańsk.The architecture of Gdańsk is mostly of the Hanseatic variety, a Gothic style common among the former trading cities along the Baltic Sea and in the northern part of Central Europe. The architectural style of Wrocław is mainly representative of German architecture since it was for centuries located within the Holy Roman Empire. The centres of Kazimierz Dolny and Sandomierz on the Vistula are good examples of well-preserved medieval towns. Poland's ancient capital, Kraków, ranks among the best-preserved Gothic and Renaissance urban complexes in Europe.The second half of the 17th century is marked by baroque architecture. Side towers, such as those of Branicki Palace in Białystok, are typical for the Polish baroque. The classical Silesian baroque is represented by the University in Wrocław. The profuse decorations of the Branicki Palace in Warsaw are characteristic of the rococo style. The centre of Polish classicism was Warsaw under the rule of the last Polish king Stanisław II Augustus.The Palace on the Isle is a chief example of Polish neoclassical architecture. Lublin Castle represents the Gothic Revival style in architecture, while the Izrael Poznański Palace in Łódź is an example of eclecticism.Traditional folk architecture in the villages and small towns scattered across the vast Polish countryside was characterized by its extensive use of wood and red brick as primary building materials, common for Central Europe. Some of the best preserved and oldest structures include ancient stone temples in Silesia and fortified wooden churches across southeastern Poland in the Beskids and Bieszczady regions of the Carpathian mountains. Numerous examples of secular structures such as Polish manor houses ("dworek"), farmhouses (), granaries, mills, barns and country inns () can still be found in some Polish regions. However, traditional construction methods faded in the early-mid 20th century, when Poland's population experienced a demographic shift to urban dwelling away from the countryside.The earliest examples of Polish literature date to the 12th century, when Poland's official language was Latin, and early published works were predominantly written by foreigners. Gallus Anonymus, a monk of disputed origin, was the first chronicler who meticulously described Poland's culture, language and territories in "Gesta principum Polonorum" (c. 1112–1118). Latin remained the principal tool of literary expression in Poland until the 18th century, when it was replaced in favour of Polish and French. Historically, Polish literature concentrated extensively around the themes of true drama and poetic-expressive romanticism than on fiction. Patriotism, spirituality and aphorisms were paramount and political or social allegories were common moral narratives.The first documented phrase in the Polish language reads ""Day ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai"" ("Let me grind, and you take a rest"), reflecting the use of quern-stone in early Poland. The phrase was recorded by an abbot in the Latin-based "Liber fundationis" from 1269 to 1273, which outlined the history of a Cistercian monastery in the Silesian village of Henryków. The sentence has been included in the UNESCO Memory of World Register. The oldest extant manuscript of fine prose in Old Polish is the "Holy Cross Sermons", and the earliest religious text is the Bible of Queen Sophia. One of the first printing houses was established by Kasper Straube in the 1470s, while Jan Haller was considered the pioneer of commercial print in Poland. Haller's Calendarium cracoviense, an astronomical wall calendar from 1474, is Poland's oldest surviving print.The tradition of extending Polish historiography in Latin was subsequently inherited by Vincent Kadłubek, Bishop of Kraków in the 13th century, and Jan Długosz in the 15th century. This practice, however, was abandoned by Jan Kochanowski, who became one of the first Polish Renaissance authors to write most of his works in Polish, along with Nicholas Rey. Other writers of the Polish Renaissance include Johannes Dantiscus, Andreus Fricius Modrevius, Matthias Sarbievius, Piotr Skarga and Klemens "Ianicius" Janicki, who was laureled by the Pope. The leading figure of the Polish Reformation was theologian and writer John Laski, who, with the permission of King Edward VI of England, created the European Protestant Congregation of London in 1550.During the Baroque era, the Jesuits greatly influenced Polish literature and literary techniques, often relying on God and religious matters. The leading baroque poet was Jan Andrzej Morsztyn, who incorporated Marinism into his publications. Jan Chryzostom Pasek, also a respected baroque writer, is mostly remembered for his tales and memoirs reflecting sarmatian culture in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Subsequently, the Polish Enlightenment was headed by Samuel Linde, Hugo Kołłątaj, Izabela Czartoryska and Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz. In 1776, Ignacy Krasicki composed the first milestone novel entitled "The Adventures of Mr. Nicholas Wisdom".Among the best known Polish Romantics are the "Three Bards" – the three national poets active in the age of foreign partitions – Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki and Zygmunt Krasiński. The narrative poem "Pan Tadeusz" by Mickiewicz is Poland's national epic and a compulsory reading ("lektura") in the country's schools. Joseph Conrad, the son of dramatist Apollo Korzeniowski, came to fame with his English-language novels and stories that are informed with elements of the Polish national experience. Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", "Nostromo" and "Lord Jim" are believed to be one of the finest works ever written, placing him among the greatest novelists of all time. Modern Polish literature is versatile, with its fantasy genre having been particularly praised. The philosophical sci-fi novel "Solaris" is an acclaimed example of Stanisław Lem's literary legacy, whereas "The Witcher", a fantasy series by Andrzej Sapkowski, is a much-celebrated work of contemporary Polish fiction.In the 20th century, five Polish authors were awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature – Henryk Sienkiewicz for "Quo Vadis", Władysław Reymont for "The Peasants", Isaac Bashevis Singer, Czesław Miłosz and Wisława Szymborska. In 2019, Polish author Olga Tokarczuk was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 2018.Polish cuisine has evolved over the centuries to become highly eclectic due to Poland's history. Polish cuisine shares many similarities with other Central European cuisines, especially German and Austrian as well as Jewish, French, Italian and Turkish culinary traditions. Polish-styled cooking in other cultures is often referred to as "cuisine à la polonaise".Polish dishes are usually rich in meat, especially pork, chicken and beef (depending on the region), winter vegetables (sauerkraut cabbage in "bigos"), and spices. It is also characteristic in its use of various kinds of noodles, the most notable of which are kluski, as well as cereals such as "kasha" (from the Polish word kasza) and a variety of breads like the world-renowned bagel. Polish cuisine is hearty and uses a lot of cream and eggs. Festive meals such as the meatless Christmas Eve dinner ("Wigilia") or Easter breakfast could take days to prepare in their entirety.The main course usually includes a serving of meat, such as roast, chicken, or "kotlet schabowy" (breaded pork cutlet), vegetables, side dishes and salads, including "surówka" – shredded root vegetables with lemon and sugar (carrot, celeriac, seared beetroot) or sauerkraut (, ). The side dishes are usually potatoes, rice or cereal. Meals conclude with a dessert such as "sernik" (cheesecake), "makowiec" (poppy seed pastry), or "napoleonka" (cream pie).The Polish national dishes are "bigos" ; "pierogi" ; "kielbasa"; "kotlet schabowy" breaded cutlet; "gołąbki" cabbage rolls; "zrazy" roulade; "pieczeń" roast ; sour cucumber soup ("zupa ogórkowa", ); mushroom soup, ("zupa grzybowa", quite different from the North American cream of mushroom); "zupa pomidorowa" tomato soup ; "rosół" variety of meat broth; "żurek" sour rye soup; "flaki" tripe soup; "barszcz" and "chłodnik" among others.Traditional alcoholic beverages include honey mead, widespread since the 13th century, beer, wine and vodka (old Polish names include "okowita" and "gorzała"). The world's first written mention of vodka originates from Poland. The most popular alcoholic drinks at present are beer and wine which took over from vodka more popular in the years 1980–1998. Tea remains common in Polish society since the 19th century, whilst coffee is drunk widely since the 18th century. Other frequently consumed beverages include various mineral waters and juices, soft drinks popularized by the fast-food chains since the late 20th century, as well as buttermilk, soured milk and kefir.The particular clothing styles in Poland evolved with each century. In the 1600s high-class noblemen and magnates developed a strong sympathy for Orientalism, which was also common in other parts of Europe and became known as Sarmatism. The attire mediated between Western and Ottoman styles and outfits included a żupan, delia, kontusz, pas, decorative karabela swords and less often turbans brought by foreign merchants. The period of Polish Sarmatism eventually faded in the wake of the 18th century.The Polish national dress as well as the fashion and etiquette of Poland also reached the royal court at Versailles in the 1700s. French dresses inspired by Polish attire were called "à la polonaise", meaning "Polish-styled". The most famous example is the "robe à la polonaise", a woman's garment with draped and swagged overskirt, worn over an underskirt or petticoat. Another notable example is the Witzchoura, a long mantle with collar and hood, which was possibly introduced by Napoleon's Polish mistress Maria Walewska. The scope of influence also entailed furniture; rococo Polish beds with canopies became commonplace in French palaces during the 18th century.Several Polish designers and stylists left a lifelong legacy of beauty inventions and cosmetics, most notable being Maksymilian Faktorowicz and Helena Rubinstein. Faktorowicz created a line of cosmetics company in California known as Max Factor and coined the term "make-up" based on the verb phrase "to make up" one's face, now widely used as an alternative for describing cosmetics. Faktorowicz also raised to fame by inventing modern eyelash extensions and by providing services to Hollywood artists.As of 2020, Poland possesses the fifth-largest cosmetic market in Europe. Founded in 1983, Inglot Cosmetics is the country's largest beauty products manufacturer and retailer active in 700 locations worldwide, including retail salons in New York City, London, Milan, Dubai and Las Vegas. Established in 1999, the retail store Reserved is Poland's most successful clothing store chain, operating over 1,700 retail shops in 19 countries. Internationally successful models from Poland include Anja Rubik, Joanna Krupa, Jac Jagaciak, Kasia Struss, Małgosia Bela, and Magdalena Frąckowiak.The history of Polish cinema is as long as the history of cinematography itself. Over the decades, Poland has produced outstanding directors, film producers, cartoonists and actors that achieved world fame, especially in Hollywood. Moreover, Polish inventors played an important role in the development of world cinematography and modern-day television. Among the most famous directors and producers, who worked in Poland as well as abroad are Roman Polański, Andrzej Wajda, Samuel Goldwyn, the Warner brothers (Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack), Max Fleischer, Lee Strasberg, Agnieszka Holland and Krzysztof Kieślowski.In the 19th century, throughout partitioned Poland, numerous amateur inventors, such as Kazimierz Prószyński, were eager to construct a film projector. In 1894, Prószyński was successful in creating a Pleograph, one of the first cameras in the world. The invention, which took photographs and projected pictures, was built before the Lumière brothers lodged their patent. He also patented an Aeroscope, the first successful hand-held operated film camera. In 1897, Jan Szczepanik, obtained a British patent for his Telectroscope. This prototype of television could easily transmit image and sound, thus allowing a live remote view.Polish cinema developed rapidly in the interwar period. The most renowned star of the silent film era was Polish actress Pola Negri. During this time, the Yiddish cinema also evolved in Poland. Films in the Yiddish language with Jewish themes, such as "The Dybbuk" (1937), played an important part in pre-war Polish cinematography. In 1945 the government established 'Film Polski', a state-run film production and distribution organization, with director Aleksander Ford as the head of the company. Ford's "Knights of the Teutonic Order" (1960) was viewed by millions of people in the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and France. This success was followed by the historical films of Jerzy Hoffman and Andrzej Wajda. Wajda's 1975 film "The Promised Land" was nominated at the 48th Academy Awards.In 2015, "Ida" by Paweł Pawlikowski won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2019, Pawlikowski received an Academy Award for Best Director nomination for his historical drama "Cold War". Other well-known Polish Oscar-winning productions include "The Pianist" (2002) by Roman Polański.Poland has a number of major media outlets, chief among which are the national television channels. TVP is Poland's public broadcasting corporation; about a third of its income comes from a broadcast receiver licence, while the rest is made through revenue from commercials and sponsorships. State television operates two mainstream channels, TVP 1 and TVP 2, as well as regional programs for each of the country's 16 voivodeships (as TVP 3). In addition to these general channels, TVP runs a number of genre-specific programmes such as TVP Sport, TVP Historia, TVP Kultura, TVP Rozrywka, TVP Seriale and TVP Polonia, the latter is a state-run channel dedicated to the transmission of Polish language television for the Polish diaspora. Poland has several 24-hour news channels such as Polsat News, TVP Info and TVN 24. Poland also possesses a variety of free-to-air television channels, chiefly TVN, Polsat and TV4.In Poland, there are also daily newspapers like "Gazeta Wyborcza" ("Electoral Gazette"), "Rzeczpospolita" ("The Republic") and "Gazeta Polska Codziennie" ("Polish Daily Newspaper") which provide traditional opinion and news, and tabloids such as "Fakt" and "Super Express". Weeklies include "Tygodnik Angora", "", "Polityka", "Wprost", "Newsweek Polska", "Gość Niedzielny" and "Gazeta Polska".Poland has also emerged as a major hub for video game developers in Europe, with the country now being home to hundreds of studios. Among the most successful ones are CD Projekt, Techland, CI Games and People Can Fly. Some of the most popular video games developed in Poland include The Witcher trilogy. Katowice hosts Intel Extreme Masters, one of the biggest eSports events in the world.Volleyball and Association football are among the country's most popular sports, with a rich history of international competitions. Track and field, basketball, handball, boxing, MMA, motorcycle speedway, ski jumping, cross-country skiing, ice hockey, tennis, fencing, swimming and weightlifting are other popular sports.The golden era of football in Poland occurred throughout the 1970s and went on until the early 1980s when the Polish national football team achieved their best results in any FIFA World Cup competitions finishing 3rd place in the 1974 and the 1982 tournaments. The team won a gold medal in football at the 1972 Summer Olympics and two silver medals, in 1976 and in 1992. In 2012, Poland co-hosted the UEFA European Football Championship.As of May 2021, the Polish men's national volleyball team is ranked as 2nd in the world. Volleyball team won a gold medal in Olympic 1976 Montreal and three gold medals in FIVB World Championship 1974, 2014 and 2018.Mariusz Pudzianowski is a highly successful strongman competitor and has won more World's Strongest Man titles than any other competitor in the world, winning the event in 2008 for the fifth time.Poland has made a distinctive mark in motorcycle speedway racing thanks to Tomasz Gollob and Bartosz Zmarzlik, highly successful Polish riders. The top Ekstraliga division has one of the highest average attendances for any sport in Poland. The national speedway team of Poland is one of the major teams in international speedway.Poles made significant achievements in mountaineering, in particular, in the Himalayas and the winter ascending of the eight-thousanders. Polish mountains are one of the tourist attractions of the country. Hiking, climbing, skiing and mountain biking and attract numerous tourists every year from all over the world. Water sports are the most popular summer recreation activities, with ample locations for fishing, canoeing, kayaking, sailing and windsurfing especially in the northern regions of the country.
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[
"Ewa Kopacz",
"Leszek Miller",
"Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz",
"Mateusz Morawiecki",
"Jan Olszewski",
"Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz",
"Tadeusz Mazowiecki",
"Jarosław Kaczyński",
"Jan Krzysztof Bielecki",
"Hanna Suchocka",
"Donald Tusk",
"Beata Szydło",
"Marek Belka",
"Jerzy Buzek",
"Józef Oleksy"
] |
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Who was the head of Poland in Sep, 1995?
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September 29, 1995
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{
"text": [
"Józef Oleksy"
]
}
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L2_Q36_P6_5
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Tadeusz Mazowiecki is the head of the government of Poland from Aug, 1989 to Jan, 1991.
Waldemar Pawlak is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 1993 to Mar, 1995.
Józef Oleksy is the head of the government of Poland from Mar, 1995 to Feb, 1996.
Donald Tusk is the head of the government of Poland from Nov, 2007 to Sep, 2014.
Jerzy Buzek is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 1997 to Oct, 2001.
Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz is the head of the government of Poland from Feb, 1996 to Oct, 1997.
Marek Belka is the head of the government of Poland from May, 2004 to Oct, 2005.
Jan Olszewski is the head of the government of Poland from Dec, 1991 to Jun, 1992.
Mateusz Morawiecki is the head of the government of Poland from Dec, 2017 to Dec, 2022.
Leszek Miller is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 2001 to May, 2004.
Jarosław Kaczyński is the head of the government of Poland from Jul, 2006 to Nov, 2007.
Jan Krzysztof Bielecki is the head of the government of Poland from Jan, 1991 to Dec, 1991.
Beata Szydło is the head of the government of Poland from Nov, 2015 to Dec, 2017.
Ewa Kopacz is the head of the government of Poland from Sep, 2014 to Nov, 2015.
Hanna Suchocka is the head of the government of Poland from Jul, 1992 to Oct, 1993.
Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 2005 to Jul, 2006.
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PolandPoland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country located in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces, covering an area of , and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With a population of nearly 38.5 million people, Poland is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union. Poland's capital and largest metropolis is Warsaw. Other major cities include Kraków, Łódź, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk, and Szczecin.Poland's topographically diverse territory extends from the beaches along the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in its south. The country is bordered by Lithuania and Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukraine to the east, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the south, and Germany to the west.The history of human activity on Polish soil spans thousands of years. Throughout the late antiquity period it became extensively diverse, with various cultures and tribes settling on the vast Central European Plain. However, it was the Western Polans who dominated the region and gave Poland its name. The establishment of Polish statehood can be traced to 966, when the pagan ruler of a realm coextensive with the territory of present-day Poland embraced Christianity and converted to Catholicism. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented its longstanding political association with Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest (over in area) and most populous nations of 16th and 17th century Europe, with a uniquely liberal political system which adopted Europe's first modern constitution, the Constitution of 3 May 1791.With the passing of prominence and prosperity, the country was partitioned by neighbouring states at the end of the 18th century, and regained independence in 1918 with the Treaty of Versailles. After a series of territorial conflicts, the new multi-ethnic Poland restored its position as a key player in European politics. In September 1939, World War II began with the invasion of Poland by Germany, followed by the Soviets invading Poland in accordance with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Approximately six million Polish citizens, including three million of the country's Jews, perished during the course of the war. As a member of the Eastern Bloc, the Polish People's Republic proclaimed forthwith was a chief signatory of the Warsaw Treaty amidst global Cold War tensions. In the wake of the 1989 events, notably through the emergence and contributions of the Solidarity movement, the communist government was dissolved and Poland re-established itself as a semi-presidential democratic republic.Poland is a developed market, and a middle power. It has the sixth largest economy in the European Union by nominal GDP and the fifth largest by GDP (PPP). It provides very high standards of living, safety and economic freedom, as well as free university education and a universal health care system. The country has 16 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, 15 of which are cultural. Poland is a member state of the Schengen Area, European Union, European Economic Area, the United Nations, NATO, the OECD, the Three Seas Initiative and the Visegrád Group.The origin of the name "Poland" derives from the West Slavic tribe of Polans ("Polanie"), who inhabited the Warta river basin of the present-day Greater Poland region starting in the mid-6th century. The origin of the name "Polanie" itself derives from the Proto-Slavic word "pole" (field). In some languages, such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian, Russian and Turkish, the country's name is derived from the Lendians ("Lędzianie" or "Lachy") who dwelled on the southeasternmost edge of present-day Lesser Poland. Their name likewise derives from the Old Polish word "lęda" (open land or plain).The early Bronze Age in Poland began around 2400 BC, while the Iron Age commenced in approximately 750 BC. During this time, the Lusatian culture, spanning both the Bronze and Iron Ages, became particularly prominent. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement (now reconstructed as an open-air museum), dating from the Lusatian culture of the late Bronze Age, around 748 BC.Throughout Antiquity, many distinct ancient ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland in an era that dates from about 400 BC to 500 AD. These groups are identified as Celtic, Scythian, Germanic, Sarmatian, Slavic and Baltic tribes. Also, recent archaeological findings in the Kuyavia region confirmed the presence of the Roman Legions on the territory of Poland. These were most likely expeditionary missions sent out to protect the amber trade. The exact time and routes of the original migration and settlement of Slavic peoples lacks written records and can only be defined as fragmented. There is evidence that earlier tribes may have been associated with the ancient Przeworsk culture. Up until the creation of Mieszko's state and his subsequent conversion to Christianity in 966 AD, the main religion of the numerous West Slavic (Lechitic) tribes that inhabited the geographical area of present-day Poland was paganism. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Western Christianity and the religious authority of the Roman Church. However, the transition from paganism was not a smooth and instantaneous process for the rest of the population as evident from the pagan reaction of the 1030s.Poland began to form into a recognizable unitary and territorial entity around the middle of the 10th century under the Piast dynasty. Poland's first historically documented ruler, Mieszko I, accepted Christianity, as the rightful religion of his realm, under the auspices of the Latin Church with the Baptism of Poland in 966. The bulk of the population converted in the course of the next few centuries. In 1000, Boleslaw the Brave, continuing the policy of his father Mieszko, held a Congress of Gniezno and created the metropolis of Gniezno and the dioceses of Kraków, Kołobrzeg, and Wrocław. However, the pagan unrest led to the transfer of the capital to Kraków in 1038 by Casimir I the Restorer.In 1109, Prince Bolesław III Wrymouth defeated the King of Germany Henry V at the Battle of Hundsfeld, stopping the German incursion into Poland. The clash between Bolesław III and Henry V was documented by Gallus Anonymus in his 1118 chronicle. In 1138, Poland fragmented into several smaller duchies when Bolesław divided his lands among his sons. In 1226, Konrad I of Masovia, one of the regional Piast dukes, invited the Teutonic Knights to help him fight the Baltic Prussian pagans; a decision that led to centuries of warfare with the Knights. In 1264, the Statute of Kalisz or the General Charter of Jewish Liberties introduced numerous right for the Jews in Poland, leading to a nearly autonomous "nation within a nation".In the middle of the 13th century, the Silesian branch of the Piast dynasty (Henry I the Bearded and Henry II the Pious, ruled 1238–1241) nearly succeeded in uniting the Polish lands, but the Mongols invaded the country from the east and defeated the combined Polish forces at the Battle of Legnica where Duke Henry II the Pious died. In 1320, after a number of earlier unsuccessful attempts by regional rulers at uniting the Polish dukedoms, Władysław I consolidated his power, took the throne and became the first king of a reunified Poland. His son, Casimir III (reigned 1333–1370), has a reputation as one of the greatest Polish kings, and gained wide recognition for improving the country's infrastructure. He also extended royal protection to Jews, and encouraged their immigration to Poland. Casimir III realized that the nation needed a class of educated people, especially lawyers, who could codify the country's laws and administer the courts and offices. His efforts to create an institution of higher learning in Poland were finally rewarded when Pope Urban V granted him permission to open the University of Kraków.The Golden Liberty of the nobles began to develop under Casimir's rule, when in return for their military support, the king made a series of concessions to the nobility and establishing their legal status as superior to that of the townsfolk. When Casimir the Great died in 1370, leaving no legitimate male heir, the Piast dynasty came to an end.During the 13th and 14th centuries, Poland became a destination for German, Flemish and to a lesser extent Walloon, Danish and Scottish migrants. Also, Jews and Armenians began to settle and flourish in Poland during this era (see History of the Jews in Poland and Armenians in Poland).The Black Death, a plague that ravaged Europe from 1347 to 1351, did not significantly affect Poland, and the country was spared from a major outbreak of the disease. The reason for this was the decision of Casimir the Great to quarantine the nation's borders.The Jagiellon dynasty spanned the late Middle Ages and early Modern Era of Polish history. Beginning with the Lithuanian Grand Duke Jogaila (Władysław II Jagiełło), the Jagiellon dynasty (1386–1572) formed the Polish–Lithuanian union. The partnership brought vast Lithuanian-controlled Rus' areas into Poland's sphere of influence and proved beneficial for the Poles and Lithuanians, who coexisted and cooperated in one of the largest political entities in Europe for the next four centuries.In the Baltic Sea region the struggle of Poland and Lithuania with the Teutonic Knights continued and culminated at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, where a combined Polish-Lithuanian army inflicted a decisive victory against them. In 1466, after the Thirteen Years' War, King Casimir IV Jagiellon gave royal consent to the Peace of Thorn, which created the future Duchy of Prussia under Polish suzerainty. The Jagiellon dynasty at one point also established dynastic control over the kingdoms of Bohemia (1471 onwards) and Hungary. In the south, Poland confronted the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Tatars (by whom they were attacked on 75 separate occasions between 1474 and 1569), and in the east helped Lithuania fight the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Some historians estimate that Crimean Tatar slave-raiding cost Poland-Lithuania one million of its population between the years of 1494 and 1694.Poland was developing as a feudal state, with a predominantly agricultural economy and an increasingly powerful landed nobility. The "Nihil novi" act adopted by the Polish Sejm (parliament) in 1505, transferred most of the legislative power from the monarch to the Sejm, an event which marked the beginning of the period known as "Golden Liberty", when the state was ruled by the "free and equal" Polish nobility. Protestant Reformation movements made deep inroads into Polish Christianity, which resulted in the establishment of policies promoting religious tolerance, unique in Europe at that time. This tolerance allowed the country to avoid most of the religious turmoil that spread over Europe during the 16th century.The European Renaissance evoked in late Jagiellon Poland (under kings Sigismund I the Old and Sigismund II Augustus) a sense of urgency in the need to promote a cultural awakening, and during this period Polish culture and the nation's economy flourished. In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus, an astronomer from Toruń, published his epochal work "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" ("On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres") and thereby became the first proponent of a predictive mathematical model confirming the heliocentric theory, which became the accepted basic model for the practice of modern astronomy. Another major figure associated with the era is the classicist poet Jan Kochanowski.The 1569 Union of Lublin established the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a more closely unified federal state with an elective monarchy, but which was governed largely by the nobility, through a system of local assemblies with a central parliament. The Warsaw Confederation (1573) guaranteed religious freedom for the Polish nobility "(szlachta)" and townsfolk "(mieszczanie)". However, the peasants "(chłopi)" were still subject to severe limitations imposed on them by the nobility. The establishment of the Commonwealth coincided with a period of stability and prosperity in Poland, with the union thereafter becoming a European power and a major cultural entity, occupying approximately one million square kilometers of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as an agent for the dissemination of Western culture through Polonization into areas of modern-day Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Belarus and western Russia.In the 16th and 17th centuries, Poland suffered from a number of dynastic crises during the reigns of the Vasa kings Sigismund III and Władysław IV and found itself engaged in major conflicts with Russia, Sweden and the Ottoman Empire, as well as a series of minor Cossack uprisings. In 1610, a Polish army under the command of Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski seized Moscow after winning the Battle of Klushino. In 1611, the Tsar of Russia paid homage to the King of Poland.After the signing of Truce of Deulino, Poland had in the years 1618–1621 an area of about .From the middle of the 17th century, the nobles' democracy, suffering from internal disorder, gradually declined, thereby leaving the once powerful Commonwealth vulnerable to foreign intervention. Starting in 1648, the Cossack Khmelnytsky Uprising engulfed the south and east, eventually leaving Ukraine divided, with the eastern part, lost by the Commonwealth, becoming a dependency of the Tsardom of Russia. This was followed by the 'Deluge', a Swedish invasion of Poland, which marched through the Polish heartlands and ruined the country's population, culture and infrastructure—around four million of Poland's eleven million inhabitants died in famines and epidemics throughout the 17th century. However, under John III Sobieski the Commonwealth's military prowess was re-established, and in 1683 Polish forces played a major role in the Battle of Vienna against the Ottoman Army, commanded by Kara Mustafa, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.Sobieski's reign marked the end of the nation's golden era. Finding itself subjected to almost constant warfare and suffering enormous population losses as well as massive damage to its economy, the Commonwealth fell into decline. The government became ineffective as a result of large-scale internal conflicts (e.g. Lubomirski Rebellion against John II Casimir and rebellious confederations) and corrupted legislative processes. The nobility fell under the control of a handful of "magnats", and this, compounded with two relatively weak kings of the Saxon Wettin dynasty, Augustus II and Augustus III, as well as the rise of Russia and Prussia after the Great Northern War only served to worsen the Commonwealth's plight. Despite this The Commonwealth-Saxony personal union gave rise to the emergence of the Commonwealth's first reform movement, and laid the foundations for the Polish Enlightenment.During the later part of the 18th century, the Commonwealth made attempts to implement fundamental internal reforms; with the second half of the century bringing a much improved economy, significant population growth and far-reaching progress in the areas of education, intellectual life, art, and especially toward the end of the period, evolution of the social and political system. The most populous capital city of Warsaw replaced Gdańsk (Danzig) as the leading centre of commerce, and the role of the more prosperous urban population increased.The royal election of 1764 resulted in the elevation of Stanisław II August (a Polish aristocrat connected to the "Familia" faction of magnates) to the monarchy. However, elevated to the throne by the Empress Catherine II of Russia, the new king spent much of his reign maneuvering between his desire to implement necessary reforms to save his country, and the necessity to remain in a political relationship and at peace with Russia. This led to the formation of the 1768 Bar Confederation, a "szlachta" rebellion directed against the Polish king and all external influence, which ineptly aimed to preserve Poland's independence and szlachta's privileges. The failed attempts at reform as well as the internal turmoil caused by the Confederation proved the country's weakness and provoked its neighbours. In 1772 the First Partition of the Commonwealth by Prussia, Russia and Austria took place; an act which the "Partition Sejm", under considerable duress, eventually "ratified" "fait accompli". Disregarding this loss, in 1773 the king established the plan of the most necessary reforms, in which the Commission of National Education, the first government education authority in Europe, was established. Corporal punishment of children was officially prohibited in 1783.The Great Sejm convened by Stanisław II August in 1788 successfully adopted the 3 May Constitution, the first set of modern supreme national laws in Europe. However, this document, accused by detractors of harbouring revolutionary sympathies, generated strong opposition from the Commonwealth's nobles and conservatives as well as from Catherine II, who, determined to prevent the rebirth of a strong Commonwealth set about planning the final dismemberment of the Polish-Lithuanian state. Russia was aided in achieving its goal when the Targowica Confederation, an organisation of Polish nobles, appealed to the Empress for help. In May 1792, Russian forces crossed the Commonwealth's frontier, thus beginning the Polish-Russian War.The defensive war fought by the Poles ended prematurely when the King, convinced of the futility of resistance, capitulated and joined the Targowica Confederation, hoping to save the country. The Confederation then took over the government. Russia and Prussia, fearing the mere existence of a Polish state, understanding, that despite the current influence they still cannot control the country, arranged for, and in 1793 executed, the Second Partition of the Commonwealth, which left the country deprived of so much territory that it was practically incapable of independent existence. Eventually, in 1795, following the failed Kościuszko Uprising, the Commonwealth was partitioned one last time by all three of its more powerful neighbours, and with this, effectively ceased to exist. The 18-century British statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke summed up the partitions: "No wise or honest man can approve of that partition, or can contemplate it without prognosticating great mischief from it to all countries at some future time."Poles rebelled several times against the partitioners, particularly near the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. An unsuccessful attempt at defending Poland's sovereignty took place in 1794 during the Kościuszko Uprising, where a popular and distinguished general Tadeusz Kościuszko, who had several years earlier served under Washington in the American Revolutionary War, led Polish insurrectionists against numerically superior Russian forces. Despite the victory at the Battle of Racławice, his ultimate defeat ended Poland's independent existence for 123 years.In 1807, Napoleon I of France temporarily recreated a Polish state as the satellite Duchy of Warsaw, after a successful Greater Poland Uprising of 1806 against Prussian rule. But, after the failed Napoleonic Wars, Poland was again split between the victorious powers at the Congress of Vienna of 1815. The eastern part was ruled by the Russian tsar as Congress Poland, which had a liberal constitution. However, over time the Russian monarch reduced Polish freedoms, and Russia annexed the country in virtually all but name. Meanwhile, the Prussian controlled territory of Poland came under increased Germanization. Thus, in the 19th century, only Habsburg-ruled Austrian Poland, and particularly the Free City of Kraków, allowed free Polish culture to flourish.Throughout the period of the partitions, political and cultural repression of the Polish nation led to the organisation of a number of uprisings against the authorities of the occupying Russian, Prussian and Austrian governments. In 1830, the November Uprising began in Warsaw when, led by Lieutenant Piotr Wysocki, young non-commissioned officers at the Officer Cadet School in Warsaw revolted. They were joined by large segments of Polish society, and together forced Warsaw's Russian garrison to withdraw north of the city.Over the course of the next seven months, Polish forces successfully defeated the Russian armies of Field Marshal Hans Karl von Diebitsch and a number of other Russian commanders; however, finding themselves in a position unsupported by any other foreign powers, save distant France and the newborn United States, and with Prussia and Austria refusing to allow the import of military supplies through their territories, the Poles accepted that the uprising was doomed to failure. Upon the surrender of Warsaw to General Ivan Paskievich, many Polish troops, feeling they could not go on, withdrew into Prussia and there laid down their arms. After the defeat, the semi-independent Congress Poland lost its constitution, army and legislative assembly, and was integrated more closely with the Russian Empire.During the Spring of Nations (a series of revolutions which swept across Europe), Poles took up arms in the Greater Poland Uprising of 1848 to resist Prussian rule. Initially, the uprising manifested itself in the form of civil disobedience but eventually turned into an armed struggle when the Prussian military was sent in to pacify the region. Subsequently, the uprising was suppressed and the semi-autonomous Grand Duchy of Posen, created from the Prussian partition of Poland, was incorporated into Prussia.In 1863, a new Polish uprising against Russian rule began. The January Uprising started out as a spontaneous protest by young Poles against conscription into the Imperial Russian Army. However, the insurrectionists, despite being joined by high-ranking Polish-Lithuanian officers and numerous politicians, were still severely outnumbered and lacking in foreign support. They were forced to resort to guerrilla warfare tactics and failed to win any major military victories. Afterwards no major uprising was witnessed in the Russian-controlled Congress Poland, and Poles resorted instead to fostering economic and cultural self-improvement. Congress Poland was rapidly industrialised towards the end of the 19th century, and successively transformed into the Empire's wealthiest and most developed subject.Despite the political unrest experienced during the partitions, Poland did benefit from large-scale industrialisation and modernisation programs, instituted by the occupying powers, which helped it develop into a more economically coherent and viable entity. This was particularly true in Greater Poland, Silesia and Eastern Pomerania controlled by Prussia (later becoming a part of the German Empire); areas which eventually, thanks largely to the Greater Poland Uprising of 1918 and Silesian Uprisings, were reconstituted as a part of the Second Polish Republic, becoming the country's most prosperous regions.Following World War I all the Allies agreed on the reconstitution of Poland that United States President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed in Point 13 of his Fourteen Points. A total of 2 million Polish troops fought with the armies of the three occupying powers, and 450,000 died. Shortly after the armistice with Germany in November 1918, Poland regained its independence as the Second Polish Republic ("II Rzeczpospolita Polska"). It reaffirmed its independence after a series of military conflicts, the most notable being the Polish–Soviet War (1919–21) when Poland inflicted a crushing defeat on the Red Army at the Battle of Warsaw, an event which is considered to have halted the advance of Communism into Europe and forced Vladimir Lenin to rethink his objective of achieving global socialism. The event is often referred to as the "Miracle at the Vistula".During this period, Poland successfully managed to fuse the territories of the three former partitioning powers into a cohesive nation state. Railways were restructured to direct traffic towards Warsaw instead of the former imperial capitals, a new network of national roads was gradually built up and a major seaport, Gdynia, was opened on the Baltic Coast, so as to allow Polish exports and imports to bypass the politically charged Free City of Danzig. Also, the Polish government embarked on the creation of the Central Industrial Region ("Centralny Okręg Przemysłowy"). The project's goal was to create a heavy industrial center in the middle of the country, which included steal mills, power plants and factories. The inter-war period heralded in a new era of Polish politics. Whilst Polish political activists had faced heavy censorship in the decades up until the First World War, the country now found itself trying to establish a new political tradition. For this reason, many exiled Polish activists, such as Ignacy Paderewski (who would later become prime minister) returned home to help; a significant number of them then went on to take key positions in the newly formed political and governmental structures. Tragedy struck in 1922 when Gabriel Narutowicz, inaugural holder of the presidency, was assassinated at the Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw by a painter and right-wing nationalist Eligiusz Niewiadomski.In 1926, a May coup, led by the hero of the Polish independence campaign Marshal Józef Piłsudski, turned rule of the Second Polish Republic over to the nonpartisan Sanacja ("Healing") movement in an effort to prevent radical political organizations on both the left and the right from destabilizing the country. The movement functioned with relative stability until Piłsudski's death in 1935. Following Marshall Piłsudski's death, Sanation split into several competing factions. By the late 1930s, due to increased threats posed by political extremism inside the country, the Polish government became increasingly heavy-handed, banning a number of radical organizations, including communist and ultra-nationalist political parties, which threatened the stability of the country.World War II began with the Nazi German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, followed by the Soviet invasion of Poland on 17 September. On 28 September 1939, Warsaw fell. As agreed in the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Poland was split into two zones, one occupied by Nazi Germany, the other by the Soviet Union. In 1939–41, the Soviets deported hundreds of thousands of Poles. The Soviet NKVD executed thousands of Polish prisoners of war (inter alia Katyn massacre) ahead of the Operation Barbarossa. German planners had in November 1939 called for "the complete destruction of all Poles" and their fate as outlined in the genocidal "Generalplan Ost".Polish intelligence operatives proved extremely valuable to the Allies, providing much of the intelligence from Europe and beyond, and Polish code breakers were responsible for cracking the Enigma cypher.Poland made the fourth-largest troop contribution in Europe and its troops served both the Polish Government in Exile in the west and Soviet leadership in the east. Polish troops played an important role in the Normandy, Italian and North African Campaigns and are particularly remembered for the Battle of Monte Cassino. In the east, the Soviet-backed Polish 1st Army distinguished itself in the battles for Warsaw and Berlin.The wartime resistance movement, and the Armia Krajowa ("Home Army"), fought against German occupation. It was one of the three largest resistance movements of the entire war, and encompassed a range of clandestine activities, which functioned as an underground state complete with degree-awarding universities and a court system. The resistance was loyal to the exiled government and generally resented the idea of a communist Poland; for this reason, in the summer of 1944 it initiated Operation Tempest, of which the Warsaw Uprising that begun on 1 August 1944 is the best known operation.Nazi German forces under orders from Adolf Hitler set up six German extermination camps in occupied Poland, including Treblinka, Majdanek and Auschwitz. The Germans transported millions of Jews from across occupied Europe to be murdered in those camps.Altogether, 3 million Polish Jews – approximately 90% of Poland's pre-war Jewry – and between 1.8 and 2.8 million ethnic Poles were killed during the German occupation of Poland, including between 50,000 and 100,000 members of the Polish intelligentsia – academics, doctors, lawyers, nobility and priesthood. During the Warsaw Uprising alone, over 150,000 Polish civilians were killed, most were murdered by the Germans during the Wola and Ochota massacres. Around 150,000 Polish civilians were killed by Soviets between 1939 and 1941 during the Soviet Union's occupation of eastern Poland (Kresy), and another estimated 100,000 Poles were murdered by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) between 1943 and 1944 in what became known as the Wołyń Massacres. Of all the countries in the war, Poland lost the highest percentage of its citizens: around 6 million perished – more than one-sixth of Poland's pre-war population – half of them Polish Jews. About 90% of deaths were non-military in nature.In 1945, Poland's borders were shifted westwards. Over two million Polish inhabitants of Kresy were expelled along the Curzon Line by Stalin. The western border became the Oder-Neisse line. As a result, Poland's territory was reduced by 20%, or . The shift forced the migration of millions of other people, most of whom were Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, and Jews.At the insistence of Joseph Stalin, the Yalta Conference sanctioned the formation of a new provisional pro-Communist coalition government in Moscow, which ignored the Polish government-in-exile based in London. This action angered many Poles who considered it a betrayal by the Allies. In 1944, Stalin had made guarantees to Churchill and Roosevelt that he would maintain Poland's sovereignty and allow democratic elections to take place. However, upon achieving victory in 1945, the elections organized by the occupying Soviet authorities were falsified and were used to provide a veneer of legitimacy for Soviet hegemony over Polish affairs. The Soviet Union instituted a new communist government in Poland, analogous to much of the rest of the Eastern Bloc. As elsewhere in Communist Europe, the Soviet influence over Poland was met with armed resistance from the outset which continued into the 1950s.Despite widespread objections, the new Polish government accepted the Soviet annexation of the pre-war eastern regions of Poland (in particular the cities of Wilno and Lwów) and agreed to the permanent garrisoning of Red Army units on Poland's territory. Military alignment within the Warsaw Pact throughout the Cold War came about as a direct result of this change in Poland's political culture. In the European scene, it came to characterize the full-fledged integration of Poland into the brotherhood of communist nations.The new communist government took control with the adoption of the Small Constitution on 19 February 1947. The Polish People's Republic ("Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa") was officially proclaimed in 1952. In 1956, after the death of Bolesław Bierut, the régime of Władysław Gomułka became temporarily more liberal, freeing many people from prison and expanding some personal freedoms. Collectivization in the Polish People's Republic failed. A similar situation repeated itself in the 1970s under Edward Gierek, but most of the time persecution of anti-communist opposition groups persisted. Despite this, Poland was at the time considered to be one of the least oppressive states of the Eastern Bloc.Labour turmoil in 1980 led to the formation of the independent trade union "Solidarity" (""Solidarność""), which over time became a political force. Despite persecution and imposition of martial law in 1981, it eroded the dominance of the Polish United Workers' Party and by 1989 had triumphed in Poland's first partially free and democratic parliamentary elections since the end of the Second World War. Lech Wałęsa, a Solidarity candidate, eventually won the presidency in 1990. The Solidarity movement heralded the collapse of communist regimes and parties across Europe.A shock therapy programme, initiated by Leszek Balcerowicz in the early 1990s, enabled the country to transform its socialist-style planned economy into a market economy. As with other post-communist countries, Poland suffered declines in social and economic standards, but it became the first post-communist country to reach its pre-1989 GDP levels, which it achieved by 1995 thanks largely to its booming economy.Most visibly, there were numerous improvements in human rights, such as freedom of speech, internet freedom (no censorship), civil liberties (1st class) and political rights (1st class), as ranked by Freedom House non-governmental organization. In 1991, Poland became a member of the Visegrád Group and joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance in 1999 along with the Czech Republic and Hungary. Poles then voted to join the European Union in a referendum in June 2003, with Poland becoming a full member on 1 May 2004.Poland joined the Schengen Area in 2007, as a result of which, the country's borders with other member states of the European Union have been dismantled, allowing for full freedom of movement within most of the EU. In contrast to this, a section of Poland's eastern border now constitutes the external EU border with Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. That border has become increasingly well protected, and has led in part to the coining of the phrase 'Fortress Europe', in reference to the seeming 'impossibility' of gaining entry to the EU for citizens of the former Soviet Union.In an effort to strengthen military cooperation with its neighbors, Poland set up the Visegrád Battlegroup with Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia, with a total of 3,000 troops ready for deployment. Also, in eastern Poland, it formed the LITPOLUKRBRIG battle groups with Lithuania and Ukraine. These battle groups will operate outside of NATO and within the European defense initiative framework.On 10 April 2010, the President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, along with 89 other high-ranking Polish officials died in a plane crash near Smolensk, Russia. The president's party was on their way to attend an annual service of commemoration for the victims of the Katyń massacre when the tragedy took place.In 2011, the ruling Civic Platform won parliamentary elections. Poland joined the European Space Agency in 2012, as well as organised the UEFA Euro 2012 (along with Ukraine). In 2013, Poland also became a member of the Development Assistance Committee. In 2014, the Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, was chosen to be President of the European Council, and resigned as prime minister.The 2015 and 2019 elections were won by the conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS), resulting in increased friction between Poland and the EU. In December 2017, Mateusz Morawiecki was sworn in as the new Prime Minister, succeeding Beata Szydlo, in office since 2015. They both represented ruling Law and Justice party, led by party chairman Jarosław Kaczyński. President Andrzej Duda, supported by Law and Justice party, was narrowly re-elected in the 2020 presidential election.Poland's vast territory covers approximately , of which 98.52% is dry land and 1.48% is water. Extending across several geographical regions, the country is the 9th-largest by area in Europe and 69th largest in the world. Topographically, Poland is diverse and has access to the sea, the mountains and open terrain. Although most of the central parts of the country are flat, there is an abundance of lakes, rivers, hills, swamps, beaches, islands and forests elsewhere.In the north-west is the Baltic seacoast spanning from the Bay of Pomerania to the Gulf of Gdańsk. The coast is marked by several spits, coastal lakes (former bays that have been cut off from the sea), and dunes. The largely straight coastline is indented by the Szczecin Lagoon, the Bay of Puck, and the Vistula Lagoon.The central and northern parts of the country lie within the North European Plain. Rising above these lowlands is a geographical region comprising four hilly districts of moraines and moraine-dammed lakes formed during and after the Pleistocene ice age, notably the Pomeranian Lake District, the Greater Polish Lake District, the Kashubian Lake District, and the Masurian Lake District. The Masurian Lake District is the largest of the four and covers much of north-eastern Poland. The lake districts form a series of moraine belts along the southern shore of the Baltic Sea.South of the Northern European Plain are the regions of Lusatia, Silesia and Masovia, which are marked by broad ice-age river valleys. The extreme south of Poland is mountainous; it runs from the Sudetes in the west to the Carpathian Mountains in the east. The highest part of the Carpathian massif is the Tatra Mountain range, along Poland's southern border.The geological structure of Poland has been shaped by the continental collision of Europe and Africa over the past 60 million years and, more recently, by the Quaternary glaciations of northern Europe. Both processes shaped the Sudetes and the Carpathian Mountains. The moraine landscape of northern Poland contains soils made up mostly of sand or loam, while the ice age river valleys of the south often contain loess. The Polish Jura, the Pieniny, and the Western Tatras consist of limestone, whereas the High Tatras, the Beskids, and the Karkonosze mountain ranges are made up mainly of granite and basalts. The Polish Jura Chain has some of the oldest rock formations on the continent of Europe.Poland has over 70 mountains over in elevation, all situated in the Tatras. Poland's highest point is the north-western summit of Mount Rysy at in elevation. At its foot lie the mountain lakes of Czarny Staw (Black Lake) and Morskie Oko (Eye of the Sea), both naturally-made tarns. Other notable uplands include the Pieniny and Holy Cross Mountains, the Table Mountains noted for their unusual rock formations, the Bieszczady in the far southeast of the country in which the highest peak is Tarnica at , and the Gorce Mountains whose highest point is Turbacz at . The highest point of the Sudeten massif is Mount Śnieżka (), shared with the Czech Republic.The lowest point in Poland – at below sea level – is at Raczki Elbląskie, near Elbląg in the Vistula Delta.In the Zagłębie Dąbrowskie (the Coal Fields of Dąbrowa) region in the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland is an area of sparsely vegetated sand known as the Błędów Desert. It covers an area of . It is not a natural desert and was formed by human activity from the Middle Ages onwards.The Baltic Sea activity in Słowiński National Park created sand dunes which in the course of time separated the bay from the sea creating two lakes. As waves and wind carry sand inland the dunes slowly move, at a rate of per year. Some dunes reach the height of up to . The highest peak of the park is Rowokol at above sea level.The longest rivers are the Vistula (), long; the Oder () which forms part of Poland's western border, long; its tributary, the Warta, long; and the Bug, a tributary of the Vistula, long. The Vistula and the Oder flow into the Baltic Sea, as do numerous smaller rivers in Pomerania. Poland's lengthy waterways have been used since early times for navigation; the Vikings ventured up the Polish rivers in their longships. In the Middle Ages and in early modern times, the shipment of tangible goods down the Vistula toward Gdańsk and onward to other parts of Europe took on great importance.With almost ten thousand closed bodies of water covering more than each, Poland has one of the highest numbers of lakes in the world. In Europe, only Finland has a greater density of lakes. The largest lakes, covering more than , are Lake Śniardwy and Lake Mamry in Masuria as well as Lake Łebsko and Lake Drawsko in Pomerania. The lake with the greatest depth—of more than —is Lake Hańcza in the Wigry Lake District, east of Masuria in Podlaskie Voivodeship.The Polish Baltic coast is approximately long and extends from Świnoujście on the islands of Usedom and Wolin in the west to Krynica Morska on the Vistula Spit in the east. For the most part, Poland has a smooth coastline, which has been shaped by the continual movement of sand by currents and winds. This continual erosion and deposition has formed cliffs, dunes, and spits, many of which have migrated landwards to close off former lagoons, such as Łebsko Lake in the Słowiński National Park.The largest spits are Hel Peninsula and the Vistula Spit. The coast line is varied also by Szczecin and Vistula Lagoons and several lakes, including Jamno. The largest Polish Baltic island is Wolin, located within Wolin National Park. The largest sea harbours are Szczecin, Świnoujście, Gdańsk, Gdynia, Police and Kołobrzeg and the main coastal resorts – Świnoujście, Międzydzdroje, Kołobrzeg, Łeba, Sopot, Władysławowo and the Hel Peninsula.In the valley of Pilica river in Tomaszów Mazowiecki there is a unique natural karst spring of water containing calcium salts, that is an object of protection at Blue Springs Nature Reserve in the Sulejów Landscape Park. The red waves are absorbed by water, hence only blue and green are reflected from the bottom of the spring, giving the water atypical colour.Forests cover about 29.6% of Poland's land area based on international standards. Its overall percentage is still increasing. Forests of Poland are managed by the national program of reforestation (KPZL), aiming at an increase of forest-cover to 33% in 2050. The largest forest complex in Poland is Lower Silesian Wilderness.More than 1% of Poland's territory, , is protected within 23 Polish national parks. Three more national parks are projected for Masuria, the Polish Jura, and the eastern Beskids. In addition, wetlands along lakes and rivers in central Poland are legally protected, as are coastal areas in the north. There are 123 areas designated as landscape parks, along with numerous nature reserves and other protected areas under the Natura 2000 network.In 2017, approximately of land was occupied by farms and farmsteads, over half of Poland's total area.Phytogeographically, Poland belongs to the Central European province of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the territory of Poland belongs to three Palearctic Ecoregions of the continental forest spanning Central and Northern European temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregions, as well as the Carpathian montane conifer forest. The most common deciduous trees found across the country are oak, maple, and beech; the most common conifers are pine, spruce, and fir. An estimated 68.7% of all forests are coniferous.Poland has historically been home to rare species of animals, as well as the two largest European mammals: the wisent ("żubr") and aurochs ("tur"). The last aurochs of Europe became extinct in 1627 in the Polish Jaktorów Forest, while the wisent survived until the 20th century only at Białowieża. It has been since reintroduced to other countries. Other wild species include the brown bear in Białowieża, in the Tatras, and in the Beskids; the gray wolf and the Eurasian lynx in various forests; the moose in northern Poland; and the beaver in Masuria, Pomerania, and Podlaskie.Game animals such as red deer, roe deer, and wild boar are found in most woodlands. Eastern Poland abounds in ancient woods, like the Białowieża Forest, that have not been disturbed by human or industrial activity. There are also large forested areas in the mountains, Greater Poland, Pomerania, Lubusz Land, and Lower Silesia. The Lubusz Voivodeship is currently the most arboraceous province in the country; 52% of its territory is occupied by forests.Poland is also a significant breeding ground for a variety of European migratory birds. One quarter of the global population of white storks (40,000 breeding pairs) live in Poland, particularly in the lake districts and the wetlands along the Biebrza, the Narew, and the Warta, which are part of nature reserves or national parks.The climate is mostly temperate throughout the country. The climate is oceanic in the north-west and becomes gradually warmer and continental towards the south-east. Summers are generally warm, with average temperatures between depending on the region. Winters are rather cold, with average temperatures around in the northwest and in the northeast. Precipitation falls throughout the year, although, especially in the east, winter is drier than summer.The warmest region in Poland is Lower Silesia in the southwest of the country, where temperatures in the summer average between but can go as high as on some days in the warmest months of July and August. The warmest cities in Poland are Tarnów in Lesser Poland, and Wrocław in Lower Silesia. The average temperatures in Wrocław are in the summer and in the winter, but Tarnów has the longest summer in all of Poland, which lasts for 115 days, from mid-May to mid-September. The coldest region of Poland is in the northeast, around the area of Suwałki within the Podlaskie Voivodeship, where the climate is affected by cold fronts coming from Scandinavia and Siberia. The average temperature in the winter in Podlaskie ranges from . The biggest impact of the oceanic climate is observed in Świnoujście and Baltic Sea seashore area from Police to Słupsk.Poland is a representative democracy, with a president as the head of state. The government structure centers on the Council of Ministers, led by a prime minister. The president appoints the cabinet according to the proposals of the prime minister, typically from the majority coalition in the Sejm. The president is elected by popular vote every five years. The current president is Andrzej Duda and the prime minister is Mateusz Morawiecki.Polish voters elect a bicameral parliament consisting of a 460-member lower house (Sejm) and a 100-member Senate (Senat). The Sejm is elected under proportional representation according to the d'Hondt method, a method similar to that used in many parliamentary political systems. The Senat, on the other hand, is elected under the first-past-the-post voting method, with one senator being returned from each of the 100 constituencies.With the exception of ethnic minority parties, only candidates of political parties receiving at least 5% of the total national vote can enter the Sejm. When sitting in joint session, members of the Sejm and Senat form the National Assembly (the "Zgromadzenie Narodowe"). The National Assembly is formed on three occasions: when a new president takes the oath of office; when an indictment against the President of the Republic is brought to the State Tribunal ("Trybunał Stanu"); and when a president's permanent incapacity to exercise his duties due to the state of his health is declared. To date only the first instance has occurred.The judicial branch plays an important role in decision-making. Its major institutions include the Supreme Court ("Sąd Najwyższy"); the Supreme Administrative Court ("Naczelny Sąd Administracyjny"); the Constitutional Tribunal ("Trybunał Konstytucyjny"); and the State Tribunal ("Trybunał Stanu"). On the approval of the Senat, the Sejm also appoints the ombudsman or the Commissioner for Civil Rights Protection ("Rzecznik Praw Obywatelskich") for a five-year term. The ombudsman has the duty of guarding the observance and implementation of the rights and liberties of Polish citizens and residents, of the law and of principles of community life and social justice.The Constitution of Poland is the enacted supreme law, and the Polish legal system is based on the principle of civil rights, governed by the code of civil law. The current democratic constitution was adopted by the National Assembly of Poland on 2 April 1997; it guarantees a multi-party state with freedoms of religion, speech and assembly, prohibits the practices of forced medical experimentation, torture or corporal punishment, and acknowledges the inviolability of the home, the right to form trade unions, and the right to strike.The judiciary incorporates a four-tier court system composed of the Supreme Court, the Supreme Administrative Court, Common Courts (District, Regional, Appellate) and the Military Court. Judges are nominated by the National Council of the Judiciary and are appointed for life by the president. The Constitutional and State Tribunals are separate judicial bodies, which rule the constitutional liability of people holding the highest offices of state and supervise the compliance of statutory law, thus protecting the Constitution.Historically, the most significant Polish legal act is the Constitution of 3 May 1791, the first modern constitution in Europe. Instituted as a Government Act, it was designed to redress long-standing political defects of the federative Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and its Golden Liberty. Previously, only the Henrician Articles (1573) signed by each of Poland's elected monarchs could perform the function of a set of basic laws. The new Constitution introduced political equality between townspeople and the nobility ("szlachta"), and placed the peasants under the protection of the government. It abolished pernicious parliamentary policies such as the "liberum veto", which permitted any deputy to rescind all the legislation passed in the interest of a foreign power. The 3 May Constitution sought to supplant the existing anarchy fostered by some of the country's reactionary magnates, with a more egalitarian and democratic constitutional monarchy. The influenced many later democratic movements across the globe. Tax-paying women were allowed to take part in Polish political life until the third partition in 1795. In 1918 the Second Polish Republic became one of the first countries to introduce universal women's suffrage.Poland has a low homicide rate at 0.7 murders per 100,000 people, as of 2018. Rape, assault and violent crime remain at a very low level, although not all cases are recorded by the authorities.Abortion is permitted only in cases of rape, incest or when the woman's life is in danger. Congenital disorder and stillbirth are not covered by the law, forcing some women to seek abortion abroad, and others to seek the assistance of psychiatrists willing to testify on the negative psychological impact of stillbirth. Poland does not criminalize homosexuality, and its legality was confirmed in 1932. The Polish Constitution defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.Poland is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union and has a grand total of 52 representatives in the European Parliament as of 2020. Since joining the union in 2004, successive Polish governments have pursued policies to extend the country's role in European and international affairs. Poland is an emerging regional power in Central Europe. The capital of Warsaw serves as the headquarters for Frontex, the European Union's agency for external border security as well as ODIHR, one of the principal institutions of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.Apart from the European Union, Poland has been a member of NATO since 1999, the UN, the World Trade Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since 1996, European Economic Area, International Energy Agency, Council of Europe, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, International Atomic Energy Agency, European Space Agency, G6, Council of the Baltic Sea States, Visegrád Group, Weimar Triangle, Schengen Agreement, Lublin Triangle and Bucharest Nine.Over the past two decades, Poland significantly strengthened its ties with the United States, thus becoming one of its closest allies in Europe. Poland was part of the US-led coalition force during the Iraq War in 2003, and sent its troops in the first phase of the conflict, jointly with the United Kingdom and Australia. Along with NATO, Poland maintains military presence in the Middle East, the Baltic states and in the Balkans.The Polish Armed Forces are composed of five branches – Land Forces ("Wojska Lądowe"), Navy ("Marynarka Wojenna"), Air Force ("Siły Powietrzne"), Special Forces ("Wojska Specjalne") and the Territorial Defence Force ("Wojska Obrony Terytorialnej"). The military is subordinate to the Ministry of National Defence of the Republic of Poland. However, its commander-in-chief in peacetime is the President of the Republic, who nominates officers, the Minister for National Defence and the chief of staff.As of 2018, the Polish Armed Forces have a combined strength of 144,142 soldiers. The Polish Navy primarily operates on the Baltic Sea and conducts operations such as maritime patrol, search and rescue for the section of the Baltic under Polish sovereignty, as well as hydrographic measurements and research. The Polish Air Force routinely takes part in Baltic Air Policing assignments. In 2003, the F-16C Block 52 was selected as the new general multi-role fighter for the air force. In January 2020, Poland has approved the delivery for F-35 Lightning II combat aircraft. Poland is currently spending 2% of its GDP on defence (approximately US$13.5 billion in 2020), which is expected to grow to 2.5% by 2030. According to SIPRI, the country exported EUR€487 million worth of arms and armaments to other countries, primarily to the United States, Chile, France and South Africa.The mission of the armed forces is the defence of Poland's territorial integrity and Polish interests abroad. The country's national security goal is to further integrate with NATO and European defence, economic, and political institutions. Compulsory military service for men was discontinued in 2008. From 2007, until conscription ended in 2008, the mandatory service was nine months. Polish military doctrine reflects the same defensive nature as that of its NATO partners and the country actively hosts NATO's military exercises. From 1953 to 2009 Poland was a large contributor to various United Nations peacekeeping missions. The Polish Armed Forces took part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, deploying 2,500 soldiers in the south of that country and commanding the 17-nation multinational force in Iraq. Poland also maintains troops in the Middle East, the Baltic states and in the Balkans; 1,650 soldiers were deployed in 2019.Law enforcement in Poland is performed by several agencies which are subordinate to the Ministry of Interior and Administration – the State Police ("Policja"), assigned to investigate crimes or transgression; the Municipal City Guard, which maintains public order; and several specialized agencies, such as the Polish Border Guard. Private security firms are also common, although they possess no legal authority to arrest or detain a suspect. Municipal guards are primarily headed by provincial, regional or city councils; individual guards are not permitted to carry firearms unless instructed by their superior commanding officer or commandant.The Internal Security Agency (ABW, or ISA in English) is the chief counter-intelligence instrument safeguarding Poland's internal security, along with Agencja Wywiadu (AW) which identifies threats and collects secret information abroad. The Central Investigation Bureau of Police (CBŚP) and the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) are responsible for countering organized crime and corruption in state and private institutions.Emergency services in Poland consist of the emergency medical services, search and rescue units of the Polish Armed Forces and State Fire Service. Emergency medical services in Poland are provided for by local and regional governments.All emergency services personnel are uniformed and security services can be easily recognized during regular patrols in both large urban areas or smaller suburban localities.Poland's current voivodeships (provinces) are largely based on the country's historic regions, whereas those of the past two decades (to 1998) had been centred on and named for individual cities. The new units range in area from less than for Opole Voivodeship to more than for Masovian Voivodeship. Administrative authority at the voivodeship level is shared between a government-appointed voivode (governor), an elected regional assembly ("sejmik") and a voivodeship marshal, an executive elected by that assembly.The voivodeships are subdivided into "powiats" (often referred to in English as counties), and these are further divided into "gminas" (also known as communes or municipalities). Major cities normally have the status of both "gmina" and "powiat". Poland has 16 voivodeships, 380 powiats (including 66 cities with "powiat" status), and 2,478 "gminas".Poland's economy and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is currently the sixth largest in the European Union by nominal standards, and the fifth largest by purchasing power parity. It is also one of the fastest growing within the Union. Around 60% of the employed population belongs to the tertiary service sector, 30% to industry and manufacturing, and the remaining 10% to the agricultural sector. Although Poland is a member of EU's single market, the country has not adopted the Euro as legal tender and maintains its own currency – the Polish złoty (zł, PLN).Poland is the regional economic leader in Central Europe, with nearly 40 per cent of the 500 biggest companies in the region (by revenues) as well as a high globalisation rate. The country's largest firms compose the WIG20 and WIG30 indexes, which is traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. According to reports made by the National Bank of Poland, the value of Polish foreign direct investments reached almost 300 billion PLN at the end of 2014. The Central Statistical Office estimated that in 2014 there were 1,437 Polish corporations with interests in 3,194 foreign entities.Having a strong domestic market, low private debt, low unemployment rate, flexible currency, and not being dependent on a single export sector, Poland is the only European economy to have avoided the recession of 2008. The country is the 20th largest exporter of goods and services in the world and its most successful exports include machinery, furniture, food products, clothing, shoes, cosmetics and videogames. These account to approximately 56% of the total GDP, as of 2018. Poland's largest trading partners include Germany, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, France and Italy. Warsaw leads Central Europe in foreign investment. In September 2018, the unemployment rate was estimated at 5.7%, one of the lowest in the European Union. In 2019, Poland passed a law that would exempt workers under the age of 26 from income tax.The Polish banking sector is the largest in the region, with 32.3 branches per 100,000 adults.World Bank, Financial Inclusion Data. Country Dashboard: Poland. The World Bank Group. Retrieved 6 November 2014. The banks are the largest and most developed sector of the country's financial markets. They are regulated by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority. Poland's banking sector has approximately 5 national banks, a network of nearly 600 cooperative banks and 18 branches of foreign-owned banks. In addition, foreign investors have controlling stakes in nearly 40 commercial banks, which make up 68% of the banking capital.Products and goods manufactured in Poland include: electronics, buses and trams (Solaris, Solbus), helicopters and planes (PZL Świdnik, PZL Mielec), trains (Pesa, Newag), ships (Gdańsk Shipyard, Szczecin Shipyard), military equipment (FB "Łucznik" Radom, , Jelcz), medicines (, ), food (Tymbark, Hortex, E. Wedel), clothes (LLP), glass, pottery (Bolesławiec), chemical products and others. Well-known brands and companies include Alior Bank, Orlen&Lotos Group, Inglot Cosmetics, Plus, Play, Brainly, Netguru, GOG.com, CD Projekt, Trefl and Allegro. Poland is also one of the world's biggest producers of copper, silver, coal, furniture, automotive parts and soft drink.Poland experienced a significant increase in the number of tourists after joining the European Union in 2004. With nearly 21 million international arrivals in 2019, tourism contributes considerably to the overall economy and makes up a relatively large proportion of the country's service market.Tourist attractions in Poland vary, from the mountains in the south to the sandy beaches in the north, with a trail of nearly every architectural style. The most visited city is Kraków, which was the former capital of Poland and serves as a relic of the Polish Golden Age and the Renaissance. Kraków also held royal coronations of most Polish kings and monarchs at Wawel, the nation's chief historical landmark. Among other notable sites in the country is Wrocław, one of the oldest cities in Poland which was a model for the founding of Kraków. Wrocław is famous for its dwarfs, a large market square with two town halls, and the oldest Zoological Gardens with one of the world's largest number of animal species. The Polish capital Warsaw and its historical Old Town were entirely reconstructed after wartime destruction. Other cities attracting countless tourists include Gdańsk, Poznań, Lublin, Toruń as well as the site of the German Auschwitz concentration camp in Oświęcim. A notable highlight is the 13th-century Wieliczka Salt Mine with its labyrinthine tunnels, a subterranean lake and chapels carved by miners out of rock salt beneath the ground.Poland's main tourist offerings include outdoor activities such as skiing, sailing, mountain hiking and climbing, as well as agritourism, sightseeing historical monuments. Tourist destinations include the Baltic Sea coast in the north; the Masurian Lake District and Białowieża Forest in the east; on the south Karkonosze, the Table Mountains and the Tatra Mountains, where Rysy – the highest peak of Poland, and Eagle's Path mountain trail are located. The Pieniny and Bieszczady Mountains lie in the extreme south-east. There are over 100 castles in the country, most in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship (inter alia ), and also on the Trail of the Eagles' Nests. The largest castle in the world by land area is situated in Malbork, in north-central Poland.The electricity generation sector in Poland is largely fossil-fuel–based. Many power plants nationwide use Poland's position as a major European exporter of coal to their advantage by continuing to use coal as the primary raw material in the production of their energy. In 2013, Poland scored 48 out of 129 states in the Energy Sustainability Index. The three largest Polish coal mining firms (Węglokoks, Kompania Węglowa and JSW) extract around 100 million tonnes of coal annually.Renewable forms of energy account for a smaller proportion of Poland's full energy generation capacity. However, the national government has set targets for the development of renewable energy sources in Poland (the share of energy from renewable sources in the gross final energy consumption in 2019 was – 12,18%). Increasing the share of energy from renewable sources and a significant reduction in CO2 emissions to be achieved with the help of biofuels, photovoltaics, construction of wind farms on the land and the Baltic Sea, hydroelectric stations and nuclear power plant.Poland has around 164,800,000,000 m of proven natural gas reserves and around 96,380,000 barrels of proven oil reserves. These reserves are exploited by energy supply companies such as PKN Orlen ("the only Polish company listed in the Fortune Global 500"), PGNiG. However, the small amounts of fossil fuels naturally occurring in Poland are insufficient to satisfy the full energy consumption needs of the population and industry. Consequently, the country is a net importer of oil and natural gas. Therefore, since the second decade of the 21st century, Poland has been strongly developing the so-called North Gate in which the most important components are the Baltic Pipe, the Świnoujście LNG terminal and Floating Storage and Regasification Unit in Port of Gdańsk.The 5 largest companies supplying Poland electricity are PGE, Tauron, Enea, and Innogy Poland.Transport in Poland is provided by means of rail, road, marine shipping and air travel. The country is part of EU's Schengen Area and is an important transport hub along neighbouring Germany due to its strategic position in Central Europe. Some of the longest European routes, including the E40, run through Poland.The country has a good network of highways, composed of express roads and motorways. At the start of 2020, Poland had of highways in use. In addition, all local and regional roads are monitored by the National Road Rebuilding Programme, which aims to improve the quality of travel in the countryside and suburban localities.In 2017, the nation had of railway track, the third longest in Europe after Germany and France. The Polish State Railways (PKP) is the dominant railway operator in the country. In December 2014, Poland began to implement high–speed rail routes connecting major Polish cities, and started passenger service using the New Pendolino train, operating at 200 km/h on the Central Rail Line (CMK). Polish regulations allow trains without ETCS to travel at speeds up to 160 km/h, trains with ETCS1 up to 200 km/h, and trains with ETCS2 at over 200 km/h. Most inter-regional connections rail routes in Poland are operated by PKP Intercity, whilst regional trains are run by a number of private operators, the largest of which is Polregio. The largest passenger train station in terms of the number of travelers is Wrocław Główny.The air and maritime transport markets in Poland are largely well developed. Poland has a number of international airports, the largest of which is Warsaw Chopin Airport, the primary global hub for LOT Polish Airlines. It was established in 1928 from a merger of Aerolloyd (1922) and Aero (1925). Other major airports with international connections include John Paul II International Airport Kraków–Balice, Copernicus Airport Wrocław, Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport. Poland has begun preparations for a construction that can handle 100 million passengers of the Central Communication Port.Seaports exist all along Poland's Baltic coast, with most freight operations using Świnoujście, Police, Szczecin, Kołobrzeg, Gdynia, Gdańsk and Elbląg as their base.Passenger ferries link Poland with Scandinavia all year round; these services are provided from Gdańsk and Świnoujście by Polferries, Stena Line from Gdynia and Unity Line from the Świnoujście. The Port of Gdańsk is the only port in the Baltic Sea adapted to receive oceanic vessels.Over the course of history, the Polish people have made considerable contributions in the fields of science, technology and mathematics. Perhaps the most renowned Pole to support this theory was Nicolaus Copernicus ("Mikołaj Kopernik"), who triggered the Copernican Revolution by placing the Sun rather than the Earth at the center of the universe. He also derived a quantity theory of money, which made him a pioneer of economics. Copernicus' achievements and discoveries are considered the basis of Polish culture and cultural identity.Poland's tertiary education institutions; traditional universities, as well as technical, medical, and economic institutions, employ around tens of thousands of researchers and staff members. There are hundreds of research and development institutes. However, in the 19th and 20th centuries many Polish scientists worked abroad; one of the most important of these exiles was Maria Skłodowska-Curie, a physicist and chemist who lived much of her life in France. In 1925 she established Poland's Radium Institute.In the first half of the 20th century, Poland was a flourishing centre of mathematics. Outstanding Polish mathematicians formed the Lwów School of Mathematics (with Stefan Banach, Stanisław Mazur, Hugo Steinhaus, Stanisław Ulam) and Warsaw School of Mathematics (with Alfred Tarski, Kazimierz Kuratowski, Wacław Sierpiński and Antoni Zygmund). Numerous mathematicians, scientists, chemists or economists emigrated due to historic vicissitudes, among them Benoit Mandelbrot, Leonid Hurwicz, Alfred Tarski, Joseph Rotblat and Nobel Prize laureates Roald Hoffmann, Georges Charpak and Tadeusz Reichstein. In the 1930s, mathematician and cryptologist Marian Rejewski invented the Cryptographic Bomb which formed the basis of the effort that allowed the Allies to crack the Enigma code.Over 40 research and development centers and 4,500 researchers make Poland the biggest research and development hub in Central and Eastern Europe. Multinational companies such as: ABB, Delphi, GlaxoSmithKline, Google, Hewlett–Packard, IBM, Intel, LG Electronics, Microsoft, Motorola, Siemens and Samsung all have set up research and development centres in Poland. Companies chose Poland because of the availability of highly qualified labour force, presence of universities, support of authorities, and the largest market in East-Central Europe. According to a KPMG report from 2011, 80% of Poland's current investors are content with their choice and willing to reinvest. Poland has a very well-developed e-administration, thanks to which many official matters can be easily and quickly settled via the Internet. In the UN ranking, Poland is in the top twenty countries with the best-rated e-administration in the world.Poland, with approximately 38.5 million inhabitants, has the ninth-largest population in Europe and the fifth-largest in the European Union. It has a population density of 122 inhabitants per square kilometre (328 per square mile). The total fertility rate in 2020 was estimated at 1.44 children born to a woman, a considerable rise from previous years. In contrast, the total fertility rate in 1925 was 4.68. Furthermore, Poland's population is aging significantly and the median age in 2018 was 41.1 years. The crude death rate in 2020 stood at 10.3 per 1,000 people.Around 60% of Poles and Polish citizens reside in urban areas or major cities and 40% in more rural zones. The most populous administrative province or state is the Masovian Voivodeship and the most populous city is the capital, Warsaw, at 1.8 million inhabitants with a further 2-3 million people living in its metropolitan area. The metropolitan area of Katowice is the largest urban conurbation in Poland with a population between 2.7 million and 5.3 million residents. The least populous and the smallest province in size is the Opole Voivodeship, with just under 1 million people living within its borders. Hence, a substantial portion of the total population is concentrated in the south of Poland, roughly between the cities of Wrocław and Kraków.In the 2011 Polish census, 37,310,341 people reported Polish identity, 846,719 Silesian, 232,547 Kashubian and 147,814 German. Other identities were reported by 163,363 people (0.41%) and 521,470 people (1.35%) did not specify any nationality. Once prominent but now statistically insignificant minority groups include Polish Jews, Lipka Tatars, Armenians, Greeks, Lemkos, the Romani people and the Vietnamese. Ethnic Poles themselves can be divided into many diverse regional ethnographic sub-groups, most notable being the Kashubians, Silesians and Gorals (Highlanders). The statistics do not include recently arrived migrant workers. More than 1.7 million Ukrainian citizens worked legally in Poland in 2017.There is a very strong Polish diaspora around the world, notably in the United States, Germany, United Kingdom and Canada. A strong Polish minority is still present in the territories of contemporary western Ukraine and Belarus, eastern Lithuania, eastern and central Latvia, and northeastern Czech Republic, which were part of Poland in the past. Altogether, the number of ethnic Poles living abroad is estimated to be around 20 million.Polish is the only official and predominant spoken language in Poland, but it is also used throughout the world by Polish minorities in other countries as well as being one of the official languages of the European Union. The deaf communities use Polish Sign Language belonging to the German family of Sign Languages. Polish is also a second language in Lithuania, where it is taught in schools and universities. Contemporary Poland is a linguistically homogeneous nation, with nearly 97% of respondents declaring Polish as their mother tongue.Poland's once multi-ethnic population communicated in numerous languages and lects which faded or disappeared along the course of history. There are currently 15 minority languages in Poland, including one recognized regional language, Kashubian, which is spoken by around 366,000 people in the northern regions of Kashubia and Pomerania.Languages having the status of national minority's language are Armenian, Belarusian, Czech, German, Yiddish, Hebrew, Lithuanian, Russian, Slovak and Ukrainian. Languages having the status of ethnic minority's language are Karaim, Lemko-Rusyn, Tatar and two Romani languages; Polska Roma and Bergitka Roma. Official recognition of a language provides certain rights under conditions prescribed by Polish law, including education and state financial support for promoting that language. Poland recognized secondary administrative languages or auxiliary languages in bilingual municipalities. Currently, German and Kashubian hold such status in 19 municipalities ("gminas"), Belarusian in 9 and Lithuanian in 1. Bilingual signs, names and advertisements are commonplace in those localities. Silesian and Wymysorys (Vilamovian) are not legally recognized or acknowledged as separate languages with a minority status.More than 50% of Polish citizens declare at least basic knowledge of the English language, followed by German (38%).According to the 2015 census, 92.9% of all Polish citizens adhere to the Roman Catholic Church. An estimated 94.2% of the population are believers and 3.1% are irreligious, making Poland one of the more devout countries in Europe. Around 61.6% of all respondents outlined that religion is of high or very high importance. However, church attendance has decreased in recent years; only 38% of worshippers attended mass regularly on Sunday in 2018. Freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Polish Constitution, and the concordat guarantees the teaching of religion in state schools.For centuries the tribes inhabiting the lands of modern-day Poland have practiced various forms of paganism known as "Rodzimowierstwo", or "native faith". In the year 966, Duke Mieszko I converted to Christianity, and submitted to the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. This event came to be known as the Baptism of Poland. However, this did not put an end to pagan beliefs in the country. The persistence was demonstrated by a series of rebellions in the 1030s known as the pagan reaction, which also showed elements of a peasant uprising against medieval feudalism.Religious tolerance was an important part of Polish political culture, though it varied at times. In 1264, the Statute of Kalisz granted Jews unprecedented legal rights not found anywhere in Europe. In 1573, the Warsaw Confederation marked the formal beginning of extensive religious freedoms in Poland. It was partially influenced by the 1572 St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in France, which prompted the nobility to prevent the monarch from carrying out reprehensible atrocities in Poland based on religious affiliation. The religious tolerance also spurred many theological movements such as the Calvinist Polish Brethren, a number of Protestant groups and atheists like Casimir Liszinski, one of the first atheist thinkers in Europe. Anabaptists fleeing 16th-century persecution in the Netherlands and Germany settled in Poland and became known as the Vistula delta Mennonites. From 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła was head of the Roman Catholic Church as Pope John Paul II.Contemporary religious minorities include Christian Orthodox (506,800), various Protestants (150,000) — including 77,500 Lutherans of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church, 23,000 Pentecostals in the Pentecostal Church in Poland, 10,000 Adventists in the Seventh-day Adventist Church and other smaller Evangelical denominations — Jehovah's Witnesses (126,827), Eastern Catholics, Mariavites, Jews, Muslims (Tatars) and neopagans, some of whom are members of the Native Polish Church.Famous sites of Roman Catholic pilgrimage in Poland include the Monastery of Jasna Góra in the city of Częstochowa, Basilica of Our Lady of Licheń, Kraków's Sanctuary of Divine Mercy and Święta Lipka (Holy Linden) in Masuria. Tourists also visit the family home of John Paul II in Wadowice outside Kraków. Christ the King in Świebodzin is the tallest statue of Jesus in the world. Christian Orthodox pilgrims visit Mount Grabarka near Grabarka-Klasztor and the Hasidic Jews travel annually to the grave of a great rabbi in Leżajsk.Medical service providers and hospitals ("szpitale") in Poland are subordinate to the Ministry of Health; it provides administrative oversight and scrutiny of general medical practice, and is obliged to maintain a high standard of hygiene and patient care. Poland has a universal healthcare system based on an all-inclusive insurance system; state subsidised healthcare is available to all citizens covered by the general health insurance program of the National Health Fund (NFZ). Private medical complexes exist nationwide; over 50% of the population uses both public and private sectors.Hospitals are organised according to the regional administrative structure, resultantly most towns, counties or municipalities possess their own provincial hospital or medical clinics. There are six types of hospital facilities, each with a particular area of medical expertise – I Grade Hospitals for general surgery, internal illnesses and obstetrics; II Grade Hospitals for child surgery, neurology, cardiology and ophthalmology; III Grade Hospitals including teaching hospitals for infectious diseases, nephrology, orthopedics, toxicology and transplantology; Oncology Hospitals for cancer treatment and brachytherapy; Pediatric Hospitals for child care; and Nationwide Hospitals for general and acute care.According to the Human Development Report from 2020, the average life expectancy at birth is 79 years (around 75 years for an infant male and 83 years for an infant female); the country has a low infant mortality rate (4 per 1,000 births). In 2019, the principal cause of death was ischemic heart disease; diseases of the circulatory system accounted for 45% of all deaths. In the same year, Poland was also the 15th-largest importer of medications and pharmaceutical products.The Jagiellonian University founded in 1364 by Casimir III in Kraków was the first institution of higher learning established in Poland, and is one of the oldest universities still in continuous operation. Poland's Commission of National Education ("Komisja Edukacji Narodowej"), established in 1773, was the world's first state ministry of education. The framework for primary and secondary schooling in contemporary Poland is established by the Ministry of National Education. Kindergarten attendance is optional for children aged between three and five, with one year being compulsory for six-year-olds. Primary education traditionally begins at the age of seven, although children aged six can attend at the request of their parents or guardians. Elementary school spans eight grades, at the end of which an obligatory three-part exam on Polish, mathematics and a foreign language is to be undertaken. Secondary schooling is dependent on student preference – either a four-year high school ("liceum"), a five-year technical school ("technikum") or various vocational studies ("szkoła branżowa") can be pursued by each individual pupil. A liceum or technikum is concluded with a maturity exit exam ("matura"), which must be passed in order to apply for a university or other institutions of higher learning.The standards of higher tertiary education are imposed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. In Poland, there are over 500 university-level institutions, with technical, medical, economic, agricultural, pedagogical, theological, musical, maritime and military faculties. The University of Warsaw and Warsaw Polytechnic, the University of Wrocław, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and the University of Technology in Gdańsk are among the most prominent. There are three conventional academic degrees in Poland – "licencjat" or "inżynier" (first cycle qualification), "magister" (second cycle qualification) and "doktor" (third cycle qualification).In 2018, the Programme for International Student Assessment, coordinated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, ranked Poland's educational system higher than the OECD average; the study showed that students in Poland perform better academically than in most OECD countries.The culture of Poland is closely connected with its intricate 1,000-year history and forms an important constituent in western civilization. The Poles take great pride in their national identity which is often associated with the colours white and red, and exuded by the expression "biało-czerwoni" ("whitereds"). National symbols, chiefly the crowned white-tailed eagle, are often visible on clothing, insignia and emblems. The appreciation of Poland's traditions and cultural heritage is commonly known as Polonophilia.With origins in the customs of the tribal Lechites, over time the culture of Poland has been influenced by its connection to Western culture and trends, as well as developing its own unique traditions such as Sarmatism. The people of Poland have traditionally been seen as hospitable to artists from abroad and eager to follow cultural and artistic trends popular in foreign countries, for instance, the 16th- and 17th-century tradition of coffin portraits ("portret trumienny") was only observed in Poland and Roman Egypt. In the 19th and 20th centuries the Polish focus on cultural advancement often took precedence over political and economic activity. These factors have contributed to the versatile nature of Polish art.The architectural monuments of great importance are protected by the National Heritage Board of Poland. Over 100 of the country's most significant tangible wonders were enlisted onto the Historic Monuments Register, with further 16 being recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. Poland is renowned for its brick Gothic castles, granaries and churches as well as diversely-styled tenements, market squares and town halls. The majority of Polish cities founded on Magdeburg Law in the Middle Ages evolved around central marketplaces, a distinguishable urban characteristic which can be observed to this day. Medieval and Renaissance cloth halls were once an abundant feature of many towns.There are 13 government-approved annual public holidays – New Year on 1 January, Three Kings' Day on 6 January, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, Labour Day on 1 May, Constitution Day on 3 May, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, Armed Forces Day on 15 August, All Saints' Day on 1 November, Independence Day on 11 November and Christmastide on 25 and 26 December.Particular traditions and superstitious customs observed in Poland are not found elsewhere in Europe. Though Christmas Eve ("Wigilia") is not a public holiday, it remains the most memorable day of the entire year. Trees are decorated on 24 December, hay is placed under the tablecloth to resemble Jesus' manger, Christmas wafers ("opłatek") are shared between gathered guests and a twelve-dish meatless supper is served that same evening when the first star appears. An empty plate and seat are symbolically left at the table for an unexpected guest. On occasion, carolers journey around smaller towns with a folk Turoń creature until the Lent period.A widely-popular doughnut and sweet pastry feast occurs on Fat Thursday, usually 52 days prior to Easter. Eggs for Holy Sunday are painted and placed in decorated baskets that are previously blessed by clergymen in churches on Easter Saturday. Easter Monday is celebrated with pagan "dyngus" festivities, where the youth is engaged in water fights and some girls are gently spanked by colleagues with pussy willows to stimulate fertility.Cemeteries and graves of the deceased are annually visited by family members on All Saints' Day; tombstones are cleaned as a sign of respect and candles are lit to honour the dead on an unprecedented scale.Artists from Poland, including famous musicians such as Chopin, Rubinstein, Paderewski, Penderecki and Wieniawski, and traditional, regionalized folk composers create a lively and diverse music scene, which even recognizes its own music genres, such as sung poetry and disco polo.The origins of Polish music can be traced to the 13th century; manuscripts have been found in Stary Sącz containing polyphonic compositions related to the Parisian Notre Dame School. Other early compositions, such as the melody of "Bogurodzica" and "God Is Born" (a coronation polonaise tune for Polish kings by an unknown composer), may also date back to this period, however, the first known notable composer, Nicholas of Radom, lived in the 15th century. Diomedes Cato, a native-born Italian who lived in Kraków, became a renowned lutenist at the court of Sigismund III; he not only imported some of the musical styles from southern Europe but blended them with native folk music.In the 17th and 18th centuries, Polish baroque composers wrote liturgical music and secular compositions such as concertos and sonatas for voices or instruments. At the end of the 18th century, Polish classical music evolved into national forms like the polonaise. Wojciech Bogusławski is accredited with composing the first Polish national opera, titled "", which premiered in 1794.Traditional Polish folk music has had a major effect on the works of many Polish composers, and no more so than on Fryderyk Chopin, a widely recognised national hero of the arts. All of Chopin's works involve the piano and are technically demanding, emphasising nuance and expressive depth. As a great composer, Chopin invented the musical form known as the instrumental ballade and made major innovations to the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, polonaise, étude, impromptu and prélude, he was also the composer of a number of polonaises which borrowed heavily from traditional Polish folk music. It is largely thanks to him that such pieces gained great popularity throughout Europe during the 19th century. Several Polish composers such as Szymanowski drew inspiration from Chopin's folk-influenced style. Nowadays the most distinctive folk music can be heard in the towns and villages of the mountainous south, particularly in the region surrounding the winter resort town of Zakopane.Poland today has an active music scene, with the jazz and metal genres being particularly popular among the contemporary populace. Polish jazz musicians such as Krzysztof Komeda created a unique style, which was most famous in the 1960s and 1970s and continues to be popular to this day. Poland has also become a major venue for large-scale music festivals, chief among which are the Open'er Festival, Opole Festival and Sopot Festival.Art in Poland has always reflected European trends while maintaining its unique character. The Kraków Academy of Fine Arts, later developed by Jan Matejko, produced monumental portrayals of customs and significant events in Polish history. Other institutions such as the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw were more innovative and focused on both historical and contemporary styles. Notable art academies include the Kraków School of Art and Fashion Design, Art Academy of Szczecin, University of Fine Arts in Poznań and the Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław.Perhaps the most prominent and internationally admired Polish artist was Tamara de Lempicka, who specialized in the style of Art Deco. Lempicka was described as "the first woman artist to become a glamour star." Another notable was Caziel, born Zielenkiewicz, who represented Cubism and Abstraction in France and England.Prior to the 19th century only Daniel Schultz and Italian-born Marcello Bacciarelli had the privilege of being recognized abroad. The Young Poland movement witnessed the birth of modern Polish art, and engaged in a great deal of formal experimentation led by Jacek Malczewski, Stanisław Wyspiański, Józef Mehoffer, and a group of Polish Impressionists. Stanisław Witkiewicz was an ardent supporter of Realism, its main representative being Józef Chełmoński, while Artur Grottger specialized in Romanticism. Within historically-orientated circles, Henryk Siemiradzki dominated with his monumental Academic Art and ancient Roman theme.Since the inter-war years, Polish art and documentary photography has enjoyed worldwide fame and in the 1960s the Polish School of Posters was formed. Throughout the entire country, many national museum and art institutions hold valuable works by famous masters. Major museums in Poland include the National Museum in Warsaw, Poznań, Wrocław, Kraków, and Gdańsk, as well as the Museum of John Paul II Collection, and the Wilanów Museum. Important collections are also held at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Wawel Castle and in the Palace on the Isle. Contemporary art galleries include Zachęta, Ujazdów, and MOCAK. The most distinguished painting of Poland is "Lady with an Ermine" by Leonardo da Vinci, held at the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków. Although not Polish, the work had a strong influence on Polish culture and has been often associated with Polish identity.Polish cities and towns reflect a whole spectrum of European architectural styles. Romanesque architecture is represented by St. Andrew's Church, Kraków, and St. Mary's Church, Gdańsk, is characteristic for the Brick Gothic style found in Poland. Richly decorated attics and arcade loggias are the common elements of the Polish Renaissance architecture, as evident in the City Hall in Poznań. For some time the late renaissance style known as mannerism, most notably in the Bishop's Palace in Kielce, coexisted with the early baroque style, typified in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Kraków.History has not been kind to Poland's architectural monuments. Nonetheless, a number of ancient structures have survived: castles, churches, and stately homes, often unique in the regional or European context. Some of them have been painstakingly restored, like Wawel Castle, or completely reconstructed, including the Old Town and Royal Castle of Warsaw and the Old Town of Gdańsk.The architecture of Gdańsk is mostly of the Hanseatic variety, a Gothic style common among the former trading cities along the Baltic Sea and in the northern part of Central Europe. The architectural style of Wrocław is mainly representative of German architecture since it was for centuries located within the Holy Roman Empire. The centres of Kazimierz Dolny and Sandomierz on the Vistula are good examples of well-preserved medieval towns. Poland's ancient capital, Kraków, ranks among the best-preserved Gothic and Renaissance urban complexes in Europe.The second half of the 17th century is marked by baroque architecture. Side towers, such as those of Branicki Palace in Białystok, are typical for the Polish baroque. The classical Silesian baroque is represented by the University in Wrocław. The profuse decorations of the Branicki Palace in Warsaw are characteristic of the rococo style. The centre of Polish classicism was Warsaw under the rule of the last Polish king Stanisław II Augustus.The Palace on the Isle is a chief example of Polish neoclassical architecture. Lublin Castle represents the Gothic Revival style in architecture, while the Izrael Poznański Palace in Łódź is an example of eclecticism.Traditional folk architecture in the villages and small towns scattered across the vast Polish countryside was characterized by its extensive use of wood and red brick as primary building materials, common for Central Europe. Some of the best preserved and oldest structures include ancient stone temples in Silesia and fortified wooden churches across southeastern Poland in the Beskids and Bieszczady regions of the Carpathian mountains. Numerous examples of secular structures such as Polish manor houses ("dworek"), farmhouses (), granaries, mills, barns and country inns () can still be found in some Polish regions. However, traditional construction methods faded in the early-mid 20th century, when Poland's population experienced a demographic shift to urban dwelling away from the countryside.The earliest examples of Polish literature date to the 12th century, when Poland's official language was Latin, and early published works were predominantly written by foreigners. Gallus Anonymus, a monk of disputed origin, was the first chronicler who meticulously described Poland's culture, language and territories in "Gesta principum Polonorum" (c. 1112–1118). Latin remained the principal tool of literary expression in Poland until the 18th century, when it was replaced in favour of Polish and French. Historically, Polish literature concentrated extensively around the themes of true drama and poetic-expressive romanticism than on fiction. Patriotism, spirituality and aphorisms were paramount and political or social allegories were common moral narratives.The first documented phrase in the Polish language reads ""Day ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai"" ("Let me grind, and you take a rest"), reflecting the use of quern-stone in early Poland. The phrase was recorded by an abbot in the Latin-based "Liber fundationis" from 1269 to 1273, which outlined the history of a Cistercian monastery in the Silesian village of Henryków. The sentence has been included in the UNESCO Memory of World Register. The oldest extant manuscript of fine prose in Old Polish is the "Holy Cross Sermons", and the earliest religious text is the Bible of Queen Sophia. One of the first printing houses was established by Kasper Straube in the 1470s, while Jan Haller was considered the pioneer of commercial print in Poland. Haller's Calendarium cracoviense, an astronomical wall calendar from 1474, is Poland's oldest surviving print.The tradition of extending Polish historiography in Latin was subsequently inherited by Vincent Kadłubek, Bishop of Kraków in the 13th century, and Jan Długosz in the 15th century. This practice, however, was abandoned by Jan Kochanowski, who became one of the first Polish Renaissance authors to write most of his works in Polish, along with Nicholas Rey. Other writers of the Polish Renaissance include Johannes Dantiscus, Andreus Fricius Modrevius, Matthias Sarbievius, Piotr Skarga and Klemens "Ianicius" Janicki, who was laureled by the Pope. The leading figure of the Polish Reformation was theologian and writer John Laski, who, with the permission of King Edward VI of England, created the European Protestant Congregation of London in 1550.During the Baroque era, the Jesuits greatly influenced Polish literature and literary techniques, often relying on God and religious matters. The leading baroque poet was Jan Andrzej Morsztyn, who incorporated Marinism into his publications. Jan Chryzostom Pasek, also a respected baroque writer, is mostly remembered for his tales and memoirs reflecting sarmatian culture in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Subsequently, the Polish Enlightenment was headed by Samuel Linde, Hugo Kołłątaj, Izabela Czartoryska and Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz. In 1776, Ignacy Krasicki composed the first milestone novel entitled "The Adventures of Mr. Nicholas Wisdom".Among the best known Polish Romantics are the "Three Bards" – the three national poets active in the age of foreign partitions – Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki and Zygmunt Krasiński. The narrative poem "Pan Tadeusz" by Mickiewicz is Poland's national epic and a compulsory reading ("lektura") in the country's schools. Joseph Conrad, the son of dramatist Apollo Korzeniowski, came to fame with his English-language novels and stories that are informed with elements of the Polish national experience. Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", "Nostromo" and "Lord Jim" are believed to be one of the finest works ever written, placing him among the greatest novelists of all time. Modern Polish literature is versatile, with its fantasy genre having been particularly praised. The philosophical sci-fi novel "Solaris" is an acclaimed example of Stanisław Lem's literary legacy, whereas "The Witcher", a fantasy series by Andrzej Sapkowski, is a much-celebrated work of contemporary Polish fiction.In the 20th century, five Polish authors were awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature – Henryk Sienkiewicz for "Quo Vadis", Władysław Reymont for "The Peasants", Isaac Bashevis Singer, Czesław Miłosz and Wisława Szymborska. In 2019, Polish author Olga Tokarczuk was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 2018.Polish cuisine has evolved over the centuries to become highly eclectic due to Poland's history. Polish cuisine shares many similarities with other Central European cuisines, especially German and Austrian as well as Jewish, French, Italian and Turkish culinary traditions. Polish-styled cooking in other cultures is often referred to as "cuisine à la polonaise".Polish dishes are usually rich in meat, especially pork, chicken and beef (depending on the region), winter vegetables (sauerkraut cabbage in "bigos"), and spices. It is also characteristic in its use of various kinds of noodles, the most notable of which are kluski, as well as cereals such as "kasha" (from the Polish word kasza) and a variety of breads like the world-renowned bagel. Polish cuisine is hearty and uses a lot of cream and eggs. Festive meals such as the meatless Christmas Eve dinner ("Wigilia") or Easter breakfast could take days to prepare in their entirety.The main course usually includes a serving of meat, such as roast, chicken, or "kotlet schabowy" (breaded pork cutlet), vegetables, side dishes and salads, including "surówka" – shredded root vegetables with lemon and sugar (carrot, celeriac, seared beetroot) or sauerkraut (, ). The side dishes are usually potatoes, rice or cereal. Meals conclude with a dessert such as "sernik" (cheesecake), "makowiec" (poppy seed pastry), or "napoleonka" (cream pie).The Polish national dishes are "bigos" ; "pierogi" ; "kielbasa"; "kotlet schabowy" breaded cutlet; "gołąbki" cabbage rolls; "zrazy" roulade; "pieczeń" roast ; sour cucumber soup ("zupa ogórkowa", ); mushroom soup, ("zupa grzybowa", quite different from the North American cream of mushroom); "zupa pomidorowa" tomato soup ; "rosół" variety of meat broth; "żurek" sour rye soup; "flaki" tripe soup; "barszcz" and "chłodnik" among others.Traditional alcoholic beverages include honey mead, widespread since the 13th century, beer, wine and vodka (old Polish names include "okowita" and "gorzała"). The world's first written mention of vodka originates from Poland. The most popular alcoholic drinks at present are beer and wine which took over from vodka more popular in the years 1980–1998. Tea remains common in Polish society since the 19th century, whilst coffee is drunk widely since the 18th century. Other frequently consumed beverages include various mineral waters and juices, soft drinks popularized by the fast-food chains since the late 20th century, as well as buttermilk, soured milk and kefir.The particular clothing styles in Poland evolved with each century. In the 1600s high-class noblemen and magnates developed a strong sympathy for Orientalism, which was also common in other parts of Europe and became known as Sarmatism. The attire mediated between Western and Ottoman styles and outfits included a żupan, delia, kontusz, pas, decorative karabela swords and less often turbans brought by foreign merchants. The period of Polish Sarmatism eventually faded in the wake of the 18th century.The Polish national dress as well as the fashion and etiquette of Poland also reached the royal court at Versailles in the 1700s. French dresses inspired by Polish attire were called "à la polonaise", meaning "Polish-styled". The most famous example is the "robe à la polonaise", a woman's garment with draped and swagged overskirt, worn over an underskirt or petticoat. Another notable example is the Witzchoura, a long mantle with collar and hood, which was possibly introduced by Napoleon's Polish mistress Maria Walewska. The scope of influence also entailed furniture; rococo Polish beds with canopies became commonplace in French palaces during the 18th century.Several Polish designers and stylists left a lifelong legacy of beauty inventions and cosmetics, most notable being Maksymilian Faktorowicz and Helena Rubinstein. Faktorowicz created a line of cosmetics company in California known as Max Factor and coined the term "make-up" based on the verb phrase "to make up" one's face, now widely used as an alternative for describing cosmetics. Faktorowicz also raised to fame by inventing modern eyelash extensions and by providing services to Hollywood artists.As of 2020, Poland possesses the fifth-largest cosmetic market in Europe. Founded in 1983, Inglot Cosmetics is the country's largest beauty products manufacturer and retailer active in 700 locations worldwide, including retail salons in New York City, London, Milan, Dubai and Las Vegas. Established in 1999, the retail store Reserved is Poland's most successful clothing store chain, operating over 1,700 retail shops in 19 countries. Internationally successful models from Poland include Anja Rubik, Joanna Krupa, Jac Jagaciak, Kasia Struss, Małgosia Bela, and Magdalena Frąckowiak.The history of Polish cinema is as long as the history of cinematography itself. Over the decades, Poland has produced outstanding directors, film producers, cartoonists and actors that achieved world fame, especially in Hollywood. Moreover, Polish inventors played an important role in the development of world cinematography and modern-day television. Among the most famous directors and producers, who worked in Poland as well as abroad are Roman Polański, Andrzej Wajda, Samuel Goldwyn, the Warner brothers (Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack), Max Fleischer, Lee Strasberg, Agnieszka Holland and Krzysztof Kieślowski.In the 19th century, throughout partitioned Poland, numerous amateur inventors, such as Kazimierz Prószyński, were eager to construct a film projector. In 1894, Prószyński was successful in creating a Pleograph, one of the first cameras in the world. The invention, which took photographs and projected pictures, was built before the Lumière brothers lodged their patent. He also patented an Aeroscope, the first successful hand-held operated film camera. In 1897, Jan Szczepanik, obtained a British patent for his Telectroscope. This prototype of television could easily transmit image and sound, thus allowing a live remote view.Polish cinema developed rapidly in the interwar period. The most renowned star of the silent film era was Polish actress Pola Negri. During this time, the Yiddish cinema also evolved in Poland. Films in the Yiddish language with Jewish themes, such as "The Dybbuk" (1937), played an important part in pre-war Polish cinematography. In 1945 the government established 'Film Polski', a state-run film production and distribution organization, with director Aleksander Ford as the head of the company. Ford's "Knights of the Teutonic Order" (1960) was viewed by millions of people in the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and France. This success was followed by the historical films of Jerzy Hoffman and Andrzej Wajda. Wajda's 1975 film "The Promised Land" was nominated at the 48th Academy Awards.In 2015, "Ida" by Paweł Pawlikowski won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2019, Pawlikowski received an Academy Award for Best Director nomination for his historical drama "Cold War". Other well-known Polish Oscar-winning productions include "The Pianist" (2002) by Roman Polański.Poland has a number of major media outlets, chief among which are the national television channels. TVP is Poland's public broadcasting corporation; about a third of its income comes from a broadcast receiver licence, while the rest is made through revenue from commercials and sponsorships. State television operates two mainstream channels, TVP 1 and TVP 2, as well as regional programs for each of the country's 16 voivodeships (as TVP 3). In addition to these general channels, TVP runs a number of genre-specific programmes such as TVP Sport, TVP Historia, TVP Kultura, TVP Rozrywka, TVP Seriale and TVP Polonia, the latter is a state-run channel dedicated to the transmission of Polish language television for the Polish diaspora. Poland has several 24-hour news channels such as Polsat News, TVP Info and TVN 24. Poland also possesses a variety of free-to-air television channels, chiefly TVN, Polsat and TV4.In Poland, there are also daily newspapers like "Gazeta Wyborcza" ("Electoral Gazette"), "Rzeczpospolita" ("The Republic") and "Gazeta Polska Codziennie" ("Polish Daily Newspaper") which provide traditional opinion and news, and tabloids such as "Fakt" and "Super Express". Weeklies include "Tygodnik Angora", "", "Polityka", "Wprost", "Newsweek Polska", "Gość Niedzielny" and "Gazeta Polska".Poland has also emerged as a major hub for video game developers in Europe, with the country now being home to hundreds of studios. Among the most successful ones are CD Projekt, Techland, CI Games and People Can Fly. Some of the most popular video games developed in Poland include The Witcher trilogy. Katowice hosts Intel Extreme Masters, one of the biggest eSports events in the world.Volleyball and Association football are among the country's most popular sports, with a rich history of international competitions. Track and field, basketball, handball, boxing, MMA, motorcycle speedway, ski jumping, cross-country skiing, ice hockey, tennis, fencing, swimming and weightlifting are other popular sports.The golden era of football in Poland occurred throughout the 1970s and went on until the early 1980s when the Polish national football team achieved their best results in any FIFA World Cup competitions finishing 3rd place in the 1974 and the 1982 tournaments. The team won a gold medal in football at the 1972 Summer Olympics and two silver medals, in 1976 and in 1992. In 2012, Poland co-hosted the UEFA European Football Championship.As of May 2021, the Polish men's national volleyball team is ranked as 2nd in the world. Volleyball team won a gold medal in Olympic 1976 Montreal and three gold medals in FIVB World Championship 1974, 2014 and 2018.Mariusz Pudzianowski is a highly successful strongman competitor and has won more World's Strongest Man titles than any other competitor in the world, winning the event in 2008 for the fifth time.Poland has made a distinctive mark in motorcycle speedway racing thanks to Tomasz Gollob and Bartosz Zmarzlik, highly successful Polish riders. The top Ekstraliga division has one of the highest average attendances for any sport in Poland. The national speedway team of Poland is one of the major teams in international speedway.Poles made significant achievements in mountaineering, in particular, in the Himalayas and the winter ascending of the eight-thousanders. Polish mountains are one of the tourist attractions of the country. Hiking, climbing, skiing and mountain biking and attract numerous tourists every year from all over the world. Water sports are the most popular summer recreation activities, with ample locations for fishing, canoeing, kayaking, sailing and windsurfing especially in the northern regions of the country.
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[
"Ewa Kopacz",
"Leszek Miller",
"Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz",
"Mateusz Morawiecki",
"Jan Olszewski",
"Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz",
"Tadeusz Mazowiecki",
"Jarosław Kaczyński",
"Jan Krzysztof Bielecki",
"Hanna Suchocka",
"Donald Tusk",
"Beata Szydło",
"Marek Belka",
"Jerzy Buzek",
"Waldemar Pawlak"
] |
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Who was the head of Poland in Jan, 1997?
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January 08, 1997
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{
"text": [
"Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz"
]
}
|
L2_Q36_P6_6
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Jerzy Buzek is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 1997 to Oct, 2001.
Jan Krzysztof Bielecki is the head of the government of Poland from Jan, 1991 to Dec, 1991.
Waldemar Pawlak is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 1993 to Mar, 1995.
Jan Olszewski is the head of the government of Poland from Dec, 1991 to Jun, 1992.
Ewa Kopacz is the head of the government of Poland from Sep, 2014 to Nov, 2015.
Hanna Suchocka is the head of the government of Poland from Jul, 1992 to Oct, 1993.
Donald Tusk is the head of the government of Poland from Nov, 2007 to Sep, 2014.
Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz is the head of the government of Poland from Feb, 1996 to Oct, 1997.
Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 2005 to Jul, 2006.
Marek Belka is the head of the government of Poland from May, 2004 to Oct, 2005.
Tadeusz Mazowiecki is the head of the government of Poland from Aug, 1989 to Jan, 1991.
Leszek Miller is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 2001 to May, 2004.
Beata Szydło is the head of the government of Poland from Nov, 2015 to Dec, 2017.
Józef Oleksy is the head of the government of Poland from Mar, 1995 to Feb, 1996.
Mateusz Morawiecki is the head of the government of Poland from Dec, 2017 to Dec, 2022.
Jarosław Kaczyński is the head of the government of Poland from Jul, 2006 to Nov, 2007.
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PolandPoland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country located in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces, covering an area of , and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With a population of nearly 38.5 million people, Poland is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union. Poland's capital and largest metropolis is Warsaw. Other major cities include Kraków, Łódź, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk, and Szczecin.Poland's topographically diverse territory extends from the beaches along the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in its south. The country is bordered by Lithuania and Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukraine to the east, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the south, and Germany to the west.The history of human activity on Polish soil spans thousands of years. Throughout the late antiquity period it became extensively diverse, with various cultures and tribes settling on the vast Central European Plain. However, it was the Western Polans who dominated the region and gave Poland its name. The establishment of Polish statehood can be traced to 966, when the pagan ruler of a realm coextensive with the territory of present-day Poland embraced Christianity and converted to Catholicism. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented its longstanding political association with Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest (over in area) and most populous nations of 16th and 17th century Europe, with a uniquely liberal political system which adopted Europe's first modern constitution, the Constitution of 3 May 1791.With the passing of prominence and prosperity, the country was partitioned by neighbouring states at the end of the 18th century, and regained independence in 1918 with the Treaty of Versailles. After a series of territorial conflicts, the new multi-ethnic Poland restored its position as a key player in European politics. In September 1939, World War II began with the invasion of Poland by Germany, followed by the Soviets invading Poland in accordance with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Approximately six million Polish citizens, including three million of the country's Jews, perished during the course of the war. As a member of the Eastern Bloc, the Polish People's Republic proclaimed forthwith was a chief signatory of the Warsaw Treaty amidst global Cold War tensions. In the wake of the 1989 events, notably through the emergence and contributions of the Solidarity movement, the communist government was dissolved and Poland re-established itself as a semi-presidential democratic republic.Poland is a developed market, and a middle power. It has the sixth largest economy in the European Union by nominal GDP and the fifth largest by GDP (PPP). It provides very high standards of living, safety and economic freedom, as well as free university education and a universal health care system. The country has 16 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, 15 of which are cultural. Poland is a member state of the Schengen Area, European Union, European Economic Area, the United Nations, NATO, the OECD, the Three Seas Initiative and the Visegrád Group.The origin of the name "Poland" derives from the West Slavic tribe of Polans ("Polanie"), who inhabited the Warta river basin of the present-day Greater Poland region starting in the mid-6th century. The origin of the name "Polanie" itself derives from the Proto-Slavic word "pole" (field). In some languages, such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian, Russian and Turkish, the country's name is derived from the Lendians ("Lędzianie" or "Lachy") who dwelled on the southeasternmost edge of present-day Lesser Poland. Their name likewise derives from the Old Polish word "lęda" (open land or plain).The early Bronze Age in Poland began around 2400 BC, while the Iron Age commenced in approximately 750 BC. During this time, the Lusatian culture, spanning both the Bronze and Iron Ages, became particularly prominent. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement (now reconstructed as an open-air museum), dating from the Lusatian culture of the late Bronze Age, around 748 BC.Throughout Antiquity, many distinct ancient ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland in an era that dates from about 400 BC to 500 AD. These groups are identified as Celtic, Scythian, Germanic, Sarmatian, Slavic and Baltic tribes. Also, recent archaeological findings in the Kuyavia region confirmed the presence of the Roman Legions on the territory of Poland. These were most likely expeditionary missions sent out to protect the amber trade. The exact time and routes of the original migration and settlement of Slavic peoples lacks written records and can only be defined as fragmented. There is evidence that earlier tribes may have been associated with the ancient Przeworsk culture. Up until the creation of Mieszko's state and his subsequent conversion to Christianity in 966 AD, the main religion of the numerous West Slavic (Lechitic) tribes that inhabited the geographical area of present-day Poland was paganism. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Western Christianity and the religious authority of the Roman Church. However, the transition from paganism was not a smooth and instantaneous process for the rest of the population as evident from the pagan reaction of the 1030s.Poland began to form into a recognizable unitary and territorial entity around the middle of the 10th century under the Piast dynasty. Poland's first historically documented ruler, Mieszko I, accepted Christianity, as the rightful religion of his realm, under the auspices of the Latin Church with the Baptism of Poland in 966. The bulk of the population converted in the course of the next few centuries. In 1000, Boleslaw the Brave, continuing the policy of his father Mieszko, held a Congress of Gniezno and created the metropolis of Gniezno and the dioceses of Kraków, Kołobrzeg, and Wrocław. However, the pagan unrest led to the transfer of the capital to Kraków in 1038 by Casimir I the Restorer.In 1109, Prince Bolesław III Wrymouth defeated the King of Germany Henry V at the Battle of Hundsfeld, stopping the German incursion into Poland. The clash between Bolesław III and Henry V was documented by Gallus Anonymus in his 1118 chronicle. In 1138, Poland fragmented into several smaller duchies when Bolesław divided his lands among his sons. In 1226, Konrad I of Masovia, one of the regional Piast dukes, invited the Teutonic Knights to help him fight the Baltic Prussian pagans; a decision that led to centuries of warfare with the Knights. In 1264, the Statute of Kalisz or the General Charter of Jewish Liberties introduced numerous right for the Jews in Poland, leading to a nearly autonomous "nation within a nation".In the middle of the 13th century, the Silesian branch of the Piast dynasty (Henry I the Bearded and Henry II the Pious, ruled 1238–1241) nearly succeeded in uniting the Polish lands, but the Mongols invaded the country from the east and defeated the combined Polish forces at the Battle of Legnica where Duke Henry II the Pious died. In 1320, after a number of earlier unsuccessful attempts by regional rulers at uniting the Polish dukedoms, Władysław I consolidated his power, took the throne and became the first king of a reunified Poland. His son, Casimir III (reigned 1333–1370), has a reputation as one of the greatest Polish kings, and gained wide recognition for improving the country's infrastructure. He also extended royal protection to Jews, and encouraged their immigration to Poland. Casimir III realized that the nation needed a class of educated people, especially lawyers, who could codify the country's laws and administer the courts and offices. His efforts to create an institution of higher learning in Poland were finally rewarded when Pope Urban V granted him permission to open the University of Kraków.The Golden Liberty of the nobles began to develop under Casimir's rule, when in return for their military support, the king made a series of concessions to the nobility and establishing their legal status as superior to that of the townsfolk. When Casimir the Great died in 1370, leaving no legitimate male heir, the Piast dynasty came to an end.During the 13th and 14th centuries, Poland became a destination for German, Flemish and to a lesser extent Walloon, Danish and Scottish migrants. Also, Jews and Armenians began to settle and flourish in Poland during this era (see History of the Jews in Poland and Armenians in Poland).The Black Death, a plague that ravaged Europe from 1347 to 1351, did not significantly affect Poland, and the country was spared from a major outbreak of the disease. The reason for this was the decision of Casimir the Great to quarantine the nation's borders.The Jagiellon dynasty spanned the late Middle Ages and early Modern Era of Polish history. Beginning with the Lithuanian Grand Duke Jogaila (Władysław II Jagiełło), the Jagiellon dynasty (1386–1572) formed the Polish–Lithuanian union. The partnership brought vast Lithuanian-controlled Rus' areas into Poland's sphere of influence and proved beneficial for the Poles and Lithuanians, who coexisted and cooperated in one of the largest political entities in Europe for the next four centuries.In the Baltic Sea region the struggle of Poland and Lithuania with the Teutonic Knights continued and culminated at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, where a combined Polish-Lithuanian army inflicted a decisive victory against them. In 1466, after the Thirteen Years' War, King Casimir IV Jagiellon gave royal consent to the Peace of Thorn, which created the future Duchy of Prussia under Polish suzerainty. The Jagiellon dynasty at one point also established dynastic control over the kingdoms of Bohemia (1471 onwards) and Hungary. In the south, Poland confronted the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Tatars (by whom they were attacked on 75 separate occasions between 1474 and 1569), and in the east helped Lithuania fight the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Some historians estimate that Crimean Tatar slave-raiding cost Poland-Lithuania one million of its population between the years of 1494 and 1694.Poland was developing as a feudal state, with a predominantly agricultural economy and an increasingly powerful landed nobility. The "Nihil novi" act adopted by the Polish Sejm (parliament) in 1505, transferred most of the legislative power from the monarch to the Sejm, an event which marked the beginning of the period known as "Golden Liberty", when the state was ruled by the "free and equal" Polish nobility. Protestant Reformation movements made deep inroads into Polish Christianity, which resulted in the establishment of policies promoting religious tolerance, unique in Europe at that time. This tolerance allowed the country to avoid most of the religious turmoil that spread over Europe during the 16th century.The European Renaissance evoked in late Jagiellon Poland (under kings Sigismund I the Old and Sigismund II Augustus) a sense of urgency in the need to promote a cultural awakening, and during this period Polish culture and the nation's economy flourished. In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus, an astronomer from Toruń, published his epochal work "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" ("On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres") and thereby became the first proponent of a predictive mathematical model confirming the heliocentric theory, which became the accepted basic model for the practice of modern astronomy. Another major figure associated with the era is the classicist poet Jan Kochanowski.The 1569 Union of Lublin established the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a more closely unified federal state with an elective monarchy, but which was governed largely by the nobility, through a system of local assemblies with a central parliament. The Warsaw Confederation (1573) guaranteed religious freedom for the Polish nobility "(szlachta)" and townsfolk "(mieszczanie)". However, the peasants "(chłopi)" were still subject to severe limitations imposed on them by the nobility. The establishment of the Commonwealth coincided with a period of stability and prosperity in Poland, with the union thereafter becoming a European power and a major cultural entity, occupying approximately one million square kilometers of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as an agent for the dissemination of Western culture through Polonization into areas of modern-day Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Belarus and western Russia.In the 16th and 17th centuries, Poland suffered from a number of dynastic crises during the reigns of the Vasa kings Sigismund III and Władysław IV and found itself engaged in major conflicts with Russia, Sweden and the Ottoman Empire, as well as a series of minor Cossack uprisings. In 1610, a Polish army under the command of Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski seized Moscow after winning the Battle of Klushino. In 1611, the Tsar of Russia paid homage to the King of Poland.After the signing of Truce of Deulino, Poland had in the years 1618–1621 an area of about .From the middle of the 17th century, the nobles' democracy, suffering from internal disorder, gradually declined, thereby leaving the once powerful Commonwealth vulnerable to foreign intervention. Starting in 1648, the Cossack Khmelnytsky Uprising engulfed the south and east, eventually leaving Ukraine divided, with the eastern part, lost by the Commonwealth, becoming a dependency of the Tsardom of Russia. This was followed by the 'Deluge', a Swedish invasion of Poland, which marched through the Polish heartlands and ruined the country's population, culture and infrastructure—around four million of Poland's eleven million inhabitants died in famines and epidemics throughout the 17th century. However, under John III Sobieski the Commonwealth's military prowess was re-established, and in 1683 Polish forces played a major role in the Battle of Vienna against the Ottoman Army, commanded by Kara Mustafa, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.Sobieski's reign marked the end of the nation's golden era. Finding itself subjected to almost constant warfare and suffering enormous population losses as well as massive damage to its economy, the Commonwealth fell into decline. The government became ineffective as a result of large-scale internal conflicts (e.g. Lubomirski Rebellion against John II Casimir and rebellious confederations) and corrupted legislative processes. The nobility fell under the control of a handful of "magnats", and this, compounded with two relatively weak kings of the Saxon Wettin dynasty, Augustus II and Augustus III, as well as the rise of Russia and Prussia after the Great Northern War only served to worsen the Commonwealth's plight. Despite this The Commonwealth-Saxony personal union gave rise to the emergence of the Commonwealth's first reform movement, and laid the foundations for the Polish Enlightenment.During the later part of the 18th century, the Commonwealth made attempts to implement fundamental internal reforms; with the second half of the century bringing a much improved economy, significant population growth and far-reaching progress in the areas of education, intellectual life, art, and especially toward the end of the period, evolution of the social and political system. The most populous capital city of Warsaw replaced Gdańsk (Danzig) as the leading centre of commerce, and the role of the more prosperous urban population increased.The royal election of 1764 resulted in the elevation of Stanisław II August (a Polish aristocrat connected to the "Familia" faction of magnates) to the monarchy. However, elevated to the throne by the Empress Catherine II of Russia, the new king spent much of his reign maneuvering between his desire to implement necessary reforms to save his country, and the necessity to remain in a political relationship and at peace with Russia. This led to the formation of the 1768 Bar Confederation, a "szlachta" rebellion directed against the Polish king and all external influence, which ineptly aimed to preserve Poland's independence and szlachta's privileges. The failed attempts at reform as well as the internal turmoil caused by the Confederation proved the country's weakness and provoked its neighbours. In 1772 the First Partition of the Commonwealth by Prussia, Russia and Austria took place; an act which the "Partition Sejm", under considerable duress, eventually "ratified" "fait accompli". Disregarding this loss, in 1773 the king established the plan of the most necessary reforms, in which the Commission of National Education, the first government education authority in Europe, was established. Corporal punishment of children was officially prohibited in 1783.The Great Sejm convened by Stanisław II August in 1788 successfully adopted the 3 May Constitution, the first set of modern supreme national laws in Europe. However, this document, accused by detractors of harbouring revolutionary sympathies, generated strong opposition from the Commonwealth's nobles and conservatives as well as from Catherine II, who, determined to prevent the rebirth of a strong Commonwealth set about planning the final dismemberment of the Polish-Lithuanian state. Russia was aided in achieving its goal when the Targowica Confederation, an organisation of Polish nobles, appealed to the Empress for help. In May 1792, Russian forces crossed the Commonwealth's frontier, thus beginning the Polish-Russian War.The defensive war fought by the Poles ended prematurely when the King, convinced of the futility of resistance, capitulated and joined the Targowica Confederation, hoping to save the country. The Confederation then took over the government. Russia and Prussia, fearing the mere existence of a Polish state, understanding, that despite the current influence they still cannot control the country, arranged for, and in 1793 executed, the Second Partition of the Commonwealth, which left the country deprived of so much territory that it was practically incapable of independent existence. Eventually, in 1795, following the failed Kościuszko Uprising, the Commonwealth was partitioned one last time by all three of its more powerful neighbours, and with this, effectively ceased to exist. The 18-century British statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke summed up the partitions: "No wise or honest man can approve of that partition, or can contemplate it without prognosticating great mischief from it to all countries at some future time."Poles rebelled several times against the partitioners, particularly near the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. An unsuccessful attempt at defending Poland's sovereignty took place in 1794 during the Kościuszko Uprising, where a popular and distinguished general Tadeusz Kościuszko, who had several years earlier served under Washington in the American Revolutionary War, led Polish insurrectionists against numerically superior Russian forces. Despite the victory at the Battle of Racławice, his ultimate defeat ended Poland's independent existence for 123 years.In 1807, Napoleon I of France temporarily recreated a Polish state as the satellite Duchy of Warsaw, after a successful Greater Poland Uprising of 1806 against Prussian rule. But, after the failed Napoleonic Wars, Poland was again split between the victorious powers at the Congress of Vienna of 1815. The eastern part was ruled by the Russian tsar as Congress Poland, which had a liberal constitution. However, over time the Russian monarch reduced Polish freedoms, and Russia annexed the country in virtually all but name. Meanwhile, the Prussian controlled territory of Poland came under increased Germanization. Thus, in the 19th century, only Habsburg-ruled Austrian Poland, and particularly the Free City of Kraków, allowed free Polish culture to flourish.Throughout the period of the partitions, political and cultural repression of the Polish nation led to the organisation of a number of uprisings against the authorities of the occupying Russian, Prussian and Austrian governments. In 1830, the November Uprising began in Warsaw when, led by Lieutenant Piotr Wysocki, young non-commissioned officers at the Officer Cadet School in Warsaw revolted. They were joined by large segments of Polish society, and together forced Warsaw's Russian garrison to withdraw north of the city.Over the course of the next seven months, Polish forces successfully defeated the Russian armies of Field Marshal Hans Karl von Diebitsch and a number of other Russian commanders; however, finding themselves in a position unsupported by any other foreign powers, save distant France and the newborn United States, and with Prussia and Austria refusing to allow the import of military supplies through their territories, the Poles accepted that the uprising was doomed to failure. Upon the surrender of Warsaw to General Ivan Paskievich, many Polish troops, feeling they could not go on, withdrew into Prussia and there laid down their arms. After the defeat, the semi-independent Congress Poland lost its constitution, army and legislative assembly, and was integrated more closely with the Russian Empire.During the Spring of Nations (a series of revolutions which swept across Europe), Poles took up arms in the Greater Poland Uprising of 1848 to resist Prussian rule. Initially, the uprising manifested itself in the form of civil disobedience but eventually turned into an armed struggle when the Prussian military was sent in to pacify the region. Subsequently, the uprising was suppressed and the semi-autonomous Grand Duchy of Posen, created from the Prussian partition of Poland, was incorporated into Prussia.In 1863, a new Polish uprising against Russian rule began. The January Uprising started out as a spontaneous protest by young Poles against conscription into the Imperial Russian Army. However, the insurrectionists, despite being joined by high-ranking Polish-Lithuanian officers and numerous politicians, were still severely outnumbered and lacking in foreign support. They were forced to resort to guerrilla warfare tactics and failed to win any major military victories. Afterwards no major uprising was witnessed in the Russian-controlled Congress Poland, and Poles resorted instead to fostering economic and cultural self-improvement. Congress Poland was rapidly industrialised towards the end of the 19th century, and successively transformed into the Empire's wealthiest and most developed subject.Despite the political unrest experienced during the partitions, Poland did benefit from large-scale industrialisation and modernisation programs, instituted by the occupying powers, which helped it develop into a more economically coherent and viable entity. This was particularly true in Greater Poland, Silesia and Eastern Pomerania controlled by Prussia (later becoming a part of the German Empire); areas which eventually, thanks largely to the Greater Poland Uprising of 1918 and Silesian Uprisings, were reconstituted as a part of the Second Polish Republic, becoming the country's most prosperous regions.Following World War I all the Allies agreed on the reconstitution of Poland that United States President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed in Point 13 of his Fourteen Points. A total of 2 million Polish troops fought with the armies of the three occupying powers, and 450,000 died. Shortly after the armistice with Germany in November 1918, Poland regained its independence as the Second Polish Republic ("II Rzeczpospolita Polska"). It reaffirmed its independence after a series of military conflicts, the most notable being the Polish–Soviet War (1919–21) when Poland inflicted a crushing defeat on the Red Army at the Battle of Warsaw, an event which is considered to have halted the advance of Communism into Europe and forced Vladimir Lenin to rethink his objective of achieving global socialism. The event is often referred to as the "Miracle at the Vistula".During this period, Poland successfully managed to fuse the territories of the three former partitioning powers into a cohesive nation state. Railways were restructured to direct traffic towards Warsaw instead of the former imperial capitals, a new network of national roads was gradually built up and a major seaport, Gdynia, was opened on the Baltic Coast, so as to allow Polish exports and imports to bypass the politically charged Free City of Danzig. Also, the Polish government embarked on the creation of the Central Industrial Region ("Centralny Okręg Przemysłowy"). The project's goal was to create a heavy industrial center in the middle of the country, which included steal mills, power plants and factories. The inter-war period heralded in a new era of Polish politics. Whilst Polish political activists had faced heavy censorship in the decades up until the First World War, the country now found itself trying to establish a new political tradition. For this reason, many exiled Polish activists, such as Ignacy Paderewski (who would later become prime minister) returned home to help; a significant number of them then went on to take key positions in the newly formed political and governmental structures. Tragedy struck in 1922 when Gabriel Narutowicz, inaugural holder of the presidency, was assassinated at the Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw by a painter and right-wing nationalist Eligiusz Niewiadomski.In 1926, a May coup, led by the hero of the Polish independence campaign Marshal Józef Piłsudski, turned rule of the Second Polish Republic over to the nonpartisan Sanacja ("Healing") movement in an effort to prevent radical political organizations on both the left and the right from destabilizing the country. The movement functioned with relative stability until Piłsudski's death in 1935. Following Marshall Piłsudski's death, Sanation split into several competing factions. By the late 1930s, due to increased threats posed by political extremism inside the country, the Polish government became increasingly heavy-handed, banning a number of radical organizations, including communist and ultra-nationalist political parties, which threatened the stability of the country.World War II began with the Nazi German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, followed by the Soviet invasion of Poland on 17 September. On 28 September 1939, Warsaw fell. As agreed in the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Poland was split into two zones, one occupied by Nazi Germany, the other by the Soviet Union. In 1939–41, the Soviets deported hundreds of thousands of Poles. The Soviet NKVD executed thousands of Polish prisoners of war (inter alia Katyn massacre) ahead of the Operation Barbarossa. German planners had in November 1939 called for "the complete destruction of all Poles" and their fate as outlined in the genocidal "Generalplan Ost".Polish intelligence operatives proved extremely valuable to the Allies, providing much of the intelligence from Europe and beyond, and Polish code breakers were responsible for cracking the Enigma cypher.Poland made the fourth-largest troop contribution in Europe and its troops served both the Polish Government in Exile in the west and Soviet leadership in the east. Polish troops played an important role in the Normandy, Italian and North African Campaigns and are particularly remembered for the Battle of Monte Cassino. In the east, the Soviet-backed Polish 1st Army distinguished itself in the battles for Warsaw and Berlin.The wartime resistance movement, and the Armia Krajowa ("Home Army"), fought against German occupation. It was one of the three largest resistance movements of the entire war, and encompassed a range of clandestine activities, which functioned as an underground state complete with degree-awarding universities and a court system. The resistance was loyal to the exiled government and generally resented the idea of a communist Poland; for this reason, in the summer of 1944 it initiated Operation Tempest, of which the Warsaw Uprising that begun on 1 August 1944 is the best known operation.Nazi German forces under orders from Adolf Hitler set up six German extermination camps in occupied Poland, including Treblinka, Majdanek and Auschwitz. The Germans transported millions of Jews from across occupied Europe to be murdered in those camps.Altogether, 3 million Polish Jews – approximately 90% of Poland's pre-war Jewry – and between 1.8 and 2.8 million ethnic Poles were killed during the German occupation of Poland, including between 50,000 and 100,000 members of the Polish intelligentsia – academics, doctors, lawyers, nobility and priesthood. During the Warsaw Uprising alone, over 150,000 Polish civilians were killed, most were murdered by the Germans during the Wola and Ochota massacres. Around 150,000 Polish civilians were killed by Soviets between 1939 and 1941 during the Soviet Union's occupation of eastern Poland (Kresy), and another estimated 100,000 Poles were murdered by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) between 1943 and 1944 in what became known as the Wołyń Massacres. Of all the countries in the war, Poland lost the highest percentage of its citizens: around 6 million perished – more than one-sixth of Poland's pre-war population – half of them Polish Jews. About 90% of deaths were non-military in nature.In 1945, Poland's borders were shifted westwards. Over two million Polish inhabitants of Kresy were expelled along the Curzon Line by Stalin. The western border became the Oder-Neisse line. As a result, Poland's territory was reduced by 20%, or . The shift forced the migration of millions of other people, most of whom were Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, and Jews.At the insistence of Joseph Stalin, the Yalta Conference sanctioned the formation of a new provisional pro-Communist coalition government in Moscow, which ignored the Polish government-in-exile based in London. This action angered many Poles who considered it a betrayal by the Allies. In 1944, Stalin had made guarantees to Churchill and Roosevelt that he would maintain Poland's sovereignty and allow democratic elections to take place. However, upon achieving victory in 1945, the elections organized by the occupying Soviet authorities were falsified and were used to provide a veneer of legitimacy for Soviet hegemony over Polish affairs. The Soviet Union instituted a new communist government in Poland, analogous to much of the rest of the Eastern Bloc. As elsewhere in Communist Europe, the Soviet influence over Poland was met with armed resistance from the outset which continued into the 1950s.Despite widespread objections, the new Polish government accepted the Soviet annexation of the pre-war eastern regions of Poland (in particular the cities of Wilno and Lwów) and agreed to the permanent garrisoning of Red Army units on Poland's territory. Military alignment within the Warsaw Pact throughout the Cold War came about as a direct result of this change in Poland's political culture. In the European scene, it came to characterize the full-fledged integration of Poland into the brotherhood of communist nations.The new communist government took control with the adoption of the Small Constitution on 19 February 1947. The Polish People's Republic ("Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa") was officially proclaimed in 1952. In 1956, after the death of Bolesław Bierut, the régime of Władysław Gomułka became temporarily more liberal, freeing many people from prison and expanding some personal freedoms. Collectivization in the Polish People's Republic failed. A similar situation repeated itself in the 1970s under Edward Gierek, but most of the time persecution of anti-communist opposition groups persisted. Despite this, Poland was at the time considered to be one of the least oppressive states of the Eastern Bloc.Labour turmoil in 1980 led to the formation of the independent trade union "Solidarity" (""Solidarność""), which over time became a political force. Despite persecution and imposition of martial law in 1981, it eroded the dominance of the Polish United Workers' Party and by 1989 had triumphed in Poland's first partially free and democratic parliamentary elections since the end of the Second World War. Lech Wałęsa, a Solidarity candidate, eventually won the presidency in 1990. The Solidarity movement heralded the collapse of communist regimes and parties across Europe.A shock therapy programme, initiated by Leszek Balcerowicz in the early 1990s, enabled the country to transform its socialist-style planned economy into a market economy. As with other post-communist countries, Poland suffered declines in social and economic standards, but it became the first post-communist country to reach its pre-1989 GDP levels, which it achieved by 1995 thanks largely to its booming economy.Most visibly, there were numerous improvements in human rights, such as freedom of speech, internet freedom (no censorship), civil liberties (1st class) and political rights (1st class), as ranked by Freedom House non-governmental organization. In 1991, Poland became a member of the Visegrád Group and joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance in 1999 along with the Czech Republic and Hungary. Poles then voted to join the European Union in a referendum in June 2003, with Poland becoming a full member on 1 May 2004.Poland joined the Schengen Area in 2007, as a result of which, the country's borders with other member states of the European Union have been dismantled, allowing for full freedom of movement within most of the EU. In contrast to this, a section of Poland's eastern border now constitutes the external EU border with Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. That border has become increasingly well protected, and has led in part to the coining of the phrase 'Fortress Europe', in reference to the seeming 'impossibility' of gaining entry to the EU for citizens of the former Soviet Union.In an effort to strengthen military cooperation with its neighbors, Poland set up the Visegrád Battlegroup with Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia, with a total of 3,000 troops ready for deployment. Also, in eastern Poland, it formed the LITPOLUKRBRIG battle groups with Lithuania and Ukraine. These battle groups will operate outside of NATO and within the European defense initiative framework.On 10 April 2010, the President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, along with 89 other high-ranking Polish officials died in a plane crash near Smolensk, Russia. The president's party was on their way to attend an annual service of commemoration for the victims of the Katyń massacre when the tragedy took place.In 2011, the ruling Civic Platform won parliamentary elections. Poland joined the European Space Agency in 2012, as well as organised the UEFA Euro 2012 (along with Ukraine). In 2013, Poland also became a member of the Development Assistance Committee. In 2014, the Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, was chosen to be President of the European Council, and resigned as prime minister.The 2015 and 2019 elections were won by the conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS), resulting in increased friction between Poland and the EU. In December 2017, Mateusz Morawiecki was sworn in as the new Prime Minister, succeeding Beata Szydlo, in office since 2015. They both represented ruling Law and Justice party, led by party chairman Jarosław Kaczyński. President Andrzej Duda, supported by Law and Justice party, was narrowly re-elected in the 2020 presidential election.Poland's vast territory covers approximately , of which 98.52% is dry land and 1.48% is water. Extending across several geographical regions, the country is the 9th-largest by area in Europe and 69th largest in the world. Topographically, Poland is diverse and has access to the sea, the mountains and open terrain. Although most of the central parts of the country are flat, there is an abundance of lakes, rivers, hills, swamps, beaches, islands and forests elsewhere.In the north-west is the Baltic seacoast spanning from the Bay of Pomerania to the Gulf of Gdańsk. The coast is marked by several spits, coastal lakes (former bays that have been cut off from the sea), and dunes. The largely straight coastline is indented by the Szczecin Lagoon, the Bay of Puck, and the Vistula Lagoon.The central and northern parts of the country lie within the North European Plain. Rising above these lowlands is a geographical region comprising four hilly districts of moraines and moraine-dammed lakes formed during and after the Pleistocene ice age, notably the Pomeranian Lake District, the Greater Polish Lake District, the Kashubian Lake District, and the Masurian Lake District. The Masurian Lake District is the largest of the four and covers much of north-eastern Poland. The lake districts form a series of moraine belts along the southern shore of the Baltic Sea.South of the Northern European Plain are the regions of Lusatia, Silesia and Masovia, which are marked by broad ice-age river valleys. The extreme south of Poland is mountainous; it runs from the Sudetes in the west to the Carpathian Mountains in the east. The highest part of the Carpathian massif is the Tatra Mountain range, along Poland's southern border.The geological structure of Poland has been shaped by the continental collision of Europe and Africa over the past 60 million years and, more recently, by the Quaternary glaciations of northern Europe. Both processes shaped the Sudetes and the Carpathian Mountains. The moraine landscape of northern Poland contains soils made up mostly of sand or loam, while the ice age river valleys of the south often contain loess. The Polish Jura, the Pieniny, and the Western Tatras consist of limestone, whereas the High Tatras, the Beskids, and the Karkonosze mountain ranges are made up mainly of granite and basalts. The Polish Jura Chain has some of the oldest rock formations on the continent of Europe.Poland has over 70 mountains over in elevation, all situated in the Tatras. Poland's highest point is the north-western summit of Mount Rysy at in elevation. At its foot lie the mountain lakes of Czarny Staw (Black Lake) and Morskie Oko (Eye of the Sea), both naturally-made tarns. Other notable uplands include the Pieniny and Holy Cross Mountains, the Table Mountains noted for their unusual rock formations, the Bieszczady in the far southeast of the country in which the highest peak is Tarnica at , and the Gorce Mountains whose highest point is Turbacz at . The highest point of the Sudeten massif is Mount Śnieżka (), shared with the Czech Republic.The lowest point in Poland – at below sea level – is at Raczki Elbląskie, near Elbląg in the Vistula Delta.In the Zagłębie Dąbrowskie (the Coal Fields of Dąbrowa) region in the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland is an area of sparsely vegetated sand known as the Błędów Desert. It covers an area of . It is not a natural desert and was formed by human activity from the Middle Ages onwards.The Baltic Sea activity in Słowiński National Park created sand dunes which in the course of time separated the bay from the sea creating two lakes. As waves and wind carry sand inland the dunes slowly move, at a rate of per year. Some dunes reach the height of up to . The highest peak of the park is Rowokol at above sea level.The longest rivers are the Vistula (), long; the Oder () which forms part of Poland's western border, long; its tributary, the Warta, long; and the Bug, a tributary of the Vistula, long. The Vistula and the Oder flow into the Baltic Sea, as do numerous smaller rivers in Pomerania. Poland's lengthy waterways have been used since early times for navigation; the Vikings ventured up the Polish rivers in their longships. In the Middle Ages and in early modern times, the shipment of tangible goods down the Vistula toward Gdańsk and onward to other parts of Europe took on great importance.With almost ten thousand closed bodies of water covering more than each, Poland has one of the highest numbers of lakes in the world. In Europe, only Finland has a greater density of lakes. The largest lakes, covering more than , are Lake Śniardwy and Lake Mamry in Masuria as well as Lake Łebsko and Lake Drawsko in Pomerania. The lake with the greatest depth—of more than —is Lake Hańcza in the Wigry Lake District, east of Masuria in Podlaskie Voivodeship.The Polish Baltic coast is approximately long and extends from Świnoujście on the islands of Usedom and Wolin in the west to Krynica Morska on the Vistula Spit in the east. For the most part, Poland has a smooth coastline, which has been shaped by the continual movement of sand by currents and winds. This continual erosion and deposition has formed cliffs, dunes, and spits, many of which have migrated landwards to close off former lagoons, such as Łebsko Lake in the Słowiński National Park.The largest spits are Hel Peninsula and the Vistula Spit. The coast line is varied also by Szczecin and Vistula Lagoons and several lakes, including Jamno. The largest Polish Baltic island is Wolin, located within Wolin National Park. The largest sea harbours are Szczecin, Świnoujście, Gdańsk, Gdynia, Police and Kołobrzeg and the main coastal resorts – Świnoujście, Międzydzdroje, Kołobrzeg, Łeba, Sopot, Władysławowo and the Hel Peninsula.In the valley of Pilica river in Tomaszów Mazowiecki there is a unique natural karst spring of water containing calcium salts, that is an object of protection at Blue Springs Nature Reserve in the Sulejów Landscape Park. The red waves are absorbed by water, hence only blue and green are reflected from the bottom of the spring, giving the water atypical colour.Forests cover about 29.6% of Poland's land area based on international standards. Its overall percentage is still increasing. Forests of Poland are managed by the national program of reforestation (KPZL), aiming at an increase of forest-cover to 33% in 2050. The largest forest complex in Poland is Lower Silesian Wilderness.More than 1% of Poland's territory, , is protected within 23 Polish national parks. Three more national parks are projected for Masuria, the Polish Jura, and the eastern Beskids. In addition, wetlands along lakes and rivers in central Poland are legally protected, as are coastal areas in the north. There are 123 areas designated as landscape parks, along with numerous nature reserves and other protected areas under the Natura 2000 network.In 2017, approximately of land was occupied by farms and farmsteads, over half of Poland's total area.Phytogeographically, Poland belongs to the Central European province of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the territory of Poland belongs to three Palearctic Ecoregions of the continental forest spanning Central and Northern European temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregions, as well as the Carpathian montane conifer forest. The most common deciduous trees found across the country are oak, maple, and beech; the most common conifers are pine, spruce, and fir. An estimated 68.7% of all forests are coniferous.Poland has historically been home to rare species of animals, as well as the two largest European mammals: the wisent ("żubr") and aurochs ("tur"). The last aurochs of Europe became extinct in 1627 in the Polish Jaktorów Forest, while the wisent survived until the 20th century only at Białowieża. It has been since reintroduced to other countries. Other wild species include the brown bear in Białowieża, in the Tatras, and in the Beskids; the gray wolf and the Eurasian lynx in various forests; the moose in northern Poland; and the beaver in Masuria, Pomerania, and Podlaskie.Game animals such as red deer, roe deer, and wild boar are found in most woodlands. Eastern Poland abounds in ancient woods, like the Białowieża Forest, that have not been disturbed by human or industrial activity. There are also large forested areas in the mountains, Greater Poland, Pomerania, Lubusz Land, and Lower Silesia. The Lubusz Voivodeship is currently the most arboraceous province in the country; 52% of its territory is occupied by forests.Poland is also a significant breeding ground for a variety of European migratory birds. One quarter of the global population of white storks (40,000 breeding pairs) live in Poland, particularly in the lake districts and the wetlands along the Biebrza, the Narew, and the Warta, which are part of nature reserves or national parks.The climate is mostly temperate throughout the country. The climate is oceanic in the north-west and becomes gradually warmer and continental towards the south-east. Summers are generally warm, with average temperatures between depending on the region. Winters are rather cold, with average temperatures around in the northwest and in the northeast. Precipitation falls throughout the year, although, especially in the east, winter is drier than summer.The warmest region in Poland is Lower Silesia in the southwest of the country, where temperatures in the summer average between but can go as high as on some days in the warmest months of July and August. The warmest cities in Poland are Tarnów in Lesser Poland, and Wrocław in Lower Silesia. The average temperatures in Wrocław are in the summer and in the winter, but Tarnów has the longest summer in all of Poland, which lasts for 115 days, from mid-May to mid-September. The coldest region of Poland is in the northeast, around the area of Suwałki within the Podlaskie Voivodeship, where the climate is affected by cold fronts coming from Scandinavia and Siberia. The average temperature in the winter in Podlaskie ranges from . The biggest impact of the oceanic climate is observed in Świnoujście and Baltic Sea seashore area from Police to Słupsk.Poland is a representative democracy, with a president as the head of state. The government structure centers on the Council of Ministers, led by a prime minister. The president appoints the cabinet according to the proposals of the prime minister, typically from the majority coalition in the Sejm. The president is elected by popular vote every five years. The current president is Andrzej Duda and the prime minister is Mateusz Morawiecki.Polish voters elect a bicameral parliament consisting of a 460-member lower house (Sejm) and a 100-member Senate (Senat). The Sejm is elected under proportional representation according to the d'Hondt method, a method similar to that used in many parliamentary political systems. The Senat, on the other hand, is elected under the first-past-the-post voting method, with one senator being returned from each of the 100 constituencies.With the exception of ethnic minority parties, only candidates of political parties receiving at least 5% of the total national vote can enter the Sejm. When sitting in joint session, members of the Sejm and Senat form the National Assembly (the "Zgromadzenie Narodowe"). The National Assembly is formed on three occasions: when a new president takes the oath of office; when an indictment against the President of the Republic is brought to the State Tribunal ("Trybunał Stanu"); and when a president's permanent incapacity to exercise his duties due to the state of his health is declared. To date only the first instance has occurred.The judicial branch plays an important role in decision-making. Its major institutions include the Supreme Court ("Sąd Najwyższy"); the Supreme Administrative Court ("Naczelny Sąd Administracyjny"); the Constitutional Tribunal ("Trybunał Konstytucyjny"); and the State Tribunal ("Trybunał Stanu"). On the approval of the Senat, the Sejm also appoints the ombudsman or the Commissioner for Civil Rights Protection ("Rzecznik Praw Obywatelskich") for a five-year term. The ombudsman has the duty of guarding the observance and implementation of the rights and liberties of Polish citizens and residents, of the law and of principles of community life and social justice.The Constitution of Poland is the enacted supreme law, and the Polish legal system is based on the principle of civil rights, governed by the code of civil law. The current democratic constitution was adopted by the National Assembly of Poland on 2 April 1997; it guarantees a multi-party state with freedoms of religion, speech and assembly, prohibits the practices of forced medical experimentation, torture or corporal punishment, and acknowledges the inviolability of the home, the right to form trade unions, and the right to strike.The judiciary incorporates a four-tier court system composed of the Supreme Court, the Supreme Administrative Court, Common Courts (District, Regional, Appellate) and the Military Court. Judges are nominated by the National Council of the Judiciary and are appointed for life by the president. The Constitutional and State Tribunals are separate judicial bodies, which rule the constitutional liability of people holding the highest offices of state and supervise the compliance of statutory law, thus protecting the Constitution.Historically, the most significant Polish legal act is the Constitution of 3 May 1791, the first modern constitution in Europe. Instituted as a Government Act, it was designed to redress long-standing political defects of the federative Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and its Golden Liberty. Previously, only the Henrician Articles (1573) signed by each of Poland's elected monarchs could perform the function of a set of basic laws. The new Constitution introduced political equality between townspeople and the nobility ("szlachta"), and placed the peasants under the protection of the government. It abolished pernicious parliamentary policies such as the "liberum veto", which permitted any deputy to rescind all the legislation passed in the interest of a foreign power. The 3 May Constitution sought to supplant the existing anarchy fostered by some of the country's reactionary magnates, with a more egalitarian and democratic constitutional monarchy. The influenced many later democratic movements across the globe. Tax-paying women were allowed to take part in Polish political life until the third partition in 1795. In 1918 the Second Polish Republic became one of the first countries to introduce universal women's suffrage.Poland has a low homicide rate at 0.7 murders per 100,000 people, as of 2018. Rape, assault and violent crime remain at a very low level, although not all cases are recorded by the authorities.Abortion is permitted only in cases of rape, incest or when the woman's life is in danger. Congenital disorder and stillbirth are not covered by the law, forcing some women to seek abortion abroad, and others to seek the assistance of psychiatrists willing to testify on the negative psychological impact of stillbirth. Poland does not criminalize homosexuality, and its legality was confirmed in 1932. The Polish Constitution defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.Poland is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union and has a grand total of 52 representatives in the European Parliament as of 2020. Since joining the union in 2004, successive Polish governments have pursued policies to extend the country's role in European and international affairs. Poland is an emerging regional power in Central Europe. The capital of Warsaw serves as the headquarters for Frontex, the European Union's agency for external border security as well as ODIHR, one of the principal institutions of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.Apart from the European Union, Poland has been a member of NATO since 1999, the UN, the World Trade Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since 1996, European Economic Area, International Energy Agency, Council of Europe, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, International Atomic Energy Agency, European Space Agency, G6, Council of the Baltic Sea States, Visegrád Group, Weimar Triangle, Schengen Agreement, Lublin Triangle and Bucharest Nine.Over the past two decades, Poland significantly strengthened its ties with the United States, thus becoming one of its closest allies in Europe. Poland was part of the US-led coalition force during the Iraq War in 2003, and sent its troops in the first phase of the conflict, jointly with the United Kingdom and Australia. Along with NATO, Poland maintains military presence in the Middle East, the Baltic states and in the Balkans.The Polish Armed Forces are composed of five branches – Land Forces ("Wojska Lądowe"), Navy ("Marynarka Wojenna"), Air Force ("Siły Powietrzne"), Special Forces ("Wojska Specjalne") and the Territorial Defence Force ("Wojska Obrony Terytorialnej"). The military is subordinate to the Ministry of National Defence of the Republic of Poland. However, its commander-in-chief in peacetime is the President of the Republic, who nominates officers, the Minister for National Defence and the chief of staff.As of 2018, the Polish Armed Forces have a combined strength of 144,142 soldiers. The Polish Navy primarily operates on the Baltic Sea and conducts operations such as maritime patrol, search and rescue for the section of the Baltic under Polish sovereignty, as well as hydrographic measurements and research. The Polish Air Force routinely takes part in Baltic Air Policing assignments. In 2003, the F-16C Block 52 was selected as the new general multi-role fighter for the air force. In January 2020, Poland has approved the delivery for F-35 Lightning II combat aircraft. Poland is currently spending 2% of its GDP on defence (approximately US$13.5 billion in 2020), which is expected to grow to 2.5% by 2030. According to SIPRI, the country exported EUR€487 million worth of arms and armaments to other countries, primarily to the United States, Chile, France and South Africa.The mission of the armed forces is the defence of Poland's territorial integrity and Polish interests abroad. The country's national security goal is to further integrate with NATO and European defence, economic, and political institutions. Compulsory military service for men was discontinued in 2008. From 2007, until conscription ended in 2008, the mandatory service was nine months. Polish military doctrine reflects the same defensive nature as that of its NATO partners and the country actively hosts NATO's military exercises. From 1953 to 2009 Poland was a large contributor to various United Nations peacekeeping missions. The Polish Armed Forces took part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, deploying 2,500 soldiers in the south of that country and commanding the 17-nation multinational force in Iraq. Poland also maintains troops in the Middle East, the Baltic states and in the Balkans; 1,650 soldiers were deployed in 2019.Law enforcement in Poland is performed by several agencies which are subordinate to the Ministry of Interior and Administration – the State Police ("Policja"), assigned to investigate crimes or transgression; the Municipal City Guard, which maintains public order; and several specialized agencies, such as the Polish Border Guard. Private security firms are also common, although they possess no legal authority to arrest or detain a suspect. Municipal guards are primarily headed by provincial, regional or city councils; individual guards are not permitted to carry firearms unless instructed by their superior commanding officer or commandant.The Internal Security Agency (ABW, or ISA in English) is the chief counter-intelligence instrument safeguarding Poland's internal security, along with Agencja Wywiadu (AW) which identifies threats and collects secret information abroad. The Central Investigation Bureau of Police (CBŚP) and the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) are responsible for countering organized crime and corruption in state and private institutions.Emergency services in Poland consist of the emergency medical services, search and rescue units of the Polish Armed Forces and State Fire Service. Emergency medical services in Poland are provided for by local and regional governments.All emergency services personnel are uniformed and security services can be easily recognized during regular patrols in both large urban areas or smaller suburban localities.Poland's current voivodeships (provinces) are largely based on the country's historic regions, whereas those of the past two decades (to 1998) had been centred on and named for individual cities. The new units range in area from less than for Opole Voivodeship to more than for Masovian Voivodeship. Administrative authority at the voivodeship level is shared between a government-appointed voivode (governor), an elected regional assembly ("sejmik") and a voivodeship marshal, an executive elected by that assembly.The voivodeships are subdivided into "powiats" (often referred to in English as counties), and these are further divided into "gminas" (also known as communes or municipalities). Major cities normally have the status of both "gmina" and "powiat". Poland has 16 voivodeships, 380 powiats (including 66 cities with "powiat" status), and 2,478 "gminas".Poland's economy and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is currently the sixth largest in the European Union by nominal standards, and the fifth largest by purchasing power parity. It is also one of the fastest growing within the Union. Around 60% of the employed population belongs to the tertiary service sector, 30% to industry and manufacturing, and the remaining 10% to the agricultural sector. Although Poland is a member of EU's single market, the country has not adopted the Euro as legal tender and maintains its own currency – the Polish złoty (zł, PLN).Poland is the regional economic leader in Central Europe, with nearly 40 per cent of the 500 biggest companies in the region (by revenues) as well as a high globalisation rate. The country's largest firms compose the WIG20 and WIG30 indexes, which is traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. According to reports made by the National Bank of Poland, the value of Polish foreign direct investments reached almost 300 billion PLN at the end of 2014. The Central Statistical Office estimated that in 2014 there were 1,437 Polish corporations with interests in 3,194 foreign entities.Having a strong domestic market, low private debt, low unemployment rate, flexible currency, and not being dependent on a single export sector, Poland is the only European economy to have avoided the recession of 2008. The country is the 20th largest exporter of goods and services in the world and its most successful exports include machinery, furniture, food products, clothing, shoes, cosmetics and videogames. These account to approximately 56% of the total GDP, as of 2018. Poland's largest trading partners include Germany, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, France and Italy. Warsaw leads Central Europe in foreign investment. In September 2018, the unemployment rate was estimated at 5.7%, one of the lowest in the European Union. In 2019, Poland passed a law that would exempt workers under the age of 26 from income tax.The Polish banking sector is the largest in the region, with 32.3 branches per 100,000 adults.World Bank, Financial Inclusion Data. Country Dashboard: Poland. The World Bank Group. Retrieved 6 November 2014. The banks are the largest and most developed sector of the country's financial markets. They are regulated by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority. Poland's banking sector has approximately 5 national banks, a network of nearly 600 cooperative banks and 18 branches of foreign-owned banks. In addition, foreign investors have controlling stakes in nearly 40 commercial banks, which make up 68% of the banking capital.Products and goods manufactured in Poland include: electronics, buses and trams (Solaris, Solbus), helicopters and planes (PZL Świdnik, PZL Mielec), trains (Pesa, Newag), ships (Gdańsk Shipyard, Szczecin Shipyard), military equipment (FB "Łucznik" Radom, , Jelcz), medicines (, ), food (Tymbark, Hortex, E. Wedel), clothes (LLP), glass, pottery (Bolesławiec), chemical products and others. Well-known brands and companies include Alior Bank, Orlen&Lotos Group, Inglot Cosmetics, Plus, Play, Brainly, Netguru, GOG.com, CD Projekt, Trefl and Allegro. Poland is also one of the world's biggest producers of copper, silver, coal, furniture, automotive parts and soft drink.Poland experienced a significant increase in the number of tourists after joining the European Union in 2004. With nearly 21 million international arrivals in 2019, tourism contributes considerably to the overall economy and makes up a relatively large proportion of the country's service market.Tourist attractions in Poland vary, from the mountains in the south to the sandy beaches in the north, with a trail of nearly every architectural style. The most visited city is Kraków, which was the former capital of Poland and serves as a relic of the Polish Golden Age and the Renaissance. Kraków also held royal coronations of most Polish kings and monarchs at Wawel, the nation's chief historical landmark. Among other notable sites in the country is Wrocław, one of the oldest cities in Poland which was a model for the founding of Kraków. Wrocław is famous for its dwarfs, a large market square with two town halls, and the oldest Zoological Gardens with one of the world's largest number of animal species. The Polish capital Warsaw and its historical Old Town were entirely reconstructed after wartime destruction. Other cities attracting countless tourists include Gdańsk, Poznań, Lublin, Toruń as well as the site of the German Auschwitz concentration camp in Oświęcim. A notable highlight is the 13th-century Wieliczka Salt Mine with its labyrinthine tunnels, a subterranean lake and chapels carved by miners out of rock salt beneath the ground.Poland's main tourist offerings include outdoor activities such as skiing, sailing, mountain hiking and climbing, as well as agritourism, sightseeing historical monuments. Tourist destinations include the Baltic Sea coast in the north; the Masurian Lake District and Białowieża Forest in the east; on the south Karkonosze, the Table Mountains and the Tatra Mountains, where Rysy – the highest peak of Poland, and Eagle's Path mountain trail are located. The Pieniny and Bieszczady Mountains lie in the extreme south-east. There are over 100 castles in the country, most in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship (inter alia ), and also on the Trail of the Eagles' Nests. The largest castle in the world by land area is situated in Malbork, in north-central Poland.The electricity generation sector in Poland is largely fossil-fuel–based. Many power plants nationwide use Poland's position as a major European exporter of coal to their advantage by continuing to use coal as the primary raw material in the production of their energy. In 2013, Poland scored 48 out of 129 states in the Energy Sustainability Index. The three largest Polish coal mining firms (Węglokoks, Kompania Węglowa and JSW) extract around 100 million tonnes of coal annually.Renewable forms of energy account for a smaller proportion of Poland's full energy generation capacity. However, the national government has set targets for the development of renewable energy sources in Poland (the share of energy from renewable sources in the gross final energy consumption in 2019 was – 12,18%). Increasing the share of energy from renewable sources and a significant reduction in CO2 emissions to be achieved with the help of biofuels, photovoltaics, construction of wind farms on the land and the Baltic Sea, hydroelectric stations and nuclear power plant.Poland has around 164,800,000,000 m of proven natural gas reserves and around 96,380,000 barrels of proven oil reserves. These reserves are exploited by energy supply companies such as PKN Orlen ("the only Polish company listed in the Fortune Global 500"), PGNiG. However, the small amounts of fossil fuels naturally occurring in Poland are insufficient to satisfy the full energy consumption needs of the population and industry. Consequently, the country is a net importer of oil and natural gas. Therefore, since the second decade of the 21st century, Poland has been strongly developing the so-called North Gate in which the most important components are the Baltic Pipe, the Świnoujście LNG terminal and Floating Storage and Regasification Unit in Port of Gdańsk.The 5 largest companies supplying Poland electricity are PGE, Tauron, Enea, and Innogy Poland.Transport in Poland is provided by means of rail, road, marine shipping and air travel. The country is part of EU's Schengen Area and is an important transport hub along neighbouring Germany due to its strategic position in Central Europe. Some of the longest European routes, including the E40, run through Poland.The country has a good network of highways, composed of express roads and motorways. At the start of 2020, Poland had of highways in use. In addition, all local and regional roads are monitored by the National Road Rebuilding Programme, which aims to improve the quality of travel in the countryside and suburban localities.In 2017, the nation had of railway track, the third longest in Europe after Germany and France. The Polish State Railways (PKP) is the dominant railway operator in the country. In December 2014, Poland began to implement high–speed rail routes connecting major Polish cities, and started passenger service using the New Pendolino train, operating at 200 km/h on the Central Rail Line (CMK). Polish regulations allow trains without ETCS to travel at speeds up to 160 km/h, trains with ETCS1 up to 200 km/h, and trains with ETCS2 at over 200 km/h. Most inter-regional connections rail routes in Poland are operated by PKP Intercity, whilst regional trains are run by a number of private operators, the largest of which is Polregio. The largest passenger train station in terms of the number of travelers is Wrocław Główny.The air and maritime transport markets in Poland are largely well developed. Poland has a number of international airports, the largest of which is Warsaw Chopin Airport, the primary global hub for LOT Polish Airlines. It was established in 1928 from a merger of Aerolloyd (1922) and Aero (1925). Other major airports with international connections include John Paul II International Airport Kraków–Balice, Copernicus Airport Wrocław, Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport. Poland has begun preparations for a construction that can handle 100 million passengers of the Central Communication Port.Seaports exist all along Poland's Baltic coast, with most freight operations using Świnoujście, Police, Szczecin, Kołobrzeg, Gdynia, Gdańsk and Elbląg as their base.Passenger ferries link Poland with Scandinavia all year round; these services are provided from Gdańsk and Świnoujście by Polferries, Stena Line from Gdynia and Unity Line from the Świnoujście. The Port of Gdańsk is the only port in the Baltic Sea adapted to receive oceanic vessels.Over the course of history, the Polish people have made considerable contributions in the fields of science, technology and mathematics. Perhaps the most renowned Pole to support this theory was Nicolaus Copernicus ("Mikołaj Kopernik"), who triggered the Copernican Revolution by placing the Sun rather than the Earth at the center of the universe. He also derived a quantity theory of money, which made him a pioneer of economics. Copernicus' achievements and discoveries are considered the basis of Polish culture and cultural identity.Poland's tertiary education institutions; traditional universities, as well as technical, medical, and economic institutions, employ around tens of thousands of researchers and staff members. There are hundreds of research and development institutes. However, in the 19th and 20th centuries many Polish scientists worked abroad; one of the most important of these exiles was Maria Skłodowska-Curie, a physicist and chemist who lived much of her life in France. In 1925 she established Poland's Radium Institute.In the first half of the 20th century, Poland was a flourishing centre of mathematics. Outstanding Polish mathematicians formed the Lwów School of Mathematics (with Stefan Banach, Stanisław Mazur, Hugo Steinhaus, Stanisław Ulam) and Warsaw School of Mathematics (with Alfred Tarski, Kazimierz Kuratowski, Wacław Sierpiński and Antoni Zygmund). Numerous mathematicians, scientists, chemists or economists emigrated due to historic vicissitudes, among them Benoit Mandelbrot, Leonid Hurwicz, Alfred Tarski, Joseph Rotblat and Nobel Prize laureates Roald Hoffmann, Georges Charpak and Tadeusz Reichstein. In the 1930s, mathematician and cryptologist Marian Rejewski invented the Cryptographic Bomb which formed the basis of the effort that allowed the Allies to crack the Enigma code.Over 40 research and development centers and 4,500 researchers make Poland the biggest research and development hub in Central and Eastern Europe. Multinational companies such as: ABB, Delphi, GlaxoSmithKline, Google, Hewlett–Packard, IBM, Intel, LG Electronics, Microsoft, Motorola, Siemens and Samsung all have set up research and development centres in Poland. Companies chose Poland because of the availability of highly qualified labour force, presence of universities, support of authorities, and the largest market in East-Central Europe. According to a KPMG report from 2011, 80% of Poland's current investors are content with their choice and willing to reinvest. Poland has a very well-developed e-administration, thanks to which many official matters can be easily and quickly settled via the Internet. In the UN ranking, Poland is in the top twenty countries with the best-rated e-administration in the world.Poland, with approximately 38.5 million inhabitants, has the ninth-largest population in Europe and the fifth-largest in the European Union. It has a population density of 122 inhabitants per square kilometre (328 per square mile). The total fertility rate in 2020 was estimated at 1.44 children born to a woman, a considerable rise from previous years. In contrast, the total fertility rate in 1925 was 4.68. Furthermore, Poland's population is aging significantly and the median age in 2018 was 41.1 years. The crude death rate in 2020 stood at 10.3 per 1,000 people.Around 60% of Poles and Polish citizens reside in urban areas or major cities and 40% in more rural zones. The most populous administrative province or state is the Masovian Voivodeship and the most populous city is the capital, Warsaw, at 1.8 million inhabitants with a further 2-3 million people living in its metropolitan area. The metropolitan area of Katowice is the largest urban conurbation in Poland with a population between 2.7 million and 5.3 million residents. The least populous and the smallest province in size is the Opole Voivodeship, with just under 1 million people living within its borders. Hence, a substantial portion of the total population is concentrated in the south of Poland, roughly between the cities of Wrocław and Kraków.In the 2011 Polish census, 37,310,341 people reported Polish identity, 846,719 Silesian, 232,547 Kashubian and 147,814 German. Other identities were reported by 163,363 people (0.41%) and 521,470 people (1.35%) did not specify any nationality. Once prominent but now statistically insignificant minority groups include Polish Jews, Lipka Tatars, Armenians, Greeks, Lemkos, the Romani people and the Vietnamese. Ethnic Poles themselves can be divided into many diverse regional ethnographic sub-groups, most notable being the Kashubians, Silesians and Gorals (Highlanders). The statistics do not include recently arrived migrant workers. More than 1.7 million Ukrainian citizens worked legally in Poland in 2017.There is a very strong Polish diaspora around the world, notably in the United States, Germany, United Kingdom and Canada. A strong Polish minority is still present in the territories of contemporary western Ukraine and Belarus, eastern Lithuania, eastern and central Latvia, and northeastern Czech Republic, which were part of Poland in the past. Altogether, the number of ethnic Poles living abroad is estimated to be around 20 million.Polish is the only official and predominant spoken language in Poland, but it is also used throughout the world by Polish minorities in other countries as well as being one of the official languages of the European Union. The deaf communities use Polish Sign Language belonging to the German family of Sign Languages. Polish is also a second language in Lithuania, where it is taught in schools and universities. Contemporary Poland is a linguistically homogeneous nation, with nearly 97% of respondents declaring Polish as their mother tongue.Poland's once multi-ethnic population communicated in numerous languages and lects which faded or disappeared along the course of history. There are currently 15 minority languages in Poland, including one recognized regional language, Kashubian, which is spoken by around 366,000 people in the northern regions of Kashubia and Pomerania.Languages having the status of national minority's language are Armenian, Belarusian, Czech, German, Yiddish, Hebrew, Lithuanian, Russian, Slovak and Ukrainian. Languages having the status of ethnic minority's language are Karaim, Lemko-Rusyn, Tatar and two Romani languages; Polska Roma and Bergitka Roma. Official recognition of a language provides certain rights under conditions prescribed by Polish law, including education and state financial support for promoting that language. Poland recognized secondary administrative languages or auxiliary languages in bilingual municipalities. Currently, German and Kashubian hold such status in 19 municipalities ("gminas"), Belarusian in 9 and Lithuanian in 1. Bilingual signs, names and advertisements are commonplace in those localities. Silesian and Wymysorys (Vilamovian) are not legally recognized or acknowledged as separate languages with a minority status.More than 50% of Polish citizens declare at least basic knowledge of the English language, followed by German (38%).According to the 2015 census, 92.9% of all Polish citizens adhere to the Roman Catholic Church. An estimated 94.2% of the population are believers and 3.1% are irreligious, making Poland one of the more devout countries in Europe. Around 61.6% of all respondents outlined that religion is of high or very high importance. However, church attendance has decreased in recent years; only 38% of worshippers attended mass regularly on Sunday in 2018. Freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Polish Constitution, and the concordat guarantees the teaching of religion in state schools.For centuries the tribes inhabiting the lands of modern-day Poland have practiced various forms of paganism known as "Rodzimowierstwo", or "native faith". In the year 966, Duke Mieszko I converted to Christianity, and submitted to the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. This event came to be known as the Baptism of Poland. However, this did not put an end to pagan beliefs in the country. The persistence was demonstrated by a series of rebellions in the 1030s known as the pagan reaction, which also showed elements of a peasant uprising against medieval feudalism.Religious tolerance was an important part of Polish political culture, though it varied at times. In 1264, the Statute of Kalisz granted Jews unprecedented legal rights not found anywhere in Europe. In 1573, the Warsaw Confederation marked the formal beginning of extensive religious freedoms in Poland. It was partially influenced by the 1572 St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in France, which prompted the nobility to prevent the monarch from carrying out reprehensible atrocities in Poland based on religious affiliation. The religious tolerance also spurred many theological movements such as the Calvinist Polish Brethren, a number of Protestant groups and atheists like Casimir Liszinski, one of the first atheist thinkers in Europe. Anabaptists fleeing 16th-century persecution in the Netherlands and Germany settled in Poland and became known as the Vistula delta Mennonites. From 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła was head of the Roman Catholic Church as Pope John Paul II.Contemporary religious minorities include Christian Orthodox (506,800), various Protestants (150,000) — including 77,500 Lutherans of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church, 23,000 Pentecostals in the Pentecostal Church in Poland, 10,000 Adventists in the Seventh-day Adventist Church and other smaller Evangelical denominations — Jehovah's Witnesses (126,827), Eastern Catholics, Mariavites, Jews, Muslims (Tatars) and neopagans, some of whom are members of the Native Polish Church.Famous sites of Roman Catholic pilgrimage in Poland include the Monastery of Jasna Góra in the city of Częstochowa, Basilica of Our Lady of Licheń, Kraków's Sanctuary of Divine Mercy and Święta Lipka (Holy Linden) in Masuria. Tourists also visit the family home of John Paul II in Wadowice outside Kraków. Christ the King in Świebodzin is the tallest statue of Jesus in the world. Christian Orthodox pilgrims visit Mount Grabarka near Grabarka-Klasztor and the Hasidic Jews travel annually to the grave of a great rabbi in Leżajsk.Medical service providers and hospitals ("szpitale") in Poland are subordinate to the Ministry of Health; it provides administrative oversight and scrutiny of general medical practice, and is obliged to maintain a high standard of hygiene and patient care. Poland has a universal healthcare system based on an all-inclusive insurance system; state subsidised healthcare is available to all citizens covered by the general health insurance program of the National Health Fund (NFZ). Private medical complexes exist nationwide; over 50% of the population uses both public and private sectors.Hospitals are organised according to the regional administrative structure, resultantly most towns, counties or municipalities possess their own provincial hospital or medical clinics. There are six types of hospital facilities, each with a particular area of medical expertise – I Grade Hospitals for general surgery, internal illnesses and obstetrics; II Grade Hospitals for child surgery, neurology, cardiology and ophthalmology; III Grade Hospitals including teaching hospitals for infectious diseases, nephrology, orthopedics, toxicology and transplantology; Oncology Hospitals for cancer treatment and brachytherapy; Pediatric Hospitals for child care; and Nationwide Hospitals for general and acute care.According to the Human Development Report from 2020, the average life expectancy at birth is 79 years (around 75 years for an infant male and 83 years for an infant female); the country has a low infant mortality rate (4 per 1,000 births). In 2019, the principal cause of death was ischemic heart disease; diseases of the circulatory system accounted for 45% of all deaths. In the same year, Poland was also the 15th-largest importer of medications and pharmaceutical products.The Jagiellonian University founded in 1364 by Casimir III in Kraków was the first institution of higher learning established in Poland, and is one of the oldest universities still in continuous operation. Poland's Commission of National Education ("Komisja Edukacji Narodowej"), established in 1773, was the world's first state ministry of education. The framework for primary and secondary schooling in contemporary Poland is established by the Ministry of National Education. Kindergarten attendance is optional for children aged between three and five, with one year being compulsory for six-year-olds. Primary education traditionally begins at the age of seven, although children aged six can attend at the request of their parents or guardians. Elementary school spans eight grades, at the end of which an obligatory three-part exam on Polish, mathematics and a foreign language is to be undertaken. Secondary schooling is dependent on student preference – either a four-year high school ("liceum"), a five-year technical school ("technikum") or various vocational studies ("szkoła branżowa") can be pursued by each individual pupil. A liceum or technikum is concluded with a maturity exit exam ("matura"), which must be passed in order to apply for a university or other institutions of higher learning.The standards of higher tertiary education are imposed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. In Poland, there are over 500 university-level institutions, with technical, medical, economic, agricultural, pedagogical, theological, musical, maritime and military faculties. The University of Warsaw and Warsaw Polytechnic, the University of Wrocław, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and the University of Technology in Gdańsk are among the most prominent. There are three conventional academic degrees in Poland – "licencjat" or "inżynier" (first cycle qualification), "magister" (second cycle qualification) and "doktor" (third cycle qualification).In 2018, the Programme for International Student Assessment, coordinated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, ranked Poland's educational system higher than the OECD average; the study showed that students in Poland perform better academically than in most OECD countries.The culture of Poland is closely connected with its intricate 1,000-year history and forms an important constituent in western civilization. The Poles take great pride in their national identity which is often associated with the colours white and red, and exuded by the expression "biało-czerwoni" ("whitereds"). National symbols, chiefly the crowned white-tailed eagle, are often visible on clothing, insignia and emblems. The appreciation of Poland's traditions and cultural heritage is commonly known as Polonophilia.With origins in the customs of the tribal Lechites, over time the culture of Poland has been influenced by its connection to Western culture and trends, as well as developing its own unique traditions such as Sarmatism. The people of Poland have traditionally been seen as hospitable to artists from abroad and eager to follow cultural and artistic trends popular in foreign countries, for instance, the 16th- and 17th-century tradition of coffin portraits ("portret trumienny") was only observed in Poland and Roman Egypt. In the 19th and 20th centuries the Polish focus on cultural advancement often took precedence over political and economic activity. These factors have contributed to the versatile nature of Polish art.The architectural monuments of great importance are protected by the National Heritage Board of Poland. Over 100 of the country's most significant tangible wonders were enlisted onto the Historic Monuments Register, with further 16 being recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. Poland is renowned for its brick Gothic castles, granaries and churches as well as diversely-styled tenements, market squares and town halls. The majority of Polish cities founded on Magdeburg Law in the Middle Ages evolved around central marketplaces, a distinguishable urban characteristic which can be observed to this day. Medieval and Renaissance cloth halls were once an abundant feature of many towns.There are 13 government-approved annual public holidays – New Year on 1 January, Three Kings' Day on 6 January, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, Labour Day on 1 May, Constitution Day on 3 May, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, Armed Forces Day on 15 August, All Saints' Day on 1 November, Independence Day on 11 November and Christmastide on 25 and 26 December.Particular traditions and superstitious customs observed in Poland are not found elsewhere in Europe. Though Christmas Eve ("Wigilia") is not a public holiday, it remains the most memorable day of the entire year. Trees are decorated on 24 December, hay is placed under the tablecloth to resemble Jesus' manger, Christmas wafers ("opłatek") are shared between gathered guests and a twelve-dish meatless supper is served that same evening when the first star appears. An empty plate and seat are symbolically left at the table for an unexpected guest. On occasion, carolers journey around smaller towns with a folk Turoń creature until the Lent period.A widely-popular doughnut and sweet pastry feast occurs on Fat Thursday, usually 52 days prior to Easter. Eggs for Holy Sunday are painted and placed in decorated baskets that are previously blessed by clergymen in churches on Easter Saturday. Easter Monday is celebrated with pagan "dyngus" festivities, where the youth is engaged in water fights and some girls are gently spanked by colleagues with pussy willows to stimulate fertility.Cemeteries and graves of the deceased are annually visited by family members on All Saints' Day; tombstones are cleaned as a sign of respect and candles are lit to honour the dead on an unprecedented scale.Artists from Poland, including famous musicians such as Chopin, Rubinstein, Paderewski, Penderecki and Wieniawski, and traditional, regionalized folk composers create a lively and diverse music scene, which even recognizes its own music genres, such as sung poetry and disco polo.The origins of Polish music can be traced to the 13th century; manuscripts have been found in Stary Sącz containing polyphonic compositions related to the Parisian Notre Dame School. Other early compositions, such as the melody of "Bogurodzica" and "God Is Born" (a coronation polonaise tune for Polish kings by an unknown composer), may also date back to this period, however, the first known notable composer, Nicholas of Radom, lived in the 15th century. Diomedes Cato, a native-born Italian who lived in Kraków, became a renowned lutenist at the court of Sigismund III; he not only imported some of the musical styles from southern Europe but blended them with native folk music.In the 17th and 18th centuries, Polish baroque composers wrote liturgical music and secular compositions such as concertos and sonatas for voices or instruments. At the end of the 18th century, Polish classical music evolved into national forms like the polonaise. Wojciech Bogusławski is accredited with composing the first Polish national opera, titled "", which premiered in 1794.Traditional Polish folk music has had a major effect on the works of many Polish composers, and no more so than on Fryderyk Chopin, a widely recognised national hero of the arts. All of Chopin's works involve the piano and are technically demanding, emphasising nuance and expressive depth. As a great composer, Chopin invented the musical form known as the instrumental ballade and made major innovations to the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, polonaise, étude, impromptu and prélude, he was also the composer of a number of polonaises which borrowed heavily from traditional Polish folk music. It is largely thanks to him that such pieces gained great popularity throughout Europe during the 19th century. Several Polish composers such as Szymanowski drew inspiration from Chopin's folk-influenced style. Nowadays the most distinctive folk music can be heard in the towns and villages of the mountainous south, particularly in the region surrounding the winter resort town of Zakopane.Poland today has an active music scene, with the jazz and metal genres being particularly popular among the contemporary populace. Polish jazz musicians such as Krzysztof Komeda created a unique style, which was most famous in the 1960s and 1970s and continues to be popular to this day. Poland has also become a major venue for large-scale music festivals, chief among which are the Open'er Festival, Opole Festival and Sopot Festival.Art in Poland has always reflected European trends while maintaining its unique character. The Kraków Academy of Fine Arts, later developed by Jan Matejko, produced monumental portrayals of customs and significant events in Polish history. Other institutions such as the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw were more innovative and focused on both historical and contemporary styles. Notable art academies include the Kraków School of Art and Fashion Design, Art Academy of Szczecin, University of Fine Arts in Poznań and the Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław.Perhaps the most prominent and internationally admired Polish artist was Tamara de Lempicka, who specialized in the style of Art Deco. Lempicka was described as "the first woman artist to become a glamour star." Another notable was Caziel, born Zielenkiewicz, who represented Cubism and Abstraction in France and England.Prior to the 19th century only Daniel Schultz and Italian-born Marcello Bacciarelli had the privilege of being recognized abroad. The Young Poland movement witnessed the birth of modern Polish art, and engaged in a great deal of formal experimentation led by Jacek Malczewski, Stanisław Wyspiański, Józef Mehoffer, and a group of Polish Impressionists. Stanisław Witkiewicz was an ardent supporter of Realism, its main representative being Józef Chełmoński, while Artur Grottger specialized in Romanticism. Within historically-orientated circles, Henryk Siemiradzki dominated with his monumental Academic Art and ancient Roman theme.Since the inter-war years, Polish art and documentary photography has enjoyed worldwide fame and in the 1960s the Polish School of Posters was formed. Throughout the entire country, many national museum and art institutions hold valuable works by famous masters. Major museums in Poland include the National Museum in Warsaw, Poznań, Wrocław, Kraków, and Gdańsk, as well as the Museum of John Paul II Collection, and the Wilanów Museum. Important collections are also held at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Wawel Castle and in the Palace on the Isle. Contemporary art galleries include Zachęta, Ujazdów, and MOCAK. The most distinguished painting of Poland is "Lady with an Ermine" by Leonardo da Vinci, held at the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków. Although not Polish, the work had a strong influence on Polish culture and has been often associated with Polish identity.Polish cities and towns reflect a whole spectrum of European architectural styles. Romanesque architecture is represented by St. Andrew's Church, Kraków, and St. Mary's Church, Gdańsk, is characteristic for the Brick Gothic style found in Poland. Richly decorated attics and arcade loggias are the common elements of the Polish Renaissance architecture, as evident in the City Hall in Poznań. For some time the late renaissance style known as mannerism, most notably in the Bishop's Palace in Kielce, coexisted with the early baroque style, typified in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Kraków.History has not been kind to Poland's architectural monuments. Nonetheless, a number of ancient structures have survived: castles, churches, and stately homes, often unique in the regional or European context. Some of them have been painstakingly restored, like Wawel Castle, or completely reconstructed, including the Old Town and Royal Castle of Warsaw and the Old Town of Gdańsk.The architecture of Gdańsk is mostly of the Hanseatic variety, a Gothic style common among the former trading cities along the Baltic Sea and in the northern part of Central Europe. The architectural style of Wrocław is mainly representative of German architecture since it was for centuries located within the Holy Roman Empire. The centres of Kazimierz Dolny and Sandomierz on the Vistula are good examples of well-preserved medieval towns. Poland's ancient capital, Kraków, ranks among the best-preserved Gothic and Renaissance urban complexes in Europe.The second half of the 17th century is marked by baroque architecture. Side towers, such as those of Branicki Palace in Białystok, are typical for the Polish baroque. The classical Silesian baroque is represented by the University in Wrocław. The profuse decorations of the Branicki Palace in Warsaw are characteristic of the rococo style. The centre of Polish classicism was Warsaw under the rule of the last Polish king Stanisław II Augustus.The Palace on the Isle is a chief example of Polish neoclassical architecture. Lublin Castle represents the Gothic Revival style in architecture, while the Izrael Poznański Palace in Łódź is an example of eclecticism.Traditional folk architecture in the villages and small towns scattered across the vast Polish countryside was characterized by its extensive use of wood and red brick as primary building materials, common for Central Europe. Some of the best preserved and oldest structures include ancient stone temples in Silesia and fortified wooden churches across southeastern Poland in the Beskids and Bieszczady regions of the Carpathian mountains. Numerous examples of secular structures such as Polish manor houses ("dworek"), farmhouses (), granaries, mills, barns and country inns () can still be found in some Polish regions. However, traditional construction methods faded in the early-mid 20th century, when Poland's population experienced a demographic shift to urban dwelling away from the countryside.The earliest examples of Polish literature date to the 12th century, when Poland's official language was Latin, and early published works were predominantly written by foreigners. Gallus Anonymus, a monk of disputed origin, was the first chronicler who meticulously described Poland's culture, language and territories in "Gesta principum Polonorum" (c. 1112–1118). Latin remained the principal tool of literary expression in Poland until the 18th century, when it was replaced in favour of Polish and French. Historically, Polish literature concentrated extensively around the themes of true drama and poetic-expressive romanticism than on fiction. Patriotism, spirituality and aphorisms were paramount and political or social allegories were common moral narratives.The first documented phrase in the Polish language reads ""Day ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai"" ("Let me grind, and you take a rest"), reflecting the use of quern-stone in early Poland. The phrase was recorded by an abbot in the Latin-based "Liber fundationis" from 1269 to 1273, which outlined the history of a Cistercian monastery in the Silesian village of Henryków. The sentence has been included in the UNESCO Memory of World Register. The oldest extant manuscript of fine prose in Old Polish is the "Holy Cross Sermons", and the earliest religious text is the Bible of Queen Sophia. One of the first printing houses was established by Kasper Straube in the 1470s, while Jan Haller was considered the pioneer of commercial print in Poland. Haller's Calendarium cracoviense, an astronomical wall calendar from 1474, is Poland's oldest surviving print.The tradition of extending Polish historiography in Latin was subsequently inherited by Vincent Kadłubek, Bishop of Kraków in the 13th century, and Jan Długosz in the 15th century. This practice, however, was abandoned by Jan Kochanowski, who became one of the first Polish Renaissance authors to write most of his works in Polish, along with Nicholas Rey. Other writers of the Polish Renaissance include Johannes Dantiscus, Andreus Fricius Modrevius, Matthias Sarbievius, Piotr Skarga and Klemens "Ianicius" Janicki, who was laureled by the Pope. The leading figure of the Polish Reformation was theologian and writer John Laski, who, with the permission of King Edward VI of England, created the European Protestant Congregation of London in 1550.During the Baroque era, the Jesuits greatly influenced Polish literature and literary techniques, often relying on God and religious matters. The leading baroque poet was Jan Andrzej Morsztyn, who incorporated Marinism into his publications. Jan Chryzostom Pasek, also a respected baroque writer, is mostly remembered for his tales and memoirs reflecting sarmatian culture in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Subsequently, the Polish Enlightenment was headed by Samuel Linde, Hugo Kołłątaj, Izabela Czartoryska and Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz. In 1776, Ignacy Krasicki composed the first milestone novel entitled "The Adventures of Mr. Nicholas Wisdom".Among the best known Polish Romantics are the "Three Bards" – the three national poets active in the age of foreign partitions – Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki and Zygmunt Krasiński. The narrative poem "Pan Tadeusz" by Mickiewicz is Poland's national epic and a compulsory reading ("lektura") in the country's schools. Joseph Conrad, the son of dramatist Apollo Korzeniowski, came to fame with his English-language novels and stories that are informed with elements of the Polish national experience. Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", "Nostromo" and "Lord Jim" are believed to be one of the finest works ever written, placing him among the greatest novelists of all time. Modern Polish literature is versatile, with its fantasy genre having been particularly praised. The philosophical sci-fi novel "Solaris" is an acclaimed example of Stanisław Lem's literary legacy, whereas "The Witcher", a fantasy series by Andrzej Sapkowski, is a much-celebrated work of contemporary Polish fiction.In the 20th century, five Polish authors were awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature – Henryk Sienkiewicz for "Quo Vadis", Władysław Reymont for "The Peasants", Isaac Bashevis Singer, Czesław Miłosz and Wisława Szymborska. In 2019, Polish author Olga Tokarczuk was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 2018.Polish cuisine has evolved over the centuries to become highly eclectic due to Poland's history. Polish cuisine shares many similarities with other Central European cuisines, especially German and Austrian as well as Jewish, French, Italian and Turkish culinary traditions. Polish-styled cooking in other cultures is often referred to as "cuisine à la polonaise".Polish dishes are usually rich in meat, especially pork, chicken and beef (depending on the region), winter vegetables (sauerkraut cabbage in "bigos"), and spices. It is also characteristic in its use of various kinds of noodles, the most notable of which are kluski, as well as cereals such as "kasha" (from the Polish word kasza) and a variety of breads like the world-renowned bagel. Polish cuisine is hearty and uses a lot of cream and eggs. Festive meals such as the meatless Christmas Eve dinner ("Wigilia") or Easter breakfast could take days to prepare in their entirety.The main course usually includes a serving of meat, such as roast, chicken, or "kotlet schabowy" (breaded pork cutlet), vegetables, side dishes and salads, including "surówka" – shredded root vegetables with lemon and sugar (carrot, celeriac, seared beetroot) or sauerkraut (, ). The side dishes are usually potatoes, rice or cereal. Meals conclude with a dessert such as "sernik" (cheesecake), "makowiec" (poppy seed pastry), or "napoleonka" (cream pie).The Polish national dishes are "bigos" ; "pierogi" ; "kielbasa"; "kotlet schabowy" breaded cutlet; "gołąbki" cabbage rolls; "zrazy" roulade; "pieczeń" roast ; sour cucumber soup ("zupa ogórkowa", ); mushroom soup, ("zupa grzybowa", quite different from the North American cream of mushroom); "zupa pomidorowa" tomato soup ; "rosół" variety of meat broth; "żurek" sour rye soup; "flaki" tripe soup; "barszcz" and "chłodnik" among others.Traditional alcoholic beverages include honey mead, widespread since the 13th century, beer, wine and vodka (old Polish names include "okowita" and "gorzała"). The world's first written mention of vodka originates from Poland. The most popular alcoholic drinks at present are beer and wine which took over from vodka more popular in the years 1980–1998. Tea remains common in Polish society since the 19th century, whilst coffee is drunk widely since the 18th century. Other frequently consumed beverages include various mineral waters and juices, soft drinks popularized by the fast-food chains since the late 20th century, as well as buttermilk, soured milk and kefir.The particular clothing styles in Poland evolved with each century. In the 1600s high-class noblemen and magnates developed a strong sympathy for Orientalism, which was also common in other parts of Europe and became known as Sarmatism. The attire mediated between Western and Ottoman styles and outfits included a żupan, delia, kontusz, pas, decorative karabela swords and less often turbans brought by foreign merchants. The period of Polish Sarmatism eventually faded in the wake of the 18th century.The Polish national dress as well as the fashion and etiquette of Poland also reached the royal court at Versailles in the 1700s. French dresses inspired by Polish attire were called "à la polonaise", meaning "Polish-styled". The most famous example is the "robe à la polonaise", a woman's garment with draped and swagged overskirt, worn over an underskirt or petticoat. Another notable example is the Witzchoura, a long mantle with collar and hood, which was possibly introduced by Napoleon's Polish mistress Maria Walewska. The scope of influence also entailed furniture; rococo Polish beds with canopies became commonplace in French palaces during the 18th century.Several Polish designers and stylists left a lifelong legacy of beauty inventions and cosmetics, most notable being Maksymilian Faktorowicz and Helena Rubinstein. Faktorowicz created a line of cosmetics company in California known as Max Factor and coined the term "make-up" based on the verb phrase "to make up" one's face, now widely used as an alternative for describing cosmetics. Faktorowicz also raised to fame by inventing modern eyelash extensions and by providing services to Hollywood artists.As of 2020, Poland possesses the fifth-largest cosmetic market in Europe. Founded in 1983, Inglot Cosmetics is the country's largest beauty products manufacturer and retailer active in 700 locations worldwide, including retail salons in New York City, London, Milan, Dubai and Las Vegas. Established in 1999, the retail store Reserved is Poland's most successful clothing store chain, operating over 1,700 retail shops in 19 countries. Internationally successful models from Poland include Anja Rubik, Joanna Krupa, Jac Jagaciak, Kasia Struss, Małgosia Bela, and Magdalena Frąckowiak.The history of Polish cinema is as long as the history of cinematography itself. Over the decades, Poland has produced outstanding directors, film producers, cartoonists and actors that achieved world fame, especially in Hollywood. Moreover, Polish inventors played an important role in the development of world cinematography and modern-day television. Among the most famous directors and producers, who worked in Poland as well as abroad are Roman Polański, Andrzej Wajda, Samuel Goldwyn, the Warner brothers (Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack), Max Fleischer, Lee Strasberg, Agnieszka Holland and Krzysztof Kieślowski.In the 19th century, throughout partitioned Poland, numerous amateur inventors, such as Kazimierz Prószyński, were eager to construct a film projector. In 1894, Prószyński was successful in creating a Pleograph, one of the first cameras in the world. The invention, which took photographs and projected pictures, was built before the Lumière brothers lodged their patent. He also patented an Aeroscope, the first successful hand-held operated film camera. In 1897, Jan Szczepanik, obtained a British patent for his Telectroscope. This prototype of television could easily transmit image and sound, thus allowing a live remote view.Polish cinema developed rapidly in the interwar period. The most renowned star of the silent film era was Polish actress Pola Negri. During this time, the Yiddish cinema also evolved in Poland. Films in the Yiddish language with Jewish themes, such as "The Dybbuk" (1937), played an important part in pre-war Polish cinematography. In 1945 the government established 'Film Polski', a state-run film production and distribution organization, with director Aleksander Ford as the head of the company. Ford's "Knights of the Teutonic Order" (1960) was viewed by millions of people in the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and France. This success was followed by the historical films of Jerzy Hoffman and Andrzej Wajda. Wajda's 1975 film "The Promised Land" was nominated at the 48th Academy Awards.In 2015, "Ida" by Paweł Pawlikowski won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2019, Pawlikowski received an Academy Award for Best Director nomination for his historical drama "Cold War". Other well-known Polish Oscar-winning productions include "The Pianist" (2002) by Roman Polański.Poland has a number of major media outlets, chief among which are the national television channels. TVP is Poland's public broadcasting corporation; about a third of its income comes from a broadcast receiver licence, while the rest is made through revenue from commercials and sponsorships. State television operates two mainstream channels, TVP 1 and TVP 2, as well as regional programs for each of the country's 16 voivodeships (as TVP 3). In addition to these general channels, TVP runs a number of genre-specific programmes such as TVP Sport, TVP Historia, TVP Kultura, TVP Rozrywka, TVP Seriale and TVP Polonia, the latter is a state-run channel dedicated to the transmission of Polish language television for the Polish diaspora. Poland has several 24-hour news channels such as Polsat News, TVP Info and TVN 24. Poland also possesses a variety of free-to-air television channels, chiefly TVN, Polsat and TV4.In Poland, there are also daily newspapers like "Gazeta Wyborcza" ("Electoral Gazette"), "Rzeczpospolita" ("The Republic") and "Gazeta Polska Codziennie" ("Polish Daily Newspaper") which provide traditional opinion and news, and tabloids such as "Fakt" and "Super Express". Weeklies include "Tygodnik Angora", "", "Polityka", "Wprost", "Newsweek Polska", "Gość Niedzielny" and "Gazeta Polska".Poland has also emerged as a major hub for video game developers in Europe, with the country now being home to hundreds of studios. Among the most successful ones are CD Projekt, Techland, CI Games and People Can Fly. Some of the most popular video games developed in Poland include The Witcher trilogy. Katowice hosts Intel Extreme Masters, one of the biggest eSports events in the world.Volleyball and Association football are among the country's most popular sports, with a rich history of international competitions. Track and field, basketball, handball, boxing, MMA, motorcycle speedway, ski jumping, cross-country skiing, ice hockey, tennis, fencing, swimming and weightlifting are other popular sports.The golden era of football in Poland occurred throughout the 1970s and went on until the early 1980s when the Polish national football team achieved their best results in any FIFA World Cup competitions finishing 3rd place in the 1974 and the 1982 tournaments. The team won a gold medal in football at the 1972 Summer Olympics and two silver medals, in 1976 and in 1992. In 2012, Poland co-hosted the UEFA European Football Championship.As of May 2021, the Polish men's national volleyball team is ranked as 2nd in the world. Volleyball team won a gold medal in Olympic 1976 Montreal and three gold medals in FIVB World Championship 1974, 2014 and 2018.Mariusz Pudzianowski is a highly successful strongman competitor and has won more World's Strongest Man titles than any other competitor in the world, winning the event in 2008 for the fifth time.Poland has made a distinctive mark in motorcycle speedway racing thanks to Tomasz Gollob and Bartosz Zmarzlik, highly successful Polish riders. The top Ekstraliga division has one of the highest average attendances for any sport in Poland. The national speedway team of Poland is one of the major teams in international speedway.Poles made significant achievements in mountaineering, in particular, in the Himalayas and the winter ascending of the eight-thousanders. Polish mountains are one of the tourist attractions of the country. Hiking, climbing, skiing and mountain biking and attract numerous tourists every year from all over the world. Water sports are the most popular summer recreation activities, with ample locations for fishing, canoeing, kayaking, sailing and windsurfing especially in the northern regions of the country.
|
[
"Ewa Kopacz",
"Leszek Miller",
"Mateusz Morawiecki",
"Jan Olszewski",
"Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz",
"Tadeusz Mazowiecki",
"Jarosław Kaczyński",
"Jan Krzysztof Bielecki",
"Hanna Suchocka",
"Donald Tusk",
"Beata Szydło",
"Marek Belka",
"Jerzy Buzek",
"Waldemar Pawlak",
"Józef Oleksy"
] |
|
Who was the head of Poland in Mar, 1998?
|
March 06, 1998
|
{
"text": [
"Jerzy Buzek"
]
}
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Ewa Kopacz is the head of the government of Poland from Sep, 2014 to Nov, 2015.
Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz is the head of the government of Poland from Feb, 1996 to Oct, 1997.
Hanna Suchocka is the head of the government of Poland from Jul, 1992 to Oct, 1993.
Waldemar Pawlak is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 1993 to Mar, 1995.
Mateusz Morawiecki is the head of the government of Poland from Dec, 2017 to Dec, 2022.
Jarosław Kaczyński is the head of the government of Poland from Jul, 2006 to Nov, 2007.
Tadeusz Mazowiecki is the head of the government of Poland from Aug, 1989 to Jan, 1991.
Jerzy Buzek is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 1997 to Oct, 2001.
Marek Belka is the head of the government of Poland from May, 2004 to Oct, 2005.
Donald Tusk is the head of the government of Poland from Nov, 2007 to Sep, 2014.
Leszek Miller is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 2001 to May, 2004.
Jan Krzysztof Bielecki is the head of the government of Poland from Jan, 1991 to Dec, 1991.
Józef Oleksy is the head of the government of Poland from Mar, 1995 to Feb, 1996.
Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 2005 to Jul, 2006.
Jan Olszewski is the head of the government of Poland from Dec, 1991 to Jun, 1992.
Beata Szydło is the head of the government of Poland from Nov, 2015 to Dec, 2017.
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PolandPoland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country located in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces, covering an area of , and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With a population of nearly 38.5 million people, Poland is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union. Poland's capital and largest metropolis is Warsaw. Other major cities include Kraków, Łódź, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk, and Szczecin.Poland's topographically diverse territory extends from the beaches along the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in its south. The country is bordered by Lithuania and Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukraine to the east, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the south, and Germany to the west.The history of human activity on Polish soil spans thousands of years. Throughout the late antiquity period it became extensively diverse, with various cultures and tribes settling on the vast Central European Plain. However, it was the Western Polans who dominated the region and gave Poland its name. The establishment of Polish statehood can be traced to 966, when the pagan ruler of a realm coextensive with the territory of present-day Poland embraced Christianity and converted to Catholicism. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented its longstanding political association with Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest (over in area) and most populous nations of 16th and 17th century Europe, with a uniquely liberal political system which adopted Europe's first modern constitution, the Constitution of 3 May 1791.With the passing of prominence and prosperity, the country was partitioned by neighbouring states at the end of the 18th century, and regained independence in 1918 with the Treaty of Versailles. After a series of territorial conflicts, the new multi-ethnic Poland restored its position as a key player in European politics. In September 1939, World War II began with the invasion of Poland by Germany, followed by the Soviets invading Poland in accordance with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Approximately six million Polish citizens, including three million of the country's Jews, perished during the course of the war. As a member of the Eastern Bloc, the Polish People's Republic proclaimed forthwith was a chief signatory of the Warsaw Treaty amidst global Cold War tensions. In the wake of the 1989 events, notably through the emergence and contributions of the Solidarity movement, the communist government was dissolved and Poland re-established itself as a semi-presidential democratic republic.Poland is a developed market, and a middle power. It has the sixth largest economy in the European Union by nominal GDP and the fifth largest by GDP (PPP). It provides very high standards of living, safety and economic freedom, as well as free university education and a universal health care system. The country has 16 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, 15 of which are cultural. Poland is a member state of the Schengen Area, European Union, European Economic Area, the United Nations, NATO, the OECD, the Three Seas Initiative and the Visegrád Group.The origin of the name "Poland" derives from the West Slavic tribe of Polans ("Polanie"), who inhabited the Warta river basin of the present-day Greater Poland region starting in the mid-6th century. The origin of the name "Polanie" itself derives from the Proto-Slavic word "pole" (field). In some languages, such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian, Russian and Turkish, the country's name is derived from the Lendians ("Lędzianie" or "Lachy") who dwelled on the southeasternmost edge of present-day Lesser Poland. Their name likewise derives from the Old Polish word "lęda" (open land or plain).The early Bronze Age in Poland began around 2400 BC, while the Iron Age commenced in approximately 750 BC. During this time, the Lusatian culture, spanning both the Bronze and Iron Ages, became particularly prominent. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement (now reconstructed as an open-air museum), dating from the Lusatian culture of the late Bronze Age, around 748 BC.Throughout Antiquity, many distinct ancient ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland in an era that dates from about 400 BC to 500 AD. These groups are identified as Celtic, Scythian, Germanic, Sarmatian, Slavic and Baltic tribes. Also, recent archaeological findings in the Kuyavia region confirmed the presence of the Roman Legions on the territory of Poland. These were most likely expeditionary missions sent out to protect the amber trade. The exact time and routes of the original migration and settlement of Slavic peoples lacks written records and can only be defined as fragmented. There is evidence that earlier tribes may have been associated with the ancient Przeworsk culture. Up until the creation of Mieszko's state and his subsequent conversion to Christianity in 966 AD, the main religion of the numerous West Slavic (Lechitic) tribes that inhabited the geographical area of present-day Poland was paganism. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Western Christianity and the religious authority of the Roman Church. However, the transition from paganism was not a smooth and instantaneous process for the rest of the population as evident from the pagan reaction of the 1030s.Poland began to form into a recognizable unitary and territorial entity around the middle of the 10th century under the Piast dynasty. Poland's first historically documented ruler, Mieszko I, accepted Christianity, as the rightful religion of his realm, under the auspices of the Latin Church with the Baptism of Poland in 966. The bulk of the population converted in the course of the next few centuries. In 1000, Boleslaw the Brave, continuing the policy of his father Mieszko, held a Congress of Gniezno and created the metropolis of Gniezno and the dioceses of Kraków, Kołobrzeg, and Wrocław. However, the pagan unrest led to the transfer of the capital to Kraków in 1038 by Casimir I the Restorer.In 1109, Prince Bolesław III Wrymouth defeated the King of Germany Henry V at the Battle of Hundsfeld, stopping the German incursion into Poland. The clash between Bolesław III and Henry V was documented by Gallus Anonymus in his 1118 chronicle. In 1138, Poland fragmented into several smaller duchies when Bolesław divided his lands among his sons. In 1226, Konrad I of Masovia, one of the regional Piast dukes, invited the Teutonic Knights to help him fight the Baltic Prussian pagans; a decision that led to centuries of warfare with the Knights. In 1264, the Statute of Kalisz or the General Charter of Jewish Liberties introduced numerous right for the Jews in Poland, leading to a nearly autonomous "nation within a nation".In the middle of the 13th century, the Silesian branch of the Piast dynasty (Henry I the Bearded and Henry II the Pious, ruled 1238–1241) nearly succeeded in uniting the Polish lands, but the Mongols invaded the country from the east and defeated the combined Polish forces at the Battle of Legnica where Duke Henry II the Pious died. In 1320, after a number of earlier unsuccessful attempts by regional rulers at uniting the Polish dukedoms, Władysław I consolidated his power, took the throne and became the first king of a reunified Poland. His son, Casimir III (reigned 1333–1370), has a reputation as one of the greatest Polish kings, and gained wide recognition for improving the country's infrastructure. He also extended royal protection to Jews, and encouraged their immigration to Poland. Casimir III realized that the nation needed a class of educated people, especially lawyers, who could codify the country's laws and administer the courts and offices. His efforts to create an institution of higher learning in Poland were finally rewarded when Pope Urban V granted him permission to open the University of Kraków.The Golden Liberty of the nobles began to develop under Casimir's rule, when in return for their military support, the king made a series of concessions to the nobility and establishing their legal status as superior to that of the townsfolk. When Casimir the Great died in 1370, leaving no legitimate male heir, the Piast dynasty came to an end.During the 13th and 14th centuries, Poland became a destination for German, Flemish and to a lesser extent Walloon, Danish and Scottish migrants. Also, Jews and Armenians began to settle and flourish in Poland during this era (see History of the Jews in Poland and Armenians in Poland).The Black Death, a plague that ravaged Europe from 1347 to 1351, did not significantly affect Poland, and the country was spared from a major outbreak of the disease. The reason for this was the decision of Casimir the Great to quarantine the nation's borders.The Jagiellon dynasty spanned the late Middle Ages and early Modern Era of Polish history. Beginning with the Lithuanian Grand Duke Jogaila (Władysław II Jagiełło), the Jagiellon dynasty (1386–1572) formed the Polish–Lithuanian union. The partnership brought vast Lithuanian-controlled Rus' areas into Poland's sphere of influence and proved beneficial for the Poles and Lithuanians, who coexisted and cooperated in one of the largest political entities in Europe for the next four centuries.In the Baltic Sea region the struggle of Poland and Lithuania with the Teutonic Knights continued and culminated at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, where a combined Polish-Lithuanian army inflicted a decisive victory against them. In 1466, after the Thirteen Years' War, King Casimir IV Jagiellon gave royal consent to the Peace of Thorn, which created the future Duchy of Prussia under Polish suzerainty. The Jagiellon dynasty at one point also established dynastic control over the kingdoms of Bohemia (1471 onwards) and Hungary. In the south, Poland confronted the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Tatars (by whom they were attacked on 75 separate occasions between 1474 and 1569), and in the east helped Lithuania fight the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Some historians estimate that Crimean Tatar slave-raiding cost Poland-Lithuania one million of its population between the years of 1494 and 1694.Poland was developing as a feudal state, with a predominantly agricultural economy and an increasingly powerful landed nobility. The "Nihil novi" act adopted by the Polish Sejm (parliament) in 1505, transferred most of the legislative power from the monarch to the Sejm, an event which marked the beginning of the period known as "Golden Liberty", when the state was ruled by the "free and equal" Polish nobility. Protestant Reformation movements made deep inroads into Polish Christianity, which resulted in the establishment of policies promoting religious tolerance, unique in Europe at that time. This tolerance allowed the country to avoid most of the religious turmoil that spread over Europe during the 16th century.The European Renaissance evoked in late Jagiellon Poland (under kings Sigismund I the Old and Sigismund II Augustus) a sense of urgency in the need to promote a cultural awakening, and during this period Polish culture and the nation's economy flourished. In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus, an astronomer from Toruń, published his epochal work "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" ("On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres") and thereby became the first proponent of a predictive mathematical model confirming the heliocentric theory, which became the accepted basic model for the practice of modern astronomy. Another major figure associated with the era is the classicist poet Jan Kochanowski.The 1569 Union of Lublin established the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a more closely unified federal state with an elective monarchy, but which was governed largely by the nobility, through a system of local assemblies with a central parliament. The Warsaw Confederation (1573) guaranteed religious freedom for the Polish nobility "(szlachta)" and townsfolk "(mieszczanie)". However, the peasants "(chłopi)" were still subject to severe limitations imposed on them by the nobility. The establishment of the Commonwealth coincided with a period of stability and prosperity in Poland, with the union thereafter becoming a European power and a major cultural entity, occupying approximately one million square kilometers of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as an agent for the dissemination of Western culture through Polonization into areas of modern-day Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Belarus and western Russia.In the 16th and 17th centuries, Poland suffered from a number of dynastic crises during the reigns of the Vasa kings Sigismund III and Władysław IV and found itself engaged in major conflicts with Russia, Sweden and the Ottoman Empire, as well as a series of minor Cossack uprisings. In 1610, a Polish army under the command of Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski seized Moscow after winning the Battle of Klushino. In 1611, the Tsar of Russia paid homage to the King of Poland.After the signing of Truce of Deulino, Poland had in the years 1618–1621 an area of about .From the middle of the 17th century, the nobles' democracy, suffering from internal disorder, gradually declined, thereby leaving the once powerful Commonwealth vulnerable to foreign intervention. Starting in 1648, the Cossack Khmelnytsky Uprising engulfed the south and east, eventually leaving Ukraine divided, with the eastern part, lost by the Commonwealth, becoming a dependency of the Tsardom of Russia. This was followed by the 'Deluge', a Swedish invasion of Poland, which marched through the Polish heartlands and ruined the country's population, culture and infrastructure—around four million of Poland's eleven million inhabitants died in famines and epidemics throughout the 17th century. However, under John III Sobieski the Commonwealth's military prowess was re-established, and in 1683 Polish forces played a major role in the Battle of Vienna against the Ottoman Army, commanded by Kara Mustafa, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.Sobieski's reign marked the end of the nation's golden era. Finding itself subjected to almost constant warfare and suffering enormous population losses as well as massive damage to its economy, the Commonwealth fell into decline. The government became ineffective as a result of large-scale internal conflicts (e.g. Lubomirski Rebellion against John II Casimir and rebellious confederations) and corrupted legislative processes. The nobility fell under the control of a handful of "magnats", and this, compounded with two relatively weak kings of the Saxon Wettin dynasty, Augustus II and Augustus III, as well as the rise of Russia and Prussia after the Great Northern War only served to worsen the Commonwealth's plight. Despite this The Commonwealth-Saxony personal union gave rise to the emergence of the Commonwealth's first reform movement, and laid the foundations for the Polish Enlightenment.During the later part of the 18th century, the Commonwealth made attempts to implement fundamental internal reforms; with the second half of the century bringing a much improved economy, significant population growth and far-reaching progress in the areas of education, intellectual life, art, and especially toward the end of the period, evolution of the social and political system. The most populous capital city of Warsaw replaced Gdańsk (Danzig) as the leading centre of commerce, and the role of the more prosperous urban population increased.The royal election of 1764 resulted in the elevation of Stanisław II August (a Polish aristocrat connected to the "Familia" faction of magnates) to the monarchy. However, elevated to the throne by the Empress Catherine II of Russia, the new king spent much of his reign maneuvering between his desire to implement necessary reforms to save his country, and the necessity to remain in a political relationship and at peace with Russia. This led to the formation of the 1768 Bar Confederation, a "szlachta" rebellion directed against the Polish king and all external influence, which ineptly aimed to preserve Poland's independence and szlachta's privileges. The failed attempts at reform as well as the internal turmoil caused by the Confederation proved the country's weakness and provoked its neighbours. In 1772 the First Partition of the Commonwealth by Prussia, Russia and Austria took place; an act which the "Partition Sejm", under considerable duress, eventually "ratified" "fait accompli". Disregarding this loss, in 1773 the king established the plan of the most necessary reforms, in which the Commission of National Education, the first government education authority in Europe, was established. Corporal punishment of children was officially prohibited in 1783.The Great Sejm convened by Stanisław II August in 1788 successfully adopted the 3 May Constitution, the first set of modern supreme national laws in Europe. However, this document, accused by detractors of harbouring revolutionary sympathies, generated strong opposition from the Commonwealth's nobles and conservatives as well as from Catherine II, who, determined to prevent the rebirth of a strong Commonwealth set about planning the final dismemberment of the Polish-Lithuanian state. Russia was aided in achieving its goal when the Targowica Confederation, an organisation of Polish nobles, appealed to the Empress for help. In May 1792, Russian forces crossed the Commonwealth's frontier, thus beginning the Polish-Russian War.The defensive war fought by the Poles ended prematurely when the King, convinced of the futility of resistance, capitulated and joined the Targowica Confederation, hoping to save the country. The Confederation then took over the government. Russia and Prussia, fearing the mere existence of a Polish state, understanding, that despite the current influence they still cannot control the country, arranged for, and in 1793 executed, the Second Partition of the Commonwealth, which left the country deprived of so much territory that it was practically incapable of independent existence. Eventually, in 1795, following the failed Kościuszko Uprising, the Commonwealth was partitioned one last time by all three of its more powerful neighbours, and with this, effectively ceased to exist. The 18-century British statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke summed up the partitions: "No wise or honest man can approve of that partition, or can contemplate it without prognosticating great mischief from it to all countries at some future time."Poles rebelled several times against the partitioners, particularly near the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. An unsuccessful attempt at defending Poland's sovereignty took place in 1794 during the Kościuszko Uprising, where a popular and distinguished general Tadeusz Kościuszko, who had several years earlier served under Washington in the American Revolutionary War, led Polish insurrectionists against numerically superior Russian forces. Despite the victory at the Battle of Racławice, his ultimate defeat ended Poland's independent existence for 123 years.In 1807, Napoleon I of France temporarily recreated a Polish state as the satellite Duchy of Warsaw, after a successful Greater Poland Uprising of 1806 against Prussian rule. But, after the failed Napoleonic Wars, Poland was again split between the victorious powers at the Congress of Vienna of 1815. The eastern part was ruled by the Russian tsar as Congress Poland, which had a liberal constitution. However, over time the Russian monarch reduced Polish freedoms, and Russia annexed the country in virtually all but name. Meanwhile, the Prussian controlled territory of Poland came under increased Germanization. Thus, in the 19th century, only Habsburg-ruled Austrian Poland, and particularly the Free City of Kraków, allowed free Polish culture to flourish.Throughout the period of the partitions, political and cultural repression of the Polish nation led to the organisation of a number of uprisings against the authorities of the occupying Russian, Prussian and Austrian governments. In 1830, the November Uprising began in Warsaw when, led by Lieutenant Piotr Wysocki, young non-commissioned officers at the Officer Cadet School in Warsaw revolted. They were joined by large segments of Polish society, and together forced Warsaw's Russian garrison to withdraw north of the city.Over the course of the next seven months, Polish forces successfully defeated the Russian armies of Field Marshal Hans Karl von Diebitsch and a number of other Russian commanders; however, finding themselves in a position unsupported by any other foreign powers, save distant France and the newborn United States, and with Prussia and Austria refusing to allow the import of military supplies through their territories, the Poles accepted that the uprising was doomed to failure. Upon the surrender of Warsaw to General Ivan Paskievich, many Polish troops, feeling they could not go on, withdrew into Prussia and there laid down their arms. After the defeat, the semi-independent Congress Poland lost its constitution, army and legislative assembly, and was integrated more closely with the Russian Empire.During the Spring of Nations (a series of revolutions which swept across Europe), Poles took up arms in the Greater Poland Uprising of 1848 to resist Prussian rule. Initially, the uprising manifested itself in the form of civil disobedience but eventually turned into an armed struggle when the Prussian military was sent in to pacify the region. Subsequently, the uprising was suppressed and the semi-autonomous Grand Duchy of Posen, created from the Prussian partition of Poland, was incorporated into Prussia.In 1863, a new Polish uprising against Russian rule began. The January Uprising started out as a spontaneous protest by young Poles against conscription into the Imperial Russian Army. However, the insurrectionists, despite being joined by high-ranking Polish-Lithuanian officers and numerous politicians, were still severely outnumbered and lacking in foreign support. They were forced to resort to guerrilla warfare tactics and failed to win any major military victories. Afterwards no major uprising was witnessed in the Russian-controlled Congress Poland, and Poles resorted instead to fostering economic and cultural self-improvement. Congress Poland was rapidly industrialised towards the end of the 19th century, and successively transformed into the Empire's wealthiest and most developed subject.Despite the political unrest experienced during the partitions, Poland did benefit from large-scale industrialisation and modernisation programs, instituted by the occupying powers, which helped it develop into a more economically coherent and viable entity. This was particularly true in Greater Poland, Silesia and Eastern Pomerania controlled by Prussia (later becoming a part of the German Empire); areas which eventually, thanks largely to the Greater Poland Uprising of 1918 and Silesian Uprisings, were reconstituted as a part of the Second Polish Republic, becoming the country's most prosperous regions.Following World War I all the Allies agreed on the reconstitution of Poland that United States President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed in Point 13 of his Fourteen Points. A total of 2 million Polish troops fought with the armies of the three occupying powers, and 450,000 died. Shortly after the armistice with Germany in November 1918, Poland regained its independence as the Second Polish Republic ("II Rzeczpospolita Polska"). It reaffirmed its independence after a series of military conflicts, the most notable being the Polish–Soviet War (1919–21) when Poland inflicted a crushing defeat on the Red Army at the Battle of Warsaw, an event which is considered to have halted the advance of Communism into Europe and forced Vladimir Lenin to rethink his objective of achieving global socialism. The event is often referred to as the "Miracle at the Vistula".During this period, Poland successfully managed to fuse the territories of the three former partitioning powers into a cohesive nation state. Railways were restructured to direct traffic towards Warsaw instead of the former imperial capitals, a new network of national roads was gradually built up and a major seaport, Gdynia, was opened on the Baltic Coast, so as to allow Polish exports and imports to bypass the politically charged Free City of Danzig. Also, the Polish government embarked on the creation of the Central Industrial Region ("Centralny Okręg Przemysłowy"). The project's goal was to create a heavy industrial center in the middle of the country, which included steal mills, power plants and factories. The inter-war period heralded in a new era of Polish politics. Whilst Polish political activists had faced heavy censorship in the decades up until the First World War, the country now found itself trying to establish a new political tradition. For this reason, many exiled Polish activists, such as Ignacy Paderewski (who would later become prime minister) returned home to help; a significant number of them then went on to take key positions in the newly formed political and governmental structures. Tragedy struck in 1922 when Gabriel Narutowicz, inaugural holder of the presidency, was assassinated at the Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw by a painter and right-wing nationalist Eligiusz Niewiadomski.In 1926, a May coup, led by the hero of the Polish independence campaign Marshal Józef Piłsudski, turned rule of the Second Polish Republic over to the nonpartisan Sanacja ("Healing") movement in an effort to prevent radical political organizations on both the left and the right from destabilizing the country. The movement functioned with relative stability until Piłsudski's death in 1935. Following Marshall Piłsudski's death, Sanation split into several competing factions. By the late 1930s, due to increased threats posed by political extremism inside the country, the Polish government became increasingly heavy-handed, banning a number of radical organizations, including communist and ultra-nationalist political parties, which threatened the stability of the country.World War II began with the Nazi German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, followed by the Soviet invasion of Poland on 17 September. On 28 September 1939, Warsaw fell. As agreed in the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Poland was split into two zones, one occupied by Nazi Germany, the other by the Soviet Union. In 1939–41, the Soviets deported hundreds of thousands of Poles. The Soviet NKVD executed thousands of Polish prisoners of war (inter alia Katyn massacre) ahead of the Operation Barbarossa. German planners had in November 1939 called for "the complete destruction of all Poles" and their fate as outlined in the genocidal "Generalplan Ost".Polish intelligence operatives proved extremely valuable to the Allies, providing much of the intelligence from Europe and beyond, and Polish code breakers were responsible for cracking the Enigma cypher.Poland made the fourth-largest troop contribution in Europe and its troops served both the Polish Government in Exile in the west and Soviet leadership in the east. Polish troops played an important role in the Normandy, Italian and North African Campaigns and are particularly remembered for the Battle of Monte Cassino. In the east, the Soviet-backed Polish 1st Army distinguished itself in the battles for Warsaw and Berlin.The wartime resistance movement, and the Armia Krajowa ("Home Army"), fought against German occupation. It was one of the three largest resistance movements of the entire war, and encompassed a range of clandestine activities, which functioned as an underground state complete with degree-awarding universities and a court system. The resistance was loyal to the exiled government and generally resented the idea of a communist Poland; for this reason, in the summer of 1944 it initiated Operation Tempest, of which the Warsaw Uprising that begun on 1 August 1944 is the best known operation.Nazi German forces under orders from Adolf Hitler set up six German extermination camps in occupied Poland, including Treblinka, Majdanek and Auschwitz. The Germans transported millions of Jews from across occupied Europe to be murdered in those camps.Altogether, 3 million Polish Jews – approximately 90% of Poland's pre-war Jewry – and between 1.8 and 2.8 million ethnic Poles were killed during the German occupation of Poland, including between 50,000 and 100,000 members of the Polish intelligentsia – academics, doctors, lawyers, nobility and priesthood. During the Warsaw Uprising alone, over 150,000 Polish civilians were killed, most were murdered by the Germans during the Wola and Ochota massacres. Around 150,000 Polish civilians were killed by Soviets between 1939 and 1941 during the Soviet Union's occupation of eastern Poland (Kresy), and another estimated 100,000 Poles were murdered by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) between 1943 and 1944 in what became known as the Wołyń Massacres. Of all the countries in the war, Poland lost the highest percentage of its citizens: around 6 million perished – more than one-sixth of Poland's pre-war population – half of them Polish Jews. About 90% of deaths were non-military in nature.In 1945, Poland's borders were shifted westwards. Over two million Polish inhabitants of Kresy were expelled along the Curzon Line by Stalin. The western border became the Oder-Neisse line. As a result, Poland's territory was reduced by 20%, or . The shift forced the migration of millions of other people, most of whom were Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, and Jews.At the insistence of Joseph Stalin, the Yalta Conference sanctioned the formation of a new provisional pro-Communist coalition government in Moscow, which ignored the Polish government-in-exile based in London. This action angered many Poles who considered it a betrayal by the Allies. In 1944, Stalin had made guarantees to Churchill and Roosevelt that he would maintain Poland's sovereignty and allow democratic elections to take place. However, upon achieving victory in 1945, the elections organized by the occupying Soviet authorities were falsified and were used to provide a veneer of legitimacy for Soviet hegemony over Polish affairs. The Soviet Union instituted a new communist government in Poland, analogous to much of the rest of the Eastern Bloc. As elsewhere in Communist Europe, the Soviet influence over Poland was met with armed resistance from the outset which continued into the 1950s.Despite widespread objections, the new Polish government accepted the Soviet annexation of the pre-war eastern regions of Poland (in particular the cities of Wilno and Lwów) and agreed to the permanent garrisoning of Red Army units on Poland's territory. Military alignment within the Warsaw Pact throughout the Cold War came about as a direct result of this change in Poland's political culture. In the European scene, it came to characterize the full-fledged integration of Poland into the brotherhood of communist nations.The new communist government took control with the adoption of the Small Constitution on 19 February 1947. The Polish People's Republic ("Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa") was officially proclaimed in 1952. In 1956, after the death of Bolesław Bierut, the régime of Władysław Gomułka became temporarily more liberal, freeing many people from prison and expanding some personal freedoms. Collectivization in the Polish People's Republic failed. A similar situation repeated itself in the 1970s under Edward Gierek, but most of the time persecution of anti-communist opposition groups persisted. Despite this, Poland was at the time considered to be one of the least oppressive states of the Eastern Bloc.Labour turmoil in 1980 led to the formation of the independent trade union "Solidarity" (""Solidarność""), which over time became a political force. Despite persecution and imposition of martial law in 1981, it eroded the dominance of the Polish United Workers' Party and by 1989 had triumphed in Poland's first partially free and democratic parliamentary elections since the end of the Second World War. Lech Wałęsa, a Solidarity candidate, eventually won the presidency in 1990. The Solidarity movement heralded the collapse of communist regimes and parties across Europe.A shock therapy programme, initiated by Leszek Balcerowicz in the early 1990s, enabled the country to transform its socialist-style planned economy into a market economy. As with other post-communist countries, Poland suffered declines in social and economic standards, but it became the first post-communist country to reach its pre-1989 GDP levels, which it achieved by 1995 thanks largely to its booming economy.Most visibly, there were numerous improvements in human rights, such as freedom of speech, internet freedom (no censorship), civil liberties (1st class) and political rights (1st class), as ranked by Freedom House non-governmental organization. In 1991, Poland became a member of the Visegrád Group and joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance in 1999 along with the Czech Republic and Hungary. Poles then voted to join the European Union in a referendum in June 2003, with Poland becoming a full member on 1 May 2004.Poland joined the Schengen Area in 2007, as a result of which, the country's borders with other member states of the European Union have been dismantled, allowing for full freedom of movement within most of the EU. In contrast to this, a section of Poland's eastern border now constitutes the external EU border with Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. That border has become increasingly well protected, and has led in part to the coining of the phrase 'Fortress Europe', in reference to the seeming 'impossibility' of gaining entry to the EU for citizens of the former Soviet Union.In an effort to strengthen military cooperation with its neighbors, Poland set up the Visegrád Battlegroup with Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia, with a total of 3,000 troops ready for deployment. Also, in eastern Poland, it formed the LITPOLUKRBRIG battle groups with Lithuania and Ukraine. These battle groups will operate outside of NATO and within the European defense initiative framework.On 10 April 2010, the President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, along with 89 other high-ranking Polish officials died in a plane crash near Smolensk, Russia. The president's party was on their way to attend an annual service of commemoration for the victims of the Katyń massacre when the tragedy took place.In 2011, the ruling Civic Platform won parliamentary elections. Poland joined the European Space Agency in 2012, as well as organised the UEFA Euro 2012 (along with Ukraine). In 2013, Poland also became a member of the Development Assistance Committee. In 2014, the Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, was chosen to be President of the European Council, and resigned as prime minister.The 2015 and 2019 elections were won by the conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS), resulting in increased friction between Poland and the EU. In December 2017, Mateusz Morawiecki was sworn in as the new Prime Minister, succeeding Beata Szydlo, in office since 2015. They both represented ruling Law and Justice party, led by party chairman Jarosław Kaczyński. President Andrzej Duda, supported by Law and Justice party, was narrowly re-elected in the 2020 presidential election.Poland's vast territory covers approximately , of which 98.52% is dry land and 1.48% is water. Extending across several geographical regions, the country is the 9th-largest by area in Europe and 69th largest in the world. Topographically, Poland is diverse and has access to the sea, the mountains and open terrain. Although most of the central parts of the country are flat, there is an abundance of lakes, rivers, hills, swamps, beaches, islands and forests elsewhere.In the north-west is the Baltic seacoast spanning from the Bay of Pomerania to the Gulf of Gdańsk. The coast is marked by several spits, coastal lakes (former bays that have been cut off from the sea), and dunes. The largely straight coastline is indented by the Szczecin Lagoon, the Bay of Puck, and the Vistula Lagoon.The central and northern parts of the country lie within the North European Plain. Rising above these lowlands is a geographical region comprising four hilly districts of moraines and moraine-dammed lakes formed during and after the Pleistocene ice age, notably the Pomeranian Lake District, the Greater Polish Lake District, the Kashubian Lake District, and the Masurian Lake District. The Masurian Lake District is the largest of the four and covers much of north-eastern Poland. The lake districts form a series of moraine belts along the southern shore of the Baltic Sea.South of the Northern European Plain are the regions of Lusatia, Silesia and Masovia, which are marked by broad ice-age river valleys. The extreme south of Poland is mountainous; it runs from the Sudetes in the west to the Carpathian Mountains in the east. The highest part of the Carpathian massif is the Tatra Mountain range, along Poland's southern border.The geological structure of Poland has been shaped by the continental collision of Europe and Africa over the past 60 million years and, more recently, by the Quaternary glaciations of northern Europe. Both processes shaped the Sudetes and the Carpathian Mountains. The moraine landscape of northern Poland contains soils made up mostly of sand or loam, while the ice age river valleys of the south often contain loess. The Polish Jura, the Pieniny, and the Western Tatras consist of limestone, whereas the High Tatras, the Beskids, and the Karkonosze mountain ranges are made up mainly of granite and basalts. The Polish Jura Chain has some of the oldest rock formations on the continent of Europe.Poland has over 70 mountains over in elevation, all situated in the Tatras. Poland's highest point is the north-western summit of Mount Rysy at in elevation. At its foot lie the mountain lakes of Czarny Staw (Black Lake) and Morskie Oko (Eye of the Sea), both naturally-made tarns. Other notable uplands include the Pieniny and Holy Cross Mountains, the Table Mountains noted for their unusual rock formations, the Bieszczady in the far southeast of the country in which the highest peak is Tarnica at , and the Gorce Mountains whose highest point is Turbacz at . The highest point of the Sudeten massif is Mount Śnieżka (), shared with the Czech Republic.The lowest point in Poland – at below sea level – is at Raczki Elbląskie, near Elbląg in the Vistula Delta.In the Zagłębie Dąbrowskie (the Coal Fields of Dąbrowa) region in the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland is an area of sparsely vegetated sand known as the Błędów Desert. It covers an area of . It is not a natural desert and was formed by human activity from the Middle Ages onwards.The Baltic Sea activity in Słowiński National Park created sand dunes which in the course of time separated the bay from the sea creating two lakes. As waves and wind carry sand inland the dunes slowly move, at a rate of per year. Some dunes reach the height of up to . The highest peak of the park is Rowokol at above sea level.The longest rivers are the Vistula (), long; the Oder () which forms part of Poland's western border, long; its tributary, the Warta, long; and the Bug, a tributary of the Vistula, long. The Vistula and the Oder flow into the Baltic Sea, as do numerous smaller rivers in Pomerania. Poland's lengthy waterways have been used since early times for navigation; the Vikings ventured up the Polish rivers in their longships. In the Middle Ages and in early modern times, the shipment of tangible goods down the Vistula toward Gdańsk and onward to other parts of Europe took on great importance.With almost ten thousand closed bodies of water covering more than each, Poland has one of the highest numbers of lakes in the world. In Europe, only Finland has a greater density of lakes. The largest lakes, covering more than , are Lake Śniardwy and Lake Mamry in Masuria as well as Lake Łebsko and Lake Drawsko in Pomerania. The lake with the greatest depth—of more than —is Lake Hańcza in the Wigry Lake District, east of Masuria in Podlaskie Voivodeship.The Polish Baltic coast is approximately long and extends from Świnoujście on the islands of Usedom and Wolin in the west to Krynica Morska on the Vistula Spit in the east. For the most part, Poland has a smooth coastline, which has been shaped by the continual movement of sand by currents and winds. This continual erosion and deposition has formed cliffs, dunes, and spits, many of which have migrated landwards to close off former lagoons, such as Łebsko Lake in the Słowiński National Park.The largest spits are Hel Peninsula and the Vistula Spit. The coast line is varied also by Szczecin and Vistula Lagoons and several lakes, including Jamno. The largest Polish Baltic island is Wolin, located within Wolin National Park. The largest sea harbours are Szczecin, Świnoujście, Gdańsk, Gdynia, Police and Kołobrzeg and the main coastal resorts – Świnoujście, Międzydzdroje, Kołobrzeg, Łeba, Sopot, Władysławowo and the Hel Peninsula.In the valley of Pilica river in Tomaszów Mazowiecki there is a unique natural karst spring of water containing calcium salts, that is an object of protection at Blue Springs Nature Reserve in the Sulejów Landscape Park. The red waves are absorbed by water, hence only blue and green are reflected from the bottom of the spring, giving the water atypical colour.Forests cover about 29.6% of Poland's land area based on international standards. Its overall percentage is still increasing. Forests of Poland are managed by the national program of reforestation (KPZL), aiming at an increase of forest-cover to 33% in 2050. The largest forest complex in Poland is Lower Silesian Wilderness.More than 1% of Poland's territory, , is protected within 23 Polish national parks. Three more national parks are projected for Masuria, the Polish Jura, and the eastern Beskids. In addition, wetlands along lakes and rivers in central Poland are legally protected, as are coastal areas in the north. There are 123 areas designated as landscape parks, along with numerous nature reserves and other protected areas under the Natura 2000 network.In 2017, approximately of land was occupied by farms and farmsteads, over half of Poland's total area.Phytogeographically, Poland belongs to the Central European province of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the territory of Poland belongs to three Palearctic Ecoregions of the continental forest spanning Central and Northern European temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregions, as well as the Carpathian montane conifer forest. The most common deciduous trees found across the country are oak, maple, and beech; the most common conifers are pine, spruce, and fir. An estimated 68.7% of all forests are coniferous.Poland has historically been home to rare species of animals, as well as the two largest European mammals: the wisent ("żubr") and aurochs ("tur"). The last aurochs of Europe became extinct in 1627 in the Polish Jaktorów Forest, while the wisent survived until the 20th century only at Białowieża. It has been since reintroduced to other countries. Other wild species include the brown bear in Białowieża, in the Tatras, and in the Beskids; the gray wolf and the Eurasian lynx in various forests; the moose in northern Poland; and the beaver in Masuria, Pomerania, and Podlaskie.Game animals such as red deer, roe deer, and wild boar are found in most woodlands. Eastern Poland abounds in ancient woods, like the Białowieża Forest, that have not been disturbed by human or industrial activity. There are also large forested areas in the mountains, Greater Poland, Pomerania, Lubusz Land, and Lower Silesia. The Lubusz Voivodeship is currently the most arboraceous province in the country; 52% of its territory is occupied by forests.Poland is also a significant breeding ground for a variety of European migratory birds. One quarter of the global population of white storks (40,000 breeding pairs) live in Poland, particularly in the lake districts and the wetlands along the Biebrza, the Narew, and the Warta, which are part of nature reserves or national parks.The climate is mostly temperate throughout the country. The climate is oceanic in the north-west and becomes gradually warmer and continental towards the south-east. Summers are generally warm, with average temperatures between depending on the region. Winters are rather cold, with average temperatures around in the northwest and in the northeast. Precipitation falls throughout the year, although, especially in the east, winter is drier than summer.The warmest region in Poland is Lower Silesia in the southwest of the country, where temperatures in the summer average between but can go as high as on some days in the warmest months of July and August. The warmest cities in Poland are Tarnów in Lesser Poland, and Wrocław in Lower Silesia. The average temperatures in Wrocław are in the summer and in the winter, but Tarnów has the longest summer in all of Poland, which lasts for 115 days, from mid-May to mid-September. The coldest region of Poland is in the northeast, around the area of Suwałki within the Podlaskie Voivodeship, where the climate is affected by cold fronts coming from Scandinavia and Siberia. The average temperature in the winter in Podlaskie ranges from . The biggest impact of the oceanic climate is observed in Świnoujście and Baltic Sea seashore area from Police to Słupsk.Poland is a representative democracy, with a president as the head of state. The government structure centers on the Council of Ministers, led by a prime minister. The president appoints the cabinet according to the proposals of the prime minister, typically from the majority coalition in the Sejm. The president is elected by popular vote every five years. The current president is Andrzej Duda and the prime minister is Mateusz Morawiecki.Polish voters elect a bicameral parliament consisting of a 460-member lower house (Sejm) and a 100-member Senate (Senat). The Sejm is elected under proportional representation according to the d'Hondt method, a method similar to that used in many parliamentary political systems. The Senat, on the other hand, is elected under the first-past-the-post voting method, with one senator being returned from each of the 100 constituencies.With the exception of ethnic minority parties, only candidates of political parties receiving at least 5% of the total national vote can enter the Sejm. When sitting in joint session, members of the Sejm and Senat form the National Assembly (the "Zgromadzenie Narodowe"). The National Assembly is formed on three occasions: when a new president takes the oath of office; when an indictment against the President of the Republic is brought to the State Tribunal ("Trybunał Stanu"); and when a president's permanent incapacity to exercise his duties due to the state of his health is declared. To date only the first instance has occurred.The judicial branch plays an important role in decision-making. Its major institutions include the Supreme Court ("Sąd Najwyższy"); the Supreme Administrative Court ("Naczelny Sąd Administracyjny"); the Constitutional Tribunal ("Trybunał Konstytucyjny"); and the State Tribunal ("Trybunał Stanu"). On the approval of the Senat, the Sejm also appoints the ombudsman or the Commissioner for Civil Rights Protection ("Rzecznik Praw Obywatelskich") for a five-year term. The ombudsman has the duty of guarding the observance and implementation of the rights and liberties of Polish citizens and residents, of the law and of principles of community life and social justice.The Constitution of Poland is the enacted supreme law, and the Polish legal system is based on the principle of civil rights, governed by the code of civil law. The current democratic constitution was adopted by the National Assembly of Poland on 2 April 1997; it guarantees a multi-party state with freedoms of religion, speech and assembly, prohibits the practices of forced medical experimentation, torture or corporal punishment, and acknowledges the inviolability of the home, the right to form trade unions, and the right to strike.The judiciary incorporates a four-tier court system composed of the Supreme Court, the Supreme Administrative Court, Common Courts (District, Regional, Appellate) and the Military Court. Judges are nominated by the National Council of the Judiciary and are appointed for life by the president. The Constitutional and State Tribunals are separate judicial bodies, which rule the constitutional liability of people holding the highest offices of state and supervise the compliance of statutory law, thus protecting the Constitution.Historically, the most significant Polish legal act is the Constitution of 3 May 1791, the first modern constitution in Europe. Instituted as a Government Act, it was designed to redress long-standing political defects of the federative Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and its Golden Liberty. Previously, only the Henrician Articles (1573) signed by each of Poland's elected monarchs could perform the function of a set of basic laws. The new Constitution introduced political equality between townspeople and the nobility ("szlachta"), and placed the peasants under the protection of the government. It abolished pernicious parliamentary policies such as the "liberum veto", which permitted any deputy to rescind all the legislation passed in the interest of a foreign power. The 3 May Constitution sought to supplant the existing anarchy fostered by some of the country's reactionary magnates, with a more egalitarian and democratic constitutional monarchy. The influenced many later democratic movements across the globe. Tax-paying women were allowed to take part in Polish political life until the third partition in 1795. In 1918 the Second Polish Republic became one of the first countries to introduce universal women's suffrage.Poland has a low homicide rate at 0.7 murders per 100,000 people, as of 2018. Rape, assault and violent crime remain at a very low level, although not all cases are recorded by the authorities.Abortion is permitted only in cases of rape, incest or when the woman's life is in danger. Congenital disorder and stillbirth are not covered by the law, forcing some women to seek abortion abroad, and others to seek the assistance of psychiatrists willing to testify on the negative psychological impact of stillbirth. Poland does not criminalize homosexuality, and its legality was confirmed in 1932. The Polish Constitution defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.Poland is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union and has a grand total of 52 representatives in the European Parliament as of 2020. Since joining the union in 2004, successive Polish governments have pursued policies to extend the country's role in European and international affairs. Poland is an emerging regional power in Central Europe. The capital of Warsaw serves as the headquarters for Frontex, the European Union's agency for external border security as well as ODIHR, one of the principal institutions of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.Apart from the European Union, Poland has been a member of NATO since 1999, the UN, the World Trade Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since 1996, European Economic Area, International Energy Agency, Council of Europe, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, International Atomic Energy Agency, European Space Agency, G6, Council of the Baltic Sea States, Visegrád Group, Weimar Triangle, Schengen Agreement, Lublin Triangle and Bucharest Nine.Over the past two decades, Poland significantly strengthened its ties with the United States, thus becoming one of its closest allies in Europe. Poland was part of the US-led coalition force during the Iraq War in 2003, and sent its troops in the first phase of the conflict, jointly with the United Kingdom and Australia. Along with NATO, Poland maintains military presence in the Middle East, the Baltic states and in the Balkans.The Polish Armed Forces are composed of five branches – Land Forces ("Wojska Lądowe"), Navy ("Marynarka Wojenna"), Air Force ("Siły Powietrzne"), Special Forces ("Wojska Specjalne") and the Territorial Defence Force ("Wojska Obrony Terytorialnej"). The military is subordinate to the Ministry of National Defence of the Republic of Poland. However, its commander-in-chief in peacetime is the President of the Republic, who nominates officers, the Minister for National Defence and the chief of staff.As of 2018, the Polish Armed Forces have a combined strength of 144,142 soldiers. The Polish Navy primarily operates on the Baltic Sea and conducts operations such as maritime patrol, search and rescue for the section of the Baltic under Polish sovereignty, as well as hydrographic measurements and research. The Polish Air Force routinely takes part in Baltic Air Policing assignments. In 2003, the F-16C Block 52 was selected as the new general multi-role fighter for the air force. In January 2020, Poland has approved the delivery for F-35 Lightning II combat aircraft. Poland is currently spending 2% of its GDP on defence (approximately US$13.5 billion in 2020), which is expected to grow to 2.5% by 2030. According to SIPRI, the country exported EUR€487 million worth of arms and armaments to other countries, primarily to the United States, Chile, France and South Africa.The mission of the armed forces is the defence of Poland's territorial integrity and Polish interests abroad. The country's national security goal is to further integrate with NATO and European defence, economic, and political institutions. Compulsory military service for men was discontinued in 2008. From 2007, until conscription ended in 2008, the mandatory service was nine months. Polish military doctrine reflects the same defensive nature as that of its NATO partners and the country actively hosts NATO's military exercises. From 1953 to 2009 Poland was a large contributor to various United Nations peacekeeping missions. The Polish Armed Forces took part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, deploying 2,500 soldiers in the south of that country and commanding the 17-nation multinational force in Iraq. Poland also maintains troops in the Middle East, the Baltic states and in the Balkans; 1,650 soldiers were deployed in 2019.Law enforcement in Poland is performed by several agencies which are subordinate to the Ministry of Interior and Administration – the State Police ("Policja"), assigned to investigate crimes or transgression; the Municipal City Guard, which maintains public order; and several specialized agencies, such as the Polish Border Guard. Private security firms are also common, although they possess no legal authority to arrest or detain a suspect. Municipal guards are primarily headed by provincial, regional or city councils; individual guards are not permitted to carry firearms unless instructed by their superior commanding officer or commandant.The Internal Security Agency (ABW, or ISA in English) is the chief counter-intelligence instrument safeguarding Poland's internal security, along with Agencja Wywiadu (AW) which identifies threats and collects secret information abroad. The Central Investigation Bureau of Police (CBŚP) and the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) are responsible for countering organized crime and corruption in state and private institutions.Emergency services in Poland consist of the emergency medical services, search and rescue units of the Polish Armed Forces and State Fire Service. Emergency medical services in Poland are provided for by local and regional governments.All emergency services personnel are uniformed and security services can be easily recognized during regular patrols in both large urban areas or smaller suburban localities.Poland's current voivodeships (provinces) are largely based on the country's historic regions, whereas those of the past two decades (to 1998) had been centred on and named for individual cities. The new units range in area from less than for Opole Voivodeship to more than for Masovian Voivodeship. Administrative authority at the voivodeship level is shared between a government-appointed voivode (governor), an elected regional assembly ("sejmik") and a voivodeship marshal, an executive elected by that assembly.The voivodeships are subdivided into "powiats" (often referred to in English as counties), and these are further divided into "gminas" (also known as communes or municipalities). Major cities normally have the status of both "gmina" and "powiat". Poland has 16 voivodeships, 380 powiats (including 66 cities with "powiat" status), and 2,478 "gminas".Poland's economy and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is currently the sixth largest in the European Union by nominal standards, and the fifth largest by purchasing power parity. It is also one of the fastest growing within the Union. Around 60% of the employed population belongs to the tertiary service sector, 30% to industry and manufacturing, and the remaining 10% to the agricultural sector. Although Poland is a member of EU's single market, the country has not adopted the Euro as legal tender and maintains its own currency – the Polish złoty (zł, PLN).Poland is the regional economic leader in Central Europe, with nearly 40 per cent of the 500 biggest companies in the region (by revenues) as well as a high globalisation rate. The country's largest firms compose the WIG20 and WIG30 indexes, which is traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. According to reports made by the National Bank of Poland, the value of Polish foreign direct investments reached almost 300 billion PLN at the end of 2014. The Central Statistical Office estimated that in 2014 there were 1,437 Polish corporations with interests in 3,194 foreign entities.Having a strong domestic market, low private debt, low unemployment rate, flexible currency, and not being dependent on a single export sector, Poland is the only European economy to have avoided the recession of 2008. The country is the 20th largest exporter of goods and services in the world and its most successful exports include machinery, furniture, food products, clothing, shoes, cosmetics and videogames. These account to approximately 56% of the total GDP, as of 2018. Poland's largest trading partners include Germany, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, France and Italy. Warsaw leads Central Europe in foreign investment. In September 2018, the unemployment rate was estimated at 5.7%, one of the lowest in the European Union. In 2019, Poland passed a law that would exempt workers under the age of 26 from income tax.The Polish banking sector is the largest in the region, with 32.3 branches per 100,000 adults.World Bank, Financial Inclusion Data. Country Dashboard: Poland. The World Bank Group. Retrieved 6 November 2014. The banks are the largest and most developed sector of the country's financial markets. They are regulated by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority. Poland's banking sector has approximately 5 national banks, a network of nearly 600 cooperative banks and 18 branches of foreign-owned banks. In addition, foreign investors have controlling stakes in nearly 40 commercial banks, which make up 68% of the banking capital.Products and goods manufactured in Poland include: electronics, buses and trams (Solaris, Solbus), helicopters and planes (PZL Świdnik, PZL Mielec), trains (Pesa, Newag), ships (Gdańsk Shipyard, Szczecin Shipyard), military equipment (FB "Łucznik" Radom, , Jelcz), medicines (, ), food (Tymbark, Hortex, E. Wedel), clothes (LLP), glass, pottery (Bolesławiec), chemical products and others. Well-known brands and companies include Alior Bank, Orlen&Lotos Group, Inglot Cosmetics, Plus, Play, Brainly, Netguru, GOG.com, CD Projekt, Trefl and Allegro. Poland is also one of the world's biggest producers of copper, silver, coal, furniture, automotive parts and soft drink.Poland experienced a significant increase in the number of tourists after joining the European Union in 2004. With nearly 21 million international arrivals in 2019, tourism contributes considerably to the overall economy and makes up a relatively large proportion of the country's service market.Tourist attractions in Poland vary, from the mountains in the south to the sandy beaches in the north, with a trail of nearly every architectural style. The most visited city is Kraków, which was the former capital of Poland and serves as a relic of the Polish Golden Age and the Renaissance. Kraków also held royal coronations of most Polish kings and monarchs at Wawel, the nation's chief historical landmark. Among other notable sites in the country is Wrocław, one of the oldest cities in Poland which was a model for the founding of Kraków. Wrocław is famous for its dwarfs, a large market square with two town halls, and the oldest Zoological Gardens with one of the world's largest number of animal species. The Polish capital Warsaw and its historical Old Town were entirely reconstructed after wartime destruction. Other cities attracting countless tourists include Gdańsk, Poznań, Lublin, Toruń as well as the site of the German Auschwitz concentration camp in Oświęcim. A notable highlight is the 13th-century Wieliczka Salt Mine with its labyrinthine tunnels, a subterranean lake and chapels carved by miners out of rock salt beneath the ground.Poland's main tourist offerings include outdoor activities such as skiing, sailing, mountain hiking and climbing, as well as agritourism, sightseeing historical monuments. Tourist destinations include the Baltic Sea coast in the north; the Masurian Lake District and Białowieża Forest in the east; on the south Karkonosze, the Table Mountains and the Tatra Mountains, where Rysy – the highest peak of Poland, and Eagle's Path mountain trail are located. The Pieniny and Bieszczady Mountains lie in the extreme south-east. There are over 100 castles in the country, most in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship (inter alia ), and also on the Trail of the Eagles' Nests. The largest castle in the world by land area is situated in Malbork, in north-central Poland.The electricity generation sector in Poland is largely fossil-fuel–based. Many power plants nationwide use Poland's position as a major European exporter of coal to their advantage by continuing to use coal as the primary raw material in the production of their energy. In 2013, Poland scored 48 out of 129 states in the Energy Sustainability Index. The three largest Polish coal mining firms (Węglokoks, Kompania Węglowa and JSW) extract around 100 million tonnes of coal annually.Renewable forms of energy account for a smaller proportion of Poland's full energy generation capacity. However, the national government has set targets for the development of renewable energy sources in Poland (the share of energy from renewable sources in the gross final energy consumption in 2019 was – 12,18%). Increasing the share of energy from renewable sources and a significant reduction in CO2 emissions to be achieved with the help of biofuels, photovoltaics, construction of wind farms on the land and the Baltic Sea, hydroelectric stations and nuclear power plant.Poland has around 164,800,000,000 m of proven natural gas reserves and around 96,380,000 barrels of proven oil reserves. These reserves are exploited by energy supply companies such as PKN Orlen ("the only Polish company listed in the Fortune Global 500"), PGNiG. However, the small amounts of fossil fuels naturally occurring in Poland are insufficient to satisfy the full energy consumption needs of the population and industry. Consequently, the country is a net importer of oil and natural gas. Therefore, since the second decade of the 21st century, Poland has been strongly developing the so-called North Gate in which the most important components are the Baltic Pipe, the Świnoujście LNG terminal and Floating Storage and Regasification Unit in Port of Gdańsk.The 5 largest companies supplying Poland electricity are PGE, Tauron, Enea, and Innogy Poland.Transport in Poland is provided by means of rail, road, marine shipping and air travel. The country is part of EU's Schengen Area and is an important transport hub along neighbouring Germany due to its strategic position in Central Europe. Some of the longest European routes, including the E40, run through Poland.The country has a good network of highways, composed of express roads and motorways. At the start of 2020, Poland had of highways in use. In addition, all local and regional roads are monitored by the National Road Rebuilding Programme, which aims to improve the quality of travel in the countryside and suburban localities.In 2017, the nation had of railway track, the third longest in Europe after Germany and France. The Polish State Railways (PKP) is the dominant railway operator in the country. In December 2014, Poland began to implement high–speed rail routes connecting major Polish cities, and started passenger service using the New Pendolino train, operating at 200 km/h on the Central Rail Line (CMK). Polish regulations allow trains without ETCS to travel at speeds up to 160 km/h, trains with ETCS1 up to 200 km/h, and trains with ETCS2 at over 200 km/h. Most inter-regional connections rail routes in Poland are operated by PKP Intercity, whilst regional trains are run by a number of private operators, the largest of which is Polregio. The largest passenger train station in terms of the number of travelers is Wrocław Główny.The air and maritime transport markets in Poland are largely well developed. Poland has a number of international airports, the largest of which is Warsaw Chopin Airport, the primary global hub for LOT Polish Airlines. It was established in 1928 from a merger of Aerolloyd (1922) and Aero (1925). Other major airports with international connections include John Paul II International Airport Kraków–Balice, Copernicus Airport Wrocław, Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport. Poland has begun preparations for a construction that can handle 100 million passengers of the Central Communication Port.Seaports exist all along Poland's Baltic coast, with most freight operations using Świnoujście, Police, Szczecin, Kołobrzeg, Gdynia, Gdańsk and Elbląg as their base.Passenger ferries link Poland with Scandinavia all year round; these services are provided from Gdańsk and Świnoujście by Polferries, Stena Line from Gdynia and Unity Line from the Świnoujście. The Port of Gdańsk is the only port in the Baltic Sea adapted to receive oceanic vessels.Over the course of history, the Polish people have made considerable contributions in the fields of science, technology and mathematics. Perhaps the most renowned Pole to support this theory was Nicolaus Copernicus ("Mikołaj Kopernik"), who triggered the Copernican Revolution by placing the Sun rather than the Earth at the center of the universe. He also derived a quantity theory of money, which made him a pioneer of economics. Copernicus' achievements and discoveries are considered the basis of Polish culture and cultural identity.Poland's tertiary education institutions; traditional universities, as well as technical, medical, and economic institutions, employ around tens of thousands of researchers and staff members. There are hundreds of research and development institutes. However, in the 19th and 20th centuries many Polish scientists worked abroad; one of the most important of these exiles was Maria Skłodowska-Curie, a physicist and chemist who lived much of her life in France. In 1925 she established Poland's Radium Institute.In the first half of the 20th century, Poland was a flourishing centre of mathematics. Outstanding Polish mathematicians formed the Lwów School of Mathematics (with Stefan Banach, Stanisław Mazur, Hugo Steinhaus, Stanisław Ulam) and Warsaw School of Mathematics (with Alfred Tarski, Kazimierz Kuratowski, Wacław Sierpiński and Antoni Zygmund). Numerous mathematicians, scientists, chemists or economists emigrated due to historic vicissitudes, among them Benoit Mandelbrot, Leonid Hurwicz, Alfred Tarski, Joseph Rotblat and Nobel Prize laureates Roald Hoffmann, Georges Charpak and Tadeusz Reichstein. In the 1930s, mathematician and cryptologist Marian Rejewski invented the Cryptographic Bomb which formed the basis of the effort that allowed the Allies to crack the Enigma code.Over 40 research and development centers and 4,500 researchers make Poland the biggest research and development hub in Central and Eastern Europe. Multinational companies such as: ABB, Delphi, GlaxoSmithKline, Google, Hewlett–Packard, IBM, Intel, LG Electronics, Microsoft, Motorola, Siemens and Samsung all have set up research and development centres in Poland. Companies chose Poland because of the availability of highly qualified labour force, presence of universities, support of authorities, and the largest market in East-Central Europe. According to a KPMG report from 2011, 80% of Poland's current investors are content with their choice and willing to reinvest. Poland has a very well-developed e-administration, thanks to which many official matters can be easily and quickly settled via the Internet. In the UN ranking, Poland is in the top twenty countries with the best-rated e-administration in the world.Poland, with approximately 38.5 million inhabitants, has the ninth-largest population in Europe and the fifth-largest in the European Union. It has a population density of 122 inhabitants per square kilometre (328 per square mile). The total fertility rate in 2020 was estimated at 1.44 children born to a woman, a considerable rise from previous years. In contrast, the total fertility rate in 1925 was 4.68. Furthermore, Poland's population is aging significantly and the median age in 2018 was 41.1 years. The crude death rate in 2020 stood at 10.3 per 1,000 people.Around 60% of Poles and Polish citizens reside in urban areas or major cities and 40% in more rural zones. The most populous administrative province or state is the Masovian Voivodeship and the most populous city is the capital, Warsaw, at 1.8 million inhabitants with a further 2-3 million people living in its metropolitan area. The metropolitan area of Katowice is the largest urban conurbation in Poland with a population between 2.7 million and 5.3 million residents. The least populous and the smallest province in size is the Opole Voivodeship, with just under 1 million people living within its borders. Hence, a substantial portion of the total population is concentrated in the south of Poland, roughly between the cities of Wrocław and Kraków.In the 2011 Polish census, 37,310,341 people reported Polish identity, 846,719 Silesian, 232,547 Kashubian and 147,814 German. Other identities were reported by 163,363 people (0.41%) and 521,470 people (1.35%) did not specify any nationality. Once prominent but now statistically insignificant minority groups include Polish Jews, Lipka Tatars, Armenians, Greeks, Lemkos, the Romani people and the Vietnamese. Ethnic Poles themselves can be divided into many diverse regional ethnographic sub-groups, most notable being the Kashubians, Silesians and Gorals (Highlanders). The statistics do not include recently arrived migrant workers. More than 1.7 million Ukrainian citizens worked legally in Poland in 2017.There is a very strong Polish diaspora around the world, notably in the United States, Germany, United Kingdom and Canada. A strong Polish minority is still present in the territories of contemporary western Ukraine and Belarus, eastern Lithuania, eastern and central Latvia, and northeastern Czech Republic, which were part of Poland in the past. Altogether, the number of ethnic Poles living abroad is estimated to be around 20 million.Polish is the only official and predominant spoken language in Poland, but it is also used throughout the world by Polish minorities in other countries as well as being one of the official languages of the European Union. The deaf communities use Polish Sign Language belonging to the German family of Sign Languages. Polish is also a second language in Lithuania, where it is taught in schools and universities. Contemporary Poland is a linguistically homogeneous nation, with nearly 97% of respondents declaring Polish as their mother tongue.Poland's once multi-ethnic population communicated in numerous languages and lects which faded or disappeared along the course of history. There are currently 15 minority languages in Poland, including one recognized regional language, Kashubian, which is spoken by around 366,000 people in the northern regions of Kashubia and Pomerania.Languages having the status of national minority's language are Armenian, Belarusian, Czech, German, Yiddish, Hebrew, Lithuanian, Russian, Slovak and Ukrainian. Languages having the status of ethnic minority's language are Karaim, Lemko-Rusyn, Tatar and two Romani languages; Polska Roma and Bergitka Roma. Official recognition of a language provides certain rights under conditions prescribed by Polish law, including education and state financial support for promoting that language. Poland recognized secondary administrative languages or auxiliary languages in bilingual municipalities. Currently, German and Kashubian hold such status in 19 municipalities ("gminas"), Belarusian in 9 and Lithuanian in 1. Bilingual signs, names and advertisements are commonplace in those localities. Silesian and Wymysorys (Vilamovian) are not legally recognized or acknowledged as separate languages with a minority status.More than 50% of Polish citizens declare at least basic knowledge of the English language, followed by German (38%).According to the 2015 census, 92.9% of all Polish citizens adhere to the Roman Catholic Church. An estimated 94.2% of the population are believers and 3.1% are irreligious, making Poland one of the more devout countries in Europe. Around 61.6% of all respondents outlined that religion is of high or very high importance. However, church attendance has decreased in recent years; only 38% of worshippers attended mass regularly on Sunday in 2018. Freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Polish Constitution, and the concordat guarantees the teaching of religion in state schools.For centuries the tribes inhabiting the lands of modern-day Poland have practiced various forms of paganism known as "Rodzimowierstwo", or "native faith". In the year 966, Duke Mieszko I converted to Christianity, and submitted to the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. This event came to be known as the Baptism of Poland. However, this did not put an end to pagan beliefs in the country. The persistence was demonstrated by a series of rebellions in the 1030s known as the pagan reaction, which also showed elements of a peasant uprising against medieval feudalism.Religious tolerance was an important part of Polish political culture, though it varied at times. In 1264, the Statute of Kalisz granted Jews unprecedented legal rights not found anywhere in Europe. In 1573, the Warsaw Confederation marked the formal beginning of extensive religious freedoms in Poland. It was partially influenced by the 1572 St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in France, which prompted the nobility to prevent the monarch from carrying out reprehensible atrocities in Poland based on religious affiliation. The religious tolerance also spurred many theological movements such as the Calvinist Polish Brethren, a number of Protestant groups and atheists like Casimir Liszinski, one of the first atheist thinkers in Europe. Anabaptists fleeing 16th-century persecution in the Netherlands and Germany settled in Poland and became known as the Vistula delta Mennonites. From 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła was head of the Roman Catholic Church as Pope John Paul II.Contemporary religious minorities include Christian Orthodox (506,800), various Protestants (150,000) — including 77,500 Lutherans of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church, 23,000 Pentecostals in the Pentecostal Church in Poland, 10,000 Adventists in the Seventh-day Adventist Church and other smaller Evangelical denominations — Jehovah's Witnesses (126,827), Eastern Catholics, Mariavites, Jews, Muslims (Tatars) and neopagans, some of whom are members of the Native Polish Church.Famous sites of Roman Catholic pilgrimage in Poland include the Monastery of Jasna Góra in the city of Częstochowa, Basilica of Our Lady of Licheń, Kraków's Sanctuary of Divine Mercy and Święta Lipka (Holy Linden) in Masuria. Tourists also visit the family home of John Paul II in Wadowice outside Kraków. Christ the King in Świebodzin is the tallest statue of Jesus in the world. Christian Orthodox pilgrims visit Mount Grabarka near Grabarka-Klasztor and the Hasidic Jews travel annually to the grave of a great rabbi in Leżajsk.Medical service providers and hospitals ("szpitale") in Poland are subordinate to the Ministry of Health; it provides administrative oversight and scrutiny of general medical practice, and is obliged to maintain a high standard of hygiene and patient care. Poland has a universal healthcare system based on an all-inclusive insurance system; state subsidised healthcare is available to all citizens covered by the general health insurance program of the National Health Fund (NFZ). Private medical complexes exist nationwide; over 50% of the population uses both public and private sectors.Hospitals are organised according to the regional administrative structure, resultantly most towns, counties or municipalities possess their own provincial hospital or medical clinics. There are six types of hospital facilities, each with a particular area of medical expertise – I Grade Hospitals for general surgery, internal illnesses and obstetrics; II Grade Hospitals for child surgery, neurology, cardiology and ophthalmology; III Grade Hospitals including teaching hospitals for infectious diseases, nephrology, orthopedics, toxicology and transplantology; Oncology Hospitals for cancer treatment and brachytherapy; Pediatric Hospitals for child care; and Nationwide Hospitals for general and acute care.According to the Human Development Report from 2020, the average life expectancy at birth is 79 years (around 75 years for an infant male and 83 years for an infant female); the country has a low infant mortality rate (4 per 1,000 births). In 2019, the principal cause of death was ischemic heart disease; diseases of the circulatory system accounted for 45% of all deaths. In the same year, Poland was also the 15th-largest importer of medications and pharmaceutical products.The Jagiellonian University founded in 1364 by Casimir III in Kraków was the first institution of higher learning established in Poland, and is one of the oldest universities still in continuous operation. Poland's Commission of National Education ("Komisja Edukacji Narodowej"), established in 1773, was the world's first state ministry of education. The framework for primary and secondary schooling in contemporary Poland is established by the Ministry of National Education. Kindergarten attendance is optional for children aged between three and five, with one year being compulsory for six-year-olds. Primary education traditionally begins at the age of seven, although children aged six can attend at the request of their parents or guardians. Elementary school spans eight grades, at the end of which an obligatory three-part exam on Polish, mathematics and a foreign language is to be undertaken. Secondary schooling is dependent on student preference – either a four-year high school ("liceum"), a five-year technical school ("technikum") or various vocational studies ("szkoła branżowa") can be pursued by each individual pupil. A liceum or technikum is concluded with a maturity exit exam ("matura"), which must be passed in order to apply for a university or other institutions of higher learning.The standards of higher tertiary education are imposed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. In Poland, there are over 500 university-level institutions, with technical, medical, economic, agricultural, pedagogical, theological, musical, maritime and military faculties. The University of Warsaw and Warsaw Polytechnic, the University of Wrocław, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and the University of Technology in Gdańsk are among the most prominent. There are three conventional academic degrees in Poland – "licencjat" or "inżynier" (first cycle qualification), "magister" (second cycle qualification) and "doktor" (third cycle qualification).In 2018, the Programme for International Student Assessment, coordinated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, ranked Poland's educational system higher than the OECD average; the study showed that students in Poland perform better academically than in most OECD countries.The culture of Poland is closely connected with its intricate 1,000-year history and forms an important constituent in western civilization. The Poles take great pride in their national identity which is often associated with the colours white and red, and exuded by the expression "biało-czerwoni" ("whitereds"). National symbols, chiefly the crowned white-tailed eagle, are often visible on clothing, insignia and emblems. The appreciation of Poland's traditions and cultural heritage is commonly known as Polonophilia.With origins in the customs of the tribal Lechites, over time the culture of Poland has been influenced by its connection to Western culture and trends, as well as developing its own unique traditions such as Sarmatism. The people of Poland have traditionally been seen as hospitable to artists from abroad and eager to follow cultural and artistic trends popular in foreign countries, for instance, the 16th- and 17th-century tradition of coffin portraits ("portret trumienny") was only observed in Poland and Roman Egypt. In the 19th and 20th centuries the Polish focus on cultural advancement often took precedence over political and economic activity. These factors have contributed to the versatile nature of Polish art.The architectural monuments of great importance are protected by the National Heritage Board of Poland. Over 100 of the country's most significant tangible wonders were enlisted onto the Historic Monuments Register, with further 16 being recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. Poland is renowned for its brick Gothic castles, granaries and churches as well as diversely-styled tenements, market squares and town halls. The majority of Polish cities founded on Magdeburg Law in the Middle Ages evolved around central marketplaces, a distinguishable urban characteristic which can be observed to this day. Medieval and Renaissance cloth halls were once an abundant feature of many towns.There are 13 government-approved annual public holidays – New Year on 1 January, Three Kings' Day on 6 January, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, Labour Day on 1 May, Constitution Day on 3 May, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, Armed Forces Day on 15 August, All Saints' Day on 1 November, Independence Day on 11 November and Christmastide on 25 and 26 December.Particular traditions and superstitious customs observed in Poland are not found elsewhere in Europe. Though Christmas Eve ("Wigilia") is not a public holiday, it remains the most memorable day of the entire year. Trees are decorated on 24 December, hay is placed under the tablecloth to resemble Jesus' manger, Christmas wafers ("opłatek") are shared between gathered guests and a twelve-dish meatless supper is served that same evening when the first star appears. An empty plate and seat are symbolically left at the table for an unexpected guest. On occasion, carolers journey around smaller towns with a folk Turoń creature until the Lent period.A widely-popular doughnut and sweet pastry feast occurs on Fat Thursday, usually 52 days prior to Easter. Eggs for Holy Sunday are painted and placed in decorated baskets that are previously blessed by clergymen in churches on Easter Saturday. Easter Monday is celebrated with pagan "dyngus" festivities, where the youth is engaged in water fights and some girls are gently spanked by colleagues with pussy willows to stimulate fertility.Cemeteries and graves of the deceased are annually visited by family members on All Saints' Day; tombstones are cleaned as a sign of respect and candles are lit to honour the dead on an unprecedented scale.Artists from Poland, including famous musicians such as Chopin, Rubinstein, Paderewski, Penderecki and Wieniawski, and traditional, regionalized folk composers create a lively and diverse music scene, which even recognizes its own music genres, such as sung poetry and disco polo.The origins of Polish music can be traced to the 13th century; manuscripts have been found in Stary Sącz containing polyphonic compositions related to the Parisian Notre Dame School. Other early compositions, such as the melody of "Bogurodzica" and "God Is Born" (a coronation polonaise tune for Polish kings by an unknown composer), may also date back to this period, however, the first known notable composer, Nicholas of Radom, lived in the 15th century. Diomedes Cato, a native-born Italian who lived in Kraków, became a renowned lutenist at the court of Sigismund III; he not only imported some of the musical styles from southern Europe but blended them with native folk music.In the 17th and 18th centuries, Polish baroque composers wrote liturgical music and secular compositions such as concertos and sonatas for voices or instruments. At the end of the 18th century, Polish classical music evolved into national forms like the polonaise. Wojciech Bogusławski is accredited with composing the first Polish national opera, titled "", which premiered in 1794.Traditional Polish folk music has had a major effect on the works of many Polish composers, and no more so than on Fryderyk Chopin, a widely recognised national hero of the arts. All of Chopin's works involve the piano and are technically demanding, emphasising nuance and expressive depth. As a great composer, Chopin invented the musical form known as the instrumental ballade and made major innovations to the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, polonaise, étude, impromptu and prélude, he was also the composer of a number of polonaises which borrowed heavily from traditional Polish folk music. It is largely thanks to him that such pieces gained great popularity throughout Europe during the 19th century. Several Polish composers such as Szymanowski drew inspiration from Chopin's folk-influenced style. Nowadays the most distinctive folk music can be heard in the towns and villages of the mountainous south, particularly in the region surrounding the winter resort town of Zakopane.Poland today has an active music scene, with the jazz and metal genres being particularly popular among the contemporary populace. Polish jazz musicians such as Krzysztof Komeda created a unique style, which was most famous in the 1960s and 1970s and continues to be popular to this day. Poland has also become a major venue for large-scale music festivals, chief among which are the Open'er Festival, Opole Festival and Sopot Festival.Art in Poland has always reflected European trends while maintaining its unique character. The Kraków Academy of Fine Arts, later developed by Jan Matejko, produced monumental portrayals of customs and significant events in Polish history. Other institutions such as the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw were more innovative and focused on both historical and contemporary styles. Notable art academies include the Kraków School of Art and Fashion Design, Art Academy of Szczecin, University of Fine Arts in Poznań and the Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław.Perhaps the most prominent and internationally admired Polish artist was Tamara de Lempicka, who specialized in the style of Art Deco. Lempicka was described as "the first woman artist to become a glamour star." Another notable was Caziel, born Zielenkiewicz, who represented Cubism and Abstraction in France and England.Prior to the 19th century only Daniel Schultz and Italian-born Marcello Bacciarelli had the privilege of being recognized abroad. The Young Poland movement witnessed the birth of modern Polish art, and engaged in a great deal of formal experimentation led by Jacek Malczewski, Stanisław Wyspiański, Józef Mehoffer, and a group of Polish Impressionists. Stanisław Witkiewicz was an ardent supporter of Realism, its main representative being Józef Chełmoński, while Artur Grottger specialized in Romanticism. Within historically-orientated circles, Henryk Siemiradzki dominated with his monumental Academic Art and ancient Roman theme.Since the inter-war years, Polish art and documentary photography has enjoyed worldwide fame and in the 1960s the Polish School of Posters was formed. Throughout the entire country, many national museum and art institutions hold valuable works by famous masters. Major museums in Poland include the National Museum in Warsaw, Poznań, Wrocław, Kraków, and Gdańsk, as well as the Museum of John Paul II Collection, and the Wilanów Museum. Important collections are also held at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Wawel Castle and in the Palace on the Isle. Contemporary art galleries include Zachęta, Ujazdów, and MOCAK. The most distinguished painting of Poland is "Lady with an Ermine" by Leonardo da Vinci, held at the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków. Although not Polish, the work had a strong influence on Polish culture and has been often associated with Polish identity.Polish cities and towns reflect a whole spectrum of European architectural styles. Romanesque architecture is represented by St. Andrew's Church, Kraków, and St. Mary's Church, Gdańsk, is characteristic for the Brick Gothic style found in Poland. Richly decorated attics and arcade loggias are the common elements of the Polish Renaissance architecture, as evident in the City Hall in Poznań. For some time the late renaissance style known as mannerism, most notably in the Bishop's Palace in Kielce, coexisted with the early baroque style, typified in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Kraków.History has not been kind to Poland's architectural monuments. Nonetheless, a number of ancient structures have survived: castles, churches, and stately homes, often unique in the regional or European context. Some of them have been painstakingly restored, like Wawel Castle, or completely reconstructed, including the Old Town and Royal Castle of Warsaw and the Old Town of Gdańsk.The architecture of Gdańsk is mostly of the Hanseatic variety, a Gothic style common among the former trading cities along the Baltic Sea and in the northern part of Central Europe. The architectural style of Wrocław is mainly representative of German architecture since it was for centuries located within the Holy Roman Empire. The centres of Kazimierz Dolny and Sandomierz on the Vistula are good examples of well-preserved medieval towns. Poland's ancient capital, Kraków, ranks among the best-preserved Gothic and Renaissance urban complexes in Europe.The second half of the 17th century is marked by baroque architecture. Side towers, such as those of Branicki Palace in Białystok, are typical for the Polish baroque. The classical Silesian baroque is represented by the University in Wrocław. The profuse decorations of the Branicki Palace in Warsaw are characteristic of the rococo style. The centre of Polish classicism was Warsaw under the rule of the last Polish king Stanisław II Augustus.The Palace on the Isle is a chief example of Polish neoclassical architecture. Lublin Castle represents the Gothic Revival style in architecture, while the Izrael Poznański Palace in Łódź is an example of eclecticism.Traditional folk architecture in the villages and small towns scattered across the vast Polish countryside was characterized by its extensive use of wood and red brick as primary building materials, common for Central Europe. Some of the best preserved and oldest structures include ancient stone temples in Silesia and fortified wooden churches across southeastern Poland in the Beskids and Bieszczady regions of the Carpathian mountains. Numerous examples of secular structures such as Polish manor houses ("dworek"), farmhouses (), granaries, mills, barns and country inns () can still be found in some Polish regions. However, traditional construction methods faded in the early-mid 20th century, when Poland's population experienced a demographic shift to urban dwelling away from the countryside.The earliest examples of Polish literature date to the 12th century, when Poland's official language was Latin, and early published works were predominantly written by foreigners. Gallus Anonymus, a monk of disputed origin, was the first chronicler who meticulously described Poland's culture, language and territories in "Gesta principum Polonorum" (c. 1112–1118). Latin remained the principal tool of literary expression in Poland until the 18th century, when it was replaced in favour of Polish and French. Historically, Polish literature concentrated extensively around the themes of true drama and poetic-expressive romanticism than on fiction. Patriotism, spirituality and aphorisms were paramount and political or social allegories were common moral narratives.The first documented phrase in the Polish language reads ""Day ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai"" ("Let me grind, and you take a rest"), reflecting the use of quern-stone in early Poland. The phrase was recorded by an abbot in the Latin-based "Liber fundationis" from 1269 to 1273, which outlined the history of a Cistercian monastery in the Silesian village of Henryków. The sentence has been included in the UNESCO Memory of World Register. The oldest extant manuscript of fine prose in Old Polish is the "Holy Cross Sermons", and the earliest religious text is the Bible of Queen Sophia. One of the first printing houses was established by Kasper Straube in the 1470s, while Jan Haller was considered the pioneer of commercial print in Poland. Haller's Calendarium cracoviense, an astronomical wall calendar from 1474, is Poland's oldest surviving print.The tradition of extending Polish historiography in Latin was subsequently inherited by Vincent Kadłubek, Bishop of Kraków in the 13th century, and Jan Długosz in the 15th century. This practice, however, was abandoned by Jan Kochanowski, who became one of the first Polish Renaissance authors to write most of his works in Polish, along with Nicholas Rey. Other writers of the Polish Renaissance include Johannes Dantiscus, Andreus Fricius Modrevius, Matthias Sarbievius, Piotr Skarga and Klemens "Ianicius" Janicki, who was laureled by the Pope. The leading figure of the Polish Reformation was theologian and writer John Laski, who, with the permission of King Edward VI of England, created the European Protestant Congregation of London in 1550.During the Baroque era, the Jesuits greatly influenced Polish literature and literary techniques, often relying on God and religious matters. The leading baroque poet was Jan Andrzej Morsztyn, who incorporated Marinism into his publications. Jan Chryzostom Pasek, also a respected baroque writer, is mostly remembered for his tales and memoirs reflecting sarmatian culture in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Subsequently, the Polish Enlightenment was headed by Samuel Linde, Hugo Kołłątaj, Izabela Czartoryska and Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz. In 1776, Ignacy Krasicki composed the first milestone novel entitled "The Adventures of Mr. Nicholas Wisdom".Among the best known Polish Romantics are the "Three Bards" – the three national poets active in the age of foreign partitions – Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki and Zygmunt Krasiński. The narrative poem "Pan Tadeusz" by Mickiewicz is Poland's national epic and a compulsory reading ("lektura") in the country's schools. Joseph Conrad, the son of dramatist Apollo Korzeniowski, came to fame with his English-language novels and stories that are informed with elements of the Polish national experience. Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", "Nostromo" and "Lord Jim" are believed to be one of the finest works ever written, placing him among the greatest novelists of all time. Modern Polish literature is versatile, with its fantasy genre having been particularly praised. The philosophical sci-fi novel "Solaris" is an acclaimed example of Stanisław Lem's literary legacy, whereas "The Witcher", a fantasy series by Andrzej Sapkowski, is a much-celebrated work of contemporary Polish fiction.In the 20th century, five Polish authors were awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature – Henryk Sienkiewicz for "Quo Vadis", Władysław Reymont for "The Peasants", Isaac Bashevis Singer, Czesław Miłosz and Wisława Szymborska. In 2019, Polish author Olga Tokarczuk was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 2018.Polish cuisine has evolved over the centuries to become highly eclectic due to Poland's history. Polish cuisine shares many similarities with other Central European cuisines, especially German and Austrian as well as Jewish, French, Italian and Turkish culinary traditions. Polish-styled cooking in other cultures is often referred to as "cuisine à la polonaise".Polish dishes are usually rich in meat, especially pork, chicken and beef (depending on the region), winter vegetables (sauerkraut cabbage in "bigos"), and spices. It is also characteristic in its use of various kinds of noodles, the most notable of which are kluski, as well as cereals such as "kasha" (from the Polish word kasza) and a variety of breads like the world-renowned bagel. Polish cuisine is hearty and uses a lot of cream and eggs. Festive meals such as the meatless Christmas Eve dinner ("Wigilia") or Easter breakfast could take days to prepare in their entirety.The main course usually includes a serving of meat, such as roast, chicken, or "kotlet schabowy" (breaded pork cutlet), vegetables, side dishes and salads, including "surówka" – shredded root vegetables with lemon and sugar (carrot, celeriac, seared beetroot) or sauerkraut (, ). The side dishes are usually potatoes, rice or cereal. Meals conclude with a dessert such as "sernik" (cheesecake), "makowiec" (poppy seed pastry), or "napoleonka" (cream pie).The Polish national dishes are "bigos" ; "pierogi" ; "kielbasa"; "kotlet schabowy" breaded cutlet; "gołąbki" cabbage rolls; "zrazy" roulade; "pieczeń" roast ; sour cucumber soup ("zupa ogórkowa", ); mushroom soup, ("zupa grzybowa", quite different from the North American cream of mushroom); "zupa pomidorowa" tomato soup ; "rosół" variety of meat broth; "żurek" sour rye soup; "flaki" tripe soup; "barszcz" and "chłodnik" among others.Traditional alcoholic beverages include honey mead, widespread since the 13th century, beer, wine and vodka (old Polish names include "okowita" and "gorzała"). The world's first written mention of vodka originates from Poland. The most popular alcoholic drinks at present are beer and wine which took over from vodka more popular in the years 1980–1998. Tea remains common in Polish society since the 19th century, whilst coffee is drunk widely since the 18th century. Other frequently consumed beverages include various mineral waters and juices, soft drinks popularized by the fast-food chains since the late 20th century, as well as buttermilk, soured milk and kefir.The particular clothing styles in Poland evolved with each century. In the 1600s high-class noblemen and magnates developed a strong sympathy for Orientalism, which was also common in other parts of Europe and became known as Sarmatism. The attire mediated between Western and Ottoman styles and outfits included a żupan, delia, kontusz, pas, decorative karabela swords and less often turbans brought by foreign merchants. The period of Polish Sarmatism eventually faded in the wake of the 18th century.The Polish national dress as well as the fashion and etiquette of Poland also reached the royal court at Versailles in the 1700s. French dresses inspired by Polish attire were called "à la polonaise", meaning "Polish-styled". The most famous example is the "robe à la polonaise", a woman's garment with draped and swagged overskirt, worn over an underskirt or petticoat. Another notable example is the Witzchoura, a long mantle with collar and hood, which was possibly introduced by Napoleon's Polish mistress Maria Walewska. The scope of influence also entailed furniture; rococo Polish beds with canopies became commonplace in French palaces during the 18th century.Several Polish designers and stylists left a lifelong legacy of beauty inventions and cosmetics, most notable being Maksymilian Faktorowicz and Helena Rubinstein. Faktorowicz created a line of cosmetics company in California known as Max Factor and coined the term "make-up" based on the verb phrase "to make up" one's face, now widely used as an alternative for describing cosmetics. Faktorowicz also raised to fame by inventing modern eyelash extensions and by providing services to Hollywood artists.As of 2020, Poland possesses the fifth-largest cosmetic market in Europe. Founded in 1983, Inglot Cosmetics is the country's largest beauty products manufacturer and retailer active in 700 locations worldwide, including retail salons in New York City, London, Milan, Dubai and Las Vegas. Established in 1999, the retail store Reserved is Poland's most successful clothing store chain, operating over 1,700 retail shops in 19 countries. Internationally successful models from Poland include Anja Rubik, Joanna Krupa, Jac Jagaciak, Kasia Struss, Małgosia Bela, and Magdalena Frąckowiak.The history of Polish cinema is as long as the history of cinematography itself. Over the decades, Poland has produced outstanding directors, film producers, cartoonists and actors that achieved world fame, especially in Hollywood. Moreover, Polish inventors played an important role in the development of world cinematography and modern-day television. Among the most famous directors and producers, who worked in Poland as well as abroad are Roman Polański, Andrzej Wajda, Samuel Goldwyn, the Warner brothers (Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack), Max Fleischer, Lee Strasberg, Agnieszka Holland and Krzysztof Kieślowski.In the 19th century, throughout partitioned Poland, numerous amateur inventors, such as Kazimierz Prószyński, were eager to construct a film projector. In 1894, Prószyński was successful in creating a Pleograph, one of the first cameras in the world. The invention, which took photographs and projected pictures, was built before the Lumière brothers lodged their patent. He also patented an Aeroscope, the first successful hand-held operated film camera. In 1897, Jan Szczepanik, obtained a British patent for his Telectroscope. This prototype of television could easily transmit image and sound, thus allowing a live remote view.Polish cinema developed rapidly in the interwar period. The most renowned star of the silent film era was Polish actress Pola Negri. During this time, the Yiddish cinema also evolved in Poland. Films in the Yiddish language with Jewish themes, such as "The Dybbuk" (1937), played an important part in pre-war Polish cinematography. In 1945 the government established 'Film Polski', a state-run film production and distribution organization, with director Aleksander Ford as the head of the company. Ford's "Knights of the Teutonic Order" (1960) was viewed by millions of people in the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and France. This success was followed by the historical films of Jerzy Hoffman and Andrzej Wajda. Wajda's 1975 film "The Promised Land" was nominated at the 48th Academy Awards.In 2015, "Ida" by Paweł Pawlikowski won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2019, Pawlikowski received an Academy Award for Best Director nomination for his historical drama "Cold War". Other well-known Polish Oscar-winning productions include "The Pianist" (2002) by Roman Polański.Poland has a number of major media outlets, chief among which are the national television channels. TVP is Poland's public broadcasting corporation; about a third of its income comes from a broadcast receiver licence, while the rest is made through revenue from commercials and sponsorships. State television operates two mainstream channels, TVP 1 and TVP 2, as well as regional programs for each of the country's 16 voivodeships (as TVP 3). In addition to these general channels, TVP runs a number of genre-specific programmes such as TVP Sport, TVP Historia, TVP Kultura, TVP Rozrywka, TVP Seriale and TVP Polonia, the latter is a state-run channel dedicated to the transmission of Polish language television for the Polish diaspora. Poland has several 24-hour news channels such as Polsat News, TVP Info and TVN 24. Poland also possesses a variety of free-to-air television channels, chiefly TVN, Polsat and TV4.In Poland, there are also daily newspapers like "Gazeta Wyborcza" ("Electoral Gazette"), "Rzeczpospolita" ("The Republic") and "Gazeta Polska Codziennie" ("Polish Daily Newspaper") which provide traditional opinion and news, and tabloids such as "Fakt" and "Super Express". Weeklies include "Tygodnik Angora", "", "Polityka", "Wprost", "Newsweek Polska", "Gość Niedzielny" and "Gazeta Polska".Poland has also emerged as a major hub for video game developers in Europe, with the country now being home to hundreds of studios. Among the most successful ones are CD Projekt, Techland, CI Games and People Can Fly. Some of the most popular video games developed in Poland include The Witcher trilogy. Katowice hosts Intel Extreme Masters, one of the biggest eSports events in the world.Volleyball and Association football are among the country's most popular sports, with a rich history of international competitions. Track and field, basketball, handball, boxing, MMA, motorcycle speedway, ski jumping, cross-country skiing, ice hockey, tennis, fencing, swimming and weightlifting are other popular sports.The golden era of football in Poland occurred throughout the 1970s and went on until the early 1980s when the Polish national football team achieved their best results in any FIFA World Cup competitions finishing 3rd place in the 1974 and the 1982 tournaments. The team won a gold medal in football at the 1972 Summer Olympics and two silver medals, in 1976 and in 1992. In 2012, Poland co-hosted the UEFA European Football Championship.As of May 2021, the Polish men's national volleyball team is ranked as 2nd in the world. Volleyball team won a gold medal in Olympic 1976 Montreal and three gold medals in FIVB World Championship 1974, 2014 and 2018.Mariusz Pudzianowski is a highly successful strongman competitor and has won more World's Strongest Man titles than any other competitor in the world, winning the event in 2008 for the fifth time.Poland has made a distinctive mark in motorcycle speedway racing thanks to Tomasz Gollob and Bartosz Zmarzlik, highly successful Polish riders. The top Ekstraliga division has one of the highest average attendances for any sport in Poland. The national speedway team of Poland is one of the major teams in international speedway.Poles made significant achievements in mountaineering, in particular, in the Himalayas and the winter ascending of the eight-thousanders. Polish mountains are one of the tourist attractions of the country. Hiking, climbing, skiing and mountain biking and attract numerous tourists every year from all over the world. Water sports are the most popular summer recreation activities, with ample locations for fishing, canoeing, kayaking, sailing and windsurfing especially in the northern regions of the country.
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[
"Ewa Kopacz",
"Leszek Miller",
"Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz",
"Mateusz Morawiecki",
"Jan Olszewski",
"Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz",
"Tadeusz Mazowiecki",
"Jarosław Kaczyński",
"Jan Krzysztof Bielecki",
"Hanna Suchocka",
"Donald Tusk",
"Beata Szydło",
"Marek Belka",
"Waldemar Pawlak",
"Józef Oleksy"
] |
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Who was the head of Poland in Feb, 2003?
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February 23, 2003
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{
"text": [
"Leszek Miller"
]
}
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L2_Q36_P6_8
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Jan Olszewski is the head of the government of Poland from Dec, 1991 to Jun, 1992.
Józef Oleksy is the head of the government of Poland from Mar, 1995 to Feb, 1996.
Donald Tusk is the head of the government of Poland from Nov, 2007 to Sep, 2014.
Ewa Kopacz is the head of the government of Poland from Sep, 2014 to Nov, 2015.
Jerzy Buzek is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 1997 to Oct, 2001.
Mateusz Morawiecki is the head of the government of Poland from Dec, 2017 to Dec, 2022.
Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 2005 to Jul, 2006.
Leszek Miller is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 2001 to May, 2004.
Beata Szydło is the head of the government of Poland from Nov, 2015 to Dec, 2017.
Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz is the head of the government of Poland from Feb, 1996 to Oct, 1997.
Marek Belka is the head of the government of Poland from May, 2004 to Oct, 2005.
Jan Krzysztof Bielecki is the head of the government of Poland from Jan, 1991 to Dec, 1991.
Tadeusz Mazowiecki is the head of the government of Poland from Aug, 1989 to Jan, 1991.
Hanna Suchocka is the head of the government of Poland from Jul, 1992 to Oct, 1993.
Waldemar Pawlak is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 1993 to Mar, 1995.
Jarosław Kaczyński is the head of the government of Poland from Jul, 2006 to Nov, 2007.
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PolandPoland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country located in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces, covering an area of , and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With a population of nearly 38.5 million people, Poland is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union. Poland's capital and largest metropolis is Warsaw. Other major cities include Kraków, Łódź, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk, and Szczecin.Poland's topographically diverse territory extends from the beaches along the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in its south. The country is bordered by Lithuania and Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukraine to the east, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the south, and Germany to the west.The history of human activity on Polish soil spans thousands of years. Throughout the late antiquity period it became extensively diverse, with various cultures and tribes settling on the vast Central European Plain. However, it was the Western Polans who dominated the region and gave Poland its name. The establishment of Polish statehood can be traced to 966, when the pagan ruler of a realm coextensive with the territory of present-day Poland embraced Christianity and converted to Catholicism. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented its longstanding political association with Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest (over in area) and most populous nations of 16th and 17th century Europe, with a uniquely liberal political system which adopted Europe's first modern constitution, the Constitution of 3 May 1791.With the passing of prominence and prosperity, the country was partitioned by neighbouring states at the end of the 18th century, and regained independence in 1918 with the Treaty of Versailles. After a series of territorial conflicts, the new multi-ethnic Poland restored its position as a key player in European politics. In September 1939, World War II began with the invasion of Poland by Germany, followed by the Soviets invading Poland in accordance with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Approximately six million Polish citizens, including three million of the country's Jews, perished during the course of the war. As a member of the Eastern Bloc, the Polish People's Republic proclaimed forthwith was a chief signatory of the Warsaw Treaty amidst global Cold War tensions. In the wake of the 1989 events, notably through the emergence and contributions of the Solidarity movement, the communist government was dissolved and Poland re-established itself as a semi-presidential democratic republic.Poland is a developed market, and a middle power. It has the sixth largest economy in the European Union by nominal GDP and the fifth largest by GDP (PPP). It provides very high standards of living, safety and economic freedom, as well as free university education and a universal health care system. The country has 16 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, 15 of which are cultural. Poland is a member state of the Schengen Area, European Union, European Economic Area, the United Nations, NATO, the OECD, the Three Seas Initiative and the Visegrád Group.The origin of the name "Poland" derives from the West Slavic tribe of Polans ("Polanie"), who inhabited the Warta river basin of the present-day Greater Poland region starting in the mid-6th century. The origin of the name "Polanie" itself derives from the Proto-Slavic word "pole" (field). In some languages, such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian, Russian and Turkish, the country's name is derived from the Lendians ("Lędzianie" or "Lachy") who dwelled on the southeasternmost edge of present-day Lesser Poland. Their name likewise derives from the Old Polish word "lęda" (open land or plain).The early Bronze Age in Poland began around 2400 BC, while the Iron Age commenced in approximately 750 BC. During this time, the Lusatian culture, spanning both the Bronze and Iron Ages, became particularly prominent. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement (now reconstructed as an open-air museum), dating from the Lusatian culture of the late Bronze Age, around 748 BC.Throughout Antiquity, many distinct ancient ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland in an era that dates from about 400 BC to 500 AD. These groups are identified as Celtic, Scythian, Germanic, Sarmatian, Slavic and Baltic tribes. Also, recent archaeological findings in the Kuyavia region confirmed the presence of the Roman Legions on the territory of Poland. These were most likely expeditionary missions sent out to protect the amber trade. The exact time and routes of the original migration and settlement of Slavic peoples lacks written records and can only be defined as fragmented. There is evidence that earlier tribes may have been associated with the ancient Przeworsk culture. Up until the creation of Mieszko's state and his subsequent conversion to Christianity in 966 AD, the main religion of the numerous West Slavic (Lechitic) tribes that inhabited the geographical area of present-day Poland was paganism. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Western Christianity and the religious authority of the Roman Church. However, the transition from paganism was not a smooth and instantaneous process for the rest of the population as evident from the pagan reaction of the 1030s.Poland began to form into a recognizable unitary and territorial entity around the middle of the 10th century under the Piast dynasty. Poland's first historically documented ruler, Mieszko I, accepted Christianity, as the rightful religion of his realm, under the auspices of the Latin Church with the Baptism of Poland in 966. The bulk of the population converted in the course of the next few centuries. In 1000, Boleslaw the Brave, continuing the policy of his father Mieszko, held a Congress of Gniezno and created the metropolis of Gniezno and the dioceses of Kraków, Kołobrzeg, and Wrocław. However, the pagan unrest led to the transfer of the capital to Kraków in 1038 by Casimir I the Restorer.In 1109, Prince Bolesław III Wrymouth defeated the King of Germany Henry V at the Battle of Hundsfeld, stopping the German incursion into Poland. The clash between Bolesław III and Henry V was documented by Gallus Anonymus in his 1118 chronicle. In 1138, Poland fragmented into several smaller duchies when Bolesław divided his lands among his sons. In 1226, Konrad I of Masovia, one of the regional Piast dukes, invited the Teutonic Knights to help him fight the Baltic Prussian pagans; a decision that led to centuries of warfare with the Knights. In 1264, the Statute of Kalisz or the General Charter of Jewish Liberties introduced numerous right for the Jews in Poland, leading to a nearly autonomous "nation within a nation".In the middle of the 13th century, the Silesian branch of the Piast dynasty (Henry I the Bearded and Henry II the Pious, ruled 1238–1241) nearly succeeded in uniting the Polish lands, but the Mongols invaded the country from the east and defeated the combined Polish forces at the Battle of Legnica where Duke Henry II the Pious died. In 1320, after a number of earlier unsuccessful attempts by regional rulers at uniting the Polish dukedoms, Władysław I consolidated his power, took the throne and became the first king of a reunified Poland. His son, Casimir III (reigned 1333–1370), has a reputation as one of the greatest Polish kings, and gained wide recognition for improving the country's infrastructure. He also extended royal protection to Jews, and encouraged their immigration to Poland. Casimir III realized that the nation needed a class of educated people, especially lawyers, who could codify the country's laws and administer the courts and offices. His efforts to create an institution of higher learning in Poland were finally rewarded when Pope Urban V granted him permission to open the University of Kraków.The Golden Liberty of the nobles began to develop under Casimir's rule, when in return for their military support, the king made a series of concessions to the nobility and establishing their legal status as superior to that of the townsfolk. When Casimir the Great died in 1370, leaving no legitimate male heir, the Piast dynasty came to an end.During the 13th and 14th centuries, Poland became a destination for German, Flemish and to a lesser extent Walloon, Danish and Scottish migrants. Also, Jews and Armenians began to settle and flourish in Poland during this era (see History of the Jews in Poland and Armenians in Poland).The Black Death, a plague that ravaged Europe from 1347 to 1351, did not significantly affect Poland, and the country was spared from a major outbreak of the disease. The reason for this was the decision of Casimir the Great to quarantine the nation's borders.The Jagiellon dynasty spanned the late Middle Ages and early Modern Era of Polish history. Beginning with the Lithuanian Grand Duke Jogaila (Władysław II Jagiełło), the Jagiellon dynasty (1386–1572) formed the Polish–Lithuanian union. The partnership brought vast Lithuanian-controlled Rus' areas into Poland's sphere of influence and proved beneficial for the Poles and Lithuanians, who coexisted and cooperated in one of the largest political entities in Europe for the next four centuries.In the Baltic Sea region the struggle of Poland and Lithuania with the Teutonic Knights continued and culminated at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, where a combined Polish-Lithuanian army inflicted a decisive victory against them. In 1466, after the Thirteen Years' War, King Casimir IV Jagiellon gave royal consent to the Peace of Thorn, which created the future Duchy of Prussia under Polish suzerainty. The Jagiellon dynasty at one point also established dynastic control over the kingdoms of Bohemia (1471 onwards) and Hungary. In the south, Poland confronted the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Tatars (by whom they were attacked on 75 separate occasions between 1474 and 1569), and in the east helped Lithuania fight the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Some historians estimate that Crimean Tatar slave-raiding cost Poland-Lithuania one million of its population between the years of 1494 and 1694.Poland was developing as a feudal state, with a predominantly agricultural economy and an increasingly powerful landed nobility. The "Nihil novi" act adopted by the Polish Sejm (parliament) in 1505, transferred most of the legislative power from the monarch to the Sejm, an event which marked the beginning of the period known as "Golden Liberty", when the state was ruled by the "free and equal" Polish nobility. Protestant Reformation movements made deep inroads into Polish Christianity, which resulted in the establishment of policies promoting religious tolerance, unique in Europe at that time. This tolerance allowed the country to avoid most of the religious turmoil that spread over Europe during the 16th century.The European Renaissance evoked in late Jagiellon Poland (under kings Sigismund I the Old and Sigismund II Augustus) a sense of urgency in the need to promote a cultural awakening, and during this period Polish culture and the nation's economy flourished. In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus, an astronomer from Toruń, published his epochal work "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" ("On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres") and thereby became the first proponent of a predictive mathematical model confirming the heliocentric theory, which became the accepted basic model for the practice of modern astronomy. Another major figure associated with the era is the classicist poet Jan Kochanowski.The 1569 Union of Lublin established the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a more closely unified federal state with an elective monarchy, but which was governed largely by the nobility, through a system of local assemblies with a central parliament. The Warsaw Confederation (1573) guaranteed religious freedom for the Polish nobility "(szlachta)" and townsfolk "(mieszczanie)". However, the peasants "(chłopi)" were still subject to severe limitations imposed on them by the nobility. The establishment of the Commonwealth coincided with a period of stability and prosperity in Poland, with the union thereafter becoming a European power and a major cultural entity, occupying approximately one million square kilometers of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as an agent for the dissemination of Western culture through Polonization into areas of modern-day Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Belarus and western Russia.In the 16th and 17th centuries, Poland suffered from a number of dynastic crises during the reigns of the Vasa kings Sigismund III and Władysław IV and found itself engaged in major conflicts with Russia, Sweden and the Ottoman Empire, as well as a series of minor Cossack uprisings. In 1610, a Polish army under the command of Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski seized Moscow after winning the Battle of Klushino. In 1611, the Tsar of Russia paid homage to the King of Poland.After the signing of Truce of Deulino, Poland had in the years 1618–1621 an area of about .From the middle of the 17th century, the nobles' democracy, suffering from internal disorder, gradually declined, thereby leaving the once powerful Commonwealth vulnerable to foreign intervention. Starting in 1648, the Cossack Khmelnytsky Uprising engulfed the south and east, eventually leaving Ukraine divided, with the eastern part, lost by the Commonwealth, becoming a dependency of the Tsardom of Russia. This was followed by the 'Deluge', a Swedish invasion of Poland, which marched through the Polish heartlands and ruined the country's population, culture and infrastructure—around four million of Poland's eleven million inhabitants died in famines and epidemics throughout the 17th century. However, under John III Sobieski the Commonwealth's military prowess was re-established, and in 1683 Polish forces played a major role in the Battle of Vienna against the Ottoman Army, commanded by Kara Mustafa, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.Sobieski's reign marked the end of the nation's golden era. Finding itself subjected to almost constant warfare and suffering enormous population losses as well as massive damage to its economy, the Commonwealth fell into decline. The government became ineffective as a result of large-scale internal conflicts (e.g. Lubomirski Rebellion against John II Casimir and rebellious confederations) and corrupted legislative processes. The nobility fell under the control of a handful of "magnats", and this, compounded with two relatively weak kings of the Saxon Wettin dynasty, Augustus II and Augustus III, as well as the rise of Russia and Prussia after the Great Northern War only served to worsen the Commonwealth's plight. Despite this The Commonwealth-Saxony personal union gave rise to the emergence of the Commonwealth's first reform movement, and laid the foundations for the Polish Enlightenment.During the later part of the 18th century, the Commonwealth made attempts to implement fundamental internal reforms; with the second half of the century bringing a much improved economy, significant population growth and far-reaching progress in the areas of education, intellectual life, art, and especially toward the end of the period, evolution of the social and political system. The most populous capital city of Warsaw replaced Gdańsk (Danzig) as the leading centre of commerce, and the role of the more prosperous urban population increased.The royal election of 1764 resulted in the elevation of Stanisław II August (a Polish aristocrat connected to the "Familia" faction of magnates) to the monarchy. However, elevated to the throne by the Empress Catherine II of Russia, the new king spent much of his reign maneuvering between his desire to implement necessary reforms to save his country, and the necessity to remain in a political relationship and at peace with Russia. This led to the formation of the 1768 Bar Confederation, a "szlachta" rebellion directed against the Polish king and all external influence, which ineptly aimed to preserve Poland's independence and szlachta's privileges. The failed attempts at reform as well as the internal turmoil caused by the Confederation proved the country's weakness and provoked its neighbours. In 1772 the First Partition of the Commonwealth by Prussia, Russia and Austria took place; an act which the "Partition Sejm", under considerable duress, eventually "ratified" "fait accompli". Disregarding this loss, in 1773 the king established the plan of the most necessary reforms, in which the Commission of National Education, the first government education authority in Europe, was established. Corporal punishment of children was officially prohibited in 1783.The Great Sejm convened by Stanisław II August in 1788 successfully adopted the 3 May Constitution, the first set of modern supreme national laws in Europe. However, this document, accused by detractors of harbouring revolutionary sympathies, generated strong opposition from the Commonwealth's nobles and conservatives as well as from Catherine II, who, determined to prevent the rebirth of a strong Commonwealth set about planning the final dismemberment of the Polish-Lithuanian state. Russia was aided in achieving its goal when the Targowica Confederation, an organisation of Polish nobles, appealed to the Empress for help. In May 1792, Russian forces crossed the Commonwealth's frontier, thus beginning the Polish-Russian War.The defensive war fought by the Poles ended prematurely when the King, convinced of the futility of resistance, capitulated and joined the Targowica Confederation, hoping to save the country. The Confederation then took over the government. Russia and Prussia, fearing the mere existence of a Polish state, understanding, that despite the current influence they still cannot control the country, arranged for, and in 1793 executed, the Second Partition of the Commonwealth, which left the country deprived of so much territory that it was practically incapable of independent existence. Eventually, in 1795, following the failed Kościuszko Uprising, the Commonwealth was partitioned one last time by all three of its more powerful neighbours, and with this, effectively ceased to exist. The 18-century British statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke summed up the partitions: "No wise or honest man can approve of that partition, or can contemplate it without prognosticating great mischief from it to all countries at some future time."Poles rebelled several times against the partitioners, particularly near the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. An unsuccessful attempt at defending Poland's sovereignty took place in 1794 during the Kościuszko Uprising, where a popular and distinguished general Tadeusz Kościuszko, who had several years earlier served under Washington in the American Revolutionary War, led Polish insurrectionists against numerically superior Russian forces. Despite the victory at the Battle of Racławice, his ultimate defeat ended Poland's independent existence for 123 years.In 1807, Napoleon I of France temporarily recreated a Polish state as the satellite Duchy of Warsaw, after a successful Greater Poland Uprising of 1806 against Prussian rule. But, after the failed Napoleonic Wars, Poland was again split between the victorious powers at the Congress of Vienna of 1815. The eastern part was ruled by the Russian tsar as Congress Poland, which had a liberal constitution. However, over time the Russian monarch reduced Polish freedoms, and Russia annexed the country in virtually all but name. Meanwhile, the Prussian controlled territory of Poland came under increased Germanization. Thus, in the 19th century, only Habsburg-ruled Austrian Poland, and particularly the Free City of Kraków, allowed free Polish culture to flourish.Throughout the period of the partitions, political and cultural repression of the Polish nation led to the organisation of a number of uprisings against the authorities of the occupying Russian, Prussian and Austrian governments. In 1830, the November Uprising began in Warsaw when, led by Lieutenant Piotr Wysocki, young non-commissioned officers at the Officer Cadet School in Warsaw revolted. They were joined by large segments of Polish society, and together forced Warsaw's Russian garrison to withdraw north of the city.Over the course of the next seven months, Polish forces successfully defeated the Russian armies of Field Marshal Hans Karl von Diebitsch and a number of other Russian commanders; however, finding themselves in a position unsupported by any other foreign powers, save distant France and the newborn United States, and with Prussia and Austria refusing to allow the import of military supplies through their territories, the Poles accepted that the uprising was doomed to failure. Upon the surrender of Warsaw to General Ivan Paskievich, many Polish troops, feeling they could not go on, withdrew into Prussia and there laid down their arms. After the defeat, the semi-independent Congress Poland lost its constitution, army and legislative assembly, and was integrated more closely with the Russian Empire.During the Spring of Nations (a series of revolutions which swept across Europe), Poles took up arms in the Greater Poland Uprising of 1848 to resist Prussian rule. Initially, the uprising manifested itself in the form of civil disobedience but eventually turned into an armed struggle when the Prussian military was sent in to pacify the region. Subsequently, the uprising was suppressed and the semi-autonomous Grand Duchy of Posen, created from the Prussian partition of Poland, was incorporated into Prussia.In 1863, a new Polish uprising against Russian rule began. The January Uprising started out as a spontaneous protest by young Poles against conscription into the Imperial Russian Army. However, the insurrectionists, despite being joined by high-ranking Polish-Lithuanian officers and numerous politicians, were still severely outnumbered and lacking in foreign support. They were forced to resort to guerrilla warfare tactics and failed to win any major military victories. Afterwards no major uprising was witnessed in the Russian-controlled Congress Poland, and Poles resorted instead to fostering economic and cultural self-improvement. Congress Poland was rapidly industrialised towards the end of the 19th century, and successively transformed into the Empire's wealthiest and most developed subject.Despite the political unrest experienced during the partitions, Poland did benefit from large-scale industrialisation and modernisation programs, instituted by the occupying powers, which helped it develop into a more economically coherent and viable entity. This was particularly true in Greater Poland, Silesia and Eastern Pomerania controlled by Prussia (later becoming a part of the German Empire); areas which eventually, thanks largely to the Greater Poland Uprising of 1918 and Silesian Uprisings, were reconstituted as a part of the Second Polish Republic, becoming the country's most prosperous regions.Following World War I all the Allies agreed on the reconstitution of Poland that United States President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed in Point 13 of his Fourteen Points. A total of 2 million Polish troops fought with the armies of the three occupying powers, and 450,000 died. Shortly after the armistice with Germany in November 1918, Poland regained its independence as the Second Polish Republic ("II Rzeczpospolita Polska"). It reaffirmed its independence after a series of military conflicts, the most notable being the Polish–Soviet War (1919–21) when Poland inflicted a crushing defeat on the Red Army at the Battle of Warsaw, an event which is considered to have halted the advance of Communism into Europe and forced Vladimir Lenin to rethink his objective of achieving global socialism. The event is often referred to as the "Miracle at the Vistula".During this period, Poland successfully managed to fuse the territories of the three former partitioning powers into a cohesive nation state. Railways were restructured to direct traffic towards Warsaw instead of the former imperial capitals, a new network of national roads was gradually built up and a major seaport, Gdynia, was opened on the Baltic Coast, so as to allow Polish exports and imports to bypass the politically charged Free City of Danzig. Also, the Polish government embarked on the creation of the Central Industrial Region ("Centralny Okręg Przemysłowy"). The project's goal was to create a heavy industrial center in the middle of the country, which included steal mills, power plants and factories. The inter-war period heralded in a new era of Polish politics. Whilst Polish political activists had faced heavy censorship in the decades up until the First World War, the country now found itself trying to establish a new political tradition. For this reason, many exiled Polish activists, such as Ignacy Paderewski (who would later become prime minister) returned home to help; a significant number of them then went on to take key positions in the newly formed political and governmental structures. Tragedy struck in 1922 when Gabriel Narutowicz, inaugural holder of the presidency, was assassinated at the Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw by a painter and right-wing nationalist Eligiusz Niewiadomski.In 1926, a May coup, led by the hero of the Polish independence campaign Marshal Józef Piłsudski, turned rule of the Second Polish Republic over to the nonpartisan Sanacja ("Healing") movement in an effort to prevent radical political organizations on both the left and the right from destabilizing the country. The movement functioned with relative stability until Piłsudski's death in 1935. Following Marshall Piłsudski's death, Sanation split into several competing factions. By the late 1930s, due to increased threats posed by political extremism inside the country, the Polish government became increasingly heavy-handed, banning a number of radical organizations, including communist and ultra-nationalist political parties, which threatened the stability of the country.World War II began with the Nazi German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, followed by the Soviet invasion of Poland on 17 September. On 28 September 1939, Warsaw fell. As agreed in the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Poland was split into two zones, one occupied by Nazi Germany, the other by the Soviet Union. In 1939–41, the Soviets deported hundreds of thousands of Poles. The Soviet NKVD executed thousands of Polish prisoners of war (inter alia Katyn massacre) ahead of the Operation Barbarossa. German planners had in November 1939 called for "the complete destruction of all Poles" and their fate as outlined in the genocidal "Generalplan Ost".Polish intelligence operatives proved extremely valuable to the Allies, providing much of the intelligence from Europe and beyond, and Polish code breakers were responsible for cracking the Enigma cypher.Poland made the fourth-largest troop contribution in Europe and its troops served both the Polish Government in Exile in the west and Soviet leadership in the east. Polish troops played an important role in the Normandy, Italian and North African Campaigns and are particularly remembered for the Battle of Monte Cassino. In the east, the Soviet-backed Polish 1st Army distinguished itself in the battles for Warsaw and Berlin.The wartime resistance movement, and the Armia Krajowa ("Home Army"), fought against German occupation. It was one of the three largest resistance movements of the entire war, and encompassed a range of clandestine activities, which functioned as an underground state complete with degree-awarding universities and a court system. The resistance was loyal to the exiled government and generally resented the idea of a communist Poland; for this reason, in the summer of 1944 it initiated Operation Tempest, of which the Warsaw Uprising that begun on 1 August 1944 is the best known operation.Nazi German forces under orders from Adolf Hitler set up six German extermination camps in occupied Poland, including Treblinka, Majdanek and Auschwitz. The Germans transported millions of Jews from across occupied Europe to be murdered in those camps.Altogether, 3 million Polish Jews – approximately 90% of Poland's pre-war Jewry – and between 1.8 and 2.8 million ethnic Poles were killed during the German occupation of Poland, including between 50,000 and 100,000 members of the Polish intelligentsia – academics, doctors, lawyers, nobility and priesthood. During the Warsaw Uprising alone, over 150,000 Polish civilians were killed, most were murdered by the Germans during the Wola and Ochota massacres. Around 150,000 Polish civilians were killed by Soviets between 1939 and 1941 during the Soviet Union's occupation of eastern Poland (Kresy), and another estimated 100,000 Poles were murdered by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) between 1943 and 1944 in what became known as the Wołyń Massacres. Of all the countries in the war, Poland lost the highest percentage of its citizens: around 6 million perished – more than one-sixth of Poland's pre-war population – half of them Polish Jews. About 90% of deaths were non-military in nature.In 1945, Poland's borders were shifted westwards. Over two million Polish inhabitants of Kresy were expelled along the Curzon Line by Stalin. The western border became the Oder-Neisse line. As a result, Poland's territory was reduced by 20%, or . The shift forced the migration of millions of other people, most of whom were Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, and Jews.At the insistence of Joseph Stalin, the Yalta Conference sanctioned the formation of a new provisional pro-Communist coalition government in Moscow, which ignored the Polish government-in-exile based in London. This action angered many Poles who considered it a betrayal by the Allies. In 1944, Stalin had made guarantees to Churchill and Roosevelt that he would maintain Poland's sovereignty and allow democratic elections to take place. However, upon achieving victory in 1945, the elections organized by the occupying Soviet authorities were falsified and were used to provide a veneer of legitimacy for Soviet hegemony over Polish affairs. The Soviet Union instituted a new communist government in Poland, analogous to much of the rest of the Eastern Bloc. As elsewhere in Communist Europe, the Soviet influence over Poland was met with armed resistance from the outset which continued into the 1950s.Despite widespread objections, the new Polish government accepted the Soviet annexation of the pre-war eastern regions of Poland (in particular the cities of Wilno and Lwów) and agreed to the permanent garrisoning of Red Army units on Poland's territory. Military alignment within the Warsaw Pact throughout the Cold War came about as a direct result of this change in Poland's political culture. In the European scene, it came to characterize the full-fledged integration of Poland into the brotherhood of communist nations.The new communist government took control with the adoption of the Small Constitution on 19 February 1947. The Polish People's Republic ("Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa") was officially proclaimed in 1952. In 1956, after the death of Bolesław Bierut, the régime of Władysław Gomułka became temporarily more liberal, freeing many people from prison and expanding some personal freedoms. Collectivization in the Polish People's Republic failed. A similar situation repeated itself in the 1970s under Edward Gierek, but most of the time persecution of anti-communist opposition groups persisted. Despite this, Poland was at the time considered to be one of the least oppressive states of the Eastern Bloc.Labour turmoil in 1980 led to the formation of the independent trade union "Solidarity" (""Solidarność""), which over time became a political force. Despite persecution and imposition of martial law in 1981, it eroded the dominance of the Polish United Workers' Party and by 1989 had triumphed in Poland's first partially free and democratic parliamentary elections since the end of the Second World War. Lech Wałęsa, a Solidarity candidate, eventually won the presidency in 1990. The Solidarity movement heralded the collapse of communist regimes and parties across Europe.A shock therapy programme, initiated by Leszek Balcerowicz in the early 1990s, enabled the country to transform its socialist-style planned economy into a market economy. As with other post-communist countries, Poland suffered declines in social and economic standards, but it became the first post-communist country to reach its pre-1989 GDP levels, which it achieved by 1995 thanks largely to its booming economy.Most visibly, there were numerous improvements in human rights, such as freedom of speech, internet freedom (no censorship), civil liberties (1st class) and political rights (1st class), as ranked by Freedom House non-governmental organization. In 1991, Poland became a member of the Visegrád Group and joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance in 1999 along with the Czech Republic and Hungary. Poles then voted to join the European Union in a referendum in June 2003, with Poland becoming a full member on 1 May 2004.Poland joined the Schengen Area in 2007, as a result of which, the country's borders with other member states of the European Union have been dismantled, allowing for full freedom of movement within most of the EU. In contrast to this, a section of Poland's eastern border now constitutes the external EU border with Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. That border has become increasingly well protected, and has led in part to the coining of the phrase 'Fortress Europe', in reference to the seeming 'impossibility' of gaining entry to the EU for citizens of the former Soviet Union.In an effort to strengthen military cooperation with its neighbors, Poland set up the Visegrád Battlegroup with Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia, with a total of 3,000 troops ready for deployment. Also, in eastern Poland, it formed the LITPOLUKRBRIG battle groups with Lithuania and Ukraine. These battle groups will operate outside of NATO and within the European defense initiative framework.On 10 April 2010, the President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, along with 89 other high-ranking Polish officials died in a plane crash near Smolensk, Russia. The president's party was on their way to attend an annual service of commemoration for the victims of the Katyń massacre when the tragedy took place.In 2011, the ruling Civic Platform won parliamentary elections. Poland joined the European Space Agency in 2012, as well as organised the UEFA Euro 2012 (along with Ukraine). In 2013, Poland also became a member of the Development Assistance Committee. In 2014, the Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, was chosen to be President of the European Council, and resigned as prime minister.The 2015 and 2019 elections were won by the conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS), resulting in increased friction between Poland and the EU. In December 2017, Mateusz Morawiecki was sworn in as the new Prime Minister, succeeding Beata Szydlo, in office since 2015. They both represented ruling Law and Justice party, led by party chairman Jarosław Kaczyński. President Andrzej Duda, supported by Law and Justice party, was narrowly re-elected in the 2020 presidential election.Poland's vast territory covers approximately , of which 98.52% is dry land and 1.48% is water. Extending across several geographical regions, the country is the 9th-largest by area in Europe and 69th largest in the world. Topographically, Poland is diverse and has access to the sea, the mountains and open terrain. Although most of the central parts of the country are flat, there is an abundance of lakes, rivers, hills, swamps, beaches, islands and forests elsewhere.In the north-west is the Baltic seacoast spanning from the Bay of Pomerania to the Gulf of Gdańsk. The coast is marked by several spits, coastal lakes (former bays that have been cut off from the sea), and dunes. The largely straight coastline is indented by the Szczecin Lagoon, the Bay of Puck, and the Vistula Lagoon.The central and northern parts of the country lie within the North European Plain. Rising above these lowlands is a geographical region comprising four hilly districts of moraines and moraine-dammed lakes formed during and after the Pleistocene ice age, notably the Pomeranian Lake District, the Greater Polish Lake District, the Kashubian Lake District, and the Masurian Lake District. The Masurian Lake District is the largest of the four and covers much of north-eastern Poland. The lake districts form a series of moraine belts along the southern shore of the Baltic Sea.South of the Northern European Plain are the regions of Lusatia, Silesia and Masovia, which are marked by broad ice-age river valleys. The extreme south of Poland is mountainous; it runs from the Sudetes in the west to the Carpathian Mountains in the east. The highest part of the Carpathian massif is the Tatra Mountain range, along Poland's southern border.The geological structure of Poland has been shaped by the continental collision of Europe and Africa over the past 60 million years and, more recently, by the Quaternary glaciations of northern Europe. Both processes shaped the Sudetes and the Carpathian Mountains. The moraine landscape of northern Poland contains soils made up mostly of sand or loam, while the ice age river valleys of the south often contain loess. The Polish Jura, the Pieniny, and the Western Tatras consist of limestone, whereas the High Tatras, the Beskids, and the Karkonosze mountain ranges are made up mainly of granite and basalts. The Polish Jura Chain has some of the oldest rock formations on the continent of Europe.Poland has over 70 mountains over in elevation, all situated in the Tatras. Poland's highest point is the north-western summit of Mount Rysy at in elevation. At its foot lie the mountain lakes of Czarny Staw (Black Lake) and Morskie Oko (Eye of the Sea), both naturally-made tarns. Other notable uplands include the Pieniny and Holy Cross Mountains, the Table Mountains noted for their unusual rock formations, the Bieszczady in the far southeast of the country in which the highest peak is Tarnica at , and the Gorce Mountains whose highest point is Turbacz at . The highest point of the Sudeten massif is Mount Śnieżka (), shared with the Czech Republic.The lowest point in Poland – at below sea level – is at Raczki Elbląskie, near Elbląg in the Vistula Delta.In the Zagłębie Dąbrowskie (the Coal Fields of Dąbrowa) region in the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland is an area of sparsely vegetated sand known as the Błędów Desert. It covers an area of . It is not a natural desert and was formed by human activity from the Middle Ages onwards.The Baltic Sea activity in Słowiński National Park created sand dunes which in the course of time separated the bay from the sea creating two lakes. As waves and wind carry sand inland the dunes slowly move, at a rate of per year. Some dunes reach the height of up to . The highest peak of the park is Rowokol at above sea level.The longest rivers are the Vistula (), long; the Oder () which forms part of Poland's western border, long; its tributary, the Warta, long; and the Bug, a tributary of the Vistula, long. The Vistula and the Oder flow into the Baltic Sea, as do numerous smaller rivers in Pomerania. Poland's lengthy waterways have been used since early times for navigation; the Vikings ventured up the Polish rivers in their longships. In the Middle Ages and in early modern times, the shipment of tangible goods down the Vistula toward Gdańsk and onward to other parts of Europe took on great importance.With almost ten thousand closed bodies of water covering more than each, Poland has one of the highest numbers of lakes in the world. In Europe, only Finland has a greater density of lakes. The largest lakes, covering more than , are Lake Śniardwy and Lake Mamry in Masuria as well as Lake Łebsko and Lake Drawsko in Pomerania. The lake with the greatest depth—of more than —is Lake Hańcza in the Wigry Lake District, east of Masuria in Podlaskie Voivodeship.The Polish Baltic coast is approximately long and extends from Świnoujście on the islands of Usedom and Wolin in the west to Krynica Morska on the Vistula Spit in the east. For the most part, Poland has a smooth coastline, which has been shaped by the continual movement of sand by currents and winds. This continual erosion and deposition has formed cliffs, dunes, and spits, many of which have migrated landwards to close off former lagoons, such as Łebsko Lake in the Słowiński National Park.The largest spits are Hel Peninsula and the Vistula Spit. The coast line is varied also by Szczecin and Vistula Lagoons and several lakes, including Jamno. The largest Polish Baltic island is Wolin, located within Wolin National Park. The largest sea harbours are Szczecin, Świnoujście, Gdańsk, Gdynia, Police and Kołobrzeg and the main coastal resorts – Świnoujście, Międzydzdroje, Kołobrzeg, Łeba, Sopot, Władysławowo and the Hel Peninsula.In the valley of Pilica river in Tomaszów Mazowiecki there is a unique natural karst spring of water containing calcium salts, that is an object of protection at Blue Springs Nature Reserve in the Sulejów Landscape Park. The red waves are absorbed by water, hence only blue and green are reflected from the bottom of the spring, giving the water atypical colour.Forests cover about 29.6% of Poland's land area based on international standards. Its overall percentage is still increasing. Forests of Poland are managed by the national program of reforestation (KPZL), aiming at an increase of forest-cover to 33% in 2050. The largest forest complex in Poland is Lower Silesian Wilderness.More than 1% of Poland's territory, , is protected within 23 Polish national parks. Three more national parks are projected for Masuria, the Polish Jura, and the eastern Beskids. In addition, wetlands along lakes and rivers in central Poland are legally protected, as are coastal areas in the north. There are 123 areas designated as landscape parks, along with numerous nature reserves and other protected areas under the Natura 2000 network.In 2017, approximately of land was occupied by farms and farmsteads, over half of Poland's total area.Phytogeographically, Poland belongs to the Central European province of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the territory of Poland belongs to three Palearctic Ecoregions of the continental forest spanning Central and Northern European temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregions, as well as the Carpathian montane conifer forest. The most common deciduous trees found across the country are oak, maple, and beech; the most common conifers are pine, spruce, and fir. An estimated 68.7% of all forests are coniferous.Poland has historically been home to rare species of animals, as well as the two largest European mammals: the wisent ("żubr") and aurochs ("tur"). The last aurochs of Europe became extinct in 1627 in the Polish Jaktorów Forest, while the wisent survived until the 20th century only at Białowieża. It has been since reintroduced to other countries. Other wild species include the brown bear in Białowieża, in the Tatras, and in the Beskids; the gray wolf and the Eurasian lynx in various forests; the moose in northern Poland; and the beaver in Masuria, Pomerania, and Podlaskie.Game animals such as red deer, roe deer, and wild boar are found in most woodlands. Eastern Poland abounds in ancient woods, like the Białowieża Forest, that have not been disturbed by human or industrial activity. There are also large forested areas in the mountains, Greater Poland, Pomerania, Lubusz Land, and Lower Silesia. The Lubusz Voivodeship is currently the most arboraceous province in the country; 52% of its territory is occupied by forests.Poland is also a significant breeding ground for a variety of European migratory birds. One quarter of the global population of white storks (40,000 breeding pairs) live in Poland, particularly in the lake districts and the wetlands along the Biebrza, the Narew, and the Warta, which are part of nature reserves or national parks.The climate is mostly temperate throughout the country. The climate is oceanic in the north-west and becomes gradually warmer and continental towards the south-east. Summers are generally warm, with average temperatures between depending on the region. Winters are rather cold, with average temperatures around in the northwest and in the northeast. Precipitation falls throughout the year, although, especially in the east, winter is drier than summer.The warmest region in Poland is Lower Silesia in the southwest of the country, where temperatures in the summer average between but can go as high as on some days in the warmest months of July and August. The warmest cities in Poland are Tarnów in Lesser Poland, and Wrocław in Lower Silesia. The average temperatures in Wrocław are in the summer and in the winter, but Tarnów has the longest summer in all of Poland, which lasts for 115 days, from mid-May to mid-September. The coldest region of Poland is in the northeast, around the area of Suwałki within the Podlaskie Voivodeship, where the climate is affected by cold fronts coming from Scandinavia and Siberia. The average temperature in the winter in Podlaskie ranges from . The biggest impact of the oceanic climate is observed in Świnoujście and Baltic Sea seashore area from Police to Słupsk.Poland is a representative democracy, with a president as the head of state. The government structure centers on the Council of Ministers, led by a prime minister. The president appoints the cabinet according to the proposals of the prime minister, typically from the majority coalition in the Sejm. The president is elected by popular vote every five years. The current president is Andrzej Duda and the prime minister is Mateusz Morawiecki.Polish voters elect a bicameral parliament consisting of a 460-member lower house (Sejm) and a 100-member Senate (Senat). The Sejm is elected under proportional representation according to the d'Hondt method, a method similar to that used in many parliamentary political systems. The Senat, on the other hand, is elected under the first-past-the-post voting method, with one senator being returned from each of the 100 constituencies.With the exception of ethnic minority parties, only candidates of political parties receiving at least 5% of the total national vote can enter the Sejm. When sitting in joint session, members of the Sejm and Senat form the National Assembly (the "Zgromadzenie Narodowe"). The National Assembly is formed on three occasions: when a new president takes the oath of office; when an indictment against the President of the Republic is brought to the State Tribunal ("Trybunał Stanu"); and when a president's permanent incapacity to exercise his duties due to the state of his health is declared. To date only the first instance has occurred.The judicial branch plays an important role in decision-making. Its major institutions include the Supreme Court ("Sąd Najwyższy"); the Supreme Administrative Court ("Naczelny Sąd Administracyjny"); the Constitutional Tribunal ("Trybunał Konstytucyjny"); and the State Tribunal ("Trybunał Stanu"). On the approval of the Senat, the Sejm also appoints the ombudsman or the Commissioner for Civil Rights Protection ("Rzecznik Praw Obywatelskich") for a five-year term. The ombudsman has the duty of guarding the observance and implementation of the rights and liberties of Polish citizens and residents, of the law and of principles of community life and social justice.The Constitution of Poland is the enacted supreme law, and the Polish legal system is based on the principle of civil rights, governed by the code of civil law. The current democratic constitution was adopted by the National Assembly of Poland on 2 April 1997; it guarantees a multi-party state with freedoms of religion, speech and assembly, prohibits the practices of forced medical experimentation, torture or corporal punishment, and acknowledges the inviolability of the home, the right to form trade unions, and the right to strike.The judiciary incorporates a four-tier court system composed of the Supreme Court, the Supreme Administrative Court, Common Courts (District, Regional, Appellate) and the Military Court. Judges are nominated by the National Council of the Judiciary and are appointed for life by the president. The Constitutional and State Tribunals are separate judicial bodies, which rule the constitutional liability of people holding the highest offices of state and supervise the compliance of statutory law, thus protecting the Constitution.Historically, the most significant Polish legal act is the Constitution of 3 May 1791, the first modern constitution in Europe. Instituted as a Government Act, it was designed to redress long-standing political defects of the federative Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and its Golden Liberty. Previously, only the Henrician Articles (1573) signed by each of Poland's elected monarchs could perform the function of a set of basic laws. The new Constitution introduced political equality between townspeople and the nobility ("szlachta"), and placed the peasants under the protection of the government. It abolished pernicious parliamentary policies such as the "liberum veto", which permitted any deputy to rescind all the legislation passed in the interest of a foreign power. The 3 May Constitution sought to supplant the existing anarchy fostered by some of the country's reactionary magnates, with a more egalitarian and democratic constitutional monarchy. The influenced many later democratic movements across the globe. Tax-paying women were allowed to take part in Polish political life until the third partition in 1795. In 1918 the Second Polish Republic became one of the first countries to introduce universal women's suffrage.Poland has a low homicide rate at 0.7 murders per 100,000 people, as of 2018. Rape, assault and violent crime remain at a very low level, although not all cases are recorded by the authorities.Abortion is permitted only in cases of rape, incest or when the woman's life is in danger. Congenital disorder and stillbirth are not covered by the law, forcing some women to seek abortion abroad, and others to seek the assistance of psychiatrists willing to testify on the negative psychological impact of stillbirth. Poland does not criminalize homosexuality, and its legality was confirmed in 1932. The Polish Constitution defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.Poland is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union and has a grand total of 52 representatives in the European Parliament as of 2020. Since joining the union in 2004, successive Polish governments have pursued policies to extend the country's role in European and international affairs. Poland is an emerging regional power in Central Europe. The capital of Warsaw serves as the headquarters for Frontex, the European Union's agency for external border security as well as ODIHR, one of the principal institutions of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.Apart from the European Union, Poland has been a member of NATO since 1999, the UN, the World Trade Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since 1996, European Economic Area, International Energy Agency, Council of Europe, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, International Atomic Energy Agency, European Space Agency, G6, Council of the Baltic Sea States, Visegrád Group, Weimar Triangle, Schengen Agreement, Lublin Triangle and Bucharest Nine.Over the past two decades, Poland significantly strengthened its ties with the United States, thus becoming one of its closest allies in Europe. Poland was part of the US-led coalition force during the Iraq War in 2003, and sent its troops in the first phase of the conflict, jointly with the United Kingdom and Australia. Along with NATO, Poland maintains military presence in the Middle East, the Baltic states and in the Balkans.The Polish Armed Forces are composed of five branches – Land Forces ("Wojska Lądowe"), Navy ("Marynarka Wojenna"), Air Force ("Siły Powietrzne"), Special Forces ("Wojska Specjalne") and the Territorial Defence Force ("Wojska Obrony Terytorialnej"). The military is subordinate to the Ministry of National Defence of the Republic of Poland. However, its commander-in-chief in peacetime is the President of the Republic, who nominates officers, the Minister for National Defence and the chief of staff.As of 2018, the Polish Armed Forces have a combined strength of 144,142 soldiers. The Polish Navy primarily operates on the Baltic Sea and conducts operations such as maritime patrol, search and rescue for the section of the Baltic under Polish sovereignty, as well as hydrographic measurements and research. The Polish Air Force routinely takes part in Baltic Air Policing assignments. In 2003, the F-16C Block 52 was selected as the new general multi-role fighter for the air force. In January 2020, Poland has approved the delivery for F-35 Lightning II combat aircraft. Poland is currently spending 2% of its GDP on defence (approximately US$13.5 billion in 2020), which is expected to grow to 2.5% by 2030. According to SIPRI, the country exported EUR€487 million worth of arms and armaments to other countries, primarily to the United States, Chile, France and South Africa.The mission of the armed forces is the defence of Poland's territorial integrity and Polish interests abroad. The country's national security goal is to further integrate with NATO and European defence, economic, and political institutions. Compulsory military service for men was discontinued in 2008. From 2007, until conscription ended in 2008, the mandatory service was nine months. Polish military doctrine reflects the same defensive nature as that of its NATO partners and the country actively hosts NATO's military exercises. From 1953 to 2009 Poland was a large contributor to various United Nations peacekeeping missions. The Polish Armed Forces took part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, deploying 2,500 soldiers in the south of that country and commanding the 17-nation multinational force in Iraq. Poland also maintains troops in the Middle East, the Baltic states and in the Balkans; 1,650 soldiers were deployed in 2019.Law enforcement in Poland is performed by several agencies which are subordinate to the Ministry of Interior and Administration – the State Police ("Policja"), assigned to investigate crimes or transgression; the Municipal City Guard, which maintains public order; and several specialized agencies, such as the Polish Border Guard. Private security firms are also common, although they possess no legal authority to arrest or detain a suspect. Municipal guards are primarily headed by provincial, regional or city councils; individual guards are not permitted to carry firearms unless instructed by their superior commanding officer or commandant.The Internal Security Agency (ABW, or ISA in English) is the chief counter-intelligence instrument safeguarding Poland's internal security, along with Agencja Wywiadu (AW) which identifies threats and collects secret information abroad. The Central Investigation Bureau of Police (CBŚP) and the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) are responsible for countering organized crime and corruption in state and private institutions.Emergency services in Poland consist of the emergency medical services, search and rescue units of the Polish Armed Forces and State Fire Service. Emergency medical services in Poland are provided for by local and regional governments.All emergency services personnel are uniformed and security services can be easily recognized during regular patrols in both large urban areas or smaller suburban localities.Poland's current voivodeships (provinces) are largely based on the country's historic regions, whereas those of the past two decades (to 1998) had been centred on and named for individual cities. The new units range in area from less than for Opole Voivodeship to more than for Masovian Voivodeship. Administrative authority at the voivodeship level is shared between a government-appointed voivode (governor), an elected regional assembly ("sejmik") and a voivodeship marshal, an executive elected by that assembly.The voivodeships are subdivided into "powiats" (often referred to in English as counties), and these are further divided into "gminas" (also known as communes or municipalities). Major cities normally have the status of both "gmina" and "powiat". Poland has 16 voivodeships, 380 powiats (including 66 cities with "powiat" status), and 2,478 "gminas".Poland's economy and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is currently the sixth largest in the European Union by nominal standards, and the fifth largest by purchasing power parity. It is also one of the fastest growing within the Union. Around 60% of the employed population belongs to the tertiary service sector, 30% to industry and manufacturing, and the remaining 10% to the agricultural sector. Although Poland is a member of EU's single market, the country has not adopted the Euro as legal tender and maintains its own currency – the Polish złoty (zł, PLN).Poland is the regional economic leader in Central Europe, with nearly 40 per cent of the 500 biggest companies in the region (by revenues) as well as a high globalisation rate. The country's largest firms compose the WIG20 and WIG30 indexes, which is traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. According to reports made by the National Bank of Poland, the value of Polish foreign direct investments reached almost 300 billion PLN at the end of 2014. The Central Statistical Office estimated that in 2014 there were 1,437 Polish corporations with interests in 3,194 foreign entities.Having a strong domestic market, low private debt, low unemployment rate, flexible currency, and not being dependent on a single export sector, Poland is the only European economy to have avoided the recession of 2008. The country is the 20th largest exporter of goods and services in the world and its most successful exports include machinery, furniture, food products, clothing, shoes, cosmetics and videogames. These account to approximately 56% of the total GDP, as of 2018. Poland's largest trading partners include Germany, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, France and Italy. Warsaw leads Central Europe in foreign investment. In September 2018, the unemployment rate was estimated at 5.7%, one of the lowest in the European Union. In 2019, Poland passed a law that would exempt workers under the age of 26 from income tax.The Polish banking sector is the largest in the region, with 32.3 branches per 100,000 adults.World Bank, Financial Inclusion Data. Country Dashboard: Poland. The World Bank Group. Retrieved 6 November 2014. The banks are the largest and most developed sector of the country's financial markets. They are regulated by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority. Poland's banking sector has approximately 5 national banks, a network of nearly 600 cooperative banks and 18 branches of foreign-owned banks. In addition, foreign investors have controlling stakes in nearly 40 commercial banks, which make up 68% of the banking capital.Products and goods manufactured in Poland include: electronics, buses and trams (Solaris, Solbus), helicopters and planes (PZL Świdnik, PZL Mielec), trains (Pesa, Newag), ships (Gdańsk Shipyard, Szczecin Shipyard), military equipment (FB "Łucznik" Radom, , Jelcz), medicines (, ), food (Tymbark, Hortex, E. Wedel), clothes (LLP), glass, pottery (Bolesławiec), chemical products and others. Well-known brands and companies include Alior Bank, Orlen&Lotos Group, Inglot Cosmetics, Plus, Play, Brainly, Netguru, GOG.com, CD Projekt, Trefl and Allegro. Poland is also one of the world's biggest producers of copper, silver, coal, furniture, automotive parts and soft drink.Poland experienced a significant increase in the number of tourists after joining the European Union in 2004. With nearly 21 million international arrivals in 2019, tourism contributes considerably to the overall economy and makes up a relatively large proportion of the country's service market.Tourist attractions in Poland vary, from the mountains in the south to the sandy beaches in the north, with a trail of nearly every architectural style. The most visited city is Kraków, which was the former capital of Poland and serves as a relic of the Polish Golden Age and the Renaissance. Kraków also held royal coronations of most Polish kings and monarchs at Wawel, the nation's chief historical landmark. Among other notable sites in the country is Wrocław, one of the oldest cities in Poland which was a model for the founding of Kraków. Wrocław is famous for its dwarfs, a large market square with two town halls, and the oldest Zoological Gardens with one of the world's largest number of animal species. The Polish capital Warsaw and its historical Old Town were entirely reconstructed after wartime destruction. Other cities attracting countless tourists include Gdańsk, Poznań, Lublin, Toruń as well as the site of the German Auschwitz concentration camp in Oświęcim. A notable highlight is the 13th-century Wieliczka Salt Mine with its labyrinthine tunnels, a subterranean lake and chapels carved by miners out of rock salt beneath the ground.Poland's main tourist offerings include outdoor activities such as skiing, sailing, mountain hiking and climbing, as well as agritourism, sightseeing historical monuments. Tourist destinations include the Baltic Sea coast in the north; the Masurian Lake District and Białowieża Forest in the east; on the south Karkonosze, the Table Mountains and the Tatra Mountains, where Rysy – the highest peak of Poland, and Eagle's Path mountain trail are located. The Pieniny and Bieszczady Mountains lie in the extreme south-east. There are over 100 castles in the country, most in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship (inter alia ), and also on the Trail of the Eagles' Nests. The largest castle in the world by land area is situated in Malbork, in north-central Poland.The electricity generation sector in Poland is largely fossil-fuel–based. Many power plants nationwide use Poland's position as a major European exporter of coal to their advantage by continuing to use coal as the primary raw material in the production of their energy. In 2013, Poland scored 48 out of 129 states in the Energy Sustainability Index. The three largest Polish coal mining firms (Węglokoks, Kompania Węglowa and JSW) extract around 100 million tonnes of coal annually.Renewable forms of energy account for a smaller proportion of Poland's full energy generation capacity. However, the national government has set targets for the development of renewable energy sources in Poland (the share of energy from renewable sources in the gross final energy consumption in 2019 was – 12,18%). Increasing the share of energy from renewable sources and a significant reduction in CO2 emissions to be achieved with the help of biofuels, photovoltaics, construction of wind farms on the land and the Baltic Sea, hydroelectric stations and nuclear power plant.Poland has around 164,800,000,000 m of proven natural gas reserves and around 96,380,000 barrels of proven oil reserves. These reserves are exploited by energy supply companies such as PKN Orlen ("the only Polish company listed in the Fortune Global 500"), PGNiG. However, the small amounts of fossil fuels naturally occurring in Poland are insufficient to satisfy the full energy consumption needs of the population and industry. Consequently, the country is a net importer of oil and natural gas. Therefore, since the second decade of the 21st century, Poland has been strongly developing the so-called North Gate in which the most important components are the Baltic Pipe, the Świnoujście LNG terminal and Floating Storage and Regasification Unit in Port of Gdańsk.The 5 largest companies supplying Poland electricity are PGE, Tauron, Enea, and Innogy Poland.Transport in Poland is provided by means of rail, road, marine shipping and air travel. The country is part of EU's Schengen Area and is an important transport hub along neighbouring Germany due to its strategic position in Central Europe. Some of the longest European routes, including the E40, run through Poland.The country has a good network of highways, composed of express roads and motorways. At the start of 2020, Poland had of highways in use. In addition, all local and regional roads are monitored by the National Road Rebuilding Programme, which aims to improve the quality of travel in the countryside and suburban localities.In 2017, the nation had of railway track, the third longest in Europe after Germany and France. The Polish State Railways (PKP) is the dominant railway operator in the country. In December 2014, Poland began to implement high–speed rail routes connecting major Polish cities, and started passenger service using the New Pendolino train, operating at 200 km/h on the Central Rail Line (CMK). Polish regulations allow trains without ETCS to travel at speeds up to 160 km/h, trains with ETCS1 up to 200 km/h, and trains with ETCS2 at over 200 km/h. Most inter-regional connections rail routes in Poland are operated by PKP Intercity, whilst regional trains are run by a number of private operators, the largest of which is Polregio. The largest passenger train station in terms of the number of travelers is Wrocław Główny.The air and maritime transport markets in Poland are largely well developed. Poland has a number of international airports, the largest of which is Warsaw Chopin Airport, the primary global hub for LOT Polish Airlines. It was established in 1928 from a merger of Aerolloyd (1922) and Aero (1925). Other major airports with international connections include John Paul II International Airport Kraków–Balice, Copernicus Airport Wrocław, Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport. Poland has begun preparations for a construction that can handle 100 million passengers of the Central Communication Port.Seaports exist all along Poland's Baltic coast, with most freight operations using Świnoujście, Police, Szczecin, Kołobrzeg, Gdynia, Gdańsk and Elbląg as their base.Passenger ferries link Poland with Scandinavia all year round; these services are provided from Gdańsk and Świnoujście by Polferries, Stena Line from Gdynia and Unity Line from the Świnoujście. The Port of Gdańsk is the only port in the Baltic Sea adapted to receive oceanic vessels.Over the course of history, the Polish people have made considerable contributions in the fields of science, technology and mathematics. Perhaps the most renowned Pole to support this theory was Nicolaus Copernicus ("Mikołaj Kopernik"), who triggered the Copernican Revolution by placing the Sun rather than the Earth at the center of the universe. He also derived a quantity theory of money, which made him a pioneer of economics. Copernicus' achievements and discoveries are considered the basis of Polish culture and cultural identity.Poland's tertiary education institutions; traditional universities, as well as technical, medical, and economic institutions, employ around tens of thousands of researchers and staff members. There are hundreds of research and development institutes. However, in the 19th and 20th centuries many Polish scientists worked abroad; one of the most important of these exiles was Maria Skłodowska-Curie, a physicist and chemist who lived much of her life in France. In 1925 she established Poland's Radium Institute.In the first half of the 20th century, Poland was a flourishing centre of mathematics. Outstanding Polish mathematicians formed the Lwów School of Mathematics (with Stefan Banach, Stanisław Mazur, Hugo Steinhaus, Stanisław Ulam) and Warsaw School of Mathematics (with Alfred Tarski, Kazimierz Kuratowski, Wacław Sierpiński and Antoni Zygmund). Numerous mathematicians, scientists, chemists or economists emigrated due to historic vicissitudes, among them Benoit Mandelbrot, Leonid Hurwicz, Alfred Tarski, Joseph Rotblat and Nobel Prize laureates Roald Hoffmann, Georges Charpak and Tadeusz Reichstein. In the 1930s, mathematician and cryptologist Marian Rejewski invented the Cryptographic Bomb which formed the basis of the effort that allowed the Allies to crack the Enigma code.Over 40 research and development centers and 4,500 researchers make Poland the biggest research and development hub in Central and Eastern Europe. Multinational companies such as: ABB, Delphi, GlaxoSmithKline, Google, Hewlett–Packard, IBM, Intel, LG Electronics, Microsoft, Motorola, Siemens and Samsung all have set up research and development centres in Poland. Companies chose Poland because of the availability of highly qualified labour force, presence of universities, support of authorities, and the largest market in East-Central Europe. According to a KPMG report from 2011, 80% of Poland's current investors are content with their choice and willing to reinvest. Poland has a very well-developed e-administration, thanks to which many official matters can be easily and quickly settled via the Internet. In the UN ranking, Poland is in the top twenty countries with the best-rated e-administration in the world.Poland, with approximately 38.5 million inhabitants, has the ninth-largest population in Europe and the fifth-largest in the European Union. It has a population density of 122 inhabitants per square kilometre (328 per square mile). The total fertility rate in 2020 was estimated at 1.44 children born to a woman, a considerable rise from previous years. In contrast, the total fertility rate in 1925 was 4.68. Furthermore, Poland's population is aging significantly and the median age in 2018 was 41.1 years. The crude death rate in 2020 stood at 10.3 per 1,000 people.Around 60% of Poles and Polish citizens reside in urban areas or major cities and 40% in more rural zones. The most populous administrative province or state is the Masovian Voivodeship and the most populous city is the capital, Warsaw, at 1.8 million inhabitants with a further 2-3 million people living in its metropolitan area. The metropolitan area of Katowice is the largest urban conurbation in Poland with a population between 2.7 million and 5.3 million residents. The least populous and the smallest province in size is the Opole Voivodeship, with just under 1 million people living within its borders. Hence, a substantial portion of the total population is concentrated in the south of Poland, roughly between the cities of Wrocław and Kraków.In the 2011 Polish census, 37,310,341 people reported Polish identity, 846,719 Silesian, 232,547 Kashubian and 147,814 German. Other identities were reported by 163,363 people (0.41%) and 521,470 people (1.35%) did not specify any nationality. Once prominent but now statistically insignificant minority groups include Polish Jews, Lipka Tatars, Armenians, Greeks, Lemkos, the Romani people and the Vietnamese. Ethnic Poles themselves can be divided into many diverse regional ethnographic sub-groups, most notable being the Kashubians, Silesians and Gorals (Highlanders). The statistics do not include recently arrived migrant workers. More than 1.7 million Ukrainian citizens worked legally in Poland in 2017.There is a very strong Polish diaspora around the world, notably in the United States, Germany, United Kingdom and Canada. A strong Polish minority is still present in the territories of contemporary western Ukraine and Belarus, eastern Lithuania, eastern and central Latvia, and northeastern Czech Republic, which were part of Poland in the past. Altogether, the number of ethnic Poles living abroad is estimated to be around 20 million.Polish is the only official and predominant spoken language in Poland, but it is also used throughout the world by Polish minorities in other countries as well as being one of the official languages of the European Union. The deaf communities use Polish Sign Language belonging to the German family of Sign Languages. Polish is also a second language in Lithuania, where it is taught in schools and universities. Contemporary Poland is a linguistically homogeneous nation, with nearly 97% of respondents declaring Polish as their mother tongue.Poland's once multi-ethnic population communicated in numerous languages and lects which faded or disappeared along the course of history. There are currently 15 minority languages in Poland, including one recognized regional language, Kashubian, which is spoken by around 366,000 people in the northern regions of Kashubia and Pomerania.Languages having the status of national minority's language are Armenian, Belarusian, Czech, German, Yiddish, Hebrew, Lithuanian, Russian, Slovak and Ukrainian. Languages having the status of ethnic minority's language are Karaim, Lemko-Rusyn, Tatar and two Romani languages; Polska Roma and Bergitka Roma. Official recognition of a language provides certain rights under conditions prescribed by Polish law, including education and state financial support for promoting that language. Poland recognized secondary administrative languages or auxiliary languages in bilingual municipalities. Currently, German and Kashubian hold such status in 19 municipalities ("gminas"), Belarusian in 9 and Lithuanian in 1. Bilingual signs, names and advertisements are commonplace in those localities. Silesian and Wymysorys (Vilamovian) are not legally recognized or acknowledged as separate languages with a minority status.More than 50% of Polish citizens declare at least basic knowledge of the English language, followed by German (38%).According to the 2015 census, 92.9% of all Polish citizens adhere to the Roman Catholic Church. An estimated 94.2% of the population are believers and 3.1% are irreligious, making Poland one of the more devout countries in Europe. Around 61.6% of all respondents outlined that religion is of high or very high importance. However, church attendance has decreased in recent years; only 38% of worshippers attended mass regularly on Sunday in 2018. Freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Polish Constitution, and the concordat guarantees the teaching of religion in state schools.For centuries the tribes inhabiting the lands of modern-day Poland have practiced various forms of paganism known as "Rodzimowierstwo", or "native faith". In the year 966, Duke Mieszko I converted to Christianity, and submitted to the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. This event came to be known as the Baptism of Poland. However, this did not put an end to pagan beliefs in the country. The persistence was demonstrated by a series of rebellions in the 1030s known as the pagan reaction, which also showed elements of a peasant uprising against medieval feudalism.Religious tolerance was an important part of Polish political culture, though it varied at times. In 1264, the Statute of Kalisz granted Jews unprecedented legal rights not found anywhere in Europe. In 1573, the Warsaw Confederation marked the formal beginning of extensive religious freedoms in Poland. It was partially influenced by the 1572 St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in France, which prompted the nobility to prevent the monarch from carrying out reprehensible atrocities in Poland based on religious affiliation. The religious tolerance also spurred many theological movements such as the Calvinist Polish Brethren, a number of Protestant groups and atheists like Casimir Liszinski, one of the first atheist thinkers in Europe. Anabaptists fleeing 16th-century persecution in the Netherlands and Germany settled in Poland and became known as the Vistula delta Mennonites. From 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła was head of the Roman Catholic Church as Pope John Paul II.Contemporary religious minorities include Christian Orthodox (506,800), various Protestants (150,000) — including 77,500 Lutherans of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church, 23,000 Pentecostals in the Pentecostal Church in Poland, 10,000 Adventists in the Seventh-day Adventist Church and other smaller Evangelical denominations — Jehovah's Witnesses (126,827), Eastern Catholics, Mariavites, Jews, Muslims (Tatars) and neopagans, some of whom are members of the Native Polish Church.Famous sites of Roman Catholic pilgrimage in Poland include the Monastery of Jasna Góra in the city of Częstochowa, Basilica of Our Lady of Licheń, Kraków's Sanctuary of Divine Mercy and Święta Lipka (Holy Linden) in Masuria. Tourists also visit the family home of John Paul II in Wadowice outside Kraków. Christ the King in Świebodzin is the tallest statue of Jesus in the world. Christian Orthodox pilgrims visit Mount Grabarka near Grabarka-Klasztor and the Hasidic Jews travel annually to the grave of a great rabbi in Leżajsk.Medical service providers and hospitals ("szpitale") in Poland are subordinate to the Ministry of Health; it provides administrative oversight and scrutiny of general medical practice, and is obliged to maintain a high standard of hygiene and patient care. Poland has a universal healthcare system based on an all-inclusive insurance system; state subsidised healthcare is available to all citizens covered by the general health insurance program of the National Health Fund (NFZ). Private medical complexes exist nationwide; over 50% of the population uses both public and private sectors.Hospitals are organised according to the regional administrative structure, resultantly most towns, counties or municipalities possess their own provincial hospital or medical clinics. There are six types of hospital facilities, each with a particular area of medical expertise – I Grade Hospitals for general surgery, internal illnesses and obstetrics; II Grade Hospitals for child surgery, neurology, cardiology and ophthalmology; III Grade Hospitals including teaching hospitals for infectious diseases, nephrology, orthopedics, toxicology and transplantology; Oncology Hospitals for cancer treatment and brachytherapy; Pediatric Hospitals for child care; and Nationwide Hospitals for general and acute care.According to the Human Development Report from 2020, the average life expectancy at birth is 79 years (around 75 years for an infant male and 83 years for an infant female); the country has a low infant mortality rate (4 per 1,000 births). In 2019, the principal cause of death was ischemic heart disease; diseases of the circulatory system accounted for 45% of all deaths. In the same year, Poland was also the 15th-largest importer of medications and pharmaceutical products.The Jagiellonian University founded in 1364 by Casimir III in Kraków was the first institution of higher learning established in Poland, and is one of the oldest universities still in continuous operation. Poland's Commission of National Education ("Komisja Edukacji Narodowej"), established in 1773, was the world's first state ministry of education. The framework for primary and secondary schooling in contemporary Poland is established by the Ministry of National Education. Kindergarten attendance is optional for children aged between three and five, with one year being compulsory for six-year-olds. Primary education traditionally begins at the age of seven, although children aged six can attend at the request of their parents or guardians. Elementary school spans eight grades, at the end of which an obligatory three-part exam on Polish, mathematics and a foreign language is to be undertaken. Secondary schooling is dependent on student preference – either a four-year high school ("liceum"), a five-year technical school ("technikum") or various vocational studies ("szkoła branżowa") can be pursued by each individual pupil. A liceum or technikum is concluded with a maturity exit exam ("matura"), which must be passed in order to apply for a university or other institutions of higher learning.The standards of higher tertiary education are imposed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. In Poland, there are over 500 university-level institutions, with technical, medical, economic, agricultural, pedagogical, theological, musical, maritime and military faculties. The University of Warsaw and Warsaw Polytechnic, the University of Wrocław, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and the University of Technology in Gdańsk are among the most prominent. There are three conventional academic degrees in Poland – "licencjat" or "inżynier" (first cycle qualification), "magister" (second cycle qualification) and "doktor" (third cycle qualification).In 2018, the Programme for International Student Assessment, coordinated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, ranked Poland's educational system higher than the OECD average; the study showed that students in Poland perform better academically than in most OECD countries.The culture of Poland is closely connected with its intricate 1,000-year history and forms an important constituent in western civilization. The Poles take great pride in their national identity which is often associated with the colours white and red, and exuded by the expression "biało-czerwoni" ("whitereds"). National symbols, chiefly the crowned white-tailed eagle, are often visible on clothing, insignia and emblems. The appreciation of Poland's traditions and cultural heritage is commonly known as Polonophilia.With origins in the customs of the tribal Lechites, over time the culture of Poland has been influenced by its connection to Western culture and trends, as well as developing its own unique traditions such as Sarmatism. The people of Poland have traditionally been seen as hospitable to artists from abroad and eager to follow cultural and artistic trends popular in foreign countries, for instance, the 16th- and 17th-century tradition of coffin portraits ("portret trumienny") was only observed in Poland and Roman Egypt. In the 19th and 20th centuries the Polish focus on cultural advancement often took precedence over political and economic activity. These factors have contributed to the versatile nature of Polish art.The architectural monuments of great importance are protected by the National Heritage Board of Poland. Over 100 of the country's most significant tangible wonders were enlisted onto the Historic Monuments Register, with further 16 being recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. Poland is renowned for its brick Gothic castles, granaries and churches as well as diversely-styled tenements, market squares and town halls. The majority of Polish cities founded on Magdeburg Law in the Middle Ages evolved around central marketplaces, a distinguishable urban characteristic which can be observed to this day. Medieval and Renaissance cloth halls were once an abundant feature of many towns.There are 13 government-approved annual public holidays – New Year on 1 January, Three Kings' Day on 6 January, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, Labour Day on 1 May, Constitution Day on 3 May, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, Armed Forces Day on 15 August, All Saints' Day on 1 November, Independence Day on 11 November and Christmastide on 25 and 26 December.Particular traditions and superstitious customs observed in Poland are not found elsewhere in Europe. Though Christmas Eve ("Wigilia") is not a public holiday, it remains the most memorable day of the entire year. Trees are decorated on 24 December, hay is placed under the tablecloth to resemble Jesus' manger, Christmas wafers ("opłatek") are shared between gathered guests and a twelve-dish meatless supper is served that same evening when the first star appears. An empty plate and seat are symbolically left at the table for an unexpected guest. On occasion, carolers journey around smaller towns with a folk Turoń creature until the Lent period.A widely-popular doughnut and sweet pastry feast occurs on Fat Thursday, usually 52 days prior to Easter. Eggs for Holy Sunday are painted and placed in decorated baskets that are previously blessed by clergymen in churches on Easter Saturday. Easter Monday is celebrated with pagan "dyngus" festivities, where the youth is engaged in water fights and some girls are gently spanked by colleagues with pussy willows to stimulate fertility.Cemeteries and graves of the deceased are annually visited by family members on All Saints' Day; tombstones are cleaned as a sign of respect and candles are lit to honour the dead on an unprecedented scale.Artists from Poland, including famous musicians such as Chopin, Rubinstein, Paderewski, Penderecki and Wieniawski, and traditional, regionalized folk composers create a lively and diverse music scene, which even recognizes its own music genres, such as sung poetry and disco polo.The origins of Polish music can be traced to the 13th century; manuscripts have been found in Stary Sącz containing polyphonic compositions related to the Parisian Notre Dame School. Other early compositions, such as the melody of "Bogurodzica" and "God Is Born" (a coronation polonaise tune for Polish kings by an unknown composer), may also date back to this period, however, the first known notable composer, Nicholas of Radom, lived in the 15th century. Diomedes Cato, a native-born Italian who lived in Kraków, became a renowned lutenist at the court of Sigismund III; he not only imported some of the musical styles from southern Europe but blended them with native folk music.In the 17th and 18th centuries, Polish baroque composers wrote liturgical music and secular compositions such as concertos and sonatas for voices or instruments. At the end of the 18th century, Polish classical music evolved into national forms like the polonaise. Wojciech Bogusławski is accredited with composing the first Polish national opera, titled "", which premiered in 1794.Traditional Polish folk music has had a major effect on the works of many Polish composers, and no more so than on Fryderyk Chopin, a widely recognised national hero of the arts. All of Chopin's works involve the piano and are technically demanding, emphasising nuance and expressive depth. As a great composer, Chopin invented the musical form known as the instrumental ballade and made major innovations to the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, polonaise, étude, impromptu and prélude, he was also the composer of a number of polonaises which borrowed heavily from traditional Polish folk music. It is largely thanks to him that such pieces gained great popularity throughout Europe during the 19th century. Several Polish composers such as Szymanowski drew inspiration from Chopin's folk-influenced style. Nowadays the most distinctive folk music can be heard in the towns and villages of the mountainous south, particularly in the region surrounding the winter resort town of Zakopane.Poland today has an active music scene, with the jazz and metal genres being particularly popular among the contemporary populace. Polish jazz musicians such as Krzysztof Komeda created a unique style, which was most famous in the 1960s and 1970s and continues to be popular to this day. Poland has also become a major venue for large-scale music festivals, chief among which are the Open'er Festival, Opole Festival and Sopot Festival.Art in Poland has always reflected European trends while maintaining its unique character. The Kraków Academy of Fine Arts, later developed by Jan Matejko, produced monumental portrayals of customs and significant events in Polish history. Other institutions such as the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw were more innovative and focused on both historical and contemporary styles. Notable art academies include the Kraków School of Art and Fashion Design, Art Academy of Szczecin, University of Fine Arts in Poznań and the Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław.Perhaps the most prominent and internationally admired Polish artist was Tamara de Lempicka, who specialized in the style of Art Deco. Lempicka was described as "the first woman artist to become a glamour star." Another notable was Caziel, born Zielenkiewicz, who represented Cubism and Abstraction in France and England.Prior to the 19th century only Daniel Schultz and Italian-born Marcello Bacciarelli had the privilege of being recognized abroad. The Young Poland movement witnessed the birth of modern Polish art, and engaged in a great deal of formal experimentation led by Jacek Malczewski, Stanisław Wyspiański, Józef Mehoffer, and a group of Polish Impressionists. Stanisław Witkiewicz was an ardent supporter of Realism, its main representative being Józef Chełmoński, while Artur Grottger specialized in Romanticism. Within historically-orientated circles, Henryk Siemiradzki dominated with his monumental Academic Art and ancient Roman theme.Since the inter-war years, Polish art and documentary photography has enjoyed worldwide fame and in the 1960s the Polish School of Posters was formed. Throughout the entire country, many national museum and art institutions hold valuable works by famous masters. Major museums in Poland include the National Museum in Warsaw, Poznań, Wrocław, Kraków, and Gdańsk, as well as the Museum of John Paul II Collection, and the Wilanów Museum. Important collections are also held at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Wawel Castle and in the Palace on the Isle. Contemporary art galleries include Zachęta, Ujazdów, and MOCAK. The most distinguished painting of Poland is "Lady with an Ermine" by Leonardo da Vinci, held at the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków. Although not Polish, the work had a strong influence on Polish culture and has been often associated with Polish identity.Polish cities and towns reflect a whole spectrum of European architectural styles. Romanesque architecture is represented by St. Andrew's Church, Kraków, and St. Mary's Church, Gdańsk, is characteristic for the Brick Gothic style found in Poland. Richly decorated attics and arcade loggias are the common elements of the Polish Renaissance architecture, as evident in the City Hall in Poznań. For some time the late renaissance style known as mannerism, most notably in the Bishop's Palace in Kielce, coexisted with the early baroque style, typified in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Kraków.History has not been kind to Poland's architectural monuments. Nonetheless, a number of ancient structures have survived: castles, churches, and stately homes, often unique in the regional or European context. Some of them have been painstakingly restored, like Wawel Castle, or completely reconstructed, including the Old Town and Royal Castle of Warsaw and the Old Town of Gdańsk.The architecture of Gdańsk is mostly of the Hanseatic variety, a Gothic style common among the former trading cities along the Baltic Sea and in the northern part of Central Europe. The architectural style of Wrocław is mainly representative of German architecture since it was for centuries located within the Holy Roman Empire. The centres of Kazimierz Dolny and Sandomierz on the Vistula are good examples of well-preserved medieval towns. Poland's ancient capital, Kraków, ranks among the best-preserved Gothic and Renaissance urban complexes in Europe.The second half of the 17th century is marked by baroque architecture. Side towers, such as those of Branicki Palace in Białystok, are typical for the Polish baroque. The classical Silesian baroque is represented by the University in Wrocław. The profuse decorations of the Branicki Palace in Warsaw are characteristic of the rococo style. The centre of Polish classicism was Warsaw under the rule of the last Polish king Stanisław II Augustus.The Palace on the Isle is a chief example of Polish neoclassical architecture. Lublin Castle represents the Gothic Revival style in architecture, while the Izrael Poznański Palace in Łódź is an example of eclecticism.Traditional folk architecture in the villages and small towns scattered across the vast Polish countryside was characterized by its extensive use of wood and red brick as primary building materials, common for Central Europe. Some of the best preserved and oldest structures include ancient stone temples in Silesia and fortified wooden churches across southeastern Poland in the Beskids and Bieszczady regions of the Carpathian mountains. Numerous examples of secular structures such as Polish manor houses ("dworek"), farmhouses (), granaries, mills, barns and country inns () can still be found in some Polish regions. However, traditional construction methods faded in the early-mid 20th century, when Poland's population experienced a demographic shift to urban dwelling away from the countryside.The earliest examples of Polish literature date to the 12th century, when Poland's official language was Latin, and early published works were predominantly written by foreigners. Gallus Anonymus, a monk of disputed origin, was the first chronicler who meticulously described Poland's culture, language and territories in "Gesta principum Polonorum" (c. 1112–1118). Latin remained the principal tool of literary expression in Poland until the 18th century, when it was replaced in favour of Polish and French. Historically, Polish literature concentrated extensively around the themes of true drama and poetic-expressive romanticism than on fiction. Patriotism, spirituality and aphorisms were paramount and political or social allegories were common moral narratives.The first documented phrase in the Polish language reads ""Day ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai"" ("Let me grind, and you take a rest"), reflecting the use of quern-stone in early Poland. The phrase was recorded by an abbot in the Latin-based "Liber fundationis" from 1269 to 1273, which outlined the history of a Cistercian monastery in the Silesian village of Henryków. The sentence has been included in the UNESCO Memory of World Register. The oldest extant manuscript of fine prose in Old Polish is the "Holy Cross Sermons", and the earliest religious text is the Bible of Queen Sophia. One of the first printing houses was established by Kasper Straube in the 1470s, while Jan Haller was considered the pioneer of commercial print in Poland. Haller's Calendarium cracoviense, an astronomical wall calendar from 1474, is Poland's oldest surviving print.The tradition of extending Polish historiography in Latin was subsequently inherited by Vincent Kadłubek, Bishop of Kraków in the 13th century, and Jan Długosz in the 15th century. This practice, however, was abandoned by Jan Kochanowski, who became one of the first Polish Renaissance authors to write most of his works in Polish, along with Nicholas Rey. Other writers of the Polish Renaissance include Johannes Dantiscus, Andreus Fricius Modrevius, Matthias Sarbievius, Piotr Skarga and Klemens "Ianicius" Janicki, who was laureled by the Pope. The leading figure of the Polish Reformation was theologian and writer John Laski, who, with the permission of King Edward VI of England, created the European Protestant Congregation of London in 1550.During the Baroque era, the Jesuits greatly influenced Polish literature and literary techniques, often relying on God and religious matters. The leading baroque poet was Jan Andrzej Morsztyn, who incorporated Marinism into his publications. Jan Chryzostom Pasek, also a respected baroque writer, is mostly remembered for his tales and memoirs reflecting sarmatian culture in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Subsequently, the Polish Enlightenment was headed by Samuel Linde, Hugo Kołłątaj, Izabela Czartoryska and Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz. In 1776, Ignacy Krasicki composed the first milestone novel entitled "The Adventures of Mr. Nicholas Wisdom".Among the best known Polish Romantics are the "Three Bards" – the three national poets active in the age of foreign partitions – Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki and Zygmunt Krasiński. The narrative poem "Pan Tadeusz" by Mickiewicz is Poland's national epic and a compulsory reading ("lektura") in the country's schools. Joseph Conrad, the son of dramatist Apollo Korzeniowski, came to fame with his English-language novels and stories that are informed with elements of the Polish national experience. Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", "Nostromo" and "Lord Jim" are believed to be one of the finest works ever written, placing him among the greatest novelists of all time. Modern Polish literature is versatile, with its fantasy genre having been particularly praised. The philosophical sci-fi novel "Solaris" is an acclaimed example of Stanisław Lem's literary legacy, whereas "The Witcher", a fantasy series by Andrzej Sapkowski, is a much-celebrated work of contemporary Polish fiction.In the 20th century, five Polish authors were awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature – Henryk Sienkiewicz for "Quo Vadis", Władysław Reymont for "The Peasants", Isaac Bashevis Singer, Czesław Miłosz and Wisława Szymborska. In 2019, Polish author Olga Tokarczuk was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 2018.Polish cuisine has evolved over the centuries to become highly eclectic due to Poland's history. Polish cuisine shares many similarities with other Central European cuisines, especially German and Austrian as well as Jewish, French, Italian and Turkish culinary traditions. Polish-styled cooking in other cultures is often referred to as "cuisine à la polonaise".Polish dishes are usually rich in meat, especially pork, chicken and beef (depending on the region), winter vegetables (sauerkraut cabbage in "bigos"), and spices. It is also characteristic in its use of various kinds of noodles, the most notable of which are kluski, as well as cereals such as "kasha" (from the Polish word kasza) and a variety of breads like the world-renowned bagel. Polish cuisine is hearty and uses a lot of cream and eggs. Festive meals such as the meatless Christmas Eve dinner ("Wigilia") or Easter breakfast could take days to prepare in their entirety.The main course usually includes a serving of meat, such as roast, chicken, or "kotlet schabowy" (breaded pork cutlet), vegetables, side dishes and salads, including "surówka" – shredded root vegetables with lemon and sugar (carrot, celeriac, seared beetroot) or sauerkraut (, ). The side dishes are usually potatoes, rice or cereal. Meals conclude with a dessert such as "sernik" (cheesecake), "makowiec" (poppy seed pastry), or "napoleonka" (cream pie).The Polish national dishes are "bigos" ; "pierogi" ; "kielbasa"; "kotlet schabowy" breaded cutlet; "gołąbki" cabbage rolls; "zrazy" roulade; "pieczeń" roast ; sour cucumber soup ("zupa ogórkowa", ); mushroom soup, ("zupa grzybowa", quite different from the North American cream of mushroom); "zupa pomidorowa" tomato soup ; "rosół" variety of meat broth; "żurek" sour rye soup; "flaki" tripe soup; "barszcz" and "chłodnik" among others.Traditional alcoholic beverages include honey mead, widespread since the 13th century, beer, wine and vodka (old Polish names include "okowita" and "gorzała"). The world's first written mention of vodka originates from Poland. The most popular alcoholic drinks at present are beer and wine which took over from vodka more popular in the years 1980–1998. Tea remains common in Polish society since the 19th century, whilst coffee is drunk widely since the 18th century. Other frequently consumed beverages include various mineral waters and juices, soft drinks popularized by the fast-food chains since the late 20th century, as well as buttermilk, soured milk and kefir.The particular clothing styles in Poland evolved with each century. In the 1600s high-class noblemen and magnates developed a strong sympathy for Orientalism, which was also common in other parts of Europe and became known as Sarmatism. The attire mediated between Western and Ottoman styles and outfits included a żupan, delia, kontusz, pas, decorative karabela swords and less often turbans brought by foreign merchants. The period of Polish Sarmatism eventually faded in the wake of the 18th century.The Polish national dress as well as the fashion and etiquette of Poland also reached the royal court at Versailles in the 1700s. French dresses inspired by Polish attire were called "à la polonaise", meaning "Polish-styled". The most famous example is the "robe à la polonaise", a woman's garment with draped and swagged overskirt, worn over an underskirt or petticoat. Another notable example is the Witzchoura, a long mantle with collar and hood, which was possibly introduced by Napoleon's Polish mistress Maria Walewska. The scope of influence also entailed furniture; rococo Polish beds with canopies became commonplace in French palaces during the 18th century.Several Polish designers and stylists left a lifelong legacy of beauty inventions and cosmetics, most notable being Maksymilian Faktorowicz and Helena Rubinstein. Faktorowicz created a line of cosmetics company in California known as Max Factor and coined the term "make-up" based on the verb phrase "to make up" one's face, now widely used as an alternative for describing cosmetics. Faktorowicz also raised to fame by inventing modern eyelash extensions and by providing services to Hollywood artists.As of 2020, Poland possesses the fifth-largest cosmetic market in Europe. Founded in 1983, Inglot Cosmetics is the country's largest beauty products manufacturer and retailer active in 700 locations worldwide, including retail salons in New York City, London, Milan, Dubai and Las Vegas. Established in 1999, the retail store Reserved is Poland's most successful clothing store chain, operating over 1,700 retail shops in 19 countries. Internationally successful models from Poland include Anja Rubik, Joanna Krupa, Jac Jagaciak, Kasia Struss, Małgosia Bela, and Magdalena Frąckowiak.The history of Polish cinema is as long as the history of cinematography itself. Over the decades, Poland has produced outstanding directors, film producers, cartoonists and actors that achieved world fame, especially in Hollywood. Moreover, Polish inventors played an important role in the development of world cinematography and modern-day television. Among the most famous directors and producers, who worked in Poland as well as abroad are Roman Polański, Andrzej Wajda, Samuel Goldwyn, the Warner brothers (Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack), Max Fleischer, Lee Strasberg, Agnieszka Holland and Krzysztof Kieślowski.In the 19th century, throughout partitioned Poland, numerous amateur inventors, such as Kazimierz Prószyński, were eager to construct a film projector. In 1894, Prószyński was successful in creating a Pleograph, one of the first cameras in the world. The invention, which took photographs and projected pictures, was built before the Lumière brothers lodged their patent. He also patented an Aeroscope, the first successful hand-held operated film camera. In 1897, Jan Szczepanik, obtained a British patent for his Telectroscope. This prototype of television could easily transmit image and sound, thus allowing a live remote view.Polish cinema developed rapidly in the interwar period. The most renowned star of the silent film era was Polish actress Pola Negri. During this time, the Yiddish cinema also evolved in Poland. Films in the Yiddish language with Jewish themes, such as "The Dybbuk" (1937), played an important part in pre-war Polish cinematography. In 1945 the government established 'Film Polski', a state-run film production and distribution organization, with director Aleksander Ford as the head of the company. Ford's "Knights of the Teutonic Order" (1960) was viewed by millions of people in the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and France. This success was followed by the historical films of Jerzy Hoffman and Andrzej Wajda. Wajda's 1975 film "The Promised Land" was nominated at the 48th Academy Awards.In 2015, "Ida" by Paweł Pawlikowski won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2019, Pawlikowski received an Academy Award for Best Director nomination for his historical drama "Cold War". Other well-known Polish Oscar-winning productions include "The Pianist" (2002) by Roman Polański.Poland has a number of major media outlets, chief among which are the national television channels. TVP is Poland's public broadcasting corporation; about a third of its income comes from a broadcast receiver licence, while the rest is made through revenue from commercials and sponsorships. State television operates two mainstream channels, TVP 1 and TVP 2, as well as regional programs for each of the country's 16 voivodeships (as TVP 3). In addition to these general channels, TVP runs a number of genre-specific programmes such as TVP Sport, TVP Historia, TVP Kultura, TVP Rozrywka, TVP Seriale and TVP Polonia, the latter is a state-run channel dedicated to the transmission of Polish language television for the Polish diaspora. Poland has several 24-hour news channels such as Polsat News, TVP Info and TVN 24. Poland also possesses a variety of free-to-air television channels, chiefly TVN, Polsat and TV4.In Poland, there are also daily newspapers like "Gazeta Wyborcza" ("Electoral Gazette"), "Rzeczpospolita" ("The Republic") and "Gazeta Polska Codziennie" ("Polish Daily Newspaper") which provide traditional opinion and news, and tabloids such as "Fakt" and "Super Express". Weeklies include "Tygodnik Angora", "", "Polityka", "Wprost", "Newsweek Polska", "Gość Niedzielny" and "Gazeta Polska".Poland has also emerged as a major hub for video game developers in Europe, with the country now being home to hundreds of studios. Among the most successful ones are CD Projekt, Techland, CI Games and People Can Fly. Some of the most popular video games developed in Poland include The Witcher trilogy. Katowice hosts Intel Extreme Masters, one of the biggest eSports events in the world.Volleyball and Association football are among the country's most popular sports, with a rich history of international competitions. Track and field, basketball, handball, boxing, MMA, motorcycle speedway, ski jumping, cross-country skiing, ice hockey, tennis, fencing, swimming and weightlifting are other popular sports.The golden era of football in Poland occurred throughout the 1970s and went on until the early 1980s when the Polish national football team achieved their best results in any FIFA World Cup competitions finishing 3rd place in the 1974 and the 1982 tournaments. The team won a gold medal in football at the 1972 Summer Olympics and two silver medals, in 1976 and in 1992. In 2012, Poland co-hosted the UEFA European Football Championship.As of May 2021, the Polish men's national volleyball team is ranked as 2nd in the world. Volleyball team won a gold medal in Olympic 1976 Montreal and three gold medals in FIVB World Championship 1974, 2014 and 2018.Mariusz Pudzianowski is a highly successful strongman competitor and has won more World's Strongest Man titles than any other competitor in the world, winning the event in 2008 for the fifth time.Poland has made a distinctive mark in motorcycle speedway racing thanks to Tomasz Gollob and Bartosz Zmarzlik, highly successful Polish riders. The top Ekstraliga division has one of the highest average attendances for any sport in Poland. The national speedway team of Poland is one of the major teams in international speedway.Poles made significant achievements in mountaineering, in particular, in the Himalayas and the winter ascending of the eight-thousanders. Polish mountains are one of the tourist attractions of the country. Hiking, climbing, skiing and mountain biking and attract numerous tourists every year from all over the world. Water sports are the most popular summer recreation activities, with ample locations for fishing, canoeing, kayaking, sailing and windsurfing especially in the northern regions of the country.
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[
"Ewa Kopacz",
"Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz",
"Mateusz Morawiecki",
"Jan Olszewski",
"Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz",
"Tadeusz Mazowiecki",
"Jarosław Kaczyński",
"Jan Krzysztof Bielecki",
"Hanna Suchocka",
"Donald Tusk",
"Beata Szydło",
"Marek Belka",
"Jerzy Buzek",
"Waldemar Pawlak",
"Józef Oleksy"
] |
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Who was the head of Poland in Nov, 2004?
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November 26, 2004
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{
"text": [
"Marek Belka"
]
}
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L2_Q36_P6_9
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Beata Szydło is the head of the government of Poland from Nov, 2015 to Dec, 2017.
Marek Belka is the head of the government of Poland from May, 2004 to Oct, 2005.
Jan Krzysztof Bielecki is the head of the government of Poland from Jan, 1991 to Dec, 1991.
Tadeusz Mazowiecki is the head of the government of Poland from Aug, 1989 to Jan, 1991.
Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz is the head of the government of Poland from Feb, 1996 to Oct, 1997.
Jarosław Kaczyński is the head of the government of Poland from Jul, 2006 to Nov, 2007.
Waldemar Pawlak is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 1993 to Mar, 1995.
Leszek Miller is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 2001 to May, 2004.
Donald Tusk is the head of the government of Poland from Nov, 2007 to Sep, 2014.
Jerzy Buzek is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 1997 to Oct, 2001.
Jan Olszewski is the head of the government of Poland from Dec, 1991 to Jun, 1992.
Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 2005 to Jul, 2006.
Mateusz Morawiecki is the head of the government of Poland from Dec, 2017 to Dec, 2022.
Józef Oleksy is the head of the government of Poland from Mar, 1995 to Feb, 1996.
Ewa Kopacz is the head of the government of Poland from Sep, 2014 to Nov, 2015.
Hanna Suchocka is the head of the government of Poland from Jul, 1992 to Oct, 1993.
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PolandPoland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country located in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces, covering an area of , and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With a population of nearly 38.5 million people, Poland is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union. Poland's capital and largest metropolis is Warsaw. Other major cities include Kraków, Łódź, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk, and Szczecin.Poland's topographically diverse territory extends from the beaches along the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in its south. The country is bordered by Lithuania and Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukraine to the east, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the south, and Germany to the west.The history of human activity on Polish soil spans thousands of years. Throughout the late antiquity period it became extensively diverse, with various cultures and tribes settling on the vast Central European Plain. However, it was the Western Polans who dominated the region and gave Poland its name. The establishment of Polish statehood can be traced to 966, when the pagan ruler of a realm coextensive with the territory of present-day Poland embraced Christianity and converted to Catholicism. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented its longstanding political association with Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest (over in area) and most populous nations of 16th and 17th century Europe, with a uniquely liberal political system which adopted Europe's first modern constitution, the Constitution of 3 May 1791.With the passing of prominence and prosperity, the country was partitioned by neighbouring states at the end of the 18th century, and regained independence in 1918 with the Treaty of Versailles. After a series of territorial conflicts, the new multi-ethnic Poland restored its position as a key player in European politics. In September 1939, World War II began with the invasion of Poland by Germany, followed by the Soviets invading Poland in accordance with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Approximately six million Polish citizens, including three million of the country's Jews, perished during the course of the war. As a member of the Eastern Bloc, the Polish People's Republic proclaimed forthwith was a chief signatory of the Warsaw Treaty amidst global Cold War tensions. In the wake of the 1989 events, notably through the emergence and contributions of the Solidarity movement, the communist government was dissolved and Poland re-established itself as a semi-presidential democratic republic.Poland is a developed market, and a middle power. It has the sixth largest economy in the European Union by nominal GDP and the fifth largest by GDP (PPP). It provides very high standards of living, safety and economic freedom, as well as free university education and a universal health care system. The country has 16 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, 15 of which are cultural. Poland is a member state of the Schengen Area, European Union, European Economic Area, the United Nations, NATO, the OECD, the Three Seas Initiative and the Visegrád Group.The origin of the name "Poland" derives from the West Slavic tribe of Polans ("Polanie"), who inhabited the Warta river basin of the present-day Greater Poland region starting in the mid-6th century. The origin of the name "Polanie" itself derives from the Proto-Slavic word "pole" (field). In some languages, such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian, Russian and Turkish, the country's name is derived from the Lendians ("Lędzianie" or "Lachy") who dwelled on the southeasternmost edge of present-day Lesser Poland. Their name likewise derives from the Old Polish word "lęda" (open land or plain).The early Bronze Age in Poland began around 2400 BC, while the Iron Age commenced in approximately 750 BC. During this time, the Lusatian culture, spanning both the Bronze and Iron Ages, became particularly prominent. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement (now reconstructed as an open-air museum), dating from the Lusatian culture of the late Bronze Age, around 748 BC.Throughout Antiquity, many distinct ancient ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland in an era that dates from about 400 BC to 500 AD. These groups are identified as Celtic, Scythian, Germanic, Sarmatian, Slavic and Baltic tribes. Also, recent archaeological findings in the Kuyavia region confirmed the presence of the Roman Legions on the territory of Poland. These were most likely expeditionary missions sent out to protect the amber trade. The exact time and routes of the original migration and settlement of Slavic peoples lacks written records and can only be defined as fragmented. There is evidence that earlier tribes may have been associated with the ancient Przeworsk culture. Up until the creation of Mieszko's state and his subsequent conversion to Christianity in 966 AD, the main religion of the numerous West Slavic (Lechitic) tribes that inhabited the geographical area of present-day Poland was paganism. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Western Christianity and the religious authority of the Roman Church. However, the transition from paganism was not a smooth and instantaneous process for the rest of the population as evident from the pagan reaction of the 1030s.Poland began to form into a recognizable unitary and territorial entity around the middle of the 10th century under the Piast dynasty. Poland's first historically documented ruler, Mieszko I, accepted Christianity, as the rightful religion of his realm, under the auspices of the Latin Church with the Baptism of Poland in 966. The bulk of the population converted in the course of the next few centuries. In 1000, Boleslaw the Brave, continuing the policy of his father Mieszko, held a Congress of Gniezno and created the metropolis of Gniezno and the dioceses of Kraków, Kołobrzeg, and Wrocław. However, the pagan unrest led to the transfer of the capital to Kraków in 1038 by Casimir I the Restorer.In 1109, Prince Bolesław III Wrymouth defeated the King of Germany Henry V at the Battle of Hundsfeld, stopping the German incursion into Poland. The clash between Bolesław III and Henry V was documented by Gallus Anonymus in his 1118 chronicle. In 1138, Poland fragmented into several smaller duchies when Bolesław divided his lands among his sons. In 1226, Konrad I of Masovia, one of the regional Piast dukes, invited the Teutonic Knights to help him fight the Baltic Prussian pagans; a decision that led to centuries of warfare with the Knights. In 1264, the Statute of Kalisz or the General Charter of Jewish Liberties introduced numerous right for the Jews in Poland, leading to a nearly autonomous "nation within a nation".In the middle of the 13th century, the Silesian branch of the Piast dynasty (Henry I the Bearded and Henry II the Pious, ruled 1238–1241) nearly succeeded in uniting the Polish lands, but the Mongols invaded the country from the east and defeated the combined Polish forces at the Battle of Legnica where Duke Henry II the Pious died. In 1320, after a number of earlier unsuccessful attempts by regional rulers at uniting the Polish dukedoms, Władysław I consolidated his power, took the throne and became the first king of a reunified Poland. His son, Casimir III (reigned 1333–1370), has a reputation as one of the greatest Polish kings, and gained wide recognition for improving the country's infrastructure. He also extended royal protection to Jews, and encouraged their immigration to Poland. Casimir III realized that the nation needed a class of educated people, especially lawyers, who could codify the country's laws and administer the courts and offices. His efforts to create an institution of higher learning in Poland were finally rewarded when Pope Urban V granted him permission to open the University of Kraków.The Golden Liberty of the nobles began to develop under Casimir's rule, when in return for their military support, the king made a series of concessions to the nobility and establishing their legal status as superior to that of the townsfolk. When Casimir the Great died in 1370, leaving no legitimate male heir, the Piast dynasty came to an end.During the 13th and 14th centuries, Poland became a destination for German, Flemish and to a lesser extent Walloon, Danish and Scottish migrants. Also, Jews and Armenians began to settle and flourish in Poland during this era (see History of the Jews in Poland and Armenians in Poland).The Black Death, a plague that ravaged Europe from 1347 to 1351, did not significantly affect Poland, and the country was spared from a major outbreak of the disease. The reason for this was the decision of Casimir the Great to quarantine the nation's borders.The Jagiellon dynasty spanned the late Middle Ages and early Modern Era of Polish history. Beginning with the Lithuanian Grand Duke Jogaila (Władysław II Jagiełło), the Jagiellon dynasty (1386–1572) formed the Polish–Lithuanian union. The partnership brought vast Lithuanian-controlled Rus' areas into Poland's sphere of influence and proved beneficial for the Poles and Lithuanians, who coexisted and cooperated in one of the largest political entities in Europe for the next four centuries.In the Baltic Sea region the struggle of Poland and Lithuania with the Teutonic Knights continued and culminated at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, where a combined Polish-Lithuanian army inflicted a decisive victory against them. In 1466, after the Thirteen Years' War, King Casimir IV Jagiellon gave royal consent to the Peace of Thorn, which created the future Duchy of Prussia under Polish suzerainty. The Jagiellon dynasty at one point also established dynastic control over the kingdoms of Bohemia (1471 onwards) and Hungary. In the south, Poland confronted the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Tatars (by whom they were attacked on 75 separate occasions between 1474 and 1569), and in the east helped Lithuania fight the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Some historians estimate that Crimean Tatar slave-raiding cost Poland-Lithuania one million of its population between the years of 1494 and 1694.Poland was developing as a feudal state, with a predominantly agricultural economy and an increasingly powerful landed nobility. The "Nihil novi" act adopted by the Polish Sejm (parliament) in 1505, transferred most of the legislative power from the monarch to the Sejm, an event which marked the beginning of the period known as "Golden Liberty", when the state was ruled by the "free and equal" Polish nobility. Protestant Reformation movements made deep inroads into Polish Christianity, which resulted in the establishment of policies promoting religious tolerance, unique in Europe at that time. This tolerance allowed the country to avoid most of the religious turmoil that spread over Europe during the 16th century.The European Renaissance evoked in late Jagiellon Poland (under kings Sigismund I the Old and Sigismund II Augustus) a sense of urgency in the need to promote a cultural awakening, and during this period Polish culture and the nation's economy flourished. In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus, an astronomer from Toruń, published his epochal work "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" ("On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres") and thereby became the first proponent of a predictive mathematical model confirming the heliocentric theory, which became the accepted basic model for the practice of modern astronomy. Another major figure associated with the era is the classicist poet Jan Kochanowski.The 1569 Union of Lublin established the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a more closely unified federal state with an elective monarchy, but which was governed largely by the nobility, through a system of local assemblies with a central parliament. The Warsaw Confederation (1573) guaranteed religious freedom for the Polish nobility "(szlachta)" and townsfolk "(mieszczanie)". However, the peasants "(chłopi)" were still subject to severe limitations imposed on them by the nobility. The establishment of the Commonwealth coincided with a period of stability and prosperity in Poland, with the union thereafter becoming a European power and a major cultural entity, occupying approximately one million square kilometers of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as an agent for the dissemination of Western culture through Polonization into areas of modern-day Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Belarus and western Russia.In the 16th and 17th centuries, Poland suffered from a number of dynastic crises during the reigns of the Vasa kings Sigismund III and Władysław IV and found itself engaged in major conflicts with Russia, Sweden and the Ottoman Empire, as well as a series of minor Cossack uprisings. In 1610, a Polish army under the command of Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski seized Moscow after winning the Battle of Klushino. In 1611, the Tsar of Russia paid homage to the King of Poland.After the signing of Truce of Deulino, Poland had in the years 1618–1621 an area of about .From the middle of the 17th century, the nobles' democracy, suffering from internal disorder, gradually declined, thereby leaving the once powerful Commonwealth vulnerable to foreign intervention. Starting in 1648, the Cossack Khmelnytsky Uprising engulfed the south and east, eventually leaving Ukraine divided, with the eastern part, lost by the Commonwealth, becoming a dependency of the Tsardom of Russia. This was followed by the 'Deluge', a Swedish invasion of Poland, which marched through the Polish heartlands and ruined the country's population, culture and infrastructure—around four million of Poland's eleven million inhabitants died in famines and epidemics throughout the 17th century. However, under John III Sobieski the Commonwealth's military prowess was re-established, and in 1683 Polish forces played a major role in the Battle of Vienna against the Ottoman Army, commanded by Kara Mustafa, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.Sobieski's reign marked the end of the nation's golden era. Finding itself subjected to almost constant warfare and suffering enormous population losses as well as massive damage to its economy, the Commonwealth fell into decline. The government became ineffective as a result of large-scale internal conflicts (e.g. Lubomirski Rebellion against John II Casimir and rebellious confederations) and corrupted legislative processes. The nobility fell under the control of a handful of "magnats", and this, compounded with two relatively weak kings of the Saxon Wettin dynasty, Augustus II and Augustus III, as well as the rise of Russia and Prussia after the Great Northern War only served to worsen the Commonwealth's plight. Despite this The Commonwealth-Saxony personal union gave rise to the emergence of the Commonwealth's first reform movement, and laid the foundations for the Polish Enlightenment.During the later part of the 18th century, the Commonwealth made attempts to implement fundamental internal reforms; with the second half of the century bringing a much improved economy, significant population growth and far-reaching progress in the areas of education, intellectual life, art, and especially toward the end of the period, evolution of the social and political system. The most populous capital city of Warsaw replaced Gdańsk (Danzig) as the leading centre of commerce, and the role of the more prosperous urban population increased.The royal election of 1764 resulted in the elevation of Stanisław II August (a Polish aristocrat connected to the "Familia" faction of magnates) to the monarchy. However, elevated to the throne by the Empress Catherine II of Russia, the new king spent much of his reign maneuvering between his desire to implement necessary reforms to save his country, and the necessity to remain in a political relationship and at peace with Russia. This led to the formation of the 1768 Bar Confederation, a "szlachta" rebellion directed against the Polish king and all external influence, which ineptly aimed to preserve Poland's independence and szlachta's privileges. The failed attempts at reform as well as the internal turmoil caused by the Confederation proved the country's weakness and provoked its neighbours. In 1772 the First Partition of the Commonwealth by Prussia, Russia and Austria took place; an act which the "Partition Sejm", under considerable duress, eventually "ratified" "fait accompli". Disregarding this loss, in 1773 the king established the plan of the most necessary reforms, in which the Commission of National Education, the first government education authority in Europe, was established. Corporal punishment of children was officially prohibited in 1783.The Great Sejm convened by Stanisław II August in 1788 successfully adopted the 3 May Constitution, the first set of modern supreme national laws in Europe. However, this document, accused by detractors of harbouring revolutionary sympathies, generated strong opposition from the Commonwealth's nobles and conservatives as well as from Catherine II, who, determined to prevent the rebirth of a strong Commonwealth set about planning the final dismemberment of the Polish-Lithuanian state. Russia was aided in achieving its goal when the Targowica Confederation, an organisation of Polish nobles, appealed to the Empress for help. In May 1792, Russian forces crossed the Commonwealth's frontier, thus beginning the Polish-Russian War.The defensive war fought by the Poles ended prematurely when the King, convinced of the futility of resistance, capitulated and joined the Targowica Confederation, hoping to save the country. The Confederation then took over the government. Russia and Prussia, fearing the mere existence of a Polish state, understanding, that despite the current influence they still cannot control the country, arranged for, and in 1793 executed, the Second Partition of the Commonwealth, which left the country deprived of so much territory that it was practically incapable of independent existence. Eventually, in 1795, following the failed Kościuszko Uprising, the Commonwealth was partitioned one last time by all three of its more powerful neighbours, and with this, effectively ceased to exist. The 18-century British statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke summed up the partitions: "No wise or honest man can approve of that partition, or can contemplate it without prognosticating great mischief from it to all countries at some future time."Poles rebelled several times against the partitioners, particularly near the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. An unsuccessful attempt at defending Poland's sovereignty took place in 1794 during the Kościuszko Uprising, where a popular and distinguished general Tadeusz Kościuszko, who had several years earlier served under Washington in the American Revolutionary War, led Polish insurrectionists against numerically superior Russian forces. Despite the victory at the Battle of Racławice, his ultimate defeat ended Poland's independent existence for 123 years.In 1807, Napoleon I of France temporarily recreated a Polish state as the satellite Duchy of Warsaw, after a successful Greater Poland Uprising of 1806 against Prussian rule. But, after the failed Napoleonic Wars, Poland was again split between the victorious powers at the Congress of Vienna of 1815. The eastern part was ruled by the Russian tsar as Congress Poland, which had a liberal constitution. However, over time the Russian monarch reduced Polish freedoms, and Russia annexed the country in virtually all but name. Meanwhile, the Prussian controlled territory of Poland came under increased Germanization. Thus, in the 19th century, only Habsburg-ruled Austrian Poland, and particularly the Free City of Kraków, allowed free Polish culture to flourish.Throughout the period of the partitions, political and cultural repression of the Polish nation led to the organisation of a number of uprisings against the authorities of the occupying Russian, Prussian and Austrian governments. In 1830, the November Uprising began in Warsaw when, led by Lieutenant Piotr Wysocki, young non-commissioned officers at the Officer Cadet School in Warsaw revolted. They were joined by large segments of Polish society, and together forced Warsaw's Russian garrison to withdraw north of the city.Over the course of the next seven months, Polish forces successfully defeated the Russian armies of Field Marshal Hans Karl von Diebitsch and a number of other Russian commanders; however, finding themselves in a position unsupported by any other foreign powers, save distant France and the newborn United States, and with Prussia and Austria refusing to allow the import of military supplies through their territories, the Poles accepted that the uprising was doomed to failure. Upon the surrender of Warsaw to General Ivan Paskievich, many Polish troops, feeling they could not go on, withdrew into Prussia and there laid down their arms. After the defeat, the semi-independent Congress Poland lost its constitution, army and legislative assembly, and was integrated more closely with the Russian Empire.During the Spring of Nations (a series of revolutions which swept across Europe), Poles took up arms in the Greater Poland Uprising of 1848 to resist Prussian rule. Initially, the uprising manifested itself in the form of civil disobedience but eventually turned into an armed struggle when the Prussian military was sent in to pacify the region. Subsequently, the uprising was suppressed and the semi-autonomous Grand Duchy of Posen, created from the Prussian partition of Poland, was incorporated into Prussia.In 1863, a new Polish uprising against Russian rule began. The January Uprising started out as a spontaneous protest by young Poles against conscription into the Imperial Russian Army. However, the insurrectionists, despite being joined by high-ranking Polish-Lithuanian officers and numerous politicians, were still severely outnumbered and lacking in foreign support. They were forced to resort to guerrilla warfare tactics and failed to win any major military victories. Afterwards no major uprising was witnessed in the Russian-controlled Congress Poland, and Poles resorted instead to fostering economic and cultural self-improvement. Congress Poland was rapidly industrialised towards the end of the 19th century, and successively transformed into the Empire's wealthiest and most developed subject.Despite the political unrest experienced during the partitions, Poland did benefit from large-scale industrialisation and modernisation programs, instituted by the occupying powers, which helped it develop into a more economically coherent and viable entity. This was particularly true in Greater Poland, Silesia and Eastern Pomerania controlled by Prussia (later becoming a part of the German Empire); areas which eventually, thanks largely to the Greater Poland Uprising of 1918 and Silesian Uprisings, were reconstituted as a part of the Second Polish Republic, becoming the country's most prosperous regions.Following World War I all the Allies agreed on the reconstitution of Poland that United States President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed in Point 13 of his Fourteen Points. A total of 2 million Polish troops fought with the armies of the three occupying powers, and 450,000 died. Shortly after the armistice with Germany in November 1918, Poland regained its independence as the Second Polish Republic ("II Rzeczpospolita Polska"). It reaffirmed its independence after a series of military conflicts, the most notable being the Polish–Soviet War (1919–21) when Poland inflicted a crushing defeat on the Red Army at the Battle of Warsaw, an event which is considered to have halted the advance of Communism into Europe and forced Vladimir Lenin to rethink his objective of achieving global socialism. The event is often referred to as the "Miracle at the Vistula".During this period, Poland successfully managed to fuse the territories of the three former partitioning powers into a cohesive nation state. Railways were restructured to direct traffic towards Warsaw instead of the former imperial capitals, a new network of national roads was gradually built up and a major seaport, Gdynia, was opened on the Baltic Coast, so as to allow Polish exports and imports to bypass the politically charged Free City of Danzig. Also, the Polish government embarked on the creation of the Central Industrial Region ("Centralny Okręg Przemysłowy"). The project's goal was to create a heavy industrial center in the middle of the country, which included steal mills, power plants and factories. The inter-war period heralded in a new era of Polish politics. Whilst Polish political activists had faced heavy censorship in the decades up until the First World War, the country now found itself trying to establish a new political tradition. For this reason, many exiled Polish activists, such as Ignacy Paderewski (who would later become prime minister) returned home to help; a significant number of them then went on to take key positions in the newly formed political and governmental structures. Tragedy struck in 1922 when Gabriel Narutowicz, inaugural holder of the presidency, was assassinated at the Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw by a painter and right-wing nationalist Eligiusz Niewiadomski.In 1926, a May coup, led by the hero of the Polish independence campaign Marshal Józef Piłsudski, turned rule of the Second Polish Republic over to the nonpartisan Sanacja ("Healing") movement in an effort to prevent radical political organizations on both the left and the right from destabilizing the country. The movement functioned with relative stability until Piłsudski's death in 1935. Following Marshall Piłsudski's death, Sanation split into several competing factions. By the late 1930s, due to increased threats posed by political extremism inside the country, the Polish government became increasingly heavy-handed, banning a number of radical organizations, including communist and ultra-nationalist political parties, which threatened the stability of the country.World War II began with the Nazi German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, followed by the Soviet invasion of Poland on 17 September. On 28 September 1939, Warsaw fell. As agreed in the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Poland was split into two zones, one occupied by Nazi Germany, the other by the Soviet Union. In 1939–41, the Soviets deported hundreds of thousands of Poles. The Soviet NKVD executed thousands of Polish prisoners of war (inter alia Katyn massacre) ahead of the Operation Barbarossa. German planners had in November 1939 called for "the complete destruction of all Poles" and their fate as outlined in the genocidal "Generalplan Ost".Polish intelligence operatives proved extremely valuable to the Allies, providing much of the intelligence from Europe and beyond, and Polish code breakers were responsible for cracking the Enigma cypher.Poland made the fourth-largest troop contribution in Europe and its troops served both the Polish Government in Exile in the west and Soviet leadership in the east. Polish troops played an important role in the Normandy, Italian and North African Campaigns and are particularly remembered for the Battle of Monte Cassino. In the east, the Soviet-backed Polish 1st Army distinguished itself in the battles for Warsaw and Berlin.The wartime resistance movement, and the Armia Krajowa ("Home Army"), fought against German occupation. It was one of the three largest resistance movements of the entire war, and encompassed a range of clandestine activities, which functioned as an underground state complete with degree-awarding universities and a court system. The resistance was loyal to the exiled government and generally resented the idea of a communist Poland; for this reason, in the summer of 1944 it initiated Operation Tempest, of which the Warsaw Uprising that begun on 1 August 1944 is the best known operation.Nazi German forces under orders from Adolf Hitler set up six German extermination camps in occupied Poland, including Treblinka, Majdanek and Auschwitz. The Germans transported millions of Jews from across occupied Europe to be murdered in those camps.Altogether, 3 million Polish Jews – approximately 90% of Poland's pre-war Jewry – and between 1.8 and 2.8 million ethnic Poles were killed during the German occupation of Poland, including between 50,000 and 100,000 members of the Polish intelligentsia – academics, doctors, lawyers, nobility and priesthood. During the Warsaw Uprising alone, over 150,000 Polish civilians were killed, most were murdered by the Germans during the Wola and Ochota massacres. Around 150,000 Polish civilians were killed by Soviets between 1939 and 1941 during the Soviet Union's occupation of eastern Poland (Kresy), and another estimated 100,000 Poles were murdered by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) between 1943 and 1944 in what became known as the Wołyń Massacres. Of all the countries in the war, Poland lost the highest percentage of its citizens: around 6 million perished – more than one-sixth of Poland's pre-war population – half of them Polish Jews. About 90% of deaths were non-military in nature.In 1945, Poland's borders were shifted westwards. Over two million Polish inhabitants of Kresy were expelled along the Curzon Line by Stalin. The western border became the Oder-Neisse line. As a result, Poland's territory was reduced by 20%, or . The shift forced the migration of millions of other people, most of whom were Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, and Jews.At the insistence of Joseph Stalin, the Yalta Conference sanctioned the formation of a new provisional pro-Communist coalition government in Moscow, which ignored the Polish government-in-exile based in London. This action angered many Poles who considered it a betrayal by the Allies. In 1944, Stalin had made guarantees to Churchill and Roosevelt that he would maintain Poland's sovereignty and allow democratic elections to take place. However, upon achieving victory in 1945, the elections organized by the occupying Soviet authorities were falsified and were used to provide a veneer of legitimacy for Soviet hegemony over Polish affairs. The Soviet Union instituted a new communist government in Poland, analogous to much of the rest of the Eastern Bloc. As elsewhere in Communist Europe, the Soviet influence over Poland was met with armed resistance from the outset which continued into the 1950s.Despite widespread objections, the new Polish government accepted the Soviet annexation of the pre-war eastern regions of Poland (in particular the cities of Wilno and Lwów) and agreed to the permanent garrisoning of Red Army units on Poland's territory. Military alignment within the Warsaw Pact throughout the Cold War came about as a direct result of this change in Poland's political culture. In the European scene, it came to characterize the full-fledged integration of Poland into the brotherhood of communist nations.The new communist government took control with the adoption of the Small Constitution on 19 February 1947. The Polish People's Republic ("Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa") was officially proclaimed in 1952. In 1956, after the death of Bolesław Bierut, the régime of Władysław Gomułka became temporarily more liberal, freeing many people from prison and expanding some personal freedoms. Collectivization in the Polish People's Republic failed. A similar situation repeated itself in the 1970s under Edward Gierek, but most of the time persecution of anti-communist opposition groups persisted. Despite this, Poland was at the time considered to be one of the least oppressive states of the Eastern Bloc.Labour turmoil in 1980 led to the formation of the independent trade union "Solidarity" (""Solidarność""), which over time became a political force. Despite persecution and imposition of martial law in 1981, it eroded the dominance of the Polish United Workers' Party and by 1989 had triumphed in Poland's first partially free and democratic parliamentary elections since the end of the Second World War. Lech Wałęsa, a Solidarity candidate, eventually won the presidency in 1990. The Solidarity movement heralded the collapse of communist regimes and parties across Europe.A shock therapy programme, initiated by Leszek Balcerowicz in the early 1990s, enabled the country to transform its socialist-style planned economy into a market economy. As with other post-communist countries, Poland suffered declines in social and economic standards, but it became the first post-communist country to reach its pre-1989 GDP levels, which it achieved by 1995 thanks largely to its booming economy.Most visibly, there were numerous improvements in human rights, such as freedom of speech, internet freedom (no censorship), civil liberties (1st class) and political rights (1st class), as ranked by Freedom House non-governmental organization. In 1991, Poland became a member of the Visegrád Group and joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance in 1999 along with the Czech Republic and Hungary. Poles then voted to join the European Union in a referendum in June 2003, with Poland becoming a full member on 1 May 2004.Poland joined the Schengen Area in 2007, as a result of which, the country's borders with other member states of the European Union have been dismantled, allowing for full freedom of movement within most of the EU. In contrast to this, a section of Poland's eastern border now constitutes the external EU border with Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. That border has become increasingly well protected, and has led in part to the coining of the phrase 'Fortress Europe', in reference to the seeming 'impossibility' of gaining entry to the EU for citizens of the former Soviet Union.In an effort to strengthen military cooperation with its neighbors, Poland set up the Visegrád Battlegroup with Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia, with a total of 3,000 troops ready for deployment. Also, in eastern Poland, it formed the LITPOLUKRBRIG battle groups with Lithuania and Ukraine. These battle groups will operate outside of NATO and within the European defense initiative framework.On 10 April 2010, the President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, along with 89 other high-ranking Polish officials died in a plane crash near Smolensk, Russia. The president's party was on their way to attend an annual service of commemoration for the victims of the Katyń massacre when the tragedy took place.In 2011, the ruling Civic Platform won parliamentary elections. Poland joined the European Space Agency in 2012, as well as organised the UEFA Euro 2012 (along with Ukraine). In 2013, Poland also became a member of the Development Assistance Committee. In 2014, the Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, was chosen to be President of the European Council, and resigned as prime minister.The 2015 and 2019 elections were won by the conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS), resulting in increased friction between Poland and the EU. In December 2017, Mateusz Morawiecki was sworn in as the new Prime Minister, succeeding Beata Szydlo, in office since 2015. They both represented ruling Law and Justice party, led by party chairman Jarosław Kaczyński. President Andrzej Duda, supported by Law and Justice party, was narrowly re-elected in the 2020 presidential election.Poland's vast territory covers approximately , of which 98.52% is dry land and 1.48% is water. Extending across several geographical regions, the country is the 9th-largest by area in Europe and 69th largest in the world. Topographically, Poland is diverse and has access to the sea, the mountains and open terrain. Although most of the central parts of the country are flat, there is an abundance of lakes, rivers, hills, swamps, beaches, islands and forests elsewhere.In the north-west is the Baltic seacoast spanning from the Bay of Pomerania to the Gulf of Gdańsk. The coast is marked by several spits, coastal lakes (former bays that have been cut off from the sea), and dunes. The largely straight coastline is indented by the Szczecin Lagoon, the Bay of Puck, and the Vistula Lagoon.The central and northern parts of the country lie within the North European Plain. Rising above these lowlands is a geographical region comprising four hilly districts of moraines and moraine-dammed lakes formed during and after the Pleistocene ice age, notably the Pomeranian Lake District, the Greater Polish Lake District, the Kashubian Lake District, and the Masurian Lake District. The Masurian Lake District is the largest of the four and covers much of north-eastern Poland. The lake districts form a series of moraine belts along the southern shore of the Baltic Sea.South of the Northern European Plain are the regions of Lusatia, Silesia and Masovia, which are marked by broad ice-age river valleys. The extreme south of Poland is mountainous; it runs from the Sudetes in the west to the Carpathian Mountains in the east. The highest part of the Carpathian massif is the Tatra Mountain range, along Poland's southern border.The geological structure of Poland has been shaped by the continental collision of Europe and Africa over the past 60 million years and, more recently, by the Quaternary glaciations of northern Europe. Both processes shaped the Sudetes and the Carpathian Mountains. The moraine landscape of northern Poland contains soils made up mostly of sand or loam, while the ice age river valleys of the south often contain loess. The Polish Jura, the Pieniny, and the Western Tatras consist of limestone, whereas the High Tatras, the Beskids, and the Karkonosze mountain ranges are made up mainly of granite and basalts. The Polish Jura Chain has some of the oldest rock formations on the continent of Europe.Poland has over 70 mountains over in elevation, all situated in the Tatras. Poland's highest point is the north-western summit of Mount Rysy at in elevation. At its foot lie the mountain lakes of Czarny Staw (Black Lake) and Morskie Oko (Eye of the Sea), both naturally-made tarns. Other notable uplands include the Pieniny and Holy Cross Mountains, the Table Mountains noted for their unusual rock formations, the Bieszczady in the far southeast of the country in which the highest peak is Tarnica at , and the Gorce Mountains whose highest point is Turbacz at . The highest point of the Sudeten massif is Mount Śnieżka (), shared with the Czech Republic.The lowest point in Poland – at below sea level – is at Raczki Elbląskie, near Elbląg in the Vistula Delta.In the Zagłębie Dąbrowskie (the Coal Fields of Dąbrowa) region in the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland is an area of sparsely vegetated sand known as the Błędów Desert. It covers an area of . It is not a natural desert and was formed by human activity from the Middle Ages onwards.The Baltic Sea activity in Słowiński National Park created sand dunes which in the course of time separated the bay from the sea creating two lakes. As waves and wind carry sand inland the dunes slowly move, at a rate of per year. Some dunes reach the height of up to . The highest peak of the park is Rowokol at above sea level.The longest rivers are the Vistula (), long; the Oder () which forms part of Poland's western border, long; its tributary, the Warta, long; and the Bug, a tributary of the Vistula, long. The Vistula and the Oder flow into the Baltic Sea, as do numerous smaller rivers in Pomerania. Poland's lengthy waterways have been used since early times for navigation; the Vikings ventured up the Polish rivers in their longships. In the Middle Ages and in early modern times, the shipment of tangible goods down the Vistula toward Gdańsk and onward to other parts of Europe took on great importance.With almost ten thousand closed bodies of water covering more than each, Poland has one of the highest numbers of lakes in the world. In Europe, only Finland has a greater density of lakes. The largest lakes, covering more than , are Lake Śniardwy and Lake Mamry in Masuria as well as Lake Łebsko and Lake Drawsko in Pomerania. The lake with the greatest depth—of more than —is Lake Hańcza in the Wigry Lake District, east of Masuria in Podlaskie Voivodeship.The Polish Baltic coast is approximately long and extends from Świnoujście on the islands of Usedom and Wolin in the west to Krynica Morska on the Vistula Spit in the east. For the most part, Poland has a smooth coastline, which has been shaped by the continual movement of sand by currents and winds. This continual erosion and deposition has formed cliffs, dunes, and spits, many of which have migrated landwards to close off former lagoons, such as Łebsko Lake in the Słowiński National Park.The largest spits are Hel Peninsula and the Vistula Spit. The coast line is varied also by Szczecin and Vistula Lagoons and several lakes, including Jamno. The largest Polish Baltic island is Wolin, located within Wolin National Park. The largest sea harbours are Szczecin, Świnoujście, Gdańsk, Gdynia, Police and Kołobrzeg and the main coastal resorts – Świnoujście, Międzydzdroje, Kołobrzeg, Łeba, Sopot, Władysławowo and the Hel Peninsula.In the valley of Pilica river in Tomaszów Mazowiecki there is a unique natural karst spring of water containing calcium salts, that is an object of protection at Blue Springs Nature Reserve in the Sulejów Landscape Park. The red waves are absorbed by water, hence only blue and green are reflected from the bottom of the spring, giving the water atypical colour.Forests cover about 29.6% of Poland's land area based on international standards. Its overall percentage is still increasing. Forests of Poland are managed by the national program of reforestation (KPZL), aiming at an increase of forest-cover to 33% in 2050. The largest forest complex in Poland is Lower Silesian Wilderness.More than 1% of Poland's territory, , is protected within 23 Polish national parks. Three more national parks are projected for Masuria, the Polish Jura, and the eastern Beskids. In addition, wetlands along lakes and rivers in central Poland are legally protected, as are coastal areas in the north. There are 123 areas designated as landscape parks, along with numerous nature reserves and other protected areas under the Natura 2000 network.In 2017, approximately of land was occupied by farms and farmsteads, over half of Poland's total area.Phytogeographically, Poland belongs to the Central European province of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the territory of Poland belongs to three Palearctic Ecoregions of the continental forest spanning Central and Northern European temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregions, as well as the Carpathian montane conifer forest. The most common deciduous trees found across the country are oak, maple, and beech; the most common conifers are pine, spruce, and fir. An estimated 68.7% of all forests are coniferous.Poland has historically been home to rare species of animals, as well as the two largest European mammals: the wisent ("żubr") and aurochs ("tur"). The last aurochs of Europe became extinct in 1627 in the Polish Jaktorów Forest, while the wisent survived until the 20th century only at Białowieża. It has been since reintroduced to other countries. Other wild species include the brown bear in Białowieża, in the Tatras, and in the Beskids; the gray wolf and the Eurasian lynx in various forests; the moose in northern Poland; and the beaver in Masuria, Pomerania, and Podlaskie.Game animals such as red deer, roe deer, and wild boar are found in most woodlands. Eastern Poland abounds in ancient woods, like the Białowieża Forest, that have not been disturbed by human or industrial activity. There are also large forested areas in the mountains, Greater Poland, Pomerania, Lubusz Land, and Lower Silesia. The Lubusz Voivodeship is currently the most arboraceous province in the country; 52% of its territory is occupied by forests.Poland is also a significant breeding ground for a variety of European migratory birds. One quarter of the global population of white storks (40,000 breeding pairs) live in Poland, particularly in the lake districts and the wetlands along the Biebrza, the Narew, and the Warta, which are part of nature reserves or national parks.The climate is mostly temperate throughout the country. The climate is oceanic in the north-west and becomes gradually warmer and continental towards the south-east. Summers are generally warm, with average temperatures between depending on the region. Winters are rather cold, with average temperatures around in the northwest and in the northeast. Precipitation falls throughout the year, although, especially in the east, winter is drier than summer.The warmest region in Poland is Lower Silesia in the southwest of the country, where temperatures in the summer average between but can go as high as on some days in the warmest months of July and August. The warmest cities in Poland are Tarnów in Lesser Poland, and Wrocław in Lower Silesia. The average temperatures in Wrocław are in the summer and in the winter, but Tarnów has the longest summer in all of Poland, which lasts for 115 days, from mid-May to mid-September. The coldest region of Poland is in the northeast, around the area of Suwałki within the Podlaskie Voivodeship, where the climate is affected by cold fronts coming from Scandinavia and Siberia. The average temperature in the winter in Podlaskie ranges from . The biggest impact of the oceanic climate is observed in Świnoujście and Baltic Sea seashore area from Police to Słupsk.Poland is a representative democracy, with a president as the head of state. The government structure centers on the Council of Ministers, led by a prime minister. The president appoints the cabinet according to the proposals of the prime minister, typically from the majority coalition in the Sejm. The president is elected by popular vote every five years. The current president is Andrzej Duda and the prime minister is Mateusz Morawiecki.Polish voters elect a bicameral parliament consisting of a 460-member lower house (Sejm) and a 100-member Senate (Senat). The Sejm is elected under proportional representation according to the d'Hondt method, a method similar to that used in many parliamentary political systems. The Senat, on the other hand, is elected under the first-past-the-post voting method, with one senator being returned from each of the 100 constituencies.With the exception of ethnic minority parties, only candidates of political parties receiving at least 5% of the total national vote can enter the Sejm. When sitting in joint session, members of the Sejm and Senat form the National Assembly (the "Zgromadzenie Narodowe"). The National Assembly is formed on three occasions: when a new president takes the oath of office; when an indictment against the President of the Republic is brought to the State Tribunal ("Trybunał Stanu"); and when a president's permanent incapacity to exercise his duties due to the state of his health is declared. To date only the first instance has occurred.The judicial branch plays an important role in decision-making. Its major institutions include the Supreme Court ("Sąd Najwyższy"); the Supreme Administrative Court ("Naczelny Sąd Administracyjny"); the Constitutional Tribunal ("Trybunał Konstytucyjny"); and the State Tribunal ("Trybunał Stanu"). On the approval of the Senat, the Sejm also appoints the ombudsman or the Commissioner for Civil Rights Protection ("Rzecznik Praw Obywatelskich") for a five-year term. The ombudsman has the duty of guarding the observance and implementation of the rights and liberties of Polish citizens and residents, of the law and of principles of community life and social justice.The Constitution of Poland is the enacted supreme law, and the Polish legal system is based on the principle of civil rights, governed by the code of civil law. The current democratic constitution was adopted by the National Assembly of Poland on 2 April 1997; it guarantees a multi-party state with freedoms of religion, speech and assembly, prohibits the practices of forced medical experimentation, torture or corporal punishment, and acknowledges the inviolability of the home, the right to form trade unions, and the right to strike.The judiciary incorporates a four-tier court system composed of the Supreme Court, the Supreme Administrative Court, Common Courts (District, Regional, Appellate) and the Military Court. Judges are nominated by the National Council of the Judiciary and are appointed for life by the president. The Constitutional and State Tribunals are separate judicial bodies, which rule the constitutional liability of people holding the highest offices of state and supervise the compliance of statutory law, thus protecting the Constitution.Historically, the most significant Polish legal act is the Constitution of 3 May 1791, the first modern constitution in Europe. Instituted as a Government Act, it was designed to redress long-standing political defects of the federative Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and its Golden Liberty. Previously, only the Henrician Articles (1573) signed by each of Poland's elected monarchs could perform the function of a set of basic laws. The new Constitution introduced political equality between townspeople and the nobility ("szlachta"), and placed the peasants under the protection of the government. It abolished pernicious parliamentary policies such as the "liberum veto", which permitted any deputy to rescind all the legislation passed in the interest of a foreign power. The 3 May Constitution sought to supplant the existing anarchy fostered by some of the country's reactionary magnates, with a more egalitarian and democratic constitutional monarchy. The influenced many later democratic movements across the globe. Tax-paying women were allowed to take part in Polish political life until the third partition in 1795. In 1918 the Second Polish Republic became one of the first countries to introduce universal women's suffrage.Poland has a low homicide rate at 0.7 murders per 100,000 people, as of 2018. Rape, assault and violent crime remain at a very low level, although not all cases are recorded by the authorities.Abortion is permitted only in cases of rape, incest or when the woman's life is in danger. Congenital disorder and stillbirth are not covered by the law, forcing some women to seek abortion abroad, and others to seek the assistance of psychiatrists willing to testify on the negative psychological impact of stillbirth. Poland does not criminalize homosexuality, and its legality was confirmed in 1932. The Polish Constitution defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.Poland is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union and has a grand total of 52 representatives in the European Parliament as of 2020. Since joining the union in 2004, successive Polish governments have pursued policies to extend the country's role in European and international affairs. Poland is an emerging regional power in Central Europe. The capital of Warsaw serves as the headquarters for Frontex, the European Union's agency for external border security as well as ODIHR, one of the principal institutions of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.Apart from the European Union, Poland has been a member of NATO since 1999, the UN, the World Trade Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since 1996, European Economic Area, International Energy Agency, Council of Europe, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, International Atomic Energy Agency, European Space Agency, G6, Council of the Baltic Sea States, Visegrád Group, Weimar Triangle, Schengen Agreement, Lublin Triangle and Bucharest Nine.Over the past two decades, Poland significantly strengthened its ties with the United States, thus becoming one of its closest allies in Europe. Poland was part of the US-led coalition force during the Iraq War in 2003, and sent its troops in the first phase of the conflict, jointly with the United Kingdom and Australia. Along with NATO, Poland maintains military presence in the Middle East, the Baltic states and in the Balkans.The Polish Armed Forces are composed of five branches – Land Forces ("Wojska Lądowe"), Navy ("Marynarka Wojenna"), Air Force ("Siły Powietrzne"), Special Forces ("Wojska Specjalne") and the Territorial Defence Force ("Wojska Obrony Terytorialnej"). The military is subordinate to the Ministry of National Defence of the Republic of Poland. However, its commander-in-chief in peacetime is the President of the Republic, who nominates officers, the Minister for National Defence and the chief of staff.As of 2018, the Polish Armed Forces have a combined strength of 144,142 soldiers. The Polish Navy primarily operates on the Baltic Sea and conducts operations such as maritime patrol, search and rescue for the section of the Baltic under Polish sovereignty, as well as hydrographic measurements and research. The Polish Air Force routinely takes part in Baltic Air Policing assignments. In 2003, the F-16C Block 52 was selected as the new general multi-role fighter for the air force. In January 2020, Poland has approved the delivery for F-35 Lightning II combat aircraft. Poland is currently spending 2% of its GDP on defence (approximately US$13.5 billion in 2020), which is expected to grow to 2.5% by 2030. According to SIPRI, the country exported EUR€487 million worth of arms and armaments to other countries, primarily to the United States, Chile, France and South Africa.The mission of the armed forces is the defence of Poland's territorial integrity and Polish interests abroad. The country's national security goal is to further integrate with NATO and European defence, economic, and political institutions. Compulsory military service for men was discontinued in 2008. From 2007, until conscription ended in 2008, the mandatory service was nine months. Polish military doctrine reflects the same defensive nature as that of its NATO partners and the country actively hosts NATO's military exercises. From 1953 to 2009 Poland was a large contributor to various United Nations peacekeeping missions. The Polish Armed Forces took part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, deploying 2,500 soldiers in the south of that country and commanding the 17-nation multinational force in Iraq. Poland also maintains troops in the Middle East, the Baltic states and in the Balkans; 1,650 soldiers were deployed in 2019.Law enforcement in Poland is performed by several agencies which are subordinate to the Ministry of Interior and Administration – the State Police ("Policja"), assigned to investigate crimes or transgression; the Municipal City Guard, which maintains public order; and several specialized agencies, such as the Polish Border Guard. Private security firms are also common, although they possess no legal authority to arrest or detain a suspect. Municipal guards are primarily headed by provincial, regional or city councils; individual guards are not permitted to carry firearms unless instructed by their superior commanding officer or commandant.The Internal Security Agency (ABW, or ISA in English) is the chief counter-intelligence instrument safeguarding Poland's internal security, along with Agencja Wywiadu (AW) which identifies threats and collects secret information abroad. The Central Investigation Bureau of Police (CBŚP) and the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) are responsible for countering organized crime and corruption in state and private institutions.Emergency services in Poland consist of the emergency medical services, search and rescue units of the Polish Armed Forces and State Fire Service. Emergency medical services in Poland are provided for by local and regional governments.All emergency services personnel are uniformed and security services can be easily recognized during regular patrols in both large urban areas or smaller suburban localities.Poland's current voivodeships (provinces) are largely based on the country's historic regions, whereas those of the past two decades (to 1998) had been centred on and named for individual cities. The new units range in area from less than for Opole Voivodeship to more than for Masovian Voivodeship. Administrative authority at the voivodeship level is shared between a government-appointed voivode (governor), an elected regional assembly ("sejmik") and a voivodeship marshal, an executive elected by that assembly.The voivodeships are subdivided into "powiats" (often referred to in English as counties), and these are further divided into "gminas" (also known as communes or municipalities). Major cities normally have the status of both "gmina" and "powiat". Poland has 16 voivodeships, 380 powiats (including 66 cities with "powiat" status), and 2,478 "gminas".Poland's economy and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is currently the sixth largest in the European Union by nominal standards, and the fifth largest by purchasing power parity. It is also one of the fastest growing within the Union. Around 60% of the employed population belongs to the tertiary service sector, 30% to industry and manufacturing, and the remaining 10% to the agricultural sector. Although Poland is a member of EU's single market, the country has not adopted the Euro as legal tender and maintains its own currency – the Polish złoty (zł, PLN).Poland is the regional economic leader in Central Europe, with nearly 40 per cent of the 500 biggest companies in the region (by revenues) as well as a high globalisation rate. The country's largest firms compose the WIG20 and WIG30 indexes, which is traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. According to reports made by the National Bank of Poland, the value of Polish foreign direct investments reached almost 300 billion PLN at the end of 2014. The Central Statistical Office estimated that in 2014 there were 1,437 Polish corporations with interests in 3,194 foreign entities.Having a strong domestic market, low private debt, low unemployment rate, flexible currency, and not being dependent on a single export sector, Poland is the only European economy to have avoided the recession of 2008. The country is the 20th largest exporter of goods and services in the world and its most successful exports include machinery, furniture, food products, clothing, shoes, cosmetics and videogames. These account to approximately 56% of the total GDP, as of 2018. Poland's largest trading partners include Germany, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, France and Italy. Warsaw leads Central Europe in foreign investment. In September 2018, the unemployment rate was estimated at 5.7%, one of the lowest in the European Union. In 2019, Poland passed a law that would exempt workers under the age of 26 from income tax.The Polish banking sector is the largest in the region, with 32.3 branches per 100,000 adults.World Bank, Financial Inclusion Data. Country Dashboard: Poland. The World Bank Group. Retrieved 6 November 2014. The banks are the largest and most developed sector of the country's financial markets. They are regulated by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority. Poland's banking sector has approximately 5 national banks, a network of nearly 600 cooperative banks and 18 branches of foreign-owned banks. In addition, foreign investors have controlling stakes in nearly 40 commercial banks, which make up 68% of the banking capital.Products and goods manufactured in Poland include: electronics, buses and trams (Solaris, Solbus), helicopters and planes (PZL Świdnik, PZL Mielec), trains (Pesa, Newag), ships (Gdańsk Shipyard, Szczecin Shipyard), military equipment (FB "Łucznik" Radom, , Jelcz), medicines (, ), food (Tymbark, Hortex, E. Wedel), clothes (LLP), glass, pottery (Bolesławiec), chemical products and others. Well-known brands and companies include Alior Bank, Orlen&Lotos Group, Inglot Cosmetics, Plus, Play, Brainly, Netguru, GOG.com, CD Projekt, Trefl and Allegro. Poland is also one of the world's biggest producers of copper, silver, coal, furniture, automotive parts and soft drink.Poland experienced a significant increase in the number of tourists after joining the European Union in 2004. With nearly 21 million international arrivals in 2019, tourism contributes considerably to the overall economy and makes up a relatively large proportion of the country's service market.Tourist attractions in Poland vary, from the mountains in the south to the sandy beaches in the north, with a trail of nearly every architectural style. The most visited city is Kraków, which was the former capital of Poland and serves as a relic of the Polish Golden Age and the Renaissance. Kraków also held royal coronations of most Polish kings and monarchs at Wawel, the nation's chief historical landmark. Among other notable sites in the country is Wrocław, one of the oldest cities in Poland which was a model for the founding of Kraków. Wrocław is famous for its dwarfs, a large market square with two town halls, and the oldest Zoological Gardens with one of the world's largest number of animal species. The Polish capital Warsaw and its historical Old Town were entirely reconstructed after wartime destruction. Other cities attracting countless tourists include Gdańsk, Poznań, Lublin, Toruń as well as the site of the German Auschwitz concentration camp in Oświęcim. A notable highlight is the 13th-century Wieliczka Salt Mine with its labyrinthine tunnels, a subterranean lake and chapels carved by miners out of rock salt beneath the ground.Poland's main tourist offerings include outdoor activities such as skiing, sailing, mountain hiking and climbing, as well as agritourism, sightseeing historical monuments. Tourist destinations include the Baltic Sea coast in the north; the Masurian Lake District and Białowieża Forest in the east; on the south Karkonosze, the Table Mountains and the Tatra Mountains, where Rysy – the highest peak of Poland, and Eagle's Path mountain trail are located. The Pieniny and Bieszczady Mountains lie in the extreme south-east. There are over 100 castles in the country, most in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship (inter alia ), and also on the Trail of the Eagles' Nests. The largest castle in the world by land area is situated in Malbork, in north-central Poland.The electricity generation sector in Poland is largely fossil-fuel–based. Many power plants nationwide use Poland's position as a major European exporter of coal to their advantage by continuing to use coal as the primary raw material in the production of their energy. In 2013, Poland scored 48 out of 129 states in the Energy Sustainability Index. The three largest Polish coal mining firms (Węglokoks, Kompania Węglowa and JSW) extract around 100 million tonnes of coal annually.Renewable forms of energy account for a smaller proportion of Poland's full energy generation capacity. However, the national government has set targets for the development of renewable energy sources in Poland (the share of energy from renewable sources in the gross final energy consumption in 2019 was – 12,18%). Increasing the share of energy from renewable sources and a significant reduction in CO2 emissions to be achieved with the help of biofuels, photovoltaics, construction of wind farms on the land and the Baltic Sea, hydroelectric stations and nuclear power plant.Poland has around 164,800,000,000 m of proven natural gas reserves and around 96,380,000 barrels of proven oil reserves. These reserves are exploited by energy supply companies such as PKN Orlen ("the only Polish company listed in the Fortune Global 500"), PGNiG. However, the small amounts of fossil fuels naturally occurring in Poland are insufficient to satisfy the full energy consumption needs of the population and industry. Consequently, the country is a net importer of oil and natural gas. Therefore, since the second decade of the 21st century, Poland has been strongly developing the so-called North Gate in which the most important components are the Baltic Pipe, the Świnoujście LNG terminal and Floating Storage and Regasification Unit in Port of Gdańsk.The 5 largest companies supplying Poland electricity are PGE, Tauron, Enea, and Innogy Poland.Transport in Poland is provided by means of rail, road, marine shipping and air travel. The country is part of EU's Schengen Area and is an important transport hub along neighbouring Germany due to its strategic position in Central Europe. Some of the longest European routes, including the E40, run through Poland.The country has a good network of highways, composed of express roads and motorways. At the start of 2020, Poland had of highways in use. In addition, all local and regional roads are monitored by the National Road Rebuilding Programme, which aims to improve the quality of travel in the countryside and suburban localities.In 2017, the nation had of railway track, the third longest in Europe after Germany and France. The Polish State Railways (PKP) is the dominant railway operator in the country. In December 2014, Poland began to implement high–speed rail routes connecting major Polish cities, and started passenger service using the New Pendolino train, operating at 200 km/h on the Central Rail Line (CMK). Polish regulations allow trains without ETCS to travel at speeds up to 160 km/h, trains with ETCS1 up to 200 km/h, and trains with ETCS2 at over 200 km/h. Most inter-regional connections rail routes in Poland are operated by PKP Intercity, whilst regional trains are run by a number of private operators, the largest of which is Polregio. The largest passenger train station in terms of the number of travelers is Wrocław Główny.The air and maritime transport markets in Poland are largely well developed. Poland has a number of international airports, the largest of which is Warsaw Chopin Airport, the primary global hub for LOT Polish Airlines. It was established in 1928 from a merger of Aerolloyd (1922) and Aero (1925). Other major airports with international connections include John Paul II International Airport Kraków–Balice, Copernicus Airport Wrocław, Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport. Poland has begun preparations for a construction that can handle 100 million passengers of the Central Communication Port.Seaports exist all along Poland's Baltic coast, with most freight operations using Świnoujście, Police, Szczecin, Kołobrzeg, Gdynia, Gdańsk and Elbląg as their base.Passenger ferries link Poland with Scandinavia all year round; these services are provided from Gdańsk and Świnoujście by Polferries, Stena Line from Gdynia and Unity Line from the Świnoujście. The Port of Gdańsk is the only port in the Baltic Sea adapted to receive oceanic vessels.Over the course of history, the Polish people have made considerable contributions in the fields of science, technology and mathematics. Perhaps the most renowned Pole to support this theory was Nicolaus Copernicus ("Mikołaj Kopernik"), who triggered the Copernican Revolution by placing the Sun rather than the Earth at the center of the universe. He also derived a quantity theory of money, which made him a pioneer of economics. Copernicus' achievements and discoveries are considered the basis of Polish culture and cultural identity.Poland's tertiary education institutions; traditional universities, as well as technical, medical, and economic institutions, employ around tens of thousands of researchers and staff members. There are hundreds of research and development institutes. However, in the 19th and 20th centuries many Polish scientists worked abroad; one of the most important of these exiles was Maria Skłodowska-Curie, a physicist and chemist who lived much of her life in France. In 1925 she established Poland's Radium Institute.In the first half of the 20th century, Poland was a flourishing centre of mathematics. Outstanding Polish mathematicians formed the Lwów School of Mathematics (with Stefan Banach, Stanisław Mazur, Hugo Steinhaus, Stanisław Ulam) and Warsaw School of Mathematics (with Alfred Tarski, Kazimierz Kuratowski, Wacław Sierpiński and Antoni Zygmund). Numerous mathematicians, scientists, chemists or economists emigrated due to historic vicissitudes, among them Benoit Mandelbrot, Leonid Hurwicz, Alfred Tarski, Joseph Rotblat and Nobel Prize laureates Roald Hoffmann, Georges Charpak and Tadeusz Reichstein. In the 1930s, mathematician and cryptologist Marian Rejewski invented the Cryptographic Bomb which formed the basis of the effort that allowed the Allies to crack the Enigma code.Over 40 research and development centers and 4,500 researchers make Poland the biggest research and development hub in Central and Eastern Europe. Multinational companies such as: ABB, Delphi, GlaxoSmithKline, Google, Hewlett–Packard, IBM, Intel, LG Electronics, Microsoft, Motorola, Siemens and Samsung all have set up research and development centres in Poland. Companies chose Poland because of the availability of highly qualified labour force, presence of universities, support of authorities, and the largest market in East-Central Europe. According to a KPMG report from 2011, 80% of Poland's current investors are content with their choice and willing to reinvest. Poland has a very well-developed e-administration, thanks to which many official matters can be easily and quickly settled via the Internet. In the UN ranking, Poland is in the top twenty countries with the best-rated e-administration in the world.Poland, with approximately 38.5 million inhabitants, has the ninth-largest population in Europe and the fifth-largest in the European Union. It has a population density of 122 inhabitants per square kilometre (328 per square mile). The total fertility rate in 2020 was estimated at 1.44 children born to a woman, a considerable rise from previous years. In contrast, the total fertility rate in 1925 was 4.68. Furthermore, Poland's population is aging significantly and the median age in 2018 was 41.1 years. The crude death rate in 2020 stood at 10.3 per 1,000 people.Around 60% of Poles and Polish citizens reside in urban areas or major cities and 40% in more rural zones. The most populous administrative province or state is the Masovian Voivodeship and the most populous city is the capital, Warsaw, at 1.8 million inhabitants with a further 2-3 million people living in its metropolitan area. The metropolitan area of Katowice is the largest urban conurbation in Poland with a population between 2.7 million and 5.3 million residents. The least populous and the smallest province in size is the Opole Voivodeship, with just under 1 million people living within its borders. Hence, a substantial portion of the total population is concentrated in the south of Poland, roughly between the cities of Wrocław and Kraków.In the 2011 Polish census, 37,310,341 people reported Polish identity, 846,719 Silesian, 232,547 Kashubian and 147,814 German. Other identities were reported by 163,363 people (0.41%) and 521,470 people (1.35%) did not specify any nationality. Once prominent but now statistically insignificant minority groups include Polish Jews, Lipka Tatars, Armenians, Greeks, Lemkos, the Romani people and the Vietnamese. Ethnic Poles themselves can be divided into many diverse regional ethnographic sub-groups, most notable being the Kashubians, Silesians and Gorals (Highlanders). The statistics do not include recently arrived migrant workers. More than 1.7 million Ukrainian citizens worked legally in Poland in 2017.There is a very strong Polish diaspora around the world, notably in the United States, Germany, United Kingdom and Canada. A strong Polish minority is still present in the territories of contemporary western Ukraine and Belarus, eastern Lithuania, eastern and central Latvia, and northeastern Czech Republic, which were part of Poland in the past. Altogether, the number of ethnic Poles living abroad is estimated to be around 20 million.Polish is the only official and predominant spoken language in Poland, but it is also used throughout the world by Polish minorities in other countries as well as being one of the official languages of the European Union. The deaf communities use Polish Sign Language belonging to the German family of Sign Languages. Polish is also a second language in Lithuania, where it is taught in schools and universities. Contemporary Poland is a linguistically homogeneous nation, with nearly 97% of respondents declaring Polish as their mother tongue.Poland's once multi-ethnic population communicated in numerous languages and lects which faded or disappeared along the course of history. There are currently 15 minority languages in Poland, including one recognized regional language, Kashubian, which is spoken by around 366,000 people in the northern regions of Kashubia and Pomerania.Languages having the status of national minority's language are Armenian, Belarusian, Czech, German, Yiddish, Hebrew, Lithuanian, Russian, Slovak and Ukrainian. Languages having the status of ethnic minority's language are Karaim, Lemko-Rusyn, Tatar and two Romani languages; Polska Roma and Bergitka Roma. Official recognition of a language provides certain rights under conditions prescribed by Polish law, including education and state financial support for promoting that language. Poland recognized secondary administrative languages or auxiliary languages in bilingual municipalities. Currently, German and Kashubian hold such status in 19 municipalities ("gminas"), Belarusian in 9 and Lithuanian in 1. Bilingual signs, names and advertisements are commonplace in those localities. Silesian and Wymysorys (Vilamovian) are not legally recognized or acknowledged as separate languages with a minority status.More than 50% of Polish citizens declare at least basic knowledge of the English language, followed by German (38%).According to the 2015 census, 92.9% of all Polish citizens adhere to the Roman Catholic Church. An estimated 94.2% of the population are believers and 3.1% are irreligious, making Poland one of the more devout countries in Europe. Around 61.6% of all respondents outlined that religion is of high or very high importance. However, church attendance has decreased in recent years; only 38% of worshippers attended mass regularly on Sunday in 2018. Freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Polish Constitution, and the concordat guarantees the teaching of religion in state schools.For centuries the tribes inhabiting the lands of modern-day Poland have practiced various forms of paganism known as "Rodzimowierstwo", or "native faith". In the year 966, Duke Mieszko I converted to Christianity, and submitted to the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. This event came to be known as the Baptism of Poland. However, this did not put an end to pagan beliefs in the country. The persistence was demonstrated by a series of rebellions in the 1030s known as the pagan reaction, which also showed elements of a peasant uprising against medieval feudalism.Religious tolerance was an important part of Polish political culture, though it varied at times. In 1264, the Statute of Kalisz granted Jews unprecedented legal rights not found anywhere in Europe. In 1573, the Warsaw Confederation marked the formal beginning of extensive religious freedoms in Poland. It was partially influenced by the 1572 St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in France, which prompted the nobility to prevent the monarch from carrying out reprehensible atrocities in Poland based on religious affiliation. The religious tolerance also spurred many theological movements such as the Calvinist Polish Brethren, a number of Protestant groups and atheists like Casimir Liszinski, one of the first atheist thinkers in Europe. Anabaptists fleeing 16th-century persecution in the Netherlands and Germany settled in Poland and became known as the Vistula delta Mennonites. From 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła was head of the Roman Catholic Church as Pope John Paul II.Contemporary religious minorities include Christian Orthodox (506,800), various Protestants (150,000) — including 77,500 Lutherans of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church, 23,000 Pentecostals in the Pentecostal Church in Poland, 10,000 Adventists in the Seventh-day Adventist Church and other smaller Evangelical denominations — Jehovah's Witnesses (126,827), Eastern Catholics, Mariavites, Jews, Muslims (Tatars) and neopagans, some of whom are members of the Native Polish Church.Famous sites of Roman Catholic pilgrimage in Poland include the Monastery of Jasna Góra in the city of Częstochowa, Basilica of Our Lady of Licheń, Kraków's Sanctuary of Divine Mercy and Święta Lipka (Holy Linden) in Masuria. Tourists also visit the family home of John Paul II in Wadowice outside Kraków. Christ the King in Świebodzin is the tallest statue of Jesus in the world. Christian Orthodox pilgrims visit Mount Grabarka near Grabarka-Klasztor and the Hasidic Jews travel annually to the grave of a great rabbi in Leżajsk.Medical service providers and hospitals ("szpitale") in Poland are subordinate to the Ministry of Health; it provides administrative oversight and scrutiny of general medical practice, and is obliged to maintain a high standard of hygiene and patient care. Poland has a universal healthcare system based on an all-inclusive insurance system; state subsidised healthcare is available to all citizens covered by the general health insurance program of the National Health Fund (NFZ). Private medical complexes exist nationwide; over 50% of the population uses both public and private sectors.Hospitals are organised according to the regional administrative structure, resultantly most towns, counties or municipalities possess their own provincial hospital or medical clinics. There are six types of hospital facilities, each with a particular area of medical expertise – I Grade Hospitals for general surgery, internal illnesses and obstetrics; II Grade Hospitals for child surgery, neurology, cardiology and ophthalmology; III Grade Hospitals including teaching hospitals for infectious diseases, nephrology, orthopedics, toxicology and transplantology; Oncology Hospitals for cancer treatment and brachytherapy; Pediatric Hospitals for child care; and Nationwide Hospitals for general and acute care.According to the Human Development Report from 2020, the average life expectancy at birth is 79 years (around 75 years for an infant male and 83 years for an infant female); the country has a low infant mortality rate (4 per 1,000 births). In 2019, the principal cause of death was ischemic heart disease; diseases of the circulatory system accounted for 45% of all deaths. In the same year, Poland was also the 15th-largest importer of medications and pharmaceutical products.The Jagiellonian University founded in 1364 by Casimir III in Kraków was the first institution of higher learning established in Poland, and is one of the oldest universities still in continuous operation. Poland's Commission of National Education ("Komisja Edukacji Narodowej"), established in 1773, was the world's first state ministry of education. The framework for primary and secondary schooling in contemporary Poland is established by the Ministry of National Education. Kindergarten attendance is optional for children aged between three and five, with one year being compulsory for six-year-olds. Primary education traditionally begins at the age of seven, although children aged six can attend at the request of their parents or guardians. Elementary school spans eight grades, at the end of which an obligatory three-part exam on Polish, mathematics and a foreign language is to be undertaken. Secondary schooling is dependent on student preference – either a four-year high school ("liceum"), a five-year technical school ("technikum") or various vocational studies ("szkoła branżowa") can be pursued by each individual pupil. A liceum or technikum is concluded with a maturity exit exam ("matura"), which must be passed in order to apply for a university or other institutions of higher learning.The standards of higher tertiary education are imposed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. In Poland, there are over 500 university-level institutions, with technical, medical, economic, agricultural, pedagogical, theological, musical, maritime and military faculties. The University of Warsaw and Warsaw Polytechnic, the University of Wrocław, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and the University of Technology in Gdańsk are among the most prominent. There are three conventional academic degrees in Poland – "licencjat" or "inżynier" (first cycle qualification), "magister" (second cycle qualification) and "doktor" (third cycle qualification).In 2018, the Programme for International Student Assessment, coordinated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, ranked Poland's educational system higher than the OECD average; the study showed that students in Poland perform better academically than in most OECD countries.The culture of Poland is closely connected with its intricate 1,000-year history and forms an important constituent in western civilization. The Poles take great pride in their national identity which is often associated with the colours white and red, and exuded by the expression "biało-czerwoni" ("whitereds"). National symbols, chiefly the crowned white-tailed eagle, are often visible on clothing, insignia and emblems. The appreciation of Poland's traditions and cultural heritage is commonly known as Polonophilia.With origins in the customs of the tribal Lechites, over time the culture of Poland has been influenced by its connection to Western culture and trends, as well as developing its own unique traditions such as Sarmatism. The people of Poland have traditionally been seen as hospitable to artists from abroad and eager to follow cultural and artistic trends popular in foreign countries, for instance, the 16th- and 17th-century tradition of coffin portraits ("portret trumienny") was only observed in Poland and Roman Egypt. In the 19th and 20th centuries the Polish focus on cultural advancement often took precedence over political and economic activity. These factors have contributed to the versatile nature of Polish art.The architectural monuments of great importance are protected by the National Heritage Board of Poland. Over 100 of the country's most significant tangible wonders were enlisted onto the Historic Monuments Register, with further 16 being recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. Poland is renowned for its brick Gothic castles, granaries and churches as well as diversely-styled tenements, market squares and town halls. The majority of Polish cities founded on Magdeburg Law in the Middle Ages evolved around central marketplaces, a distinguishable urban characteristic which can be observed to this day. Medieval and Renaissance cloth halls were once an abundant feature of many towns.There are 13 government-approved annual public holidays – New Year on 1 January, Three Kings' Day on 6 January, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, Labour Day on 1 May, Constitution Day on 3 May, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, Armed Forces Day on 15 August, All Saints' Day on 1 November, Independence Day on 11 November and Christmastide on 25 and 26 December.Particular traditions and superstitious customs observed in Poland are not found elsewhere in Europe. Though Christmas Eve ("Wigilia") is not a public holiday, it remains the most memorable day of the entire year. Trees are decorated on 24 December, hay is placed under the tablecloth to resemble Jesus' manger, Christmas wafers ("opłatek") are shared between gathered guests and a twelve-dish meatless supper is served that same evening when the first star appears. An empty plate and seat are symbolically left at the table for an unexpected guest. On occasion, carolers journey around smaller towns with a folk Turoń creature until the Lent period.A widely-popular doughnut and sweet pastry feast occurs on Fat Thursday, usually 52 days prior to Easter. Eggs for Holy Sunday are painted and placed in decorated baskets that are previously blessed by clergymen in churches on Easter Saturday. Easter Monday is celebrated with pagan "dyngus" festivities, where the youth is engaged in water fights and some girls are gently spanked by colleagues with pussy willows to stimulate fertility.Cemeteries and graves of the deceased are annually visited by family members on All Saints' Day; tombstones are cleaned as a sign of respect and candles are lit to honour the dead on an unprecedented scale.Artists from Poland, including famous musicians such as Chopin, Rubinstein, Paderewski, Penderecki and Wieniawski, and traditional, regionalized folk composers create a lively and diverse music scene, which even recognizes its own music genres, such as sung poetry and disco polo.The origins of Polish music can be traced to the 13th century; manuscripts have been found in Stary Sącz containing polyphonic compositions related to the Parisian Notre Dame School. Other early compositions, such as the melody of "Bogurodzica" and "God Is Born" (a coronation polonaise tune for Polish kings by an unknown composer), may also date back to this period, however, the first known notable composer, Nicholas of Radom, lived in the 15th century. Diomedes Cato, a native-born Italian who lived in Kraków, became a renowned lutenist at the court of Sigismund III; he not only imported some of the musical styles from southern Europe but blended them with native folk music.In the 17th and 18th centuries, Polish baroque composers wrote liturgical music and secular compositions such as concertos and sonatas for voices or instruments. At the end of the 18th century, Polish classical music evolved into national forms like the polonaise. Wojciech Bogusławski is accredited with composing the first Polish national opera, titled "", which premiered in 1794.Traditional Polish folk music has had a major effect on the works of many Polish composers, and no more so than on Fryderyk Chopin, a widely recognised national hero of the arts. All of Chopin's works involve the piano and are technically demanding, emphasising nuance and expressive depth. As a great composer, Chopin invented the musical form known as the instrumental ballade and made major innovations to the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, polonaise, étude, impromptu and prélude, he was also the composer of a number of polonaises which borrowed heavily from traditional Polish folk music. It is largely thanks to him that such pieces gained great popularity throughout Europe during the 19th century. Several Polish composers such as Szymanowski drew inspiration from Chopin's folk-influenced style. Nowadays the most distinctive folk music can be heard in the towns and villages of the mountainous south, particularly in the region surrounding the winter resort town of Zakopane.Poland today has an active music scene, with the jazz and metal genres being particularly popular among the contemporary populace. Polish jazz musicians such as Krzysztof Komeda created a unique style, which was most famous in the 1960s and 1970s and continues to be popular to this day. Poland has also become a major venue for large-scale music festivals, chief among which are the Open'er Festival, Opole Festival and Sopot Festival.Art in Poland has always reflected European trends while maintaining its unique character. The Kraków Academy of Fine Arts, later developed by Jan Matejko, produced monumental portrayals of customs and significant events in Polish history. Other institutions such as the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw were more innovative and focused on both historical and contemporary styles. Notable art academies include the Kraków School of Art and Fashion Design, Art Academy of Szczecin, University of Fine Arts in Poznań and the Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław.Perhaps the most prominent and internationally admired Polish artist was Tamara de Lempicka, who specialized in the style of Art Deco. Lempicka was described as "the first woman artist to become a glamour star." Another notable was Caziel, born Zielenkiewicz, who represented Cubism and Abstraction in France and England.Prior to the 19th century only Daniel Schultz and Italian-born Marcello Bacciarelli had the privilege of being recognized abroad. The Young Poland movement witnessed the birth of modern Polish art, and engaged in a great deal of formal experimentation led by Jacek Malczewski, Stanisław Wyspiański, Józef Mehoffer, and a group of Polish Impressionists. Stanisław Witkiewicz was an ardent supporter of Realism, its main representative being Józef Chełmoński, while Artur Grottger specialized in Romanticism. Within historically-orientated circles, Henryk Siemiradzki dominated with his monumental Academic Art and ancient Roman theme.Since the inter-war years, Polish art and documentary photography has enjoyed worldwide fame and in the 1960s the Polish School of Posters was formed. Throughout the entire country, many national museum and art institutions hold valuable works by famous masters. Major museums in Poland include the National Museum in Warsaw, Poznań, Wrocław, Kraków, and Gdańsk, as well as the Museum of John Paul II Collection, and the Wilanów Museum. Important collections are also held at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Wawel Castle and in the Palace on the Isle. Contemporary art galleries include Zachęta, Ujazdów, and MOCAK. The most distinguished painting of Poland is "Lady with an Ermine" by Leonardo da Vinci, held at the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków. Although not Polish, the work had a strong influence on Polish culture and has been often associated with Polish identity.Polish cities and towns reflect a whole spectrum of European architectural styles. Romanesque architecture is represented by St. Andrew's Church, Kraków, and St. Mary's Church, Gdańsk, is characteristic for the Brick Gothic style found in Poland. Richly decorated attics and arcade loggias are the common elements of the Polish Renaissance architecture, as evident in the City Hall in Poznań. For some time the late renaissance style known as mannerism, most notably in the Bishop's Palace in Kielce, coexisted with the early baroque style, typified in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Kraków.History has not been kind to Poland's architectural monuments. Nonetheless, a number of ancient structures have survived: castles, churches, and stately homes, often unique in the regional or European context. Some of them have been painstakingly restored, like Wawel Castle, or completely reconstructed, including the Old Town and Royal Castle of Warsaw and the Old Town of Gdańsk.The architecture of Gdańsk is mostly of the Hanseatic variety, a Gothic style common among the former trading cities along the Baltic Sea and in the northern part of Central Europe. The architectural style of Wrocław is mainly representative of German architecture since it was for centuries located within the Holy Roman Empire. The centres of Kazimierz Dolny and Sandomierz on the Vistula are good examples of well-preserved medieval towns. Poland's ancient capital, Kraków, ranks among the best-preserved Gothic and Renaissance urban complexes in Europe.The second half of the 17th century is marked by baroque architecture. Side towers, such as those of Branicki Palace in Białystok, are typical for the Polish baroque. The classical Silesian baroque is represented by the University in Wrocław. The profuse decorations of the Branicki Palace in Warsaw are characteristic of the rococo style. The centre of Polish classicism was Warsaw under the rule of the last Polish king Stanisław II Augustus.The Palace on the Isle is a chief example of Polish neoclassical architecture. Lublin Castle represents the Gothic Revival style in architecture, while the Izrael Poznański Palace in Łódź is an example of eclecticism.Traditional folk architecture in the villages and small towns scattered across the vast Polish countryside was characterized by its extensive use of wood and red brick as primary building materials, common for Central Europe. Some of the best preserved and oldest structures include ancient stone temples in Silesia and fortified wooden churches across southeastern Poland in the Beskids and Bieszczady regions of the Carpathian mountains. Numerous examples of secular structures such as Polish manor houses ("dworek"), farmhouses (), granaries, mills, barns and country inns () can still be found in some Polish regions. However, traditional construction methods faded in the early-mid 20th century, when Poland's population experienced a demographic shift to urban dwelling away from the countryside.The earliest examples of Polish literature date to the 12th century, when Poland's official language was Latin, and early published works were predominantly written by foreigners. Gallus Anonymus, a monk of disputed origin, was the first chronicler who meticulously described Poland's culture, language and territories in "Gesta principum Polonorum" (c. 1112–1118). Latin remained the principal tool of literary expression in Poland until the 18th century, when it was replaced in favour of Polish and French. Historically, Polish literature concentrated extensively around the themes of true drama and poetic-expressive romanticism than on fiction. Patriotism, spirituality and aphorisms were paramount and political or social allegories were common moral narratives.The first documented phrase in the Polish language reads ""Day ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai"" ("Let me grind, and you take a rest"), reflecting the use of quern-stone in early Poland. The phrase was recorded by an abbot in the Latin-based "Liber fundationis" from 1269 to 1273, which outlined the history of a Cistercian monastery in the Silesian village of Henryków. The sentence has been included in the UNESCO Memory of World Register. The oldest extant manuscript of fine prose in Old Polish is the "Holy Cross Sermons", and the earliest religious text is the Bible of Queen Sophia. One of the first printing houses was established by Kasper Straube in the 1470s, while Jan Haller was considered the pioneer of commercial print in Poland. Haller's Calendarium cracoviense, an astronomical wall calendar from 1474, is Poland's oldest surviving print.The tradition of extending Polish historiography in Latin was subsequently inherited by Vincent Kadłubek, Bishop of Kraków in the 13th century, and Jan Długosz in the 15th century. This practice, however, was abandoned by Jan Kochanowski, who became one of the first Polish Renaissance authors to write most of his works in Polish, along with Nicholas Rey. Other writers of the Polish Renaissance include Johannes Dantiscus, Andreus Fricius Modrevius, Matthias Sarbievius, Piotr Skarga and Klemens "Ianicius" Janicki, who was laureled by the Pope. The leading figure of the Polish Reformation was theologian and writer John Laski, who, with the permission of King Edward VI of England, created the European Protestant Congregation of London in 1550.During the Baroque era, the Jesuits greatly influenced Polish literature and literary techniques, often relying on God and religious matters. The leading baroque poet was Jan Andrzej Morsztyn, who incorporated Marinism into his publications. Jan Chryzostom Pasek, also a respected baroque writer, is mostly remembered for his tales and memoirs reflecting sarmatian culture in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Subsequently, the Polish Enlightenment was headed by Samuel Linde, Hugo Kołłątaj, Izabela Czartoryska and Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz. In 1776, Ignacy Krasicki composed the first milestone novel entitled "The Adventures of Mr. Nicholas Wisdom".Among the best known Polish Romantics are the "Three Bards" – the three national poets active in the age of foreign partitions – Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki and Zygmunt Krasiński. The narrative poem "Pan Tadeusz" by Mickiewicz is Poland's national epic and a compulsory reading ("lektura") in the country's schools. Joseph Conrad, the son of dramatist Apollo Korzeniowski, came to fame with his English-language novels and stories that are informed with elements of the Polish national experience. Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", "Nostromo" and "Lord Jim" are believed to be one of the finest works ever written, placing him among the greatest novelists of all time. Modern Polish literature is versatile, with its fantasy genre having been particularly praised. The philosophical sci-fi novel "Solaris" is an acclaimed example of Stanisław Lem's literary legacy, whereas "The Witcher", a fantasy series by Andrzej Sapkowski, is a much-celebrated work of contemporary Polish fiction.In the 20th century, five Polish authors were awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature – Henryk Sienkiewicz for "Quo Vadis", Władysław Reymont for "The Peasants", Isaac Bashevis Singer, Czesław Miłosz and Wisława Szymborska. In 2019, Polish author Olga Tokarczuk was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 2018.Polish cuisine has evolved over the centuries to become highly eclectic due to Poland's history. Polish cuisine shares many similarities with other Central European cuisines, especially German and Austrian as well as Jewish, French, Italian and Turkish culinary traditions. Polish-styled cooking in other cultures is often referred to as "cuisine à la polonaise".Polish dishes are usually rich in meat, especially pork, chicken and beef (depending on the region), winter vegetables (sauerkraut cabbage in "bigos"), and spices. It is also characteristic in its use of various kinds of noodles, the most notable of which are kluski, as well as cereals such as "kasha" (from the Polish word kasza) and a variety of breads like the world-renowned bagel. Polish cuisine is hearty and uses a lot of cream and eggs. Festive meals such as the meatless Christmas Eve dinner ("Wigilia") or Easter breakfast could take days to prepare in their entirety.The main course usually includes a serving of meat, such as roast, chicken, or "kotlet schabowy" (breaded pork cutlet), vegetables, side dishes and salads, including "surówka" – shredded root vegetables with lemon and sugar (carrot, celeriac, seared beetroot) or sauerkraut (, ). The side dishes are usually potatoes, rice or cereal. Meals conclude with a dessert such as "sernik" (cheesecake), "makowiec" (poppy seed pastry), or "napoleonka" (cream pie).The Polish national dishes are "bigos" ; "pierogi" ; "kielbasa"; "kotlet schabowy" breaded cutlet; "gołąbki" cabbage rolls; "zrazy" roulade; "pieczeń" roast ; sour cucumber soup ("zupa ogórkowa", ); mushroom soup, ("zupa grzybowa", quite different from the North American cream of mushroom); "zupa pomidorowa" tomato soup ; "rosół" variety of meat broth; "żurek" sour rye soup; "flaki" tripe soup; "barszcz" and "chłodnik" among others.Traditional alcoholic beverages include honey mead, widespread since the 13th century, beer, wine and vodka (old Polish names include "okowita" and "gorzała"). The world's first written mention of vodka originates from Poland. The most popular alcoholic drinks at present are beer and wine which took over from vodka more popular in the years 1980–1998. Tea remains common in Polish society since the 19th century, whilst coffee is drunk widely since the 18th century. Other frequently consumed beverages include various mineral waters and juices, soft drinks popularized by the fast-food chains since the late 20th century, as well as buttermilk, soured milk and kefir.The particular clothing styles in Poland evolved with each century. In the 1600s high-class noblemen and magnates developed a strong sympathy for Orientalism, which was also common in other parts of Europe and became known as Sarmatism. The attire mediated between Western and Ottoman styles and outfits included a żupan, delia, kontusz, pas, decorative karabela swords and less often turbans brought by foreign merchants. The period of Polish Sarmatism eventually faded in the wake of the 18th century.The Polish national dress as well as the fashion and etiquette of Poland also reached the royal court at Versailles in the 1700s. French dresses inspired by Polish attire were called "à la polonaise", meaning "Polish-styled". The most famous example is the "robe à la polonaise", a woman's garment with draped and swagged overskirt, worn over an underskirt or petticoat. Another notable example is the Witzchoura, a long mantle with collar and hood, which was possibly introduced by Napoleon's Polish mistress Maria Walewska. The scope of influence also entailed furniture; rococo Polish beds with canopies became commonplace in French palaces during the 18th century.Several Polish designers and stylists left a lifelong legacy of beauty inventions and cosmetics, most notable being Maksymilian Faktorowicz and Helena Rubinstein. Faktorowicz created a line of cosmetics company in California known as Max Factor and coined the term "make-up" based on the verb phrase "to make up" one's face, now widely used as an alternative for describing cosmetics. Faktorowicz also raised to fame by inventing modern eyelash extensions and by providing services to Hollywood artists.As of 2020, Poland possesses the fifth-largest cosmetic market in Europe. Founded in 1983, Inglot Cosmetics is the country's largest beauty products manufacturer and retailer active in 700 locations worldwide, including retail salons in New York City, London, Milan, Dubai and Las Vegas. Established in 1999, the retail store Reserved is Poland's most successful clothing store chain, operating over 1,700 retail shops in 19 countries. Internationally successful models from Poland include Anja Rubik, Joanna Krupa, Jac Jagaciak, Kasia Struss, Małgosia Bela, and Magdalena Frąckowiak.The history of Polish cinema is as long as the history of cinematography itself. Over the decades, Poland has produced outstanding directors, film producers, cartoonists and actors that achieved world fame, especially in Hollywood. Moreover, Polish inventors played an important role in the development of world cinematography and modern-day television. Among the most famous directors and producers, who worked in Poland as well as abroad are Roman Polański, Andrzej Wajda, Samuel Goldwyn, the Warner brothers (Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack), Max Fleischer, Lee Strasberg, Agnieszka Holland and Krzysztof Kieślowski.In the 19th century, throughout partitioned Poland, numerous amateur inventors, such as Kazimierz Prószyński, were eager to construct a film projector. In 1894, Prószyński was successful in creating a Pleograph, one of the first cameras in the world. The invention, which took photographs and projected pictures, was built before the Lumière brothers lodged their patent. He also patented an Aeroscope, the first successful hand-held operated film camera. In 1897, Jan Szczepanik, obtained a British patent for his Telectroscope. This prototype of television could easily transmit image and sound, thus allowing a live remote view.Polish cinema developed rapidly in the interwar period. The most renowned star of the silent film era was Polish actress Pola Negri. During this time, the Yiddish cinema also evolved in Poland. Films in the Yiddish language with Jewish themes, such as "The Dybbuk" (1937), played an important part in pre-war Polish cinematography. In 1945 the government established 'Film Polski', a state-run film production and distribution organization, with director Aleksander Ford as the head of the company. Ford's "Knights of the Teutonic Order" (1960) was viewed by millions of people in the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and France. This success was followed by the historical films of Jerzy Hoffman and Andrzej Wajda. Wajda's 1975 film "The Promised Land" was nominated at the 48th Academy Awards.In 2015, "Ida" by Paweł Pawlikowski won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2019, Pawlikowski received an Academy Award for Best Director nomination for his historical drama "Cold War". Other well-known Polish Oscar-winning productions include "The Pianist" (2002) by Roman Polański.Poland has a number of major media outlets, chief among which are the national television channels. TVP is Poland's public broadcasting corporation; about a third of its income comes from a broadcast receiver licence, while the rest is made through revenue from commercials and sponsorships. State television operates two mainstream channels, TVP 1 and TVP 2, as well as regional programs for each of the country's 16 voivodeships (as TVP 3). In addition to these general channels, TVP runs a number of genre-specific programmes such as TVP Sport, TVP Historia, TVP Kultura, TVP Rozrywka, TVP Seriale and TVP Polonia, the latter is a state-run channel dedicated to the transmission of Polish language television for the Polish diaspora. Poland has several 24-hour news channels such as Polsat News, TVP Info and TVN 24. Poland also possesses a variety of free-to-air television channels, chiefly TVN, Polsat and TV4.In Poland, there are also daily newspapers like "Gazeta Wyborcza" ("Electoral Gazette"), "Rzeczpospolita" ("The Republic") and "Gazeta Polska Codziennie" ("Polish Daily Newspaper") which provide traditional opinion and news, and tabloids such as "Fakt" and "Super Express". Weeklies include "Tygodnik Angora", "", "Polityka", "Wprost", "Newsweek Polska", "Gość Niedzielny" and "Gazeta Polska".Poland has also emerged as a major hub for video game developers in Europe, with the country now being home to hundreds of studios. Among the most successful ones are CD Projekt, Techland, CI Games and People Can Fly. Some of the most popular video games developed in Poland include The Witcher trilogy. Katowice hosts Intel Extreme Masters, one of the biggest eSports events in the world.Volleyball and Association football are among the country's most popular sports, with a rich history of international competitions. Track and field, basketball, handball, boxing, MMA, motorcycle speedway, ski jumping, cross-country skiing, ice hockey, tennis, fencing, swimming and weightlifting are other popular sports.The golden era of football in Poland occurred throughout the 1970s and went on until the early 1980s when the Polish national football team achieved their best results in any FIFA World Cup competitions finishing 3rd place in the 1974 and the 1982 tournaments. The team won a gold medal in football at the 1972 Summer Olympics and two silver medals, in 1976 and in 1992. In 2012, Poland co-hosted the UEFA European Football Championship.As of May 2021, the Polish men's national volleyball team is ranked as 2nd in the world. Volleyball team won a gold medal in Olympic 1976 Montreal and three gold medals in FIVB World Championship 1974, 2014 and 2018.Mariusz Pudzianowski is a highly successful strongman competitor and has won more World's Strongest Man titles than any other competitor in the world, winning the event in 2008 for the fifth time.Poland has made a distinctive mark in motorcycle speedway racing thanks to Tomasz Gollob and Bartosz Zmarzlik, highly successful Polish riders. The top Ekstraliga division has one of the highest average attendances for any sport in Poland. The national speedway team of Poland is one of the major teams in international speedway.Poles made significant achievements in mountaineering, in particular, in the Himalayas and the winter ascending of the eight-thousanders. Polish mountains are one of the tourist attractions of the country. Hiking, climbing, skiing and mountain biking and attract numerous tourists every year from all over the world. Water sports are the most popular summer recreation activities, with ample locations for fishing, canoeing, kayaking, sailing and windsurfing especially in the northern regions of the country.
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[
"Ewa Kopacz",
"Leszek Miller",
"Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz",
"Mateusz Morawiecki",
"Jan Olszewski",
"Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz",
"Tadeusz Mazowiecki",
"Jarosław Kaczyński",
"Jan Krzysztof Bielecki",
"Hanna Suchocka",
"Donald Tusk",
"Beata Szydło",
"Jerzy Buzek",
"Waldemar Pawlak",
"Józef Oleksy"
] |
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Who was the head of Poland in Jan, 2006?
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January 10, 2006
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{
"text": [
"Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz"
]
}
|
L2_Q36_P6_10
|
Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz is the head of the government of Poland from Feb, 1996 to Oct, 1997.
Marek Belka is the head of the government of Poland from May, 2004 to Oct, 2005.
Ewa Kopacz is the head of the government of Poland from Sep, 2014 to Nov, 2015.
Jarosław Kaczyński is the head of the government of Poland from Jul, 2006 to Nov, 2007.
Jan Olszewski is the head of the government of Poland from Dec, 1991 to Jun, 1992.
Hanna Suchocka is the head of the government of Poland from Jul, 1992 to Oct, 1993.
Mateusz Morawiecki is the head of the government of Poland from Dec, 2017 to Dec, 2022.
Beata Szydło is the head of the government of Poland from Nov, 2015 to Dec, 2017.
Józef Oleksy is the head of the government of Poland from Mar, 1995 to Feb, 1996.
Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 2005 to Jul, 2006.
Tadeusz Mazowiecki is the head of the government of Poland from Aug, 1989 to Jan, 1991.
Waldemar Pawlak is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 1993 to Mar, 1995.
Leszek Miller is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 2001 to May, 2004.
Donald Tusk is the head of the government of Poland from Nov, 2007 to Sep, 2014.
Jan Krzysztof Bielecki is the head of the government of Poland from Jan, 1991 to Dec, 1991.
Jerzy Buzek is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 1997 to Oct, 2001.
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PolandPoland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country located in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces, covering an area of , and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With a population of nearly 38.5 million people, Poland is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union. Poland's capital and largest metropolis is Warsaw. Other major cities include Kraków, Łódź, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk, and Szczecin.Poland's topographically diverse territory extends from the beaches along the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in its south. The country is bordered by Lithuania and Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukraine to the east, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the south, and Germany to the west.The history of human activity on Polish soil spans thousands of years. Throughout the late antiquity period it became extensively diverse, with various cultures and tribes settling on the vast Central European Plain. However, it was the Western Polans who dominated the region and gave Poland its name. The establishment of Polish statehood can be traced to 966, when the pagan ruler of a realm coextensive with the territory of present-day Poland embraced Christianity and converted to Catholicism. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented its longstanding political association with Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest (over in area) and most populous nations of 16th and 17th century Europe, with a uniquely liberal political system which adopted Europe's first modern constitution, the Constitution of 3 May 1791.With the passing of prominence and prosperity, the country was partitioned by neighbouring states at the end of the 18th century, and regained independence in 1918 with the Treaty of Versailles. After a series of territorial conflicts, the new multi-ethnic Poland restored its position as a key player in European politics. In September 1939, World War II began with the invasion of Poland by Germany, followed by the Soviets invading Poland in accordance with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Approximately six million Polish citizens, including three million of the country's Jews, perished during the course of the war. As a member of the Eastern Bloc, the Polish People's Republic proclaimed forthwith was a chief signatory of the Warsaw Treaty amidst global Cold War tensions. In the wake of the 1989 events, notably through the emergence and contributions of the Solidarity movement, the communist government was dissolved and Poland re-established itself as a semi-presidential democratic republic.Poland is a developed market, and a middle power. It has the sixth largest economy in the European Union by nominal GDP and the fifth largest by GDP (PPP). It provides very high standards of living, safety and economic freedom, as well as free university education and a universal health care system. The country has 16 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, 15 of which are cultural. Poland is a member state of the Schengen Area, European Union, European Economic Area, the United Nations, NATO, the OECD, the Three Seas Initiative and the Visegrád Group.The origin of the name "Poland" derives from the West Slavic tribe of Polans ("Polanie"), who inhabited the Warta river basin of the present-day Greater Poland region starting in the mid-6th century. The origin of the name "Polanie" itself derives from the Proto-Slavic word "pole" (field). In some languages, such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian, Russian and Turkish, the country's name is derived from the Lendians ("Lędzianie" or "Lachy") who dwelled on the southeasternmost edge of present-day Lesser Poland. Their name likewise derives from the Old Polish word "lęda" (open land or plain).The early Bronze Age in Poland began around 2400 BC, while the Iron Age commenced in approximately 750 BC. During this time, the Lusatian culture, spanning both the Bronze and Iron Ages, became particularly prominent. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement (now reconstructed as an open-air museum), dating from the Lusatian culture of the late Bronze Age, around 748 BC.Throughout Antiquity, many distinct ancient ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland in an era that dates from about 400 BC to 500 AD. These groups are identified as Celtic, Scythian, Germanic, Sarmatian, Slavic and Baltic tribes. Also, recent archaeological findings in the Kuyavia region confirmed the presence of the Roman Legions on the territory of Poland. These were most likely expeditionary missions sent out to protect the amber trade. The exact time and routes of the original migration and settlement of Slavic peoples lacks written records and can only be defined as fragmented. There is evidence that earlier tribes may have been associated with the ancient Przeworsk culture. Up until the creation of Mieszko's state and his subsequent conversion to Christianity in 966 AD, the main religion of the numerous West Slavic (Lechitic) tribes that inhabited the geographical area of present-day Poland was paganism. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Western Christianity and the religious authority of the Roman Church. However, the transition from paganism was not a smooth and instantaneous process for the rest of the population as evident from the pagan reaction of the 1030s.Poland began to form into a recognizable unitary and territorial entity around the middle of the 10th century under the Piast dynasty. Poland's first historically documented ruler, Mieszko I, accepted Christianity, as the rightful religion of his realm, under the auspices of the Latin Church with the Baptism of Poland in 966. The bulk of the population converted in the course of the next few centuries. In 1000, Boleslaw the Brave, continuing the policy of his father Mieszko, held a Congress of Gniezno and created the metropolis of Gniezno and the dioceses of Kraków, Kołobrzeg, and Wrocław. However, the pagan unrest led to the transfer of the capital to Kraków in 1038 by Casimir I the Restorer.In 1109, Prince Bolesław III Wrymouth defeated the King of Germany Henry V at the Battle of Hundsfeld, stopping the German incursion into Poland. The clash between Bolesław III and Henry V was documented by Gallus Anonymus in his 1118 chronicle. In 1138, Poland fragmented into several smaller duchies when Bolesław divided his lands among his sons. In 1226, Konrad I of Masovia, one of the regional Piast dukes, invited the Teutonic Knights to help him fight the Baltic Prussian pagans; a decision that led to centuries of warfare with the Knights. In 1264, the Statute of Kalisz or the General Charter of Jewish Liberties introduced numerous right for the Jews in Poland, leading to a nearly autonomous "nation within a nation".In the middle of the 13th century, the Silesian branch of the Piast dynasty (Henry I the Bearded and Henry II the Pious, ruled 1238–1241) nearly succeeded in uniting the Polish lands, but the Mongols invaded the country from the east and defeated the combined Polish forces at the Battle of Legnica where Duke Henry II the Pious died. In 1320, after a number of earlier unsuccessful attempts by regional rulers at uniting the Polish dukedoms, Władysław I consolidated his power, took the throne and became the first king of a reunified Poland. His son, Casimir III (reigned 1333–1370), has a reputation as one of the greatest Polish kings, and gained wide recognition for improving the country's infrastructure. He also extended royal protection to Jews, and encouraged their immigration to Poland. Casimir III realized that the nation needed a class of educated people, especially lawyers, who could codify the country's laws and administer the courts and offices. His efforts to create an institution of higher learning in Poland were finally rewarded when Pope Urban V granted him permission to open the University of Kraków.The Golden Liberty of the nobles began to develop under Casimir's rule, when in return for their military support, the king made a series of concessions to the nobility and establishing their legal status as superior to that of the townsfolk. When Casimir the Great died in 1370, leaving no legitimate male heir, the Piast dynasty came to an end.During the 13th and 14th centuries, Poland became a destination for German, Flemish and to a lesser extent Walloon, Danish and Scottish migrants. Also, Jews and Armenians began to settle and flourish in Poland during this era (see History of the Jews in Poland and Armenians in Poland).The Black Death, a plague that ravaged Europe from 1347 to 1351, did not significantly affect Poland, and the country was spared from a major outbreak of the disease. The reason for this was the decision of Casimir the Great to quarantine the nation's borders.The Jagiellon dynasty spanned the late Middle Ages and early Modern Era of Polish history. Beginning with the Lithuanian Grand Duke Jogaila (Władysław II Jagiełło), the Jagiellon dynasty (1386–1572) formed the Polish–Lithuanian union. The partnership brought vast Lithuanian-controlled Rus' areas into Poland's sphere of influence and proved beneficial for the Poles and Lithuanians, who coexisted and cooperated in one of the largest political entities in Europe for the next four centuries.In the Baltic Sea region the struggle of Poland and Lithuania with the Teutonic Knights continued and culminated at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, where a combined Polish-Lithuanian army inflicted a decisive victory against them. In 1466, after the Thirteen Years' War, King Casimir IV Jagiellon gave royal consent to the Peace of Thorn, which created the future Duchy of Prussia under Polish suzerainty. The Jagiellon dynasty at one point also established dynastic control over the kingdoms of Bohemia (1471 onwards) and Hungary. In the south, Poland confronted the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Tatars (by whom they were attacked on 75 separate occasions between 1474 and 1569), and in the east helped Lithuania fight the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Some historians estimate that Crimean Tatar slave-raiding cost Poland-Lithuania one million of its population between the years of 1494 and 1694.Poland was developing as a feudal state, with a predominantly agricultural economy and an increasingly powerful landed nobility. The "Nihil novi" act adopted by the Polish Sejm (parliament) in 1505, transferred most of the legislative power from the monarch to the Sejm, an event which marked the beginning of the period known as "Golden Liberty", when the state was ruled by the "free and equal" Polish nobility. Protestant Reformation movements made deep inroads into Polish Christianity, which resulted in the establishment of policies promoting religious tolerance, unique in Europe at that time. This tolerance allowed the country to avoid most of the religious turmoil that spread over Europe during the 16th century.The European Renaissance evoked in late Jagiellon Poland (under kings Sigismund I the Old and Sigismund II Augustus) a sense of urgency in the need to promote a cultural awakening, and during this period Polish culture and the nation's economy flourished. In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus, an astronomer from Toruń, published his epochal work "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" ("On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres") and thereby became the first proponent of a predictive mathematical model confirming the heliocentric theory, which became the accepted basic model for the practice of modern astronomy. Another major figure associated with the era is the classicist poet Jan Kochanowski.The 1569 Union of Lublin established the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a more closely unified federal state with an elective monarchy, but which was governed largely by the nobility, through a system of local assemblies with a central parliament. The Warsaw Confederation (1573) guaranteed religious freedom for the Polish nobility "(szlachta)" and townsfolk "(mieszczanie)". However, the peasants "(chłopi)" were still subject to severe limitations imposed on them by the nobility. The establishment of the Commonwealth coincided with a period of stability and prosperity in Poland, with the union thereafter becoming a European power and a major cultural entity, occupying approximately one million square kilometers of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as an agent for the dissemination of Western culture through Polonization into areas of modern-day Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Belarus and western Russia.In the 16th and 17th centuries, Poland suffered from a number of dynastic crises during the reigns of the Vasa kings Sigismund III and Władysław IV and found itself engaged in major conflicts with Russia, Sweden and the Ottoman Empire, as well as a series of minor Cossack uprisings. In 1610, a Polish army under the command of Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski seized Moscow after winning the Battle of Klushino. In 1611, the Tsar of Russia paid homage to the King of Poland.After the signing of Truce of Deulino, Poland had in the years 1618–1621 an area of about .From the middle of the 17th century, the nobles' democracy, suffering from internal disorder, gradually declined, thereby leaving the once powerful Commonwealth vulnerable to foreign intervention. Starting in 1648, the Cossack Khmelnytsky Uprising engulfed the south and east, eventually leaving Ukraine divided, with the eastern part, lost by the Commonwealth, becoming a dependency of the Tsardom of Russia. This was followed by the 'Deluge', a Swedish invasion of Poland, which marched through the Polish heartlands and ruined the country's population, culture and infrastructure—around four million of Poland's eleven million inhabitants died in famines and epidemics throughout the 17th century. However, under John III Sobieski the Commonwealth's military prowess was re-established, and in 1683 Polish forces played a major role in the Battle of Vienna against the Ottoman Army, commanded by Kara Mustafa, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.Sobieski's reign marked the end of the nation's golden era. Finding itself subjected to almost constant warfare and suffering enormous population losses as well as massive damage to its economy, the Commonwealth fell into decline. The government became ineffective as a result of large-scale internal conflicts (e.g. Lubomirski Rebellion against John II Casimir and rebellious confederations) and corrupted legislative processes. The nobility fell under the control of a handful of "magnats", and this, compounded with two relatively weak kings of the Saxon Wettin dynasty, Augustus II and Augustus III, as well as the rise of Russia and Prussia after the Great Northern War only served to worsen the Commonwealth's plight. Despite this The Commonwealth-Saxony personal union gave rise to the emergence of the Commonwealth's first reform movement, and laid the foundations for the Polish Enlightenment.During the later part of the 18th century, the Commonwealth made attempts to implement fundamental internal reforms; with the second half of the century bringing a much improved economy, significant population growth and far-reaching progress in the areas of education, intellectual life, art, and especially toward the end of the period, evolution of the social and political system. The most populous capital city of Warsaw replaced Gdańsk (Danzig) as the leading centre of commerce, and the role of the more prosperous urban population increased.The royal election of 1764 resulted in the elevation of Stanisław II August (a Polish aristocrat connected to the "Familia" faction of magnates) to the monarchy. However, elevated to the throne by the Empress Catherine II of Russia, the new king spent much of his reign maneuvering between his desire to implement necessary reforms to save his country, and the necessity to remain in a political relationship and at peace with Russia. This led to the formation of the 1768 Bar Confederation, a "szlachta" rebellion directed against the Polish king and all external influence, which ineptly aimed to preserve Poland's independence and szlachta's privileges. The failed attempts at reform as well as the internal turmoil caused by the Confederation proved the country's weakness and provoked its neighbours. In 1772 the First Partition of the Commonwealth by Prussia, Russia and Austria took place; an act which the "Partition Sejm", under considerable duress, eventually "ratified" "fait accompli". Disregarding this loss, in 1773 the king established the plan of the most necessary reforms, in which the Commission of National Education, the first government education authority in Europe, was established. Corporal punishment of children was officially prohibited in 1783.The Great Sejm convened by Stanisław II August in 1788 successfully adopted the 3 May Constitution, the first set of modern supreme national laws in Europe. However, this document, accused by detractors of harbouring revolutionary sympathies, generated strong opposition from the Commonwealth's nobles and conservatives as well as from Catherine II, who, determined to prevent the rebirth of a strong Commonwealth set about planning the final dismemberment of the Polish-Lithuanian state. Russia was aided in achieving its goal when the Targowica Confederation, an organisation of Polish nobles, appealed to the Empress for help. In May 1792, Russian forces crossed the Commonwealth's frontier, thus beginning the Polish-Russian War.The defensive war fought by the Poles ended prematurely when the King, convinced of the futility of resistance, capitulated and joined the Targowica Confederation, hoping to save the country. The Confederation then took over the government. Russia and Prussia, fearing the mere existence of a Polish state, understanding, that despite the current influence they still cannot control the country, arranged for, and in 1793 executed, the Second Partition of the Commonwealth, which left the country deprived of so much territory that it was practically incapable of independent existence. Eventually, in 1795, following the failed Kościuszko Uprising, the Commonwealth was partitioned one last time by all three of its more powerful neighbours, and with this, effectively ceased to exist. The 18-century British statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke summed up the partitions: "No wise or honest man can approve of that partition, or can contemplate it without prognosticating great mischief from it to all countries at some future time."Poles rebelled several times against the partitioners, particularly near the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. An unsuccessful attempt at defending Poland's sovereignty took place in 1794 during the Kościuszko Uprising, where a popular and distinguished general Tadeusz Kościuszko, who had several years earlier served under Washington in the American Revolutionary War, led Polish insurrectionists against numerically superior Russian forces. Despite the victory at the Battle of Racławice, his ultimate defeat ended Poland's independent existence for 123 years.In 1807, Napoleon I of France temporarily recreated a Polish state as the satellite Duchy of Warsaw, after a successful Greater Poland Uprising of 1806 against Prussian rule. But, after the failed Napoleonic Wars, Poland was again split between the victorious powers at the Congress of Vienna of 1815. The eastern part was ruled by the Russian tsar as Congress Poland, which had a liberal constitution. However, over time the Russian monarch reduced Polish freedoms, and Russia annexed the country in virtually all but name. Meanwhile, the Prussian controlled territory of Poland came under increased Germanization. Thus, in the 19th century, only Habsburg-ruled Austrian Poland, and particularly the Free City of Kraków, allowed free Polish culture to flourish.Throughout the period of the partitions, political and cultural repression of the Polish nation led to the organisation of a number of uprisings against the authorities of the occupying Russian, Prussian and Austrian governments. In 1830, the November Uprising began in Warsaw when, led by Lieutenant Piotr Wysocki, young non-commissioned officers at the Officer Cadet School in Warsaw revolted. They were joined by large segments of Polish society, and together forced Warsaw's Russian garrison to withdraw north of the city.Over the course of the next seven months, Polish forces successfully defeated the Russian armies of Field Marshal Hans Karl von Diebitsch and a number of other Russian commanders; however, finding themselves in a position unsupported by any other foreign powers, save distant France and the newborn United States, and with Prussia and Austria refusing to allow the import of military supplies through their territories, the Poles accepted that the uprising was doomed to failure. Upon the surrender of Warsaw to General Ivan Paskievich, many Polish troops, feeling they could not go on, withdrew into Prussia and there laid down their arms. After the defeat, the semi-independent Congress Poland lost its constitution, army and legislative assembly, and was integrated more closely with the Russian Empire.During the Spring of Nations (a series of revolutions which swept across Europe), Poles took up arms in the Greater Poland Uprising of 1848 to resist Prussian rule. Initially, the uprising manifested itself in the form of civil disobedience but eventually turned into an armed struggle when the Prussian military was sent in to pacify the region. Subsequently, the uprising was suppressed and the semi-autonomous Grand Duchy of Posen, created from the Prussian partition of Poland, was incorporated into Prussia.In 1863, a new Polish uprising against Russian rule began. The January Uprising started out as a spontaneous protest by young Poles against conscription into the Imperial Russian Army. However, the insurrectionists, despite being joined by high-ranking Polish-Lithuanian officers and numerous politicians, were still severely outnumbered and lacking in foreign support. They were forced to resort to guerrilla warfare tactics and failed to win any major military victories. Afterwards no major uprising was witnessed in the Russian-controlled Congress Poland, and Poles resorted instead to fostering economic and cultural self-improvement. Congress Poland was rapidly industrialised towards the end of the 19th century, and successively transformed into the Empire's wealthiest and most developed subject.Despite the political unrest experienced during the partitions, Poland did benefit from large-scale industrialisation and modernisation programs, instituted by the occupying powers, which helped it develop into a more economically coherent and viable entity. This was particularly true in Greater Poland, Silesia and Eastern Pomerania controlled by Prussia (later becoming a part of the German Empire); areas which eventually, thanks largely to the Greater Poland Uprising of 1918 and Silesian Uprisings, were reconstituted as a part of the Second Polish Republic, becoming the country's most prosperous regions.Following World War I all the Allies agreed on the reconstitution of Poland that United States President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed in Point 13 of his Fourteen Points. A total of 2 million Polish troops fought with the armies of the three occupying powers, and 450,000 died. Shortly after the armistice with Germany in November 1918, Poland regained its independence as the Second Polish Republic ("II Rzeczpospolita Polska"). It reaffirmed its independence after a series of military conflicts, the most notable being the Polish–Soviet War (1919–21) when Poland inflicted a crushing defeat on the Red Army at the Battle of Warsaw, an event which is considered to have halted the advance of Communism into Europe and forced Vladimir Lenin to rethink his objective of achieving global socialism. The event is often referred to as the "Miracle at the Vistula".During this period, Poland successfully managed to fuse the territories of the three former partitioning powers into a cohesive nation state. Railways were restructured to direct traffic towards Warsaw instead of the former imperial capitals, a new network of national roads was gradually built up and a major seaport, Gdynia, was opened on the Baltic Coast, so as to allow Polish exports and imports to bypass the politically charged Free City of Danzig. Also, the Polish government embarked on the creation of the Central Industrial Region ("Centralny Okręg Przemysłowy"). The project's goal was to create a heavy industrial center in the middle of the country, which included steal mills, power plants and factories. The inter-war period heralded in a new era of Polish politics. Whilst Polish political activists had faced heavy censorship in the decades up until the First World War, the country now found itself trying to establish a new political tradition. For this reason, many exiled Polish activists, such as Ignacy Paderewski (who would later become prime minister) returned home to help; a significant number of them then went on to take key positions in the newly formed political and governmental structures. Tragedy struck in 1922 when Gabriel Narutowicz, inaugural holder of the presidency, was assassinated at the Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw by a painter and right-wing nationalist Eligiusz Niewiadomski.In 1926, a May coup, led by the hero of the Polish independence campaign Marshal Józef Piłsudski, turned rule of the Second Polish Republic over to the nonpartisan Sanacja ("Healing") movement in an effort to prevent radical political organizations on both the left and the right from destabilizing the country. The movement functioned with relative stability until Piłsudski's death in 1935. Following Marshall Piłsudski's death, Sanation split into several competing factions. By the late 1930s, due to increased threats posed by political extremism inside the country, the Polish government became increasingly heavy-handed, banning a number of radical organizations, including communist and ultra-nationalist political parties, which threatened the stability of the country.World War II began with the Nazi German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, followed by the Soviet invasion of Poland on 17 September. On 28 September 1939, Warsaw fell. As agreed in the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Poland was split into two zones, one occupied by Nazi Germany, the other by the Soviet Union. In 1939–41, the Soviets deported hundreds of thousands of Poles. The Soviet NKVD executed thousands of Polish prisoners of war (inter alia Katyn massacre) ahead of the Operation Barbarossa. German planners had in November 1939 called for "the complete destruction of all Poles" and their fate as outlined in the genocidal "Generalplan Ost".Polish intelligence operatives proved extremely valuable to the Allies, providing much of the intelligence from Europe and beyond, and Polish code breakers were responsible for cracking the Enigma cypher.Poland made the fourth-largest troop contribution in Europe and its troops served both the Polish Government in Exile in the west and Soviet leadership in the east. Polish troops played an important role in the Normandy, Italian and North African Campaigns and are particularly remembered for the Battle of Monte Cassino. In the east, the Soviet-backed Polish 1st Army distinguished itself in the battles for Warsaw and Berlin.The wartime resistance movement, and the Armia Krajowa ("Home Army"), fought against German occupation. It was one of the three largest resistance movements of the entire war, and encompassed a range of clandestine activities, which functioned as an underground state complete with degree-awarding universities and a court system. The resistance was loyal to the exiled government and generally resented the idea of a communist Poland; for this reason, in the summer of 1944 it initiated Operation Tempest, of which the Warsaw Uprising that begun on 1 August 1944 is the best known operation.Nazi German forces under orders from Adolf Hitler set up six German extermination camps in occupied Poland, including Treblinka, Majdanek and Auschwitz. The Germans transported millions of Jews from across occupied Europe to be murdered in those camps.Altogether, 3 million Polish Jews – approximately 90% of Poland's pre-war Jewry – and between 1.8 and 2.8 million ethnic Poles were killed during the German occupation of Poland, including between 50,000 and 100,000 members of the Polish intelligentsia – academics, doctors, lawyers, nobility and priesthood. During the Warsaw Uprising alone, over 150,000 Polish civilians were killed, most were murdered by the Germans during the Wola and Ochota massacres. Around 150,000 Polish civilians were killed by Soviets between 1939 and 1941 during the Soviet Union's occupation of eastern Poland (Kresy), and another estimated 100,000 Poles were murdered by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) between 1943 and 1944 in what became known as the Wołyń Massacres. Of all the countries in the war, Poland lost the highest percentage of its citizens: around 6 million perished – more than one-sixth of Poland's pre-war population – half of them Polish Jews. About 90% of deaths were non-military in nature.In 1945, Poland's borders were shifted westwards. Over two million Polish inhabitants of Kresy were expelled along the Curzon Line by Stalin. The western border became the Oder-Neisse line. As a result, Poland's territory was reduced by 20%, or . The shift forced the migration of millions of other people, most of whom were Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, and Jews.At the insistence of Joseph Stalin, the Yalta Conference sanctioned the formation of a new provisional pro-Communist coalition government in Moscow, which ignored the Polish government-in-exile based in London. This action angered many Poles who considered it a betrayal by the Allies. In 1944, Stalin had made guarantees to Churchill and Roosevelt that he would maintain Poland's sovereignty and allow democratic elections to take place. However, upon achieving victory in 1945, the elections organized by the occupying Soviet authorities were falsified and were used to provide a veneer of legitimacy for Soviet hegemony over Polish affairs. The Soviet Union instituted a new communist government in Poland, analogous to much of the rest of the Eastern Bloc. As elsewhere in Communist Europe, the Soviet influence over Poland was met with armed resistance from the outset which continued into the 1950s.Despite widespread objections, the new Polish government accepted the Soviet annexation of the pre-war eastern regions of Poland (in particular the cities of Wilno and Lwów) and agreed to the permanent garrisoning of Red Army units on Poland's territory. Military alignment within the Warsaw Pact throughout the Cold War came about as a direct result of this change in Poland's political culture. In the European scene, it came to characterize the full-fledged integration of Poland into the brotherhood of communist nations.The new communist government took control with the adoption of the Small Constitution on 19 February 1947. The Polish People's Republic ("Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa") was officially proclaimed in 1952. In 1956, after the death of Bolesław Bierut, the régime of Władysław Gomułka became temporarily more liberal, freeing many people from prison and expanding some personal freedoms. Collectivization in the Polish People's Republic failed. A similar situation repeated itself in the 1970s under Edward Gierek, but most of the time persecution of anti-communist opposition groups persisted. Despite this, Poland was at the time considered to be one of the least oppressive states of the Eastern Bloc.Labour turmoil in 1980 led to the formation of the independent trade union "Solidarity" (""Solidarność""), which over time became a political force. Despite persecution and imposition of martial law in 1981, it eroded the dominance of the Polish United Workers' Party and by 1989 had triumphed in Poland's first partially free and democratic parliamentary elections since the end of the Second World War. Lech Wałęsa, a Solidarity candidate, eventually won the presidency in 1990. The Solidarity movement heralded the collapse of communist regimes and parties across Europe.A shock therapy programme, initiated by Leszek Balcerowicz in the early 1990s, enabled the country to transform its socialist-style planned economy into a market economy. As with other post-communist countries, Poland suffered declines in social and economic standards, but it became the first post-communist country to reach its pre-1989 GDP levels, which it achieved by 1995 thanks largely to its booming economy.Most visibly, there were numerous improvements in human rights, such as freedom of speech, internet freedom (no censorship), civil liberties (1st class) and political rights (1st class), as ranked by Freedom House non-governmental organization. In 1991, Poland became a member of the Visegrád Group and joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance in 1999 along with the Czech Republic and Hungary. Poles then voted to join the European Union in a referendum in June 2003, with Poland becoming a full member on 1 May 2004.Poland joined the Schengen Area in 2007, as a result of which, the country's borders with other member states of the European Union have been dismantled, allowing for full freedom of movement within most of the EU. In contrast to this, a section of Poland's eastern border now constitutes the external EU border with Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. That border has become increasingly well protected, and has led in part to the coining of the phrase 'Fortress Europe', in reference to the seeming 'impossibility' of gaining entry to the EU for citizens of the former Soviet Union.In an effort to strengthen military cooperation with its neighbors, Poland set up the Visegrád Battlegroup with Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia, with a total of 3,000 troops ready for deployment. Also, in eastern Poland, it formed the LITPOLUKRBRIG battle groups with Lithuania and Ukraine. These battle groups will operate outside of NATO and within the European defense initiative framework.On 10 April 2010, the President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, along with 89 other high-ranking Polish officials died in a plane crash near Smolensk, Russia. The president's party was on their way to attend an annual service of commemoration for the victims of the Katyń massacre when the tragedy took place.In 2011, the ruling Civic Platform won parliamentary elections. Poland joined the European Space Agency in 2012, as well as organised the UEFA Euro 2012 (along with Ukraine). In 2013, Poland also became a member of the Development Assistance Committee. In 2014, the Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, was chosen to be President of the European Council, and resigned as prime minister.The 2015 and 2019 elections were won by the conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS), resulting in increased friction between Poland and the EU. In December 2017, Mateusz Morawiecki was sworn in as the new Prime Minister, succeeding Beata Szydlo, in office since 2015. They both represented ruling Law and Justice party, led by party chairman Jarosław Kaczyński. President Andrzej Duda, supported by Law and Justice party, was narrowly re-elected in the 2020 presidential election.Poland's vast territory covers approximately , of which 98.52% is dry land and 1.48% is water. Extending across several geographical regions, the country is the 9th-largest by area in Europe and 69th largest in the world. Topographically, Poland is diverse and has access to the sea, the mountains and open terrain. Although most of the central parts of the country are flat, there is an abundance of lakes, rivers, hills, swamps, beaches, islands and forests elsewhere.In the north-west is the Baltic seacoast spanning from the Bay of Pomerania to the Gulf of Gdańsk. The coast is marked by several spits, coastal lakes (former bays that have been cut off from the sea), and dunes. The largely straight coastline is indented by the Szczecin Lagoon, the Bay of Puck, and the Vistula Lagoon.The central and northern parts of the country lie within the North European Plain. Rising above these lowlands is a geographical region comprising four hilly districts of moraines and moraine-dammed lakes formed during and after the Pleistocene ice age, notably the Pomeranian Lake District, the Greater Polish Lake District, the Kashubian Lake District, and the Masurian Lake District. The Masurian Lake District is the largest of the four and covers much of north-eastern Poland. The lake districts form a series of moraine belts along the southern shore of the Baltic Sea.South of the Northern European Plain are the regions of Lusatia, Silesia and Masovia, which are marked by broad ice-age river valleys. The extreme south of Poland is mountainous; it runs from the Sudetes in the west to the Carpathian Mountains in the east. The highest part of the Carpathian massif is the Tatra Mountain range, along Poland's southern border.The geological structure of Poland has been shaped by the continental collision of Europe and Africa over the past 60 million years and, more recently, by the Quaternary glaciations of northern Europe. Both processes shaped the Sudetes and the Carpathian Mountains. The moraine landscape of northern Poland contains soils made up mostly of sand or loam, while the ice age river valleys of the south often contain loess. The Polish Jura, the Pieniny, and the Western Tatras consist of limestone, whereas the High Tatras, the Beskids, and the Karkonosze mountain ranges are made up mainly of granite and basalts. The Polish Jura Chain has some of the oldest rock formations on the continent of Europe.Poland has over 70 mountains over in elevation, all situated in the Tatras. Poland's highest point is the north-western summit of Mount Rysy at in elevation. At its foot lie the mountain lakes of Czarny Staw (Black Lake) and Morskie Oko (Eye of the Sea), both naturally-made tarns. Other notable uplands include the Pieniny and Holy Cross Mountains, the Table Mountains noted for their unusual rock formations, the Bieszczady in the far southeast of the country in which the highest peak is Tarnica at , and the Gorce Mountains whose highest point is Turbacz at . The highest point of the Sudeten massif is Mount Śnieżka (), shared with the Czech Republic.The lowest point in Poland – at below sea level – is at Raczki Elbląskie, near Elbląg in the Vistula Delta.In the Zagłębie Dąbrowskie (the Coal Fields of Dąbrowa) region in the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland is an area of sparsely vegetated sand known as the Błędów Desert. It covers an area of . It is not a natural desert and was formed by human activity from the Middle Ages onwards.The Baltic Sea activity in Słowiński National Park created sand dunes which in the course of time separated the bay from the sea creating two lakes. As waves and wind carry sand inland the dunes slowly move, at a rate of per year. Some dunes reach the height of up to . The highest peak of the park is Rowokol at above sea level.The longest rivers are the Vistula (), long; the Oder () which forms part of Poland's western border, long; its tributary, the Warta, long; and the Bug, a tributary of the Vistula, long. The Vistula and the Oder flow into the Baltic Sea, as do numerous smaller rivers in Pomerania. Poland's lengthy waterways have been used since early times for navigation; the Vikings ventured up the Polish rivers in their longships. In the Middle Ages and in early modern times, the shipment of tangible goods down the Vistula toward Gdańsk and onward to other parts of Europe took on great importance.With almost ten thousand closed bodies of water covering more than each, Poland has one of the highest numbers of lakes in the world. In Europe, only Finland has a greater density of lakes. The largest lakes, covering more than , are Lake Śniardwy and Lake Mamry in Masuria as well as Lake Łebsko and Lake Drawsko in Pomerania. The lake with the greatest depth—of more than —is Lake Hańcza in the Wigry Lake District, east of Masuria in Podlaskie Voivodeship.The Polish Baltic coast is approximately long and extends from Świnoujście on the islands of Usedom and Wolin in the west to Krynica Morska on the Vistula Spit in the east. For the most part, Poland has a smooth coastline, which has been shaped by the continual movement of sand by currents and winds. This continual erosion and deposition has formed cliffs, dunes, and spits, many of which have migrated landwards to close off former lagoons, such as Łebsko Lake in the Słowiński National Park.The largest spits are Hel Peninsula and the Vistula Spit. The coast line is varied also by Szczecin and Vistula Lagoons and several lakes, including Jamno. The largest Polish Baltic island is Wolin, located within Wolin National Park. The largest sea harbours are Szczecin, Świnoujście, Gdańsk, Gdynia, Police and Kołobrzeg and the main coastal resorts – Świnoujście, Międzydzdroje, Kołobrzeg, Łeba, Sopot, Władysławowo and the Hel Peninsula.In the valley of Pilica river in Tomaszów Mazowiecki there is a unique natural karst spring of water containing calcium salts, that is an object of protection at Blue Springs Nature Reserve in the Sulejów Landscape Park. The red waves are absorbed by water, hence only blue and green are reflected from the bottom of the spring, giving the water atypical colour.Forests cover about 29.6% of Poland's land area based on international standards. Its overall percentage is still increasing. Forests of Poland are managed by the national program of reforestation (KPZL), aiming at an increase of forest-cover to 33% in 2050. The largest forest complex in Poland is Lower Silesian Wilderness.More than 1% of Poland's territory, , is protected within 23 Polish national parks. Three more national parks are projected for Masuria, the Polish Jura, and the eastern Beskids. In addition, wetlands along lakes and rivers in central Poland are legally protected, as are coastal areas in the north. There are 123 areas designated as landscape parks, along with numerous nature reserves and other protected areas under the Natura 2000 network.In 2017, approximately of land was occupied by farms and farmsteads, over half of Poland's total area.Phytogeographically, Poland belongs to the Central European province of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the territory of Poland belongs to three Palearctic Ecoregions of the continental forest spanning Central and Northern European temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregions, as well as the Carpathian montane conifer forest. The most common deciduous trees found across the country are oak, maple, and beech; the most common conifers are pine, spruce, and fir. An estimated 68.7% of all forests are coniferous.Poland has historically been home to rare species of animals, as well as the two largest European mammals: the wisent ("żubr") and aurochs ("tur"). The last aurochs of Europe became extinct in 1627 in the Polish Jaktorów Forest, while the wisent survived until the 20th century only at Białowieża. It has been since reintroduced to other countries. Other wild species include the brown bear in Białowieża, in the Tatras, and in the Beskids; the gray wolf and the Eurasian lynx in various forests; the moose in northern Poland; and the beaver in Masuria, Pomerania, and Podlaskie.Game animals such as red deer, roe deer, and wild boar are found in most woodlands. Eastern Poland abounds in ancient woods, like the Białowieża Forest, that have not been disturbed by human or industrial activity. There are also large forested areas in the mountains, Greater Poland, Pomerania, Lubusz Land, and Lower Silesia. The Lubusz Voivodeship is currently the most arboraceous province in the country; 52% of its territory is occupied by forests.Poland is also a significant breeding ground for a variety of European migratory birds. One quarter of the global population of white storks (40,000 breeding pairs) live in Poland, particularly in the lake districts and the wetlands along the Biebrza, the Narew, and the Warta, which are part of nature reserves or national parks.The climate is mostly temperate throughout the country. The climate is oceanic in the north-west and becomes gradually warmer and continental towards the south-east. Summers are generally warm, with average temperatures between depending on the region. Winters are rather cold, with average temperatures around in the northwest and in the northeast. Precipitation falls throughout the year, although, especially in the east, winter is drier than summer.The warmest region in Poland is Lower Silesia in the southwest of the country, where temperatures in the summer average between but can go as high as on some days in the warmest months of July and August. The warmest cities in Poland are Tarnów in Lesser Poland, and Wrocław in Lower Silesia. The average temperatures in Wrocław are in the summer and in the winter, but Tarnów has the longest summer in all of Poland, which lasts for 115 days, from mid-May to mid-September. The coldest region of Poland is in the northeast, around the area of Suwałki within the Podlaskie Voivodeship, where the climate is affected by cold fronts coming from Scandinavia and Siberia. The average temperature in the winter in Podlaskie ranges from . The biggest impact of the oceanic climate is observed in Świnoujście and Baltic Sea seashore area from Police to Słupsk.Poland is a representative democracy, with a president as the head of state. The government structure centers on the Council of Ministers, led by a prime minister. The president appoints the cabinet according to the proposals of the prime minister, typically from the majority coalition in the Sejm. The president is elected by popular vote every five years. The current president is Andrzej Duda and the prime minister is Mateusz Morawiecki.Polish voters elect a bicameral parliament consisting of a 460-member lower house (Sejm) and a 100-member Senate (Senat). The Sejm is elected under proportional representation according to the d'Hondt method, a method similar to that used in many parliamentary political systems. The Senat, on the other hand, is elected under the first-past-the-post voting method, with one senator being returned from each of the 100 constituencies.With the exception of ethnic minority parties, only candidates of political parties receiving at least 5% of the total national vote can enter the Sejm. When sitting in joint session, members of the Sejm and Senat form the National Assembly (the "Zgromadzenie Narodowe"). The National Assembly is formed on three occasions: when a new president takes the oath of office; when an indictment against the President of the Republic is brought to the State Tribunal ("Trybunał Stanu"); and when a president's permanent incapacity to exercise his duties due to the state of his health is declared. To date only the first instance has occurred.The judicial branch plays an important role in decision-making. Its major institutions include the Supreme Court ("Sąd Najwyższy"); the Supreme Administrative Court ("Naczelny Sąd Administracyjny"); the Constitutional Tribunal ("Trybunał Konstytucyjny"); and the State Tribunal ("Trybunał Stanu"). On the approval of the Senat, the Sejm also appoints the ombudsman or the Commissioner for Civil Rights Protection ("Rzecznik Praw Obywatelskich") for a five-year term. The ombudsman has the duty of guarding the observance and implementation of the rights and liberties of Polish citizens and residents, of the law and of principles of community life and social justice.The Constitution of Poland is the enacted supreme law, and the Polish legal system is based on the principle of civil rights, governed by the code of civil law. The current democratic constitution was adopted by the National Assembly of Poland on 2 April 1997; it guarantees a multi-party state with freedoms of religion, speech and assembly, prohibits the practices of forced medical experimentation, torture or corporal punishment, and acknowledges the inviolability of the home, the right to form trade unions, and the right to strike.The judiciary incorporates a four-tier court system composed of the Supreme Court, the Supreme Administrative Court, Common Courts (District, Regional, Appellate) and the Military Court. Judges are nominated by the National Council of the Judiciary and are appointed for life by the president. The Constitutional and State Tribunals are separate judicial bodies, which rule the constitutional liability of people holding the highest offices of state and supervise the compliance of statutory law, thus protecting the Constitution.Historically, the most significant Polish legal act is the Constitution of 3 May 1791, the first modern constitution in Europe. Instituted as a Government Act, it was designed to redress long-standing political defects of the federative Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and its Golden Liberty. Previously, only the Henrician Articles (1573) signed by each of Poland's elected monarchs could perform the function of a set of basic laws. The new Constitution introduced political equality between townspeople and the nobility ("szlachta"), and placed the peasants under the protection of the government. It abolished pernicious parliamentary policies such as the "liberum veto", which permitted any deputy to rescind all the legislation passed in the interest of a foreign power. The 3 May Constitution sought to supplant the existing anarchy fostered by some of the country's reactionary magnates, with a more egalitarian and democratic constitutional monarchy. The influenced many later democratic movements across the globe. Tax-paying women were allowed to take part in Polish political life until the third partition in 1795. In 1918 the Second Polish Republic became one of the first countries to introduce universal women's suffrage.Poland has a low homicide rate at 0.7 murders per 100,000 people, as of 2018. Rape, assault and violent crime remain at a very low level, although not all cases are recorded by the authorities.Abortion is permitted only in cases of rape, incest or when the woman's life is in danger. Congenital disorder and stillbirth are not covered by the law, forcing some women to seek abortion abroad, and others to seek the assistance of psychiatrists willing to testify on the negative psychological impact of stillbirth. Poland does not criminalize homosexuality, and its legality was confirmed in 1932. The Polish Constitution defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.Poland is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union and has a grand total of 52 representatives in the European Parliament as of 2020. Since joining the union in 2004, successive Polish governments have pursued policies to extend the country's role in European and international affairs. Poland is an emerging regional power in Central Europe. The capital of Warsaw serves as the headquarters for Frontex, the European Union's agency for external border security as well as ODIHR, one of the principal institutions of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.Apart from the European Union, Poland has been a member of NATO since 1999, the UN, the World Trade Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since 1996, European Economic Area, International Energy Agency, Council of Europe, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, International Atomic Energy Agency, European Space Agency, G6, Council of the Baltic Sea States, Visegrád Group, Weimar Triangle, Schengen Agreement, Lublin Triangle and Bucharest Nine.Over the past two decades, Poland significantly strengthened its ties with the United States, thus becoming one of its closest allies in Europe. Poland was part of the US-led coalition force during the Iraq War in 2003, and sent its troops in the first phase of the conflict, jointly with the United Kingdom and Australia. Along with NATO, Poland maintains military presence in the Middle East, the Baltic states and in the Balkans.The Polish Armed Forces are composed of five branches – Land Forces ("Wojska Lądowe"), Navy ("Marynarka Wojenna"), Air Force ("Siły Powietrzne"), Special Forces ("Wojska Specjalne") and the Territorial Defence Force ("Wojska Obrony Terytorialnej"). The military is subordinate to the Ministry of National Defence of the Republic of Poland. However, its commander-in-chief in peacetime is the President of the Republic, who nominates officers, the Minister for National Defence and the chief of staff.As of 2018, the Polish Armed Forces have a combined strength of 144,142 soldiers. The Polish Navy primarily operates on the Baltic Sea and conducts operations such as maritime patrol, search and rescue for the section of the Baltic under Polish sovereignty, as well as hydrographic measurements and research. The Polish Air Force routinely takes part in Baltic Air Policing assignments. In 2003, the F-16C Block 52 was selected as the new general multi-role fighter for the air force. In January 2020, Poland has approved the delivery for F-35 Lightning II combat aircraft. Poland is currently spending 2% of its GDP on defence (approximately US$13.5 billion in 2020), which is expected to grow to 2.5% by 2030. According to SIPRI, the country exported EUR€487 million worth of arms and armaments to other countries, primarily to the United States, Chile, France and South Africa.The mission of the armed forces is the defence of Poland's territorial integrity and Polish interests abroad. The country's national security goal is to further integrate with NATO and European defence, economic, and political institutions. Compulsory military service for men was discontinued in 2008. From 2007, until conscription ended in 2008, the mandatory service was nine months. Polish military doctrine reflects the same defensive nature as that of its NATO partners and the country actively hosts NATO's military exercises. From 1953 to 2009 Poland was a large contributor to various United Nations peacekeeping missions. The Polish Armed Forces took part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, deploying 2,500 soldiers in the south of that country and commanding the 17-nation multinational force in Iraq. Poland also maintains troops in the Middle East, the Baltic states and in the Balkans; 1,650 soldiers were deployed in 2019.Law enforcement in Poland is performed by several agencies which are subordinate to the Ministry of Interior and Administration – the State Police ("Policja"), assigned to investigate crimes or transgression; the Municipal City Guard, which maintains public order; and several specialized agencies, such as the Polish Border Guard. Private security firms are also common, although they possess no legal authority to arrest or detain a suspect. Municipal guards are primarily headed by provincial, regional or city councils; individual guards are not permitted to carry firearms unless instructed by their superior commanding officer or commandant.The Internal Security Agency (ABW, or ISA in English) is the chief counter-intelligence instrument safeguarding Poland's internal security, along with Agencja Wywiadu (AW) which identifies threats and collects secret information abroad. The Central Investigation Bureau of Police (CBŚP) and the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) are responsible for countering organized crime and corruption in state and private institutions.Emergency services in Poland consist of the emergency medical services, search and rescue units of the Polish Armed Forces and State Fire Service. Emergency medical services in Poland are provided for by local and regional governments.All emergency services personnel are uniformed and security services can be easily recognized during regular patrols in both large urban areas or smaller suburban localities.Poland's current voivodeships (provinces) are largely based on the country's historic regions, whereas those of the past two decades (to 1998) had been centred on and named for individual cities. The new units range in area from less than for Opole Voivodeship to more than for Masovian Voivodeship. Administrative authority at the voivodeship level is shared between a government-appointed voivode (governor), an elected regional assembly ("sejmik") and a voivodeship marshal, an executive elected by that assembly.The voivodeships are subdivided into "powiats" (often referred to in English as counties), and these are further divided into "gminas" (also known as communes or municipalities). Major cities normally have the status of both "gmina" and "powiat". Poland has 16 voivodeships, 380 powiats (including 66 cities with "powiat" status), and 2,478 "gminas".Poland's economy and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is currently the sixth largest in the European Union by nominal standards, and the fifth largest by purchasing power parity. It is also one of the fastest growing within the Union. Around 60% of the employed population belongs to the tertiary service sector, 30% to industry and manufacturing, and the remaining 10% to the agricultural sector. Although Poland is a member of EU's single market, the country has not adopted the Euro as legal tender and maintains its own currency – the Polish złoty (zł, PLN).Poland is the regional economic leader in Central Europe, with nearly 40 per cent of the 500 biggest companies in the region (by revenues) as well as a high globalisation rate. The country's largest firms compose the WIG20 and WIG30 indexes, which is traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. According to reports made by the National Bank of Poland, the value of Polish foreign direct investments reached almost 300 billion PLN at the end of 2014. The Central Statistical Office estimated that in 2014 there were 1,437 Polish corporations with interests in 3,194 foreign entities.Having a strong domestic market, low private debt, low unemployment rate, flexible currency, and not being dependent on a single export sector, Poland is the only European economy to have avoided the recession of 2008. The country is the 20th largest exporter of goods and services in the world and its most successful exports include machinery, furniture, food products, clothing, shoes, cosmetics and videogames. These account to approximately 56% of the total GDP, as of 2018. Poland's largest trading partners include Germany, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, France and Italy. Warsaw leads Central Europe in foreign investment. In September 2018, the unemployment rate was estimated at 5.7%, one of the lowest in the European Union. In 2019, Poland passed a law that would exempt workers under the age of 26 from income tax.The Polish banking sector is the largest in the region, with 32.3 branches per 100,000 adults.World Bank, Financial Inclusion Data. Country Dashboard: Poland. The World Bank Group. Retrieved 6 November 2014. The banks are the largest and most developed sector of the country's financial markets. They are regulated by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority. Poland's banking sector has approximately 5 national banks, a network of nearly 600 cooperative banks and 18 branches of foreign-owned banks. In addition, foreign investors have controlling stakes in nearly 40 commercial banks, which make up 68% of the banking capital.Products and goods manufactured in Poland include: electronics, buses and trams (Solaris, Solbus), helicopters and planes (PZL Świdnik, PZL Mielec), trains (Pesa, Newag), ships (Gdańsk Shipyard, Szczecin Shipyard), military equipment (FB "Łucznik" Radom, , Jelcz), medicines (, ), food (Tymbark, Hortex, E. Wedel), clothes (LLP), glass, pottery (Bolesławiec), chemical products and others. Well-known brands and companies include Alior Bank, Orlen&Lotos Group, Inglot Cosmetics, Plus, Play, Brainly, Netguru, GOG.com, CD Projekt, Trefl and Allegro. Poland is also one of the world's biggest producers of copper, silver, coal, furniture, automotive parts and soft drink.Poland experienced a significant increase in the number of tourists after joining the European Union in 2004. With nearly 21 million international arrivals in 2019, tourism contributes considerably to the overall economy and makes up a relatively large proportion of the country's service market.Tourist attractions in Poland vary, from the mountains in the south to the sandy beaches in the north, with a trail of nearly every architectural style. The most visited city is Kraków, which was the former capital of Poland and serves as a relic of the Polish Golden Age and the Renaissance. Kraków also held royal coronations of most Polish kings and monarchs at Wawel, the nation's chief historical landmark. Among other notable sites in the country is Wrocław, one of the oldest cities in Poland which was a model for the founding of Kraków. Wrocław is famous for its dwarfs, a large market square with two town halls, and the oldest Zoological Gardens with one of the world's largest number of animal species. The Polish capital Warsaw and its historical Old Town were entirely reconstructed after wartime destruction. Other cities attracting countless tourists include Gdańsk, Poznań, Lublin, Toruń as well as the site of the German Auschwitz concentration camp in Oświęcim. A notable highlight is the 13th-century Wieliczka Salt Mine with its labyrinthine tunnels, a subterranean lake and chapels carved by miners out of rock salt beneath the ground.Poland's main tourist offerings include outdoor activities such as skiing, sailing, mountain hiking and climbing, as well as agritourism, sightseeing historical monuments. Tourist destinations include the Baltic Sea coast in the north; the Masurian Lake District and Białowieża Forest in the east; on the south Karkonosze, the Table Mountains and the Tatra Mountains, where Rysy – the highest peak of Poland, and Eagle's Path mountain trail are located. The Pieniny and Bieszczady Mountains lie in the extreme south-east. There are over 100 castles in the country, most in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship (inter alia ), and also on the Trail of the Eagles' Nests. The largest castle in the world by land area is situated in Malbork, in north-central Poland.The electricity generation sector in Poland is largely fossil-fuel–based. Many power plants nationwide use Poland's position as a major European exporter of coal to their advantage by continuing to use coal as the primary raw material in the production of their energy. In 2013, Poland scored 48 out of 129 states in the Energy Sustainability Index. The three largest Polish coal mining firms (Węglokoks, Kompania Węglowa and JSW) extract around 100 million tonnes of coal annually.Renewable forms of energy account for a smaller proportion of Poland's full energy generation capacity. However, the national government has set targets for the development of renewable energy sources in Poland (the share of energy from renewable sources in the gross final energy consumption in 2019 was – 12,18%). Increasing the share of energy from renewable sources and a significant reduction in CO2 emissions to be achieved with the help of biofuels, photovoltaics, construction of wind farms on the land and the Baltic Sea, hydroelectric stations and nuclear power plant.Poland has around 164,800,000,000 m of proven natural gas reserves and around 96,380,000 barrels of proven oil reserves. These reserves are exploited by energy supply companies such as PKN Orlen ("the only Polish company listed in the Fortune Global 500"), PGNiG. However, the small amounts of fossil fuels naturally occurring in Poland are insufficient to satisfy the full energy consumption needs of the population and industry. Consequently, the country is a net importer of oil and natural gas. Therefore, since the second decade of the 21st century, Poland has been strongly developing the so-called North Gate in which the most important components are the Baltic Pipe, the Świnoujście LNG terminal and Floating Storage and Regasification Unit in Port of Gdańsk.The 5 largest companies supplying Poland electricity are PGE, Tauron, Enea, and Innogy Poland.Transport in Poland is provided by means of rail, road, marine shipping and air travel. The country is part of EU's Schengen Area and is an important transport hub along neighbouring Germany due to its strategic position in Central Europe. Some of the longest European routes, including the E40, run through Poland.The country has a good network of highways, composed of express roads and motorways. At the start of 2020, Poland had of highways in use. In addition, all local and regional roads are monitored by the National Road Rebuilding Programme, which aims to improve the quality of travel in the countryside and suburban localities.In 2017, the nation had of railway track, the third longest in Europe after Germany and France. The Polish State Railways (PKP) is the dominant railway operator in the country. In December 2014, Poland began to implement high–speed rail routes connecting major Polish cities, and started passenger service using the New Pendolino train, operating at 200 km/h on the Central Rail Line (CMK). Polish regulations allow trains without ETCS to travel at speeds up to 160 km/h, trains with ETCS1 up to 200 km/h, and trains with ETCS2 at over 200 km/h. Most inter-regional connections rail routes in Poland are operated by PKP Intercity, whilst regional trains are run by a number of private operators, the largest of which is Polregio. The largest passenger train station in terms of the number of travelers is Wrocław Główny.The air and maritime transport markets in Poland are largely well developed. Poland has a number of international airports, the largest of which is Warsaw Chopin Airport, the primary global hub for LOT Polish Airlines. It was established in 1928 from a merger of Aerolloyd (1922) and Aero (1925). Other major airports with international connections include John Paul II International Airport Kraków–Balice, Copernicus Airport Wrocław, Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport. Poland has begun preparations for a construction that can handle 100 million passengers of the Central Communication Port.Seaports exist all along Poland's Baltic coast, with most freight operations using Świnoujście, Police, Szczecin, Kołobrzeg, Gdynia, Gdańsk and Elbląg as their base.Passenger ferries link Poland with Scandinavia all year round; these services are provided from Gdańsk and Świnoujście by Polferries, Stena Line from Gdynia and Unity Line from the Świnoujście. The Port of Gdańsk is the only port in the Baltic Sea adapted to receive oceanic vessels.Over the course of history, the Polish people have made considerable contributions in the fields of science, technology and mathematics. Perhaps the most renowned Pole to support this theory was Nicolaus Copernicus ("Mikołaj Kopernik"), who triggered the Copernican Revolution by placing the Sun rather than the Earth at the center of the universe. He also derived a quantity theory of money, which made him a pioneer of economics. Copernicus' achievements and discoveries are considered the basis of Polish culture and cultural identity.Poland's tertiary education institutions; traditional universities, as well as technical, medical, and economic institutions, employ around tens of thousands of researchers and staff members. There are hundreds of research and development institutes. However, in the 19th and 20th centuries many Polish scientists worked abroad; one of the most important of these exiles was Maria Skłodowska-Curie, a physicist and chemist who lived much of her life in France. In 1925 she established Poland's Radium Institute.In the first half of the 20th century, Poland was a flourishing centre of mathematics. Outstanding Polish mathematicians formed the Lwów School of Mathematics (with Stefan Banach, Stanisław Mazur, Hugo Steinhaus, Stanisław Ulam) and Warsaw School of Mathematics (with Alfred Tarski, Kazimierz Kuratowski, Wacław Sierpiński and Antoni Zygmund). Numerous mathematicians, scientists, chemists or economists emigrated due to historic vicissitudes, among them Benoit Mandelbrot, Leonid Hurwicz, Alfred Tarski, Joseph Rotblat and Nobel Prize laureates Roald Hoffmann, Georges Charpak and Tadeusz Reichstein. In the 1930s, mathematician and cryptologist Marian Rejewski invented the Cryptographic Bomb which formed the basis of the effort that allowed the Allies to crack the Enigma code.Over 40 research and development centers and 4,500 researchers make Poland the biggest research and development hub in Central and Eastern Europe. Multinational companies such as: ABB, Delphi, GlaxoSmithKline, Google, Hewlett–Packard, IBM, Intel, LG Electronics, Microsoft, Motorola, Siemens and Samsung all have set up research and development centres in Poland. Companies chose Poland because of the availability of highly qualified labour force, presence of universities, support of authorities, and the largest market in East-Central Europe. According to a KPMG report from 2011, 80% of Poland's current investors are content with their choice and willing to reinvest. Poland has a very well-developed e-administration, thanks to which many official matters can be easily and quickly settled via the Internet. In the UN ranking, Poland is in the top twenty countries with the best-rated e-administration in the world.Poland, with approximately 38.5 million inhabitants, has the ninth-largest population in Europe and the fifth-largest in the European Union. It has a population density of 122 inhabitants per square kilometre (328 per square mile). The total fertility rate in 2020 was estimated at 1.44 children born to a woman, a considerable rise from previous years. In contrast, the total fertility rate in 1925 was 4.68. Furthermore, Poland's population is aging significantly and the median age in 2018 was 41.1 years. The crude death rate in 2020 stood at 10.3 per 1,000 people.Around 60% of Poles and Polish citizens reside in urban areas or major cities and 40% in more rural zones. The most populous administrative province or state is the Masovian Voivodeship and the most populous city is the capital, Warsaw, at 1.8 million inhabitants with a further 2-3 million people living in its metropolitan area. The metropolitan area of Katowice is the largest urban conurbation in Poland with a population between 2.7 million and 5.3 million residents. The least populous and the smallest province in size is the Opole Voivodeship, with just under 1 million people living within its borders. Hence, a substantial portion of the total population is concentrated in the south of Poland, roughly between the cities of Wrocław and Kraków.In the 2011 Polish census, 37,310,341 people reported Polish identity, 846,719 Silesian, 232,547 Kashubian and 147,814 German. Other identities were reported by 163,363 people (0.41%) and 521,470 people (1.35%) did not specify any nationality. Once prominent but now statistically insignificant minority groups include Polish Jews, Lipka Tatars, Armenians, Greeks, Lemkos, the Romani people and the Vietnamese. Ethnic Poles themselves can be divided into many diverse regional ethnographic sub-groups, most notable being the Kashubians, Silesians and Gorals (Highlanders). The statistics do not include recently arrived migrant workers. More than 1.7 million Ukrainian citizens worked legally in Poland in 2017.There is a very strong Polish diaspora around the world, notably in the United States, Germany, United Kingdom and Canada. A strong Polish minority is still present in the territories of contemporary western Ukraine and Belarus, eastern Lithuania, eastern and central Latvia, and northeastern Czech Republic, which were part of Poland in the past. Altogether, the number of ethnic Poles living abroad is estimated to be around 20 million.Polish is the only official and predominant spoken language in Poland, but it is also used throughout the world by Polish minorities in other countries as well as being one of the official languages of the European Union. The deaf communities use Polish Sign Language belonging to the German family of Sign Languages. Polish is also a second language in Lithuania, where it is taught in schools and universities. Contemporary Poland is a linguistically homogeneous nation, with nearly 97% of respondents declaring Polish as their mother tongue.Poland's once multi-ethnic population communicated in numerous languages and lects which faded or disappeared along the course of history. There are currently 15 minority languages in Poland, including one recognized regional language, Kashubian, which is spoken by around 366,000 people in the northern regions of Kashubia and Pomerania.Languages having the status of national minority's language are Armenian, Belarusian, Czech, German, Yiddish, Hebrew, Lithuanian, Russian, Slovak and Ukrainian. Languages having the status of ethnic minority's language are Karaim, Lemko-Rusyn, Tatar and two Romani languages; Polska Roma and Bergitka Roma. Official recognition of a language provides certain rights under conditions prescribed by Polish law, including education and state financial support for promoting that language. Poland recognized secondary administrative languages or auxiliary languages in bilingual municipalities. Currently, German and Kashubian hold such status in 19 municipalities ("gminas"), Belarusian in 9 and Lithuanian in 1. Bilingual signs, names and advertisements are commonplace in those localities. Silesian and Wymysorys (Vilamovian) are not legally recognized or acknowledged as separate languages with a minority status.More than 50% of Polish citizens declare at least basic knowledge of the English language, followed by German (38%).According to the 2015 census, 92.9% of all Polish citizens adhere to the Roman Catholic Church. An estimated 94.2% of the population are believers and 3.1% are irreligious, making Poland one of the more devout countries in Europe. Around 61.6% of all respondents outlined that religion is of high or very high importance. However, church attendance has decreased in recent years; only 38% of worshippers attended mass regularly on Sunday in 2018. Freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Polish Constitution, and the concordat guarantees the teaching of religion in state schools.For centuries the tribes inhabiting the lands of modern-day Poland have practiced various forms of paganism known as "Rodzimowierstwo", or "native faith". In the year 966, Duke Mieszko I converted to Christianity, and submitted to the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. This event came to be known as the Baptism of Poland. However, this did not put an end to pagan beliefs in the country. The persistence was demonstrated by a series of rebellions in the 1030s known as the pagan reaction, which also showed elements of a peasant uprising against medieval feudalism.Religious tolerance was an important part of Polish political culture, though it varied at times. In 1264, the Statute of Kalisz granted Jews unprecedented legal rights not found anywhere in Europe. In 1573, the Warsaw Confederation marked the formal beginning of extensive religious freedoms in Poland. It was partially influenced by the 1572 St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in France, which prompted the nobility to prevent the monarch from carrying out reprehensible atrocities in Poland based on religious affiliation. The religious tolerance also spurred many theological movements such as the Calvinist Polish Brethren, a number of Protestant groups and atheists like Casimir Liszinski, one of the first atheist thinkers in Europe. Anabaptists fleeing 16th-century persecution in the Netherlands and Germany settled in Poland and became known as the Vistula delta Mennonites. From 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła was head of the Roman Catholic Church as Pope John Paul II.Contemporary religious minorities include Christian Orthodox (506,800), various Protestants (150,000) — including 77,500 Lutherans of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church, 23,000 Pentecostals in the Pentecostal Church in Poland, 10,000 Adventists in the Seventh-day Adventist Church and other smaller Evangelical denominations — Jehovah's Witnesses (126,827), Eastern Catholics, Mariavites, Jews, Muslims (Tatars) and neopagans, some of whom are members of the Native Polish Church.Famous sites of Roman Catholic pilgrimage in Poland include the Monastery of Jasna Góra in the city of Częstochowa, Basilica of Our Lady of Licheń, Kraków's Sanctuary of Divine Mercy and Święta Lipka (Holy Linden) in Masuria. Tourists also visit the family home of John Paul II in Wadowice outside Kraków. Christ the King in Świebodzin is the tallest statue of Jesus in the world. Christian Orthodox pilgrims visit Mount Grabarka near Grabarka-Klasztor and the Hasidic Jews travel annually to the grave of a great rabbi in Leżajsk.Medical service providers and hospitals ("szpitale") in Poland are subordinate to the Ministry of Health; it provides administrative oversight and scrutiny of general medical practice, and is obliged to maintain a high standard of hygiene and patient care. Poland has a universal healthcare system based on an all-inclusive insurance system; state subsidised healthcare is available to all citizens covered by the general health insurance program of the National Health Fund (NFZ). Private medical complexes exist nationwide; over 50% of the population uses both public and private sectors.Hospitals are organised according to the regional administrative structure, resultantly most towns, counties or municipalities possess their own provincial hospital or medical clinics. There are six types of hospital facilities, each with a particular area of medical expertise – I Grade Hospitals for general surgery, internal illnesses and obstetrics; II Grade Hospitals for child surgery, neurology, cardiology and ophthalmology; III Grade Hospitals including teaching hospitals for infectious diseases, nephrology, orthopedics, toxicology and transplantology; Oncology Hospitals for cancer treatment and brachytherapy; Pediatric Hospitals for child care; and Nationwide Hospitals for general and acute care.According to the Human Development Report from 2020, the average life expectancy at birth is 79 years (around 75 years for an infant male and 83 years for an infant female); the country has a low infant mortality rate (4 per 1,000 births). In 2019, the principal cause of death was ischemic heart disease; diseases of the circulatory system accounted for 45% of all deaths. In the same year, Poland was also the 15th-largest importer of medications and pharmaceutical products.The Jagiellonian University founded in 1364 by Casimir III in Kraków was the first institution of higher learning established in Poland, and is one of the oldest universities still in continuous operation. Poland's Commission of National Education ("Komisja Edukacji Narodowej"), established in 1773, was the world's first state ministry of education. The framework for primary and secondary schooling in contemporary Poland is established by the Ministry of National Education. Kindergarten attendance is optional for children aged between three and five, with one year being compulsory for six-year-olds. Primary education traditionally begins at the age of seven, although children aged six can attend at the request of their parents or guardians. Elementary school spans eight grades, at the end of which an obligatory three-part exam on Polish, mathematics and a foreign language is to be undertaken. Secondary schooling is dependent on student preference – either a four-year high school ("liceum"), a five-year technical school ("technikum") or various vocational studies ("szkoła branżowa") can be pursued by each individual pupil. A liceum or technikum is concluded with a maturity exit exam ("matura"), which must be passed in order to apply for a university or other institutions of higher learning.The standards of higher tertiary education are imposed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. In Poland, there are over 500 university-level institutions, with technical, medical, economic, agricultural, pedagogical, theological, musical, maritime and military faculties. The University of Warsaw and Warsaw Polytechnic, the University of Wrocław, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and the University of Technology in Gdańsk are among the most prominent. There are three conventional academic degrees in Poland – "licencjat" or "inżynier" (first cycle qualification), "magister" (second cycle qualification) and "doktor" (third cycle qualification).In 2018, the Programme for International Student Assessment, coordinated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, ranked Poland's educational system higher than the OECD average; the study showed that students in Poland perform better academically than in most OECD countries.The culture of Poland is closely connected with its intricate 1,000-year history and forms an important constituent in western civilization. The Poles take great pride in their national identity which is often associated with the colours white and red, and exuded by the expression "biało-czerwoni" ("whitereds"). National symbols, chiefly the crowned white-tailed eagle, are often visible on clothing, insignia and emblems. The appreciation of Poland's traditions and cultural heritage is commonly known as Polonophilia.With origins in the customs of the tribal Lechites, over time the culture of Poland has been influenced by its connection to Western culture and trends, as well as developing its own unique traditions such as Sarmatism. The people of Poland have traditionally been seen as hospitable to artists from abroad and eager to follow cultural and artistic trends popular in foreign countries, for instance, the 16th- and 17th-century tradition of coffin portraits ("portret trumienny") was only observed in Poland and Roman Egypt. In the 19th and 20th centuries the Polish focus on cultural advancement often took precedence over political and economic activity. These factors have contributed to the versatile nature of Polish art.The architectural monuments of great importance are protected by the National Heritage Board of Poland. Over 100 of the country's most significant tangible wonders were enlisted onto the Historic Monuments Register, with further 16 being recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. Poland is renowned for its brick Gothic castles, granaries and churches as well as diversely-styled tenements, market squares and town halls. The majority of Polish cities founded on Magdeburg Law in the Middle Ages evolved around central marketplaces, a distinguishable urban characteristic which can be observed to this day. Medieval and Renaissance cloth halls were once an abundant feature of many towns.There are 13 government-approved annual public holidays – New Year on 1 January, Three Kings' Day on 6 January, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, Labour Day on 1 May, Constitution Day on 3 May, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, Armed Forces Day on 15 August, All Saints' Day on 1 November, Independence Day on 11 November and Christmastide on 25 and 26 December.Particular traditions and superstitious customs observed in Poland are not found elsewhere in Europe. Though Christmas Eve ("Wigilia") is not a public holiday, it remains the most memorable day of the entire year. Trees are decorated on 24 December, hay is placed under the tablecloth to resemble Jesus' manger, Christmas wafers ("opłatek") are shared between gathered guests and a twelve-dish meatless supper is served that same evening when the first star appears. An empty plate and seat are symbolically left at the table for an unexpected guest. On occasion, carolers journey around smaller towns with a folk Turoń creature until the Lent period.A widely-popular doughnut and sweet pastry feast occurs on Fat Thursday, usually 52 days prior to Easter. Eggs for Holy Sunday are painted and placed in decorated baskets that are previously blessed by clergymen in churches on Easter Saturday. Easter Monday is celebrated with pagan "dyngus" festivities, where the youth is engaged in water fights and some girls are gently spanked by colleagues with pussy willows to stimulate fertility.Cemeteries and graves of the deceased are annually visited by family members on All Saints' Day; tombstones are cleaned as a sign of respect and candles are lit to honour the dead on an unprecedented scale.Artists from Poland, including famous musicians such as Chopin, Rubinstein, Paderewski, Penderecki and Wieniawski, and traditional, regionalized folk composers create a lively and diverse music scene, which even recognizes its own music genres, such as sung poetry and disco polo.The origins of Polish music can be traced to the 13th century; manuscripts have been found in Stary Sącz containing polyphonic compositions related to the Parisian Notre Dame School. Other early compositions, such as the melody of "Bogurodzica" and "God Is Born" (a coronation polonaise tune for Polish kings by an unknown composer), may also date back to this period, however, the first known notable composer, Nicholas of Radom, lived in the 15th century. Diomedes Cato, a native-born Italian who lived in Kraków, became a renowned lutenist at the court of Sigismund III; he not only imported some of the musical styles from southern Europe but blended them with native folk music.In the 17th and 18th centuries, Polish baroque composers wrote liturgical music and secular compositions such as concertos and sonatas for voices or instruments. At the end of the 18th century, Polish classical music evolved into national forms like the polonaise. Wojciech Bogusławski is accredited with composing the first Polish national opera, titled "", which premiered in 1794.Traditional Polish folk music has had a major effect on the works of many Polish composers, and no more so than on Fryderyk Chopin, a widely recognised national hero of the arts. All of Chopin's works involve the piano and are technically demanding, emphasising nuance and expressive depth. As a great composer, Chopin invented the musical form known as the instrumental ballade and made major innovations to the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, polonaise, étude, impromptu and prélude, he was also the composer of a number of polonaises which borrowed heavily from traditional Polish folk music. It is largely thanks to him that such pieces gained great popularity throughout Europe during the 19th century. Several Polish composers such as Szymanowski drew inspiration from Chopin's folk-influenced style. Nowadays the most distinctive folk music can be heard in the towns and villages of the mountainous south, particularly in the region surrounding the winter resort town of Zakopane.Poland today has an active music scene, with the jazz and metal genres being particularly popular among the contemporary populace. Polish jazz musicians such as Krzysztof Komeda created a unique style, which was most famous in the 1960s and 1970s and continues to be popular to this day. Poland has also become a major venue for large-scale music festivals, chief among which are the Open'er Festival, Opole Festival and Sopot Festival.Art in Poland has always reflected European trends while maintaining its unique character. The Kraków Academy of Fine Arts, later developed by Jan Matejko, produced monumental portrayals of customs and significant events in Polish history. Other institutions such as the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw were more innovative and focused on both historical and contemporary styles. Notable art academies include the Kraków School of Art and Fashion Design, Art Academy of Szczecin, University of Fine Arts in Poznań and the Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław.Perhaps the most prominent and internationally admired Polish artist was Tamara de Lempicka, who specialized in the style of Art Deco. Lempicka was described as "the first woman artist to become a glamour star." Another notable was Caziel, born Zielenkiewicz, who represented Cubism and Abstraction in France and England.Prior to the 19th century only Daniel Schultz and Italian-born Marcello Bacciarelli had the privilege of being recognized abroad. The Young Poland movement witnessed the birth of modern Polish art, and engaged in a great deal of formal experimentation led by Jacek Malczewski, Stanisław Wyspiański, Józef Mehoffer, and a group of Polish Impressionists. Stanisław Witkiewicz was an ardent supporter of Realism, its main representative being Józef Chełmoński, while Artur Grottger specialized in Romanticism. Within historically-orientated circles, Henryk Siemiradzki dominated with his monumental Academic Art and ancient Roman theme.Since the inter-war years, Polish art and documentary photography has enjoyed worldwide fame and in the 1960s the Polish School of Posters was formed. Throughout the entire country, many national museum and art institutions hold valuable works by famous masters. Major museums in Poland include the National Museum in Warsaw, Poznań, Wrocław, Kraków, and Gdańsk, as well as the Museum of John Paul II Collection, and the Wilanów Museum. Important collections are also held at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Wawel Castle and in the Palace on the Isle. Contemporary art galleries include Zachęta, Ujazdów, and MOCAK. The most distinguished painting of Poland is "Lady with an Ermine" by Leonardo da Vinci, held at the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków. Although not Polish, the work had a strong influence on Polish culture and has been often associated with Polish identity.Polish cities and towns reflect a whole spectrum of European architectural styles. Romanesque architecture is represented by St. Andrew's Church, Kraków, and St. Mary's Church, Gdańsk, is characteristic for the Brick Gothic style found in Poland. Richly decorated attics and arcade loggias are the common elements of the Polish Renaissance architecture, as evident in the City Hall in Poznań. For some time the late renaissance style known as mannerism, most notably in the Bishop's Palace in Kielce, coexisted with the early baroque style, typified in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Kraków.History has not been kind to Poland's architectural monuments. Nonetheless, a number of ancient structures have survived: castles, churches, and stately homes, often unique in the regional or European context. Some of them have been painstakingly restored, like Wawel Castle, or completely reconstructed, including the Old Town and Royal Castle of Warsaw and the Old Town of Gdańsk.The architecture of Gdańsk is mostly of the Hanseatic variety, a Gothic style common among the former trading cities along the Baltic Sea and in the northern part of Central Europe. The architectural style of Wrocław is mainly representative of German architecture since it was for centuries located within the Holy Roman Empire. The centres of Kazimierz Dolny and Sandomierz on the Vistula are good examples of well-preserved medieval towns. Poland's ancient capital, Kraków, ranks among the best-preserved Gothic and Renaissance urban complexes in Europe.The second half of the 17th century is marked by baroque architecture. Side towers, such as those of Branicki Palace in Białystok, are typical for the Polish baroque. The classical Silesian baroque is represented by the University in Wrocław. The profuse decorations of the Branicki Palace in Warsaw are characteristic of the rococo style. The centre of Polish classicism was Warsaw under the rule of the last Polish king Stanisław II Augustus.The Palace on the Isle is a chief example of Polish neoclassical architecture. Lublin Castle represents the Gothic Revival style in architecture, while the Izrael Poznański Palace in Łódź is an example of eclecticism.Traditional folk architecture in the villages and small towns scattered across the vast Polish countryside was characterized by its extensive use of wood and red brick as primary building materials, common for Central Europe. Some of the best preserved and oldest structures include ancient stone temples in Silesia and fortified wooden churches across southeastern Poland in the Beskids and Bieszczady regions of the Carpathian mountains. Numerous examples of secular structures such as Polish manor houses ("dworek"), farmhouses (), granaries, mills, barns and country inns () can still be found in some Polish regions. However, traditional construction methods faded in the early-mid 20th century, when Poland's population experienced a demographic shift to urban dwelling away from the countryside.The earliest examples of Polish literature date to the 12th century, when Poland's official language was Latin, and early published works were predominantly written by foreigners. Gallus Anonymus, a monk of disputed origin, was the first chronicler who meticulously described Poland's culture, language and territories in "Gesta principum Polonorum" (c. 1112–1118). Latin remained the principal tool of literary expression in Poland until the 18th century, when it was replaced in favour of Polish and French. Historically, Polish literature concentrated extensively around the themes of true drama and poetic-expressive romanticism than on fiction. Patriotism, spirituality and aphorisms were paramount and political or social allegories were common moral narratives.The first documented phrase in the Polish language reads ""Day ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai"" ("Let me grind, and you take a rest"), reflecting the use of quern-stone in early Poland. The phrase was recorded by an abbot in the Latin-based "Liber fundationis" from 1269 to 1273, which outlined the history of a Cistercian monastery in the Silesian village of Henryków. The sentence has been included in the UNESCO Memory of World Register. The oldest extant manuscript of fine prose in Old Polish is the "Holy Cross Sermons", and the earliest religious text is the Bible of Queen Sophia. One of the first printing houses was established by Kasper Straube in the 1470s, while Jan Haller was considered the pioneer of commercial print in Poland. Haller's Calendarium cracoviense, an astronomical wall calendar from 1474, is Poland's oldest surviving print.The tradition of extending Polish historiography in Latin was subsequently inherited by Vincent Kadłubek, Bishop of Kraków in the 13th century, and Jan Długosz in the 15th century. This practice, however, was abandoned by Jan Kochanowski, who became one of the first Polish Renaissance authors to write most of his works in Polish, along with Nicholas Rey. Other writers of the Polish Renaissance include Johannes Dantiscus, Andreus Fricius Modrevius, Matthias Sarbievius, Piotr Skarga and Klemens "Ianicius" Janicki, who was laureled by the Pope. The leading figure of the Polish Reformation was theologian and writer John Laski, who, with the permission of King Edward VI of England, created the European Protestant Congregation of London in 1550.During the Baroque era, the Jesuits greatly influenced Polish literature and literary techniques, often relying on God and religious matters. The leading baroque poet was Jan Andrzej Morsztyn, who incorporated Marinism into his publications. Jan Chryzostom Pasek, also a respected baroque writer, is mostly remembered for his tales and memoirs reflecting sarmatian culture in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Subsequently, the Polish Enlightenment was headed by Samuel Linde, Hugo Kołłątaj, Izabela Czartoryska and Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz. In 1776, Ignacy Krasicki composed the first milestone novel entitled "The Adventures of Mr. Nicholas Wisdom".Among the best known Polish Romantics are the "Three Bards" – the three national poets active in the age of foreign partitions – Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki and Zygmunt Krasiński. The narrative poem "Pan Tadeusz" by Mickiewicz is Poland's national epic and a compulsory reading ("lektura") in the country's schools. Joseph Conrad, the son of dramatist Apollo Korzeniowski, came to fame with his English-language novels and stories that are informed with elements of the Polish national experience. Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", "Nostromo" and "Lord Jim" are believed to be one of the finest works ever written, placing him among the greatest novelists of all time. Modern Polish literature is versatile, with its fantasy genre having been particularly praised. The philosophical sci-fi novel "Solaris" is an acclaimed example of Stanisław Lem's literary legacy, whereas "The Witcher", a fantasy series by Andrzej Sapkowski, is a much-celebrated work of contemporary Polish fiction.In the 20th century, five Polish authors were awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature – Henryk Sienkiewicz for "Quo Vadis", Władysław Reymont for "The Peasants", Isaac Bashevis Singer, Czesław Miłosz and Wisława Szymborska. In 2019, Polish author Olga Tokarczuk was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 2018.Polish cuisine has evolved over the centuries to become highly eclectic due to Poland's history. Polish cuisine shares many similarities with other Central European cuisines, especially German and Austrian as well as Jewish, French, Italian and Turkish culinary traditions. Polish-styled cooking in other cultures is often referred to as "cuisine à la polonaise".Polish dishes are usually rich in meat, especially pork, chicken and beef (depending on the region), winter vegetables (sauerkraut cabbage in "bigos"), and spices. It is also characteristic in its use of various kinds of noodles, the most notable of which are kluski, as well as cereals such as "kasha" (from the Polish word kasza) and a variety of breads like the world-renowned bagel. Polish cuisine is hearty and uses a lot of cream and eggs. Festive meals such as the meatless Christmas Eve dinner ("Wigilia") or Easter breakfast could take days to prepare in their entirety.The main course usually includes a serving of meat, such as roast, chicken, or "kotlet schabowy" (breaded pork cutlet), vegetables, side dishes and salads, including "surówka" – shredded root vegetables with lemon and sugar (carrot, celeriac, seared beetroot) or sauerkraut (, ). The side dishes are usually potatoes, rice or cereal. Meals conclude with a dessert such as "sernik" (cheesecake), "makowiec" (poppy seed pastry), or "napoleonka" (cream pie).The Polish national dishes are "bigos" ; "pierogi" ; "kielbasa"; "kotlet schabowy" breaded cutlet; "gołąbki" cabbage rolls; "zrazy" roulade; "pieczeń" roast ; sour cucumber soup ("zupa ogórkowa", ); mushroom soup, ("zupa grzybowa", quite different from the North American cream of mushroom); "zupa pomidorowa" tomato soup ; "rosół" variety of meat broth; "żurek" sour rye soup; "flaki" tripe soup; "barszcz" and "chłodnik" among others.Traditional alcoholic beverages include honey mead, widespread since the 13th century, beer, wine and vodka (old Polish names include "okowita" and "gorzała"). The world's first written mention of vodka originates from Poland. The most popular alcoholic drinks at present are beer and wine which took over from vodka more popular in the years 1980–1998. Tea remains common in Polish society since the 19th century, whilst coffee is drunk widely since the 18th century. Other frequently consumed beverages include various mineral waters and juices, soft drinks popularized by the fast-food chains since the late 20th century, as well as buttermilk, soured milk and kefir.The particular clothing styles in Poland evolved with each century. In the 1600s high-class noblemen and magnates developed a strong sympathy for Orientalism, which was also common in other parts of Europe and became known as Sarmatism. The attire mediated between Western and Ottoman styles and outfits included a żupan, delia, kontusz, pas, decorative karabela swords and less often turbans brought by foreign merchants. The period of Polish Sarmatism eventually faded in the wake of the 18th century.The Polish national dress as well as the fashion and etiquette of Poland also reached the royal court at Versailles in the 1700s. French dresses inspired by Polish attire were called "à la polonaise", meaning "Polish-styled". The most famous example is the "robe à la polonaise", a woman's garment with draped and swagged overskirt, worn over an underskirt or petticoat. Another notable example is the Witzchoura, a long mantle with collar and hood, which was possibly introduced by Napoleon's Polish mistress Maria Walewska. The scope of influence also entailed furniture; rococo Polish beds with canopies became commonplace in French palaces during the 18th century.Several Polish designers and stylists left a lifelong legacy of beauty inventions and cosmetics, most notable being Maksymilian Faktorowicz and Helena Rubinstein. Faktorowicz created a line of cosmetics company in California known as Max Factor and coined the term "make-up" based on the verb phrase "to make up" one's face, now widely used as an alternative for describing cosmetics. Faktorowicz also raised to fame by inventing modern eyelash extensions and by providing services to Hollywood artists.As of 2020, Poland possesses the fifth-largest cosmetic market in Europe. Founded in 1983, Inglot Cosmetics is the country's largest beauty products manufacturer and retailer active in 700 locations worldwide, including retail salons in New York City, London, Milan, Dubai and Las Vegas. Established in 1999, the retail store Reserved is Poland's most successful clothing store chain, operating over 1,700 retail shops in 19 countries. Internationally successful models from Poland include Anja Rubik, Joanna Krupa, Jac Jagaciak, Kasia Struss, Małgosia Bela, and Magdalena Frąckowiak.The history of Polish cinema is as long as the history of cinematography itself. Over the decades, Poland has produced outstanding directors, film producers, cartoonists and actors that achieved world fame, especially in Hollywood. Moreover, Polish inventors played an important role in the development of world cinematography and modern-day television. Among the most famous directors and producers, who worked in Poland as well as abroad are Roman Polański, Andrzej Wajda, Samuel Goldwyn, the Warner brothers (Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack), Max Fleischer, Lee Strasberg, Agnieszka Holland and Krzysztof Kieślowski.In the 19th century, throughout partitioned Poland, numerous amateur inventors, such as Kazimierz Prószyński, were eager to construct a film projector. In 1894, Prószyński was successful in creating a Pleograph, one of the first cameras in the world. The invention, which took photographs and projected pictures, was built before the Lumière brothers lodged their patent. He also patented an Aeroscope, the first successful hand-held operated film camera. In 1897, Jan Szczepanik, obtained a British patent for his Telectroscope. This prototype of television could easily transmit image and sound, thus allowing a live remote view.Polish cinema developed rapidly in the interwar period. The most renowned star of the silent film era was Polish actress Pola Negri. During this time, the Yiddish cinema also evolved in Poland. Films in the Yiddish language with Jewish themes, such as "The Dybbuk" (1937), played an important part in pre-war Polish cinematography. In 1945 the government established 'Film Polski', a state-run film production and distribution organization, with director Aleksander Ford as the head of the company. Ford's "Knights of the Teutonic Order" (1960) was viewed by millions of people in the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and France. This success was followed by the historical films of Jerzy Hoffman and Andrzej Wajda. Wajda's 1975 film "The Promised Land" was nominated at the 48th Academy Awards.In 2015, "Ida" by Paweł Pawlikowski won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2019, Pawlikowski received an Academy Award for Best Director nomination for his historical drama "Cold War". Other well-known Polish Oscar-winning productions include "The Pianist" (2002) by Roman Polański.Poland has a number of major media outlets, chief among which are the national television channels. TVP is Poland's public broadcasting corporation; about a third of its income comes from a broadcast receiver licence, while the rest is made through revenue from commercials and sponsorships. State television operates two mainstream channels, TVP 1 and TVP 2, as well as regional programs for each of the country's 16 voivodeships (as TVP 3). In addition to these general channels, TVP runs a number of genre-specific programmes such as TVP Sport, TVP Historia, TVP Kultura, TVP Rozrywka, TVP Seriale and TVP Polonia, the latter is a state-run channel dedicated to the transmission of Polish language television for the Polish diaspora. Poland has several 24-hour news channels such as Polsat News, TVP Info and TVN 24. Poland also possesses a variety of free-to-air television channels, chiefly TVN, Polsat and TV4.In Poland, there are also daily newspapers like "Gazeta Wyborcza" ("Electoral Gazette"), "Rzeczpospolita" ("The Republic") and "Gazeta Polska Codziennie" ("Polish Daily Newspaper") which provide traditional opinion and news, and tabloids such as "Fakt" and "Super Express". Weeklies include "Tygodnik Angora", "", "Polityka", "Wprost", "Newsweek Polska", "Gość Niedzielny" and "Gazeta Polska".Poland has also emerged as a major hub for video game developers in Europe, with the country now being home to hundreds of studios. Among the most successful ones are CD Projekt, Techland, CI Games and People Can Fly. Some of the most popular video games developed in Poland include The Witcher trilogy. Katowice hosts Intel Extreme Masters, one of the biggest eSports events in the world.Volleyball and Association football are among the country's most popular sports, with a rich history of international competitions. Track and field, basketball, handball, boxing, MMA, motorcycle speedway, ski jumping, cross-country skiing, ice hockey, tennis, fencing, swimming and weightlifting are other popular sports.The golden era of football in Poland occurred throughout the 1970s and went on until the early 1980s when the Polish national football team achieved their best results in any FIFA World Cup competitions finishing 3rd place in the 1974 and the 1982 tournaments. The team won a gold medal in football at the 1972 Summer Olympics and two silver medals, in 1976 and in 1992. In 2012, Poland co-hosted the UEFA European Football Championship.As of May 2021, the Polish men's national volleyball team is ranked as 2nd in the world. Volleyball team won a gold medal in Olympic 1976 Montreal and three gold medals in FIVB World Championship 1974, 2014 and 2018.Mariusz Pudzianowski is a highly successful strongman competitor and has won more World's Strongest Man titles than any other competitor in the world, winning the event in 2008 for the fifth time.Poland has made a distinctive mark in motorcycle speedway racing thanks to Tomasz Gollob and Bartosz Zmarzlik, highly successful Polish riders. The top Ekstraliga division has one of the highest average attendances for any sport in Poland. The national speedway team of Poland is one of the major teams in international speedway.Poles made significant achievements in mountaineering, in particular, in the Himalayas and the winter ascending of the eight-thousanders. Polish mountains are one of the tourist attractions of the country. Hiking, climbing, skiing and mountain biking and attract numerous tourists every year from all over the world. Water sports are the most popular summer recreation activities, with ample locations for fishing, canoeing, kayaking, sailing and windsurfing especially in the northern regions of the country.
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[
"Ewa Kopacz",
"Leszek Miller",
"Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz",
"Mateusz Morawiecki",
"Jan Olszewski",
"Tadeusz Mazowiecki",
"Jarosław Kaczyński",
"Jan Krzysztof Bielecki",
"Hanna Suchocka",
"Donald Tusk",
"Beata Szydło",
"Marek Belka",
"Jerzy Buzek",
"Waldemar Pawlak",
"Józef Oleksy"
] |
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Who was the head of Poland in Jan, 2007?
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January 27, 2007
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{
"text": [
"Jarosław Kaczyński"
]
}
|
L2_Q36_P6_11
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Tadeusz Mazowiecki is the head of the government of Poland from Aug, 1989 to Jan, 1991.
Jerzy Buzek is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 1997 to Oct, 2001.
Beata Szydło is the head of the government of Poland from Nov, 2015 to Dec, 2017.
Jan Krzysztof Bielecki is the head of the government of Poland from Jan, 1991 to Dec, 1991.
Mateusz Morawiecki is the head of the government of Poland from Dec, 2017 to Dec, 2022.
Józef Oleksy is the head of the government of Poland from Mar, 1995 to Feb, 1996.
Jan Olszewski is the head of the government of Poland from Dec, 1991 to Jun, 1992.
Jarosław Kaczyński is the head of the government of Poland from Jul, 2006 to Nov, 2007.
Hanna Suchocka is the head of the government of Poland from Jul, 1992 to Oct, 1993.
Ewa Kopacz is the head of the government of Poland from Sep, 2014 to Nov, 2015.
Marek Belka is the head of the government of Poland from May, 2004 to Oct, 2005.
Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 2005 to Jul, 2006.
Leszek Miller is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 2001 to May, 2004.
Donald Tusk is the head of the government of Poland from Nov, 2007 to Sep, 2014.
Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz is the head of the government of Poland from Feb, 1996 to Oct, 1997.
Waldemar Pawlak is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 1993 to Mar, 1995.
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PolandPoland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country located in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces, covering an area of , and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With a population of nearly 38.5 million people, Poland is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union. Poland's capital and largest metropolis is Warsaw. Other major cities include Kraków, Łódź, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk, and Szczecin.Poland's topographically diverse territory extends from the beaches along the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in its south. The country is bordered by Lithuania and Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukraine to the east, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the south, and Germany to the west.The history of human activity on Polish soil spans thousands of years. Throughout the late antiquity period it became extensively diverse, with various cultures and tribes settling on the vast Central European Plain. However, it was the Western Polans who dominated the region and gave Poland its name. The establishment of Polish statehood can be traced to 966, when the pagan ruler of a realm coextensive with the territory of present-day Poland embraced Christianity and converted to Catholicism. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented its longstanding political association with Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest (over in area) and most populous nations of 16th and 17th century Europe, with a uniquely liberal political system which adopted Europe's first modern constitution, the Constitution of 3 May 1791.With the passing of prominence and prosperity, the country was partitioned by neighbouring states at the end of the 18th century, and regained independence in 1918 with the Treaty of Versailles. After a series of territorial conflicts, the new multi-ethnic Poland restored its position as a key player in European politics. In September 1939, World War II began with the invasion of Poland by Germany, followed by the Soviets invading Poland in accordance with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Approximately six million Polish citizens, including three million of the country's Jews, perished during the course of the war. As a member of the Eastern Bloc, the Polish People's Republic proclaimed forthwith was a chief signatory of the Warsaw Treaty amidst global Cold War tensions. In the wake of the 1989 events, notably through the emergence and contributions of the Solidarity movement, the communist government was dissolved and Poland re-established itself as a semi-presidential democratic republic.Poland is a developed market, and a middle power. It has the sixth largest economy in the European Union by nominal GDP and the fifth largest by GDP (PPP). It provides very high standards of living, safety and economic freedom, as well as free university education and a universal health care system. The country has 16 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, 15 of which are cultural. Poland is a member state of the Schengen Area, European Union, European Economic Area, the United Nations, NATO, the OECD, the Three Seas Initiative and the Visegrád Group.The origin of the name "Poland" derives from the West Slavic tribe of Polans ("Polanie"), who inhabited the Warta river basin of the present-day Greater Poland region starting in the mid-6th century. The origin of the name "Polanie" itself derives from the Proto-Slavic word "pole" (field). In some languages, such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian, Russian and Turkish, the country's name is derived from the Lendians ("Lędzianie" or "Lachy") who dwelled on the southeasternmost edge of present-day Lesser Poland. Their name likewise derives from the Old Polish word "lęda" (open land or plain).The early Bronze Age in Poland began around 2400 BC, while the Iron Age commenced in approximately 750 BC. During this time, the Lusatian culture, spanning both the Bronze and Iron Ages, became particularly prominent. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement (now reconstructed as an open-air museum), dating from the Lusatian culture of the late Bronze Age, around 748 BC.Throughout Antiquity, many distinct ancient ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland in an era that dates from about 400 BC to 500 AD. These groups are identified as Celtic, Scythian, Germanic, Sarmatian, Slavic and Baltic tribes. Also, recent archaeological findings in the Kuyavia region confirmed the presence of the Roman Legions on the territory of Poland. These were most likely expeditionary missions sent out to protect the amber trade. The exact time and routes of the original migration and settlement of Slavic peoples lacks written records and can only be defined as fragmented. There is evidence that earlier tribes may have been associated with the ancient Przeworsk culture. Up until the creation of Mieszko's state and his subsequent conversion to Christianity in 966 AD, the main religion of the numerous West Slavic (Lechitic) tribes that inhabited the geographical area of present-day Poland was paganism. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Western Christianity and the religious authority of the Roman Church. However, the transition from paganism was not a smooth and instantaneous process for the rest of the population as evident from the pagan reaction of the 1030s.Poland began to form into a recognizable unitary and territorial entity around the middle of the 10th century under the Piast dynasty. Poland's first historically documented ruler, Mieszko I, accepted Christianity, as the rightful religion of his realm, under the auspices of the Latin Church with the Baptism of Poland in 966. The bulk of the population converted in the course of the next few centuries. In 1000, Boleslaw the Brave, continuing the policy of his father Mieszko, held a Congress of Gniezno and created the metropolis of Gniezno and the dioceses of Kraków, Kołobrzeg, and Wrocław. However, the pagan unrest led to the transfer of the capital to Kraków in 1038 by Casimir I the Restorer.In 1109, Prince Bolesław III Wrymouth defeated the King of Germany Henry V at the Battle of Hundsfeld, stopping the German incursion into Poland. The clash between Bolesław III and Henry V was documented by Gallus Anonymus in his 1118 chronicle. In 1138, Poland fragmented into several smaller duchies when Bolesław divided his lands among his sons. In 1226, Konrad I of Masovia, one of the regional Piast dukes, invited the Teutonic Knights to help him fight the Baltic Prussian pagans; a decision that led to centuries of warfare with the Knights. In 1264, the Statute of Kalisz or the General Charter of Jewish Liberties introduced numerous right for the Jews in Poland, leading to a nearly autonomous "nation within a nation".In the middle of the 13th century, the Silesian branch of the Piast dynasty (Henry I the Bearded and Henry II the Pious, ruled 1238–1241) nearly succeeded in uniting the Polish lands, but the Mongols invaded the country from the east and defeated the combined Polish forces at the Battle of Legnica where Duke Henry II the Pious died. In 1320, after a number of earlier unsuccessful attempts by regional rulers at uniting the Polish dukedoms, Władysław I consolidated his power, took the throne and became the first king of a reunified Poland. His son, Casimir III (reigned 1333–1370), has a reputation as one of the greatest Polish kings, and gained wide recognition for improving the country's infrastructure. He also extended royal protection to Jews, and encouraged their immigration to Poland. Casimir III realized that the nation needed a class of educated people, especially lawyers, who could codify the country's laws and administer the courts and offices. His efforts to create an institution of higher learning in Poland were finally rewarded when Pope Urban V granted him permission to open the University of Kraków.The Golden Liberty of the nobles began to develop under Casimir's rule, when in return for their military support, the king made a series of concessions to the nobility and establishing their legal status as superior to that of the townsfolk. When Casimir the Great died in 1370, leaving no legitimate male heir, the Piast dynasty came to an end.During the 13th and 14th centuries, Poland became a destination for German, Flemish and to a lesser extent Walloon, Danish and Scottish migrants. Also, Jews and Armenians began to settle and flourish in Poland during this era (see History of the Jews in Poland and Armenians in Poland).The Black Death, a plague that ravaged Europe from 1347 to 1351, did not significantly affect Poland, and the country was spared from a major outbreak of the disease. The reason for this was the decision of Casimir the Great to quarantine the nation's borders.The Jagiellon dynasty spanned the late Middle Ages and early Modern Era of Polish history. Beginning with the Lithuanian Grand Duke Jogaila (Władysław II Jagiełło), the Jagiellon dynasty (1386–1572) formed the Polish–Lithuanian union. The partnership brought vast Lithuanian-controlled Rus' areas into Poland's sphere of influence and proved beneficial for the Poles and Lithuanians, who coexisted and cooperated in one of the largest political entities in Europe for the next four centuries.In the Baltic Sea region the struggle of Poland and Lithuania with the Teutonic Knights continued and culminated at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, where a combined Polish-Lithuanian army inflicted a decisive victory against them. In 1466, after the Thirteen Years' War, King Casimir IV Jagiellon gave royal consent to the Peace of Thorn, which created the future Duchy of Prussia under Polish suzerainty. The Jagiellon dynasty at one point also established dynastic control over the kingdoms of Bohemia (1471 onwards) and Hungary. In the south, Poland confronted the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Tatars (by whom they were attacked on 75 separate occasions between 1474 and 1569), and in the east helped Lithuania fight the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Some historians estimate that Crimean Tatar slave-raiding cost Poland-Lithuania one million of its population between the years of 1494 and 1694.Poland was developing as a feudal state, with a predominantly agricultural economy and an increasingly powerful landed nobility. The "Nihil novi" act adopted by the Polish Sejm (parliament) in 1505, transferred most of the legislative power from the monarch to the Sejm, an event which marked the beginning of the period known as "Golden Liberty", when the state was ruled by the "free and equal" Polish nobility. Protestant Reformation movements made deep inroads into Polish Christianity, which resulted in the establishment of policies promoting religious tolerance, unique in Europe at that time. This tolerance allowed the country to avoid most of the religious turmoil that spread over Europe during the 16th century.The European Renaissance evoked in late Jagiellon Poland (under kings Sigismund I the Old and Sigismund II Augustus) a sense of urgency in the need to promote a cultural awakening, and during this period Polish culture and the nation's economy flourished. In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus, an astronomer from Toruń, published his epochal work "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" ("On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres") and thereby became the first proponent of a predictive mathematical model confirming the heliocentric theory, which became the accepted basic model for the practice of modern astronomy. Another major figure associated with the era is the classicist poet Jan Kochanowski.The 1569 Union of Lublin established the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a more closely unified federal state with an elective monarchy, but which was governed largely by the nobility, through a system of local assemblies with a central parliament. The Warsaw Confederation (1573) guaranteed religious freedom for the Polish nobility "(szlachta)" and townsfolk "(mieszczanie)". However, the peasants "(chłopi)" were still subject to severe limitations imposed on them by the nobility. The establishment of the Commonwealth coincided with a period of stability and prosperity in Poland, with the union thereafter becoming a European power and a major cultural entity, occupying approximately one million square kilometers of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as an agent for the dissemination of Western culture through Polonization into areas of modern-day Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Belarus and western Russia.In the 16th and 17th centuries, Poland suffered from a number of dynastic crises during the reigns of the Vasa kings Sigismund III and Władysław IV and found itself engaged in major conflicts with Russia, Sweden and the Ottoman Empire, as well as a series of minor Cossack uprisings. In 1610, a Polish army under the command of Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski seized Moscow after winning the Battle of Klushino. In 1611, the Tsar of Russia paid homage to the King of Poland.After the signing of Truce of Deulino, Poland had in the years 1618–1621 an area of about .From the middle of the 17th century, the nobles' democracy, suffering from internal disorder, gradually declined, thereby leaving the once powerful Commonwealth vulnerable to foreign intervention. Starting in 1648, the Cossack Khmelnytsky Uprising engulfed the south and east, eventually leaving Ukraine divided, with the eastern part, lost by the Commonwealth, becoming a dependency of the Tsardom of Russia. This was followed by the 'Deluge', a Swedish invasion of Poland, which marched through the Polish heartlands and ruined the country's population, culture and infrastructure—around four million of Poland's eleven million inhabitants died in famines and epidemics throughout the 17th century. However, under John III Sobieski the Commonwealth's military prowess was re-established, and in 1683 Polish forces played a major role in the Battle of Vienna against the Ottoman Army, commanded by Kara Mustafa, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.Sobieski's reign marked the end of the nation's golden era. Finding itself subjected to almost constant warfare and suffering enormous population losses as well as massive damage to its economy, the Commonwealth fell into decline. The government became ineffective as a result of large-scale internal conflicts (e.g. Lubomirski Rebellion against John II Casimir and rebellious confederations) and corrupted legislative processes. The nobility fell under the control of a handful of "magnats", and this, compounded with two relatively weak kings of the Saxon Wettin dynasty, Augustus II and Augustus III, as well as the rise of Russia and Prussia after the Great Northern War only served to worsen the Commonwealth's plight. Despite this The Commonwealth-Saxony personal union gave rise to the emergence of the Commonwealth's first reform movement, and laid the foundations for the Polish Enlightenment.During the later part of the 18th century, the Commonwealth made attempts to implement fundamental internal reforms; with the second half of the century bringing a much improved economy, significant population growth and far-reaching progress in the areas of education, intellectual life, art, and especially toward the end of the period, evolution of the social and political system. The most populous capital city of Warsaw replaced Gdańsk (Danzig) as the leading centre of commerce, and the role of the more prosperous urban population increased.The royal election of 1764 resulted in the elevation of Stanisław II August (a Polish aristocrat connected to the "Familia" faction of magnates) to the monarchy. However, elevated to the throne by the Empress Catherine II of Russia, the new king spent much of his reign maneuvering between his desire to implement necessary reforms to save his country, and the necessity to remain in a political relationship and at peace with Russia. This led to the formation of the 1768 Bar Confederation, a "szlachta" rebellion directed against the Polish king and all external influence, which ineptly aimed to preserve Poland's independence and szlachta's privileges. The failed attempts at reform as well as the internal turmoil caused by the Confederation proved the country's weakness and provoked its neighbours. In 1772 the First Partition of the Commonwealth by Prussia, Russia and Austria took place; an act which the "Partition Sejm", under considerable duress, eventually "ratified" "fait accompli". Disregarding this loss, in 1773 the king established the plan of the most necessary reforms, in which the Commission of National Education, the first government education authority in Europe, was established. Corporal punishment of children was officially prohibited in 1783.The Great Sejm convened by Stanisław II August in 1788 successfully adopted the 3 May Constitution, the first set of modern supreme national laws in Europe. However, this document, accused by detractors of harbouring revolutionary sympathies, generated strong opposition from the Commonwealth's nobles and conservatives as well as from Catherine II, who, determined to prevent the rebirth of a strong Commonwealth set about planning the final dismemberment of the Polish-Lithuanian state. Russia was aided in achieving its goal when the Targowica Confederation, an organisation of Polish nobles, appealed to the Empress for help. In May 1792, Russian forces crossed the Commonwealth's frontier, thus beginning the Polish-Russian War.The defensive war fought by the Poles ended prematurely when the King, convinced of the futility of resistance, capitulated and joined the Targowica Confederation, hoping to save the country. The Confederation then took over the government. Russia and Prussia, fearing the mere existence of a Polish state, understanding, that despite the current influence they still cannot control the country, arranged for, and in 1793 executed, the Second Partition of the Commonwealth, which left the country deprived of so much territory that it was practically incapable of independent existence. Eventually, in 1795, following the failed Kościuszko Uprising, the Commonwealth was partitioned one last time by all three of its more powerful neighbours, and with this, effectively ceased to exist. The 18-century British statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke summed up the partitions: "No wise or honest man can approve of that partition, or can contemplate it without prognosticating great mischief from it to all countries at some future time."Poles rebelled several times against the partitioners, particularly near the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. An unsuccessful attempt at defending Poland's sovereignty took place in 1794 during the Kościuszko Uprising, where a popular and distinguished general Tadeusz Kościuszko, who had several years earlier served under Washington in the American Revolutionary War, led Polish insurrectionists against numerically superior Russian forces. Despite the victory at the Battle of Racławice, his ultimate defeat ended Poland's independent existence for 123 years.In 1807, Napoleon I of France temporarily recreated a Polish state as the satellite Duchy of Warsaw, after a successful Greater Poland Uprising of 1806 against Prussian rule. But, after the failed Napoleonic Wars, Poland was again split between the victorious powers at the Congress of Vienna of 1815. The eastern part was ruled by the Russian tsar as Congress Poland, which had a liberal constitution. However, over time the Russian monarch reduced Polish freedoms, and Russia annexed the country in virtually all but name. Meanwhile, the Prussian controlled territory of Poland came under increased Germanization. Thus, in the 19th century, only Habsburg-ruled Austrian Poland, and particularly the Free City of Kraków, allowed free Polish culture to flourish.Throughout the period of the partitions, political and cultural repression of the Polish nation led to the organisation of a number of uprisings against the authorities of the occupying Russian, Prussian and Austrian governments. In 1830, the November Uprising began in Warsaw when, led by Lieutenant Piotr Wysocki, young non-commissioned officers at the Officer Cadet School in Warsaw revolted. They were joined by large segments of Polish society, and together forced Warsaw's Russian garrison to withdraw north of the city.Over the course of the next seven months, Polish forces successfully defeated the Russian armies of Field Marshal Hans Karl von Diebitsch and a number of other Russian commanders; however, finding themselves in a position unsupported by any other foreign powers, save distant France and the newborn United States, and with Prussia and Austria refusing to allow the import of military supplies through their territories, the Poles accepted that the uprising was doomed to failure. Upon the surrender of Warsaw to General Ivan Paskievich, many Polish troops, feeling they could not go on, withdrew into Prussia and there laid down their arms. After the defeat, the semi-independent Congress Poland lost its constitution, army and legislative assembly, and was integrated more closely with the Russian Empire.During the Spring of Nations (a series of revolutions which swept across Europe), Poles took up arms in the Greater Poland Uprising of 1848 to resist Prussian rule. Initially, the uprising manifested itself in the form of civil disobedience but eventually turned into an armed struggle when the Prussian military was sent in to pacify the region. Subsequently, the uprising was suppressed and the semi-autonomous Grand Duchy of Posen, created from the Prussian partition of Poland, was incorporated into Prussia.In 1863, a new Polish uprising against Russian rule began. The January Uprising started out as a spontaneous protest by young Poles against conscription into the Imperial Russian Army. However, the insurrectionists, despite being joined by high-ranking Polish-Lithuanian officers and numerous politicians, were still severely outnumbered and lacking in foreign support. They were forced to resort to guerrilla warfare tactics and failed to win any major military victories. Afterwards no major uprising was witnessed in the Russian-controlled Congress Poland, and Poles resorted instead to fostering economic and cultural self-improvement. Congress Poland was rapidly industrialised towards the end of the 19th century, and successively transformed into the Empire's wealthiest and most developed subject.Despite the political unrest experienced during the partitions, Poland did benefit from large-scale industrialisation and modernisation programs, instituted by the occupying powers, which helped it develop into a more economically coherent and viable entity. This was particularly true in Greater Poland, Silesia and Eastern Pomerania controlled by Prussia (later becoming a part of the German Empire); areas which eventually, thanks largely to the Greater Poland Uprising of 1918 and Silesian Uprisings, were reconstituted as a part of the Second Polish Republic, becoming the country's most prosperous regions.Following World War I all the Allies agreed on the reconstitution of Poland that United States President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed in Point 13 of his Fourteen Points. A total of 2 million Polish troops fought with the armies of the three occupying powers, and 450,000 died. Shortly after the armistice with Germany in November 1918, Poland regained its independence as the Second Polish Republic ("II Rzeczpospolita Polska"). It reaffirmed its independence after a series of military conflicts, the most notable being the Polish–Soviet War (1919–21) when Poland inflicted a crushing defeat on the Red Army at the Battle of Warsaw, an event which is considered to have halted the advance of Communism into Europe and forced Vladimir Lenin to rethink his objective of achieving global socialism. The event is often referred to as the "Miracle at the Vistula".During this period, Poland successfully managed to fuse the territories of the three former partitioning powers into a cohesive nation state. Railways were restructured to direct traffic towards Warsaw instead of the former imperial capitals, a new network of national roads was gradually built up and a major seaport, Gdynia, was opened on the Baltic Coast, so as to allow Polish exports and imports to bypass the politically charged Free City of Danzig. Also, the Polish government embarked on the creation of the Central Industrial Region ("Centralny Okręg Przemysłowy"). The project's goal was to create a heavy industrial center in the middle of the country, which included steal mills, power plants and factories. The inter-war period heralded in a new era of Polish politics. Whilst Polish political activists had faced heavy censorship in the decades up until the First World War, the country now found itself trying to establish a new political tradition. For this reason, many exiled Polish activists, such as Ignacy Paderewski (who would later become prime minister) returned home to help; a significant number of them then went on to take key positions in the newly formed political and governmental structures. Tragedy struck in 1922 when Gabriel Narutowicz, inaugural holder of the presidency, was assassinated at the Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw by a painter and right-wing nationalist Eligiusz Niewiadomski.In 1926, a May coup, led by the hero of the Polish independence campaign Marshal Józef Piłsudski, turned rule of the Second Polish Republic over to the nonpartisan Sanacja ("Healing") movement in an effort to prevent radical political organizations on both the left and the right from destabilizing the country. The movement functioned with relative stability until Piłsudski's death in 1935. Following Marshall Piłsudski's death, Sanation split into several competing factions. By the late 1930s, due to increased threats posed by political extremism inside the country, the Polish government became increasingly heavy-handed, banning a number of radical organizations, including communist and ultra-nationalist political parties, which threatened the stability of the country.World War II began with the Nazi German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, followed by the Soviet invasion of Poland on 17 September. On 28 September 1939, Warsaw fell. As agreed in the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Poland was split into two zones, one occupied by Nazi Germany, the other by the Soviet Union. In 1939–41, the Soviets deported hundreds of thousands of Poles. The Soviet NKVD executed thousands of Polish prisoners of war (inter alia Katyn massacre) ahead of the Operation Barbarossa. German planners had in November 1939 called for "the complete destruction of all Poles" and their fate as outlined in the genocidal "Generalplan Ost".Polish intelligence operatives proved extremely valuable to the Allies, providing much of the intelligence from Europe and beyond, and Polish code breakers were responsible for cracking the Enigma cypher.Poland made the fourth-largest troop contribution in Europe and its troops served both the Polish Government in Exile in the west and Soviet leadership in the east. Polish troops played an important role in the Normandy, Italian and North African Campaigns and are particularly remembered for the Battle of Monte Cassino. In the east, the Soviet-backed Polish 1st Army distinguished itself in the battles for Warsaw and Berlin.The wartime resistance movement, and the Armia Krajowa ("Home Army"), fought against German occupation. It was one of the three largest resistance movements of the entire war, and encompassed a range of clandestine activities, which functioned as an underground state complete with degree-awarding universities and a court system. The resistance was loyal to the exiled government and generally resented the idea of a communist Poland; for this reason, in the summer of 1944 it initiated Operation Tempest, of which the Warsaw Uprising that begun on 1 August 1944 is the best known operation.Nazi German forces under orders from Adolf Hitler set up six German extermination camps in occupied Poland, including Treblinka, Majdanek and Auschwitz. The Germans transported millions of Jews from across occupied Europe to be murdered in those camps.Altogether, 3 million Polish Jews – approximately 90% of Poland's pre-war Jewry – and between 1.8 and 2.8 million ethnic Poles were killed during the German occupation of Poland, including between 50,000 and 100,000 members of the Polish intelligentsia – academics, doctors, lawyers, nobility and priesthood. During the Warsaw Uprising alone, over 150,000 Polish civilians were killed, most were murdered by the Germans during the Wola and Ochota massacres. Around 150,000 Polish civilians were killed by Soviets between 1939 and 1941 during the Soviet Union's occupation of eastern Poland (Kresy), and another estimated 100,000 Poles were murdered by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) between 1943 and 1944 in what became known as the Wołyń Massacres. Of all the countries in the war, Poland lost the highest percentage of its citizens: around 6 million perished – more than one-sixth of Poland's pre-war population – half of them Polish Jews. About 90% of deaths were non-military in nature.In 1945, Poland's borders were shifted westwards. Over two million Polish inhabitants of Kresy were expelled along the Curzon Line by Stalin. The western border became the Oder-Neisse line. As a result, Poland's territory was reduced by 20%, or . The shift forced the migration of millions of other people, most of whom were Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, and Jews.At the insistence of Joseph Stalin, the Yalta Conference sanctioned the formation of a new provisional pro-Communist coalition government in Moscow, which ignored the Polish government-in-exile based in London. This action angered many Poles who considered it a betrayal by the Allies. In 1944, Stalin had made guarantees to Churchill and Roosevelt that he would maintain Poland's sovereignty and allow democratic elections to take place. However, upon achieving victory in 1945, the elections organized by the occupying Soviet authorities were falsified and were used to provide a veneer of legitimacy for Soviet hegemony over Polish affairs. The Soviet Union instituted a new communist government in Poland, analogous to much of the rest of the Eastern Bloc. As elsewhere in Communist Europe, the Soviet influence over Poland was met with armed resistance from the outset which continued into the 1950s.Despite widespread objections, the new Polish government accepted the Soviet annexation of the pre-war eastern regions of Poland (in particular the cities of Wilno and Lwów) and agreed to the permanent garrisoning of Red Army units on Poland's territory. Military alignment within the Warsaw Pact throughout the Cold War came about as a direct result of this change in Poland's political culture. In the European scene, it came to characterize the full-fledged integration of Poland into the brotherhood of communist nations.The new communist government took control with the adoption of the Small Constitution on 19 February 1947. The Polish People's Republic ("Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa") was officially proclaimed in 1952. In 1956, after the death of Bolesław Bierut, the régime of Władysław Gomułka became temporarily more liberal, freeing many people from prison and expanding some personal freedoms. Collectivization in the Polish People's Republic failed. A similar situation repeated itself in the 1970s under Edward Gierek, but most of the time persecution of anti-communist opposition groups persisted. Despite this, Poland was at the time considered to be one of the least oppressive states of the Eastern Bloc.Labour turmoil in 1980 led to the formation of the independent trade union "Solidarity" (""Solidarność""), which over time became a political force. Despite persecution and imposition of martial law in 1981, it eroded the dominance of the Polish United Workers' Party and by 1989 had triumphed in Poland's first partially free and democratic parliamentary elections since the end of the Second World War. Lech Wałęsa, a Solidarity candidate, eventually won the presidency in 1990. The Solidarity movement heralded the collapse of communist regimes and parties across Europe.A shock therapy programme, initiated by Leszek Balcerowicz in the early 1990s, enabled the country to transform its socialist-style planned economy into a market economy. As with other post-communist countries, Poland suffered declines in social and economic standards, but it became the first post-communist country to reach its pre-1989 GDP levels, which it achieved by 1995 thanks largely to its booming economy.Most visibly, there were numerous improvements in human rights, such as freedom of speech, internet freedom (no censorship), civil liberties (1st class) and political rights (1st class), as ranked by Freedom House non-governmental organization. In 1991, Poland became a member of the Visegrád Group and joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance in 1999 along with the Czech Republic and Hungary. Poles then voted to join the European Union in a referendum in June 2003, with Poland becoming a full member on 1 May 2004.Poland joined the Schengen Area in 2007, as a result of which, the country's borders with other member states of the European Union have been dismantled, allowing for full freedom of movement within most of the EU. In contrast to this, a section of Poland's eastern border now constitutes the external EU border with Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. That border has become increasingly well protected, and has led in part to the coining of the phrase 'Fortress Europe', in reference to the seeming 'impossibility' of gaining entry to the EU for citizens of the former Soviet Union.In an effort to strengthen military cooperation with its neighbors, Poland set up the Visegrád Battlegroup with Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia, with a total of 3,000 troops ready for deployment. Also, in eastern Poland, it formed the LITPOLUKRBRIG battle groups with Lithuania and Ukraine. These battle groups will operate outside of NATO and within the European defense initiative framework.On 10 April 2010, the President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, along with 89 other high-ranking Polish officials died in a plane crash near Smolensk, Russia. The president's party was on their way to attend an annual service of commemoration for the victims of the Katyń massacre when the tragedy took place.In 2011, the ruling Civic Platform won parliamentary elections. Poland joined the European Space Agency in 2012, as well as organised the UEFA Euro 2012 (along with Ukraine). In 2013, Poland also became a member of the Development Assistance Committee. In 2014, the Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, was chosen to be President of the European Council, and resigned as prime minister.The 2015 and 2019 elections were won by the conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS), resulting in increased friction between Poland and the EU. In December 2017, Mateusz Morawiecki was sworn in as the new Prime Minister, succeeding Beata Szydlo, in office since 2015. They both represented ruling Law and Justice party, led by party chairman Jarosław Kaczyński. President Andrzej Duda, supported by Law and Justice party, was narrowly re-elected in the 2020 presidential election.Poland's vast territory covers approximately , of which 98.52% is dry land and 1.48% is water. Extending across several geographical regions, the country is the 9th-largest by area in Europe and 69th largest in the world. Topographically, Poland is diverse and has access to the sea, the mountains and open terrain. Although most of the central parts of the country are flat, there is an abundance of lakes, rivers, hills, swamps, beaches, islands and forests elsewhere.In the north-west is the Baltic seacoast spanning from the Bay of Pomerania to the Gulf of Gdańsk. The coast is marked by several spits, coastal lakes (former bays that have been cut off from the sea), and dunes. The largely straight coastline is indented by the Szczecin Lagoon, the Bay of Puck, and the Vistula Lagoon.The central and northern parts of the country lie within the North European Plain. Rising above these lowlands is a geographical region comprising four hilly districts of moraines and moraine-dammed lakes formed during and after the Pleistocene ice age, notably the Pomeranian Lake District, the Greater Polish Lake District, the Kashubian Lake District, and the Masurian Lake District. The Masurian Lake District is the largest of the four and covers much of north-eastern Poland. The lake districts form a series of moraine belts along the southern shore of the Baltic Sea.South of the Northern European Plain are the regions of Lusatia, Silesia and Masovia, which are marked by broad ice-age river valleys. The extreme south of Poland is mountainous; it runs from the Sudetes in the west to the Carpathian Mountains in the east. The highest part of the Carpathian massif is the Tatra Mountain range, along Poland's southern border.The geological structure of Poland has been shaped by the continental collision of Europe and Africa over the past 60 million years and, more recently, by the Quaternary glaciations of northern Europe. Both processes shaped the Sudetes and the Carpathian Mountains. The moraine landscape of northern Poland contains soils made up mostly of sand or loam, while the ice age river valleys of the south often contain loess. The Polish Jura, the Pieniny, and the Western Tatras consist of limestone, whereas the High Tatras, the Beskids, and the Karkonosze mountain ranges are made up mainly of granite and basalts. The Polish Jura Chain has some of the oldest rock formations on the continent of Europe.Poland has over 70 mountains over in elevation, all situated in the Tatras. Poland's highest point is the north-western summit of Mount Rysy at in elevation. At its foot lie the mountain lakes of Czarny Staw (Black Lake) and Morskie Oko (Eye of the Sea), both naturally-made tarns. Other notable uplands include the Pieniny and Holy Cross Mountains, the Table Mountains noted for their unusual rock formations, the Bieszczady in the far southeast of the country in which the highest peak is Tarnica at , and the Gorce Mountains whose highest point is Turbacz at . The highest point of the Sudeten massif is Mount Śnieżka (), shared with the Czech Republic.The lowest point in Poland – at below sea level – is at Raczki Elbląskie, near Elbląg in the Vistula Delta.In the Zagłębie Dąbrowskie (the Coal Fields of Dąbrowa) region in the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland is an area of sparsely vegetated sand known as the Błędów Desert. It covers an area of . It is not a natural desert and was formed by human activity from the Middle Ages onwards.The Baltic Sea activity in Słowiński National Park created sand dunes which in the course of time separated the bay from the sea creating two lakes. As waves and wind carry sand inland the dunes slowly move, at a rate of per year. Some dunes reach the height of up to . The highest peak of the park is Rowokol at above sea level.The longest rivers are the Vistula (), long; the Oder () which forms part of Poland's western border, long; its tributary, the Warta, long; and the Bug, a tributary of the Vistula, long. The Vistula and the Oder flow into the Baltic Sea, as do numerous smaller rivers in Pomerania. Poland's lengthy waterways have been used since early times for navigation; the Vikings ventured up the Polish rivers in their longships. In the Middle Ages and in early modern times, the shipment of tangible goods down the Vistula toward Gdańsk and onward to other parts of Europe took on great importance.With almost ten thousand closed bodies of water covering more than each, Poland has one of the highest numbers of lakes in the world. In Europe, only Finland has a greater density of lakes. The largest lakes, covering more than , are Lake Śniardwy and Lake Mamry in Masuria as well as Lake Łebsko and Lake Drawsko in Pomerania. The lake with the greatest depth—of more than —is Lake Hańcza in the Wigry Lake District, east of Masuria in Podlaskie Voivodeship.The Polish Baltic coast is approximately long and extends from Świnoujście on the islands of Usedom and Wolin in the west to Krynica Morska on the Vistula Spit in the east. For the most part, Poland has a smooth coastline, which has been shaped by the continual movement of sand by currents and winds. This continual erosion and deposition has formed cliffs, dunes, and spits, many of which have migrated landwards to close off former lagoons, such as Łebsko Lake in the Słowiński National Park.The largest spits are Hel Peninsula and the Vistula Spit. The coast line is varied also by Szczecin and Vistula Lagoons and several lakes, including Jamno. The largest Polish Baltic island is Wolin, located within Wolin National Park. The largest sea harbours are Szczecin, Świnoujście, Gdańsk, Gdynia, Police and Kołobrzeg and the main coastal resorts – Świnoujście, Międzydzdroje, Kołobrzeg, Łeba, Sopot, Władysławowo and the Hel Peninsula.In the valley of Pilica river in Tomaszów Mazowiecki there is a unique natural karst spring of water containing calcium salts, that is an object of protection at Blue Springs Nature Reserve in the Sulejów Landscape Park. The red waves are absorbed by water, hence only blue and green are reflected from the bottom of the spring, giving the water atypical colour.Forests cover about 29.6% of Poland's land area based on international standards. Its overall percentage is still increasing. Forests of Poland are managed by the national program of reforestation (KPZL), aiming at an increase of forest-cover to 33% in 2050. The largest forest complex in Poland is Lower Silesian Wilderness.More than 1% of Poland's territory, , is protected within 23 Polish national parks. Three more national parks are projected for Masuria, the Polish Jura, and the eastern Beskids. In addition, wetlands along lakes and rivers in central Poland are legally protected, as are coastal areas in the north. There are 123 areas designated as landscape parks, along with numerous nature reserves and other protected areas under the Natura 2000 network.In 2017, approximately of land was occupied by farms and farmsteads, over half of Poland's total area.Phytogeographically, Poland belongs to the Central European province of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the territory of Poland belongs to three Palearctic Ecoregions of the continental forest spanning Central and Northern European temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregions, as well as the Carpathian montane conifer forest. The most common deciduous trees found across the country are oak, maple, and beech; the most common conifers are pine, spruce, and fir. An estimated 68.7% of all forests are coniferous.Poland has historically been home to rare species of animals, as well as the two largest European mammals: the wisent ("żubr") and aurochs ("tur"). The last aurochs of Europe became extinct in 1627 in the Polish Jaktorów Forest, while the wisent survived until the 20th century only at Białowieża. It has been since reintroduced to other countries. Other wild species include the brown bear in Białowieża, in the Tatras, and in the Beskids; the gray wolf and the Eurasian lynx in various forests; the moose in northern Poland; and the beaver in Masuria, Pomerania, and Podlaskie.Game animals such as red deer, roe deer, and wild boar are found in most woodlands. Eastern Poland abounds in ancient woods, like the Białowieża Forest, that have not been disturbed by human or industrial activity. There are also large forested areas in the mountains, Greater Poland, Pomerania, Lubusz Land, and Lower Silesia. The Lubusz Voivodeship is currently the most arboraceous province in the country; 52% of its territory is occupied by forests.Poland is also a significant breeding ground for a variety of European migratory birds. One quarter of the global population of white storks (40,000 breeding pairs) live in Poland, particularly in the lake districts and the wetlands along the Biebrza, the Narew, and the Warta, which are part of nature reserves or national parks.The climate is mostly temperate throughout the country. The climate is oceanic in the north-west and becomes gradually warmer and continental towards the south-east. Summers are generally warm, with average temperatures between depending on the region. Winters are rather cold, with average temperatures around in the northwest and in the northeast. Precipitation falls throughout the year, although, especially in the east, winter is drier than summer.The warmest region in Poland is Lower Silesia in the southwest of the country, where temperatures in the summer average between but can go as high as on some days in the warmest months of July and August. The warmest cities in Poland are Tarnów in Lesser Poland, and Wrocław in Lower Silesia. The average temperatures in Wrocław are in the summer and in the winter, but Tarnów has the longest summer in all of Poland, which lasts for 115 days, from mid-May to mid-September. The coldest region of Poland is in the northeast, around the area of Suwałki within the Podlaskie Voivodeship, where the climate is affected by cold fronts coming from Scandinavia and Siberia. The average temperature in the winter in Podlaskie ranges from . The biggest impact of the oceanic climate is observed in Świnoujście and Baltic Sea seashore area from Police to Słupsk.Poland is a representative democracy, with a president as the head of state. The government structure centers on the Council of Ministers, led by a prime minister. The president appoints the cabinet according to the proposals of the prime minister, typically from the majority coalition in the Sejm. The president is elected by popular vote every five years. The current president is Andrzej Duda and the prime minister is Mateusz Morawiecki.Polish voters elect a bicameral parliament consisting of a 460-member lower house (Sejm) and a 100-member Senate (Senat). The Sejm is elected under proportional representation according to the d'Hondt method, a method similar to that used in many parliamentary political systems. The Senat, on the other hand, is elected under the first-past-the-post voting method, with one senator being returned from each of the 100 constituencies.With the exception of ethnic minority parties, only candidates of political parties receiving at least 5% of the total national vote can enter the Sejm. When sitting in joint session, members of the Sejm and Senat form the National Assembly (the "Zgromadzenie Narodowe"). The National Assembly is formed on three occasions: when a new president takes the oath of office; when an indictment against the President of the Republic is brought to the State Tribunal ("Trybunał Stanu"); and when a president's permanent incapacity to exercise his duties due to the state of his health is declared. To date only the first instance has occurred.The judicial branch plays an important role in decision-making. Its major institutions include the Supreme Court ("Sąd Najwyższy"); the Supreme Administrative Court ("Naczelny Sąd Administracyjny"); the Constitutional Tribunal ("Trybunał Konstytucyjny"); and the State Tribunal ("Trybunał Stanu"). On the approval of the Senat, the Sejm also appoints the ombudsman or the Commissioner for Civil Rights Protection ("Rzecznik Praw Obywatelskich") for a five-year term. The ombudsman has the duty of guarding the observance and implementation of the rights and liberties of Polish citizens and residents, of the law and of principles of community life and social justice.The Constitution of Poland is the enacted supreme law, and the Polish legal system is based on the principle of civil rights, governed by the code of civil law. The current democratic constitution was adopted by the National Assembly of Poland on 2 April 1997; it guarantees a multi-party state with freedoms of religion, speech and assembly, prohibits the practices of forced medical experimentation, torture or corporal punishment, and acknowledges the inviolability of the home, the right to form trade unions, and the right to strike.The judiciary incorporates a four-tier court system composed of the Supreme Court, the Supreme Administrative Court, Common Courts (District, Regional, Appellate) and the Military Court. Judges are nominated by the National Council of the Judiciary and are appointed for life by the president. The Constitutional and State Tribunals are separate judicial bodies, which rule the constitutional liability of people holding the highest offices of state and supervise the compliance of statutory law, thus protecting the Constitution.Historically, the most significant Polish legal act is the Constitution of 3 May 1791, the first modern constitution in Europe. Instituted as a Government Act, it was designed to redress long-standing political defects of the federative Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and its Golden Liberty. Previously, only the Henrician Articles (1573) signed by each of Poland's elected monarchs could perform the function of a set of basic laws. The new Constitution introduced political equality between townspeople and the nobility ("szlachta"), and placed the peasants under the protection of the government. It abolished pernicious parliamentary policies such as the "liberum veto", which permitted any deputy to rescind all the legislation passed in the interest of a foreign power. The 3 May Constitution sought to supplant the existing anarchy fostered by some of the country's reactionary magnates, with a more egalitarian and democratic constitutional monarchy. The influenced many later democratic movements across the globe. Tax-paying women were allowed to take part in Polish political life until the third partition in 1795. In 1918 the Second Polish Republic became one of the first countries to introduce universal women's suffrage.Poland has a low homicide rate at 0.7 murders per 100,000 people, as of 2018. Rape, assault and violent crime remain at a very low level, although not all cases are recorded by the authorities.Abortion is permitted only in cases of rape, incest or when the woman's life is in danger. Congenital disorder and stillbirth are not covered by the law, forcing some women to seek abortion abroad, and others to seek the assistance of psychiatrists willing to testify on the negative psychological impact of stillbirth. Poland does not criminalize homosexuality, and its legality was confirmed in 1932. The Polish Constitution defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.Poland is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union and has a grand total of 52 representatives in the European Parliament as of 2020. Since joining the union in 2004, successive Polish governments have pursued policies to extend the country's role in European and international affairs. Poland is an emerging regional power in Central Europe. The capital of Warsaw serves as the headquarters for Frontex, the European Union's agency for external border security as well as ODIHR, one of the principal institutions of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.Apart from the European Union, Poland has been a member of NATO since 1999, the UN, the World Trade Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since 1996, European Economic Area, International Energy Agency, Council of Europe, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, International Atomic Energy Agency, European Space Agency, G6, Council of the Baltic Sea States, Visegrád Group, Weimar Triangle, Schengen Agreement, Lublin Triangle and Bucharest Nine.Over the past two decades, Poland significantly strengthened its ties with the United States, thus becoming one of its closest allies in Europe. Poland was part of the US-led coalition force during the Iraq War in 2003, and sent its troops in the first phase of the conflict, jointly with the United Kingdom and Australia. Along with NATO, Poland maintains military presence in the Middle East, the Baltic states and in the Balkans.The Polish Armed Forces are composed of five branches – Land Forces ("Wojska Lądowe"), Navy ("Marynarka Wojenna"), Air Force ("Siły Powietrzne"), Special Forces ("Wojska Specjalne") and the Territorial Defence Force ("Wojska Obrony Terytorialnej"). The military is subordinate to the Ministry of National Defence of the Republic of Poland. However, its commander-in-chief in peacetime is the President of the Republic, who nominates officers, the Minister for National Defence and the chief of staff.As of 2018, the Polish Armed Forces have a combined strength of 144,142 soldiers. The Polish Navy primarily operates on the Baltic Sea and conducts operations such as maritime patrol, search and rescue for the section of the Baltic under Polish sovereignty, as well as hydrographic measurements and research. The Polish Air Force routinely takes part in Baltic Air Policing assignments. In 2003, the F-16C Block 52 was selected as the new general multi-role fighter for the air force. In January 2020, Poland has approved the delivery for F-35 Lightning II combat aircraft. Poland is currently spending 2% of its GDP on defence (approximately US$13.5 billion in 2020), which is expected to grow to 2.5% by 2030. According to SIPRI, the country exported EUR€487 million worth of arms and armaments to other countries, primarily to the United States, Chile, France and South Africa.The mission of the armed forces is the defence of Poland's territorial integrity and Polish interests abroad. The country's national security goal is to further integrate with NATO and European defence, economic, and political institutions. Compulsory military service for men was discontinued in 2008. From 2007, until conscription ended in 2008, the mandatory service was nine months. Polish military doctrine reflects the same defensive nature as that of its NATO partners and the country actively hosts NATO's military exercises. From 1953 to 2009 Poland was a large contributor to various United Nations peacekeeping missions. The Polish Armed Forces took part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, deploying 2,500 soldiers in the south of that country and commanding the 17-nation multinational force in Iraq. Poland also maintains troops in the Middle East, the Baltic states and in the Balkans; 1,650 soldiers were deployed in 2019.Law enforcement in Poland is performed by several agencies which are subordinate to the Ministry of Interior and Administration – the State Police ("Policja"), assigned to investigate crimes or transgression; the Municipal City Guard, which maintains public order; and several specialized agencies, such as the Polish Border Guard. Private security firms are also common, although they possess no legal authority to arrest or detain a suspect. Municipal guards are primarily headed by provincial, regional or city councils; individual guards are not permitted to carry firearms unless instructed by their superior commanding officer or commandant.The Internal Security Agency (ABW, or ISA in English) is the chief counter-intelligence instrument safeguarding Poland's internal security, along with Agencja Wywiadu (AW) which identifies threats and collects secret information abroad. The Central Investigation Bureau of Police (CBŚP) and the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) are responsible for countering organized crime and corruption in state and private institutions.Emergency services in Poland consist of the emergency medical services, search and rescue units of the Polish Armed Forces and State Fire Service. Emergency medical services in Poland are provided for by local and regional governments.All emergency services personnel are uniformed and security services can be easily recognized during regular patrols in both large urban areas or smaller suburban localities.Poland's current voivodeships (provinces) are largely based on the country's historic regions, whereas those of the past two decades (to 1998) had been centred on and named for individual cities. The new units range in area from less than for Opole Voivodeship to more than for Masovian Voivodeship. Administrative authority at the voivodeship level is shared between a government-appointed voivode (governor), an elected regional assembly ("sejmik") and a voivodeship marshal, an executive elected by that assembly.The voivodeships are subdivided into "powiats" (often referred to in English as counties), and these are further divided into "gminas" (also known as communes or municipalities). Major cities normally have the status of both "gmina" and "powiat". Poland has 16 voivodeships, 380 powiats (including 66 cities with "powiat" status), and 2,478 "gminas".Poland's economy and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is currently the sixth largest in the European Union by nominal standards, and the fifth largest by purchasing power parity. It is also one of the fastest growing within the Union. Around 60% of the employed population belongs to the tertiary service sector, 30% to industry and manufacturing, and the remaining 10% to the agricultural sector. Although Poland is a member of EU's single market, the country has not adopted the Euro as legal tender and maintains its own currency – the Polish złoty (zł, PLN).Poland is the regional economic leader in Central Europe, with nearly 40 per cent of the 500 biggest companies in the region (by revenues) as well as a high globalisation rate. The country's largest firms compose the WIG20 and WIG30 indexes, which is traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. According to reports made by the National Bank of Poland, the value of Polish foreign direct investments reached almost 300 billion PLN at the end of 2014. The Central Statistical Office estimated that in 2014 there were 1,437 Polish corporations with interests in 3,194 foreign entities.Having a strong domestic market, low private debt, low unemployment rate, flexible currency, and not being dependent on a single export sector, Poland is the only European economy to have avoided the recession of 2008. The country is the 20th largest exporter of goods and services in the world and its most successful exports include machinery, furniture, food products, clothing, shoes, cosmetics and videogames. These account to approximately 56% of the total GDP, as of 2018. Poland's largest trading partners include Germany, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, France and Italy. Warsaw leads Central Europe in foreign investment. In September 2018, the unemployment rate was estimated at 5.7%, one of the lowest in the European Union. In 2019, Poland passed a law that would exempt workers under the age of 26 from income tax.The Polish banking sector is the largest in the region, with 32.3 branches per 100,000 adults.World Bank, Financial Inclusion Data. Country Dashboard: Poland. The World Bank Group. Retrieved 6 November 2014. The banks are the largest and most developed sector of the country's financial markets. They are regulated by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority. Poland's banking sector has approximately 5 national banks, a network of nearly 600 cooperative banks and 18 branches of foreign-owned banks. In addition, foreign investors have controlling stakes in nearly 40 commercial banks, which make up 68% of the banking capital.Products and goods manufactured in Poland include: electronics, buses and trams (Solaris, Solbus), helicopters and planes (PZL Świdnik, PZL Mielec), trains (Pesa, Newag), ships (Gdańsk Shipyard, Szczecin Shipyard), military equipment (FB "Łucznik" Radom, , Jelcz), medicines (, ), food (Tymbark, Hortex, E. Wedel), clothes (LLP), glass, pottery (Bolesławiec), chemical products and others. Well-known brands and companies include Alior Bank, Orlen&Lotos Group, Inglot Cosmetics, Plus, Play, Brainly, Netguru, GOG.com, CD Projekt, Trefl and Allegro. Poland is also one of the world's biggest producers of copper, silver, coal, furniture, automotive parts and soft drink.Poland experienced a significant increase in the number of tourists after joining the European Union in 2004. With nearly 21 million international arrivals in 2019, tourism contributes considerably to the overall economy and makes up a relatively large proportion of the country's service market.Tourist attractions in Poland vary, from the mountains in the south to the sandy beaches in the north, with a trail of nearly every architectural style. The most visited city is Kraków, which was the former capital of Poland and serves as a relic of the Polish Golden Age and the Renaissance. Kraków also held royal coronations of most Polish kings and monarchs at Wawel, the nation's chief historical landmark. Among other notable sites in the country is Wrocław, one of the oldest cities in Poland which was a model for the founding of Kraków. Wrocław is famous for its dwarfs, a large market square with two town halls, and the oldest Zoological Gardens with one of the world's largest number of animal species. The Polish capital Warsaw and its historical Old Town were entirely reconstructed after wartime destruction. Other cities attracting countless tourists include Gdańsk, Poznań, Lublin, Toruń as well as the site of the German Auschwitz concentration camp in Oświęcim. A notable highlight is the 13th-century Wieliczka Salt Mine with its labyrinthine tunnels, a subterranean lake and chapels carved by miners out of rock salt beneath the ground.Poland's main tourist offerings include outdoor activities such as skiing, sailing, mountain hiking and climbing, as well as agritourism, sightseeing historical monuments. Tourist destinations include the Baltic Sea coast in the north; the Masurian Lake District and Białowieża Forest in the east; on the south Karkonosze, the Table Mountains and the Tatra Mountains, where Rysy – the highest peak of Poland, and Eagle's Path mountain trail are located. The Pieniny and Bieszczady Mountains lie in the extreme south-east. There are over 100 castles in the country, most in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship (inter alia ), and also on the Trail of the Eagles' Nests. The largest castle in the world by land area is situated in Malbork, in north-central Poland.The electricity generation sector in Poland is largely fossil-fuel–based. Many power plants nationwide use Poland's position as a major European exporter of coal to their advantage by continuing to use coal as the primary raw material in the production of their energy. In 2013, Poland scored 48 out of 129 states in the Energy Sustainability Index. The three largest Polish coal mining firms (Węglokoks, Kompania Węglowa and JSW) extract around 100 million tonnes of coal annually.Renewable forms of energy account for a smaller proportion of Poland's full energy generation capacity. However, the national government has set targets for the development of renewable energy sources in Poland (the share of energy from renewable sources in the gross final energy consumption in 2019 was – 12,18%). Increasing the share of energy from renewable sources and a significant reduction in CO2 emissions to be achieved with the help of biofuels, photovoltaics, construction of wind farms on the land and the Baltic Sea, hydroelectric stations and nuclear power plant.Poland has around 164,800,000,000 m of proven natural gas reserves and around 96,380,000 barrels of proven oil reserves. These reserves are exploited by energy supply companies such as PKN Orlen ("the only Polish company listed in the Fortune Global 500"), PGNiG. However, the small amounts of fossil fuels naturally occurring in Poland are insufficient to satisfy the full energy consumption needs of the population and industry. Consequently, the country is a net importer of oil and natural gas. Therefore, since the second decade of the 21st century, Poland has been strongly developing the so-called North Gate in which the most important components are the Baltic Pipe, the Świnoujście LNG terminal and Floating Storage and Regasification Unit in Port of Gdańsk.The 5 largest companies supplying Poland electricity are PGE, Tauron, Enea, and Innogy Poland.Transport in Poland is provided by means of rail, road, marine shipping and air travel. The country is part of EU's Schengen Area and is an important transport hub along neighbouring Germany due to its strategic position in Central Europe. Some of the longest European routes, including the E40, run through Poland.The country has a good network of highways, composed of express roads and motorways. At the start of 2020, Poland had of highways in use. In addition, all local and regional roads are monitored by the National Road Rebuilding Programme, which aims to improve the quality of travel in the countryside and suburban localities.In 2017, the nation had of railway track, the third longest in Europe after Germany and France. The Polish State Railways (PKP) is the dominant railway operator in the country. In December 2014, Poland began to implement high–speed rail routes connecting major Polish cities, and started passenger service using the New Pendolino train, operating at 200 km/h on the Central Rail Line (CMK). Polish regulations allow trains without ETCS to travel at speeds up to 160 km/h, trains with ETCS1 up to 200 km/h, and trains with ETCS2 at over 200 km/h. Most inter-regional connections rail routes in Poland are operated by PKP Intercity, whilst regional trains are run by a number of private operators, the largest of which is Polregio. The largest passenger train station in terms of the number of travelers is Wrocław Główny.The air and maritime transport markets in Poland are largely well developed. Poland has a number of international airports, the largest of which is Warsaw Chopin Airport, the primary global hub for LOT Polish Airlines. It was established in 1928 from a merger of Aerolloyd (1922) and Aero (1925). Other major airports with international connections include John Paul II International Airport Kraków–Balice, Copernicus Airport Wrocław, Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport. Poland has begun preparations for a construction that can handle 100 million passengers of the Central Communication Port.Seaports exist all along Poland's Baltic coast, with most freight operations using Świnoujście, Police, Szczecin, Kołobrzeg, Gdynia, Gdańsk and Elbląg as their base.Passenger ferries link Poland with Scandinavia all year round; these services are provided from Gdańsk and Świnoujście by Polferries, Stena Line from Gdynia and Unity Line from the Świnoujście. The Port of Gdańsk is the only port in the Baltic Sea adapted to receive oceanic vessels.Over the course of history, the Polish people have made considerable contributions in the fields of science, technology and mathematics. Perhaps the most renowned Pole to support this theory was Nicolaus Copernicus ("Mikołaj Kopernik"), who triggered the Copernican Revolution by placing the Sun rather than the Earth at the center of the universe. He also derived a quantity theory of money, which made him a pioneer of economics. Copernicus' achievements and discoveries are considered the basis of Polish culture and cultural identity.Poland's tertiary education institutions; traditional universities, as well as technical, medical, and economic institutions, employ around tens of thousands of researchers and staff members. There are hundreds of research and development institutes. However, in the 19th and 20th centuries many Polish scientists worked abroad; one of the most important of these exiles was Maria Skłodowska-Curie, a physicist and chemist who lived much of her life in France. In 1925 she established Poland's Radium Institute.In the first half of the 20th century, Poland was a flourishing centre of mathematics. Outstanding Polish mathematicians formed the Lwów School of Mathematics (with Stefan Banach, Stanisław Mazur, Hugo Steinhaus, Stanisław Ulam) and Warsaw School of Mathematics (with Alfred Tarski, Kazimierz Kuratowski, Wacław Sierpiński and Antoni Zygmund). Numerous mathematicians, scientists, chemists or economists emigrated due to historic vicissitudes, among them Benoit Mandelbrot, Leonid Hurwicz, Alfred Tarski, Joseph Rotblat and Nobel Prize laureates Roald Hoffmann, Georges Charpak and Tadeusz Reichstein. In the 1930s, mathematician and cryptologist Marian Rejewski invented the Cryptographic Bomb which formed the basis of the effort that allowed the Allies to crack the Enigma code.Over 40 research and development centers and 4,500 researchers make Poland the biggest research and development hub in Central and Eastern Europe. Multinational companies such as: ABB, Delphi, GlaxoSmithKline, Google, Hewlett–Packard, IBM, Intel, LG Electronics, Microsoft, Motorola, Siemens and Samsung all have set up research and development centres in Poland. Companies chose Poland because of the availability of highly qualified labour force, presence of universities, support of authorities, and the largest market in East-Central Europe. According to a KPMG report from 2011, 80% of Poland's current investors are content with their choice and willing to reinvest. Poland has a very well-developed e-administration, thanks to which many official matters can be easily and quickly settled via the Internet. In the UN ranking, Poland is in the top twenty countries with the best-rated e-administration in the world.Poland, with approximately 38.5 million inhabitants, has the ninth-largest population in Europe and the fifth-largest in the European Union. It has a population density of 122 inhabitants per square kilometre (328 per square mile). The total fertility rate in 2020 was estimated at 1.44 children born to a woman, a considerable rise from previous years. In contrast, the total fertility rate in 1925 was 4.68. Furthermore, Poland's population is aging significantly and the median age in 2018 was 41.1 years. The crude death rate in 2020 stood at 10.3 per 1,000 people.Around 60% of Poles and Polish citizens reside in urban areas or major cities and 40% in more rural zones. The most populous administrative province or state is the Masovian Voivodeship and the most populous city is the capital, Warsaw, at 1.8 million inhabitants with a further 2-3 million people living in its metropolitan area. The metropolitan area of Katowice is the largest urban conurbation in Poland with a population between 2.7 million and 5.3 million residents. The least populous and the smallest province in size is the Opole Voivodeship, with just under 1 million people living within its borders. Hence, a substantial portion of the total population is concentrated in the south of Poland, roughly between the cities of Wrocław and Kraków.In the 2011 Polish census, 37,310,341 people reported Polish identity, 846,719 Silesian, 232,547 Kashubian and 147,814 German. Other identities were reported by 163,363 people (0.41%) and 521,470 people (1.35%) did not specify any nationality. Once prominent but now statistically insignificant minority groups include Polish Jews, Lipka Tatars, Armenians, Greeks, Lemkos, the Romani people and the Vietnamese. Ethnic Poles themselves can be divided into many diverse regional ethnographic sub-groups, most notable being the Kashubians, Silesians and Gorals (Highlanders). The statistics do not include recently arrived migrant workers. More than 1.7 million Ukrainian citizens worked legally in Poland in 2017.There is a very strong Polish diaspora around the world, notably in the United States, Germany, United Kingdom and Canada. A strong Polish minority is still present in the territories of contemporary western Ukraine and Belarus, eastern Lithuania, eastern and central Latvia, and northeastern Czech Republic, which were part of Poland in the past. Altogether, the number of ethnic Poles living abroad is estimated to be around 20 million.Polish is the only official and predominant spoken language in Poland, but it is also used throughout the world by Polish minorities in other countries as well as being one of the official languages of the European Union. The deaf communities use Polish Sign Language belonging to the German family of Sign Languages. Polish is also a second language in Lithuania, where it is taught in schools and universities. Contemporary Poland is a linguistically homogeneous nation, with nearly 97% of respondents declaring Polish as their mother tongue.Poland's once multi-ethnic population communicated in numerous languages and lects which faded or disappeared along the course of history. There are currently 15 minority languages in Poland, including one recognized regional language, Kashubian, which is spoken by around 366,000 people in the northern regions of Kashubia and Pomerania.Languages having the status of national minority's language are Armenian, Belarusian, Czech, German, Yiddish, Hebrew, Lithuanian, Russian, Slovak and Ukrainian. Languages having the status of ethnic minority's language are Karaim, Lemko-Rusyn, Tatar and two Romani languages; Polska Roma and Bergitka Roma. Official recognition of a language provides certain rights under conditions prescribed by Polish law, including education and state financial support for promoting that language. Poland recognized secondary administrative languages or auxiliary languages in bilingual municipalities. Currently, German and Kashubian hold such status in 19 municipalities ("gminas"), Belarusian in 9 and Lithuanian in 1. Bilingual signs, names and advertisements are commonplace in those localities. Silesian and Wymysorys (Vilamovian) are not legally recognized or acknowledged as separate languages with a minority status.More than 50% of Polish citizens declare at least basic knowledge of the English language, followed by German (38%).According to the 2015 census, 92.9% of all Polish citizens adhere to the Roman Catholic Church. An estimated 94.2% of the population are believers and 3.1% are irreligious, making Poland one of the more devout countries in Europe. Around 61.6% of all respondents outlined that religion is of high or very high importance. However, church attendance has decreased in recent years; only 38% of worshippers attended mass regularly on Sunday in 2018. Freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Polish Constitution, and the concordat guarantees the teaching of religion in state schools.For centuries the tribes inhabiting the lands of modern-day Poland have practiced various forms of paganism known as "Rodzimowierstwo", or "native faith". In the year 966, Duke Mieszko I converted to Christianity, and submitted to the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. This event came to be known as the Baptism of Poland. However, this did not put an end to pagan beliefs in the country. The persistence was demonstrated by a series of rebellions in the 1030s known as the pagan reaction, which also showed elements of a peasant uprising against medieval feudalism.Religious tolerance was an important part of Polish political culture, though it varied at times. In 1264, the Statute of Kalisz granted Jews unprecedented legal rights not found anywhere in Europe. In 1573, the Warsaw Confederation marked the formal beginning of extensive religious freedoms in Poland. It was partially influenced by the 1572 St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in France, which prompted the nobility to prevent the monarch from carrying out reprehensible atrocities in Poland based on religious affiliation. The religious tolerance also spurred many theological movements such as the Calvinist Polish Brethren, a number of Protestant groups and atheists like Casimir Liszinski, one of the first atheist thinkers in Europe. Anabaptists fleeing 16th-century persecution in the Netherlands and Germany settled in Poland and became known as the Vistula delta Mennonites. From 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła was head of the Roman Catholic Church as Pope John Paul II.Contemporary religious minorities include Christian Orthodox (506,800), various Protestants (150,000) — including 77,500 Lutherans of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church, 23,000 Pentecostals in the Pentecostal Church in Poland, 10,000 Adventists in the Seventh-day Adventist Church and other smaller Evangelical denominations — Jehovah's Witnesses (126,827), Eastern Catholics, Mariavites, Jews, Muslims (Tatars) and neopagans, some of whom are members of the Native Polish Church.Famous sites of Roman Catholic pilgrimage in Poland include the Monastery of Jasna Góra in the city of Częstochowa, Basilica of Our Lady of Licheń, Kraków's Sanctuary of Divine Mercy and Święta Lipka (Holy Linden) in Masuria. Tourists also visit the family home of John Paul II in Wadowice outside Kraków. Christ the King in Świebodzin is the tallest statue of Jesus in the world. Christian Orthodox pilgrims visit Mount Grabarka near Grabarka-Klasztor and the Hasidic Jews travel annually to the grave of a great rabbi in Leżajsk.Medical service providers and hospitals ("szpitale") in Poland are subordinate to the Ministry of Health; it provides administrative oversight and scrutiny of general medical practice, and is obliged to maintain a high standard of hygiene and patient care. Poland has a universal healthcare system based on an all-inclusive insurance system; state subsidised healthcare is available to all citizens covered by the general health insurance program of the National Health Fund (NFZ). Private medical complexes exist nationwide; over 50% of the population uses both public and private sectors.Hospitals are organised according to the regional administrative structure, resultantly most towns, counties or municipalities possess their own provincial hospital or medical clinics. There are six types of hospital facilities, each with a particular area of medical expertise – I Grade Hospitals for general surgery, internal illnesses and obstetrics; II Grade Hospitals for child surgery, neurology, cardiology and ophthalmology; III Grade Hospitals including teaching hospitals for infectious diseases, nephrology, orthopedics, toxicology and transplantology; Oncology Hospitals for cancer treatment and brachytherapy; Pediatric Hospitals for child care; and Nationwide Hospitals for general and acute care.According to the Human Development Report from 2020, the average life expectancy at birth is 79 years (around 75 years for an infant male and 83 years for an infant female); the country has a low infant mortality rate (4 per 1,000 births). In 2019, the principal cause of death was ischemic heart disease; diseases of the circulatory system accounted for 45% of all deaths. In the same year, Poland was also the 15th-largest importer of medications and pharmaceutical products.The Jagiellonian University founded in 1364 by Casimir III in Kraków was the first institution of higher learning established in Poland, and is one of the oldest universities still in continuous operation. Poland's Commission of National Education ("Komisja Edukacji Narodowej"), established in 1773, was the world's first state ministry of education. The framework for primary and secondary schooling in contemporary Poland is established by the Ministry of National Education. Kindergarten attendance is optional for children aged between three and five, with one year being compulsory for six-year-olds. Primary education traditionally begins at the age of seven, although children aged six can attend at the request of their parents or guardians. Elementary school spans eight grades, at the end of which an obligatory three-part exam on Polish, mathematics and a foreign language is to be undertaken. Secondary schooling is dependent on student preference – either a four-year high school ("liceum"), a five-year technical school ("technikum") or various vocational studies ("szkoła branżowa") can be pursued by each individual pupil. A liceum or technikum is concluded with a maturity exit exam ("matura"), which must be passed in order to apply for a university or other institutions of higher learning.The standards of higher tertiary education are imposed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. In Poland, there are over 500 university-level institutions, with technical, medical, economic, agricultural, pedagogical, theological, musical, maritime and military faculties. The University of Warsaw and Warsaw Polytechnic, the University of Wrocław, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and the University of Technology in Gdańsk are among the most prominent. There are three conventional academic degrees in Poland – "licencjat" or "inżynier" (first cycle qualification), "magister" (second cycle qualification) and "doktor" (third cycle qualification).In 2018, the Programme for International Student Assessment, coordinated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, ranked Poland's educational system higher than the OECD average; the study showed that students in Poland perform better academically than in most OECD countries.The culture of Poland is closely connected with its intricate 1,000-year history and forms an important constituent in western civilization. The Poles take great pride in their national identity which is often associated with the colours white and red, and exuded by the expression "biało-czerwoni" ("whitereds"). National symbols, chiefly the crowned white-tailed eagle, are often visible on clothing, insignia and emblems. The appreciation of Poland's traditions and cultural heritage is commonly known as Polonophilia.With origins in the customs of the tribal Lechites, over time the culture of Poland has been influenced by its connection to Western culture and trends, as well as developing its own unique traditions such as Sarmatism. The people of Poland have traditionally been seen as hospitable to artists from abroad and eager to follow cultural and artistic trends popular in foreign countries, for instance, the 16th- and 17th-century tradition of coffin portraits ("portret trumienny") was only observed in Poland and Roman Egypt. In the 19th and 20th centuries the Polish focus on cultural advancement often took precedence over political and economic activity. These factors have contributed to the versatile nature of Polish art.The architectural monuments of great importance are protected by the National Heritage Board of Poland. Over 100 of the country's most significant tangible wonders were enlisted onto the Historic Monuments Register, with further 16 being recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. Poland is renowned for its brick Gothic castles, granaries and churches as well as diversely-styled tenements, market squares and town halls. The majority of Polish cities founded on Magdeburg Law in the Middle Ages evolved around central marketplaces, a distinguishable urban characteristic which can be observed to this day. Medieval and Renaissance cloth halls were once an abundant feature of many towns.There are 13 government-approved annual public holidays – New Year on 1 January, Three Kings' Day on 6 January, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, Labour Day on 1 May, Constitution Day on 3 May, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, Armed Forces Day on 15 August, All Saints' Day on 1 November, Independence Day on 11 November and Christmastide on 25 and 26 December.Particular traditions and superstitious customs observed in Poland are not found elsewhere in Europe. Though Christmas Eve ("Wigilia") is not a public holiday, it remains the most memorable day of the entire year. Trees are decorated on 24 December, hay is placed under the tablecloth to resemble Jesus' manger, Christmas wafers ("opłatek") are shared between gathered guests and a twelve-dish meatless supper is served that same evening when the first star appears. An empty plate and seat are symbolically left at the table for an unexpected guest. On occasion, carolers journey around smaller towns with a folk Turoń creature until the Lent period.A widely-popular doughnut and sweet pastry feast occurs on Fat Thursday, usually 52 days prior to Easter. Eggs for Holy Sunday are painted and placed in decorated baskets that are previously blessed by clergymen in churches on Easter Saturday. Easter Monday is celebrated with pagan "dyngus" festivities, where the youth is engaged in water fights and some girls are gently spanked by colleagues with pussy willows to stimulate fertility.Cemeteries and graves of the deceased are annually visited by family members on All Saints' Day; tombstones are cleaned as a sign of respect and candles are lit to honour the dead on an unprecedented scale.Artists from Poland, including famous musicians such as Chopin, Rubinstein, Paderewski, Penderecki and Wieniawski, and traditional, regionalized folk composers create a lively and diverse music scene, which even recognizes its own music genres, such as sung poetry and disco polo.The origins of Polish music can be traced to the 13th century; manuscripts have been found in Stary Sącz containing polyphonic compositions related to the Parisian Notre Dame School. Other early compositions, such as the melody of "Bogurodzica" and "God Is Born" (a coronation polonaise tune for Polish kings by an unknown composer), may also date back to this period, however, the first known notable composer, Nicholas of Radom, lived in the 15th century. Diomedes Cato, a native-born Italian who lived in Kraków, became a renowned lutenist at the court of Sigismund III; he not only imported some of the musical styles from southern Europe but blended them with native folk music.In the 17th and 18th centuries, Polish baroque composers wrote liturgical music and secular compositions such as concertos and sonatas for voices or instruments. At the end of the 18th century, Polish classical music evolved into national forms like the polonaise. Wojciech Bogusławski is accredited with composing the first Polish national opera, titled "", which premiered in 1794.Traditional Polish folk music has had a major effect on the works of many Polish composers, and no more so than on Fryderyk Chopin, a widely recognised national hero of the arts. All of Chopin's works involve the piano and are technically demanding, emphasising nuance and expressive depth. As a great composer, Chopin invented the musical form known as the instrumental ballade and made major innovations to the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, polonaise, étude, impromptu and prélude, he was also the composer of a number of polonaises which borrowed heavily from traditional Polish folk music. It is largely thanks to him that such pieces gained great popularity throughout Europe during the 19th century. Several Polish composers such as Szymanowski drew inspiration from Chopin's folk-influenced style. Nowadays the most distinctive folk music can be heard in the towns and villages of the mountainous south, particularly in the region surrounding the winter resort town of Zakopane.Poland today has an active music scene, with the jazz and metal genres being particularly popular among the contemporary populace. Polish jazz musicians such as Krzysztof Komeda created a unique style, which was most famous in the 1960s and 1970s and continues to be popular to this day. Poland has also become a major venue for large-scale music festivals, chief among which are the Open'er Festival, Opole Festival and Sopot Festival.Art in Poland has always reflected European trends while maintaining its unique character. The Kraków Academy of Fine Arts, later developed by Jan Matejko, produced monumental portrayals of customs and significant events in Polish history. Other institutions such as the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw were more innovative and focused on both historical and contemporary styles. Notable art academies include the Kraków School of Art and Fashion Design, Art Academy of Szczecin, University of Fine Arts in Poznań and the Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław.Perhaps the most prominent and internationally admired Polish artist was Tamara de Lempicka, who specialized in the style of Art Deco. Lempicka was described as "the first woman artist to become a glamour star." Another notable was Caziel, born Zielenkiewicz, who represented Cubism and Abstraction in France and England.Prior to the 19th century only Daniel Schultz and Italian-born Marcello Bacciarelli had the privilege of being recognized abroad. The Young Poland movement witnessed the birth of modern Polish art, and engaged in a great deal of formal experimentation led by Jacek Malczewski, Stanisław Wyspiański, Józef Mehoffer, and a group of Polish Impressionists. Stanisław Witkiewicz was an ardent supporter of Realism, its main representative being Józef Chełmoński, while Artur Grottger specialized in Romanticism. Within historically-orientated circles, Henryk Siemiradzki dominated with his monumental Academic Art and ancient Roman theme.Since the inter-war years, Polish art and documentary photography has enjoyed worldwide fame and in the 1960s the Polish School of Posters was formed. Throughout the entire country, many national museum and art institutions hold valuable works by famous masters. Major museums in Poland include the National Museum in Warsaw, Poznań, Wrocław, Kraków, and Gdańsk, as well as the Museum of John Paul II Collection, and the Wilanów Museum. Important collections are also held at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Wawel Castle and in the Palace on the Isle. Contemporary art galleries include Zachęta, Ujazdów, and MOCAK. The most distinguished painting of Poland is "Lady with an Ermine" by Leonardo da Vinci, held at the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków. Although not Polish, the work had a strong influence on Polish culture and has been often associated with Polish identity.Polish cities and towns reflect a whole spectrum of European architectural styles. Romanesque architecture is represented by St. Andrew's Church, Kraków, and St. Mary's Church, Gdańsk, is characteristic for the Brick Gothic style found in Poland. Richly decorated attics and arcade loggias are the common elements of the Polish Renaissance architecture, as evident in the City Hall in Poznań. For some time the late renaissance style known as mannerism, most notably in the Bishop's Palace in Kielce, coexisted with the early baroque style, typified in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Kraków.History has not been kind to Poland's architectural monuments. Nonetheless, a number of ancient structures have survived: castles, churches, and stately homes, often unique in the regional or European context. Some of them have been painstakingly restored, like Wawel Castle, or completely reconstructed, including the Old Town and Royal Castle of Warsaw and the Old Town of Gdańsk.The architecture of Gdańsk is mostly of the Hanseatic variety, a Gothic style common among the former trading cities along the Baltic Sea and in the northern part of Central Europe. The architectural style of Wrocław is mainly representative of German architecture since it was for centuries located within the Holy Roman Empire. The centres of Kazimierz Dolny and Sandomierz on the Vistula are good examples of well-preserved medieval towns. Poland's ancient capital, Kraków, ranks among the best-preserved Gothic and Renaissance urban complexes in Europe.The second half of the 17th century is marked by baroque architecture. Side towers, such as those of Branicki Palace in Białystok, are typical for the Polish baroque. The classical Silesian baroque is represented by the University in Wrocław. The profuse decorations of the Branicki Palace in Warsaw are characteristic of the rococo style. The centre of Polish classicism was Warsaw under the rule of the last Polish king Stanisław II Augustus.The Palace on the Isle is a chief example of Polish neoclassical architecture. Lublin Castle represents the Gothic Revival style in architecture, while the Izrael Poznański Palace in Łódź is an example of eclecticism.Traditional folk architecture in the villages and small towns scattered across the vast Polish countryside was characterized by its extensive use of wood and red brick as primary building materials, common for Central Europe. Some of the best preserved and oldest structures include ancient stone temples in Silesia and fortified wooden churches across southeastern Poland in the Beskids and Bieszczady regions of the Carpathian mountains. Numerous examples of secular structures such as Polish manor houses ("dworek"), farmhouses (), granaries, mills, barns and country inns () can still be found in some Polish regions. However, traditional construction methods faded in the early-mid 20th century, when Poland's population experienced a demographic shift to urban dwelling away from the countryside.The earliest examples of Polish literature date to the 12th century, when Poland's official language was Latin, and early published works were predominantly written by foreigners. Gallus Anonymus, a monk of disputed origin, was the first chronicler who meticulously described Poland's culture, language and territories in "Gesta principum Polonorum" (c. 1112–1118). Latin remained the principal tool of literary expression in Poland until the 18th century, when it was replaced in favour of Polish and French. Historically, Polish literature concentrated extensively around the themes of true drama and poetic-expressive romanticism than on fiction. Patriotism, spirituality and aphorisms were paramount and political or social allegories were common moral narratives.The first documented phrase in the Polish language reads ""Day ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai"" ("Let me grind, and you take a rest"), reflecting the use of quern-stone in early Poland. The phrase was recorded by an abbot in the Latin-based "Liber fundationis" from 1269 to 1273, which outlined the history of a Cistercian monastery in the Silesian village of Henryków. The sentence has been included in the UNESCO Memory of World Register. The oldest extant manuscript of fine prose in Old Polish is the "Holy Cross Sermons", and the earliest religious text is the Bible of Queen Sophia. One of the first printing houses was established by Kasper Straube in the 1470s, while Jan Haller was considered the pioneer of commercial print in Poland. Haller's Calendarium cracoviense, an astronomical wall calendar from 1474, is Poland's oldest surviving print.The tradition of extending Polish historiography in Latin was subsequently inherited by Vincent Kadłubek, Bishop of Kraków in the 13th century, and Jan Długosz in the 15th century. This practice, however, was abandoned by Jan Kochanowski, who became one of the first Polish Renaissance authors to write most of his works in Polish, along with Nicholas Rey. Other writers of the Polish Renaissance include Johannes Dantiscus, Andreus Fricius Modrevius, Matthias Sarbievius, Piotr Skarga and Klemens "Ianicius" Janicki, who was laureled by the Pope. The leading figure of the Polish Reformation was theologian and writer John Laski, who, with the permission of King Edward VI of England, created the European Protestant Congregation of London in 1550.During the Baroque era, the Jesuits greatly influenced Polish literature and literary techniques, often relying on God and religious matters. The leading baroque poet was Jan Andrzej Morsztyn, who incorporated Marinism into his publications. Jan Chryzostom Pasek, also a respected baroque writer, is mostly remembered for his tales and memoirs reflecting sarmatian culture in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Subsequently, the Polish Enlightenment was headed by Samuel Linde, Hugo Kołłątaj, Izabela Czartoryska and Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz. In 1776, Ignacy Krasicki composed the first milestone novel entitled "The Adventures of Mr. Nicholas Wisdom".Among the best known Polish Romantics are the "Three Bards" – the three national poets active in the age of foreign partitions – Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki and Zygmunt Krasiński. The narrative poem "Pan Tadeusz" by Mickiewicz is Poland's national epic and a compulsory reading ("lektura") in the country's schools. Joseph Conrad, the son of dramatist Apollo Korzeniowski, came to fame with his English-language novels and stories that are informed with elements of the Polish national experience. Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", "Nostromo" and "Lord Jim" are believed to be one of the finest works ever written, placing him among the greatest novelists of all time. Modern Polish literature is versatile, with its fantasy genre having been particularly praised. The philosophical sci-fi novel "Solaris" is an acclaimed example of Stanisław Lem's literary legacy, whereas "The Witcher", a fantasy series by Andrzej Sapkowski, is a much-celebrated work of contemporary Polish fiction.In the 20th century, five Polish authors were awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature – Henryk Sienkiewicz for "Quo Vadis", Władysław Reymont for "The Peasants", Isaac Bashevis Singer, Czesław Miłosz and Wisława Szymborska. In 2019, Polish author Olga Tokarczuk was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 2018.Polish cuisine has evolved over the centuries to become highly eclectic due to Poland's history. Polish cuisine shares many similarities with other Central European cuisines, especially German and Austrian as well as Jewish, French, Italian and Turkish culinary traditions. Polish-styled cooking in other cultures is often referred to as "cuisine à la polonaise".Polish dishes are usually rich in meat, especially pork, chicken and beef (depending on the region), winter vegetables (sauerkraut cabbage in "bigos"), and spices. It is also characteristic in its use of various kinds of noodles, the most notable of which are kluski, as well as cereals such as "kasha" (from the Polish word kasza) and a variety of breads like the world-renowned bagel. Polish cuisine is hearty and uses a lot of cream and eggs. Festive meals such as the meatless Christmas Eve dinner ("Wigilia") or Easter breakfast could take days to prepare in their entirety.The main course usually includes a serving of meat, such as roast, chicken, or "kotlet schabowy" (breaded pork cutlet), vegetables, side dishes and salads, including "surówka" – shredded root vegetables with lemon and sugar (carrot, celeriac, seared beetroot) or sauerkraut (, ). The side dishes are usually potatoes, rice or cereal. Meals conclude with a dessert such as "sernik" (cheesecake), "makowiec" (poppy seed pastry), or "napoleonka" (cream pie).The Polish national dishes are "bigos" ; "pierogi" ; "kielbasa"; "kotlet schabowy" breaded cutlet; "gołąbki" cabbage rolls; "zrazy" roulade; "pieczeń" roast ; sour cucumber soup ("zupa ogórkowa", ); mushroom soup, ("zupa grzybowa", quite different from the North American cream of mushroom); "zupa pomidorowa" tomato soup ; "rosół" variety of meat broth; "żurek" sour rye soup; "flaki" tripe soup; "barszcz" and "chłodnik" among others.Traditional alcoholic beverages include honey mead, widespread since the 13th century, beer, wine and vodka (old Polish names include "okowita" and "gorzała"). The world's first written mention of vodka originates from Poland. The most popular alcoholic drinks at present are beer and wine which took over from vodka more popular in the years 1980–1998. Tea remains common in Polish society since the 19th century, whilst coffee is drunk widely since the 18th century. Other frequently consumed beverages include various mineral waters and juices, soft drinks popularized by the fast-food chains since the late 20th century, as well as buttermilk, soured milk and kefir.The particular clothing styles in Poland evolved with each century. In the 1600s high-class noblemen and magnates developed a strong sympathy for Orientalism, which was also common in other parts of Europe and became known as Sarmatism. The attire mediated between Western and Ottoman styles and outfits included a żupan, delia, kontusz, pas, decorative karabela swords and less often turbans brought by foreign merchants. The period of Polish Sarmatism eventually faded in the wake of the 18th century.The Polish national dress as well as the fashion and etiquette of Poland also reached the royal court at Versailles in the 1700s. French dresses inspired by Polish attire were called "à la polonaise", meaning "Polish-styled". The most famous example is the "robe à la polonaise", a woman's garment with draped and swagged overskirt, worn over an underskirt or petticoat. Another notable example is the Witzchoura, a long mantle with collar and hood, which was possibly introduced by Napoleon's Polish mistress Maria Walewska. The scope of influence also entailed furniture; rococo Polish beds with canopies became commonplace in French palaces during the 18th century.Several Polish designers and stylists left a lifelong legacy of beauty inventions and cosmetics, most notable being Maksymilian Faktorowicz and Helena Rubinstein. Faktorowicz created a line of cosmetics company in California known as Max Factor and coined the term "make-up" based on the verb phrase "to make up" one's face, now widely used as an alternative for describing cosmetics. Faktorowicz also raised to fame by inventing modern eyelash extensions and by providing services to Hollywood artists.As of 2020, Poland possesses the fifth-largest cosmetic market in Europe. Founded in 1983, Inglot Cosmetics is the country's largest beauty products manufacturer and retailer active in 700 locations worldwide, including retail salons in New York City, London, Milan, Dubai and Las Vegas. Established in 1999, the retail store Reserved is Poland's most successful clothing store chain, operating over 1,700 retail shops in 19 countries. Internationally successful models from Poland include Anja Rubik, Joanna Krupa, Jac Jagaciak, Kasia Struss, Małgosia Bela, and Magdalena Frąckowiak.The history of Polish cinema is as long as the history of cinematography itself. Over the decades, Poland has produced outstanding directors, film producers, cartoonists and actors that achieved world fame, especially in Hollywood. Moreover, Polish inventors played an important role in the development of world cinematography and modern-day television. Among the most famous directors and producers, who worked in Poland as well as abroad are Roman Polański, Andrzej Wajda, Samuel Goldwyn, the Warner brothers (Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack), Max Fleischer, Lee Strasberg, Agnieszka Holland and Krzysztof Kieślowski.In the 19th century, throughout partitioned Poland, numerous amateur inventors, such as Kazimierz Prószyński, were eager to construct a film projector. In 1894, Prószyński was successful in creating a Pleograph, one of the first cameras in the world. The invention, which took photographs and projected pictures, was built before the Lumière brothers lodged their patent. He also patented an Aeroscope, the first successful hand-held operated film camera. In 1897, Jan Szczepanik, obtained a British patent for his Telectroscope. This prototype of television could easily transmit image and sound, thus allowing a live remote view.Polish cinema developed rapidly in the interwar period. The most renowned star of the silent film era was Polish actress Pola Negri. During this time, the Yiddish cinema also evolved in Poland. Films in the Yiddish language with Jewish themes, such as "The Dybbuk" (1937), played an important part in pre-war Polish cinematography. In 1945 the government established 'Film Polski', a state-run film production and distribution organization, with director Aleksander Ford as the head of the company. Ford's "Knights of the Teutonic Order" (1960) was viewed by millions of people in the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and France. This success was followed by the historical films of Jerzy Hoffman and Andrzej Wajda. Wajda's 1975 film "The Promised Land" was nominated at the 48th Academy Awards.In 2015, "Ida" by Paweł Pawlikowski won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2019, Pawlikowski received an Academy Award for Best Director nomination for his historical drama "Cold War". Other well-known Polish Oscar-winning productions include "The Pianist" (2002) by Roman Polański.Poland has a number of major media outlets, chief among which are the national television channels. TVP is Poland's public broadcasting corporation; about a third of its income comes from a broadcast receiver licence, while the rest is made through revenue from commercials and sponsorships. State television operates two mainstream channels, TVP 1 and TVP 2, as well as regional programs for each of the country's 16 voivodeships (as TVP 3). In addition to these general channels, TVP runs a number of genre-specific programmes such as TVP Sport, TVP Historia, TVP Kultura, TVP Rozrywka, TVP Seriale and TVP Polonia, the latter is a state-run channel dedicated to the transmission of Polish language television for the Polish diaspora. Poland has several 24-hour news channels such as Polsat News, TVP Info and TVN 24. Poland also possesses a variety of free-to-air television channels, chiefly TVN, Polsat and TV4.In Poland, there are also daily newspapers like "Gazeta Wyborcza" ("Electoral Gazette"), "Rzeczpospolita" ("The Republic") and "Gazeta Polska Codziennie" ("Polish Daily Newspaper") which provide traditional opinion and news, and tabloids such as "Fakt" and "Super Express". Weeklies include "Tygodnik Angora", "", "Polityka", "Wprost", "Newsweek Polska", "Gość Niedzielny" and "Gazeta Polska".Poland has also emerged as a major hub for video game developers in Europe, with the country now being home to hundreds of studios. Among the most successful ones are CD Projekt, Techland, CI Games and People Can Fly. Some of the most popular video games developed in Poland include The Witcher trilogy. Katowice hosts Intel Extreme Masters, one of the biggest eSports events in the world.Volleyball and Association football are among the country's most popular sports, with a rich history of international competitions. Track and field, basketball, handball, boxing, MMA, motorcycle speedway, ski jumping, cross-country skiing, ice hockey, tennis, fencing, swimming and weightlifting are other popular sports.The golden era of football in Poland occurred throughout the 1970s and went on until the early 1980s when the Polish national football team achieved their best results in any FIFA World Cup competitions finishing 3rd place in the 1974 and the 1982 tournaments. The team won a gold medal in football at the 1972 Summer Olympics and two silver medals, in 1976 and in 1992. In 2012, Poland co-hosted the UEFA European Football Championship.As of May 2021, the Polish men's national volleyball team is ranked as 2nd in the world. Volleyball team won a gold medal in Olympic 1976 Montreal and three gold medals in FIVB World Championship 1974, 2014 and 2018.Mariusz Pudzianowski is a highly successful strongman competitor and has won more World's Strongest Man titles than any other competitor in the world, winning the event in 2008 for the fifth time.Poland has made a distinctive mark in motorcycle speedway racing thanks to Tomasz Gollob and Bartosz Zmarzlik, highly successful Polish riders. The top Ekstraliga division has one of the highest average attendances for any sport in Poland. The national speedway team of Poland is one of the major teams in international speedway.Poles made significant achievements in mountaineering, in particular, in the Himalayas and the winter ascending of the eight-thousanders. Polish mountains are one of the tourist attractions of the country. Hiking, climbing, skiing and mountain biking and attract numerous tourists every year from all over the world. Water sports are the most popular summer recreation activities, with ample locations for fishing, canoeing, kayaking, sailing and windsurfing especially in the northern regions of the country.
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[
"Ewa Kopacz",
"Leszek Miller",
"Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz",
"Mateusz Morawiecki",
"Jan Olszewski",
"Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz",
"Tadeusz Mazowiecki",
"Jan Krzysztof Bielecki",
"Hanna Suchocka",
"Donald Tusk",
"Beata Szydło",
"Marek Belka",
"Jerzy Buzek",
"Waldemar Pawlak",
"Józef Oleksy"
] |
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Who was the head of Poland in Feb, 2010?
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February 20, 2010
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{
"text": [
"Donald Tusk"
]
}
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L2_Q36_P6_12
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Hanna Suchocka is the head of the government of Poland from Jul, 1992 to Oct, 1993.
Jerzy Buzek is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 1997 to Oct, 2001.
Marek Belka is the head of the government of Poland from May, 2004 to Oct, 2005.
Józef Oleksy is the head of the government of Poland from Mar, 1995 to Feb, 1996.
Tadeusz Mazowiecki is the head of the government of Poland from Aug, 1989 to Jan, 1991.
Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 2005 to Jul, 2006.
Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz is the head of the government of Poland from Feb, 1996 to Oct, 1997.
Ewa Kopacz is the head of the government of Poland from Sep, 2014 to Nov, 2015.
Beata Szydło is the head of the government of Poland from Nov, 2015 to Dec, 2017.
Waldemar Pawlak is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 1993 to Mar, 1995.
Leszek Miller is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 2001 to May, 2004.
Jan Olszewski is the head of the government of Poland from Dec, 1991 to Jun, 1992.
Jan Krzysztof Bielecki is the head of the government of Poland from Jan, 1991 to Dec, 1991.
Jarosław Kaczyński is the head of the government of Poland from Jul, 2006 to Nov, 2007.
Mateusz Morawiecki is the head of the government of Poland from Dec, 2017 to Dec, 2022.
Donald Tusk is the head of the government of Poland from Nov, 2007 to Sep, 2014.
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PolandPoland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country located in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces, covering an area of , and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With a population of nearly 38.5 million people, Poland is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union. Poland's capital and largest metropolis is Warsaw. Other major cities include Kraków, Łódź, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk, and Szczecin.Poland's topographically diverse territory extends from the beaches along the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in its south. The country is bordered by Lithuania and Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukraine to the east, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the south, and Germany to the west.The history of human activity on Polish soil spans thousands of years. Throughout the late antiquity period it became extensively diverse, with various cultures and tribes settling on the vast Central European Plain. However, it was the Western Polans who dominated the region and gave Poland its name. The establishment of Polish statehood can be traced to 966, when the pagan ruler of a realm coextensive with the territory of present-day Poland embraced Christianity and converted to Catholicism. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented its longstanding political association with Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest (over in area) and most populous nations of 16th and 17th century Europe, with a uniquely liberal political system which adopted Europe's first modern constitution, the Constitution of 3 May 1791.With the passing of prominence and prosperity, the country was partitioned by neighbouring states at the end of the 18th century, and regained independence in 1918 with the Treaty of Versailles. After a series of territorial conflicts, the new multi-ethnic Poland restored its position as a key player in European politics. In September 1939, World War II began with the invasion of Poland by Germany, followed by the Soviets invading Poland in accordance with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Approximately six million Polish citizens, including three million of the country's Jews, perished during the course of the war. As a member of the Eastern Bloc, the Polish People's Republic proclaimed forthwith was a chief signatory of the Warsaw Treaty amidst global Cold War tensions. In the wake of the 1989 events, notably through the emergence and contributions of the Solidarity movement, the communist government was dissolved and Poland re-established itself as a semi-presidential democratic republic.Poland is a developed market, and a middle power. It has the sixth largest economy in the European Union by nominal GDP and the fifth largest by GDP (PPP). It provides very high standards of living, safety and economic freedom, as well as free university education and a universal health care system. The country has 16 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, 15 of which are cultural. Poland is a member state of the Schengen Area, European Union, European Economic Area, the United Nations, NATO, the OECD, the Three Seas Initiative and the Visegrád Group.The origin of the name "Poland" derives from the West Slavic tribe of Polans ("Polanie"), who inhabited the Warta river basin of the present-day Greater Poland region starting in the mid-6th century. The origin of the name "Polanie" itself derives from the Proto-Slavic word "pole" (field). In some languages, such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian, Russian and Turkish, the country's name is derived from the Lendians ("Lędzianie" or "Lachy") who dwelled on the southeasternmost edge of present-day Lesser Poland. Their name likewise derives from the Old Polish word "lęda" (open land or plain).The early Bronze Age in Poland began around 2400 BC, while the Iron Age commenced in approximately 750 BC. During this time, the Lusatian culture, spanning both the Bronze and Iron Ages, became particularly prominent. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement (now reconstructed as an open-air museum), dating from the Lusatian culture of the late Bronze Age, around 748 BC.Throughout Antiquity, many distinct ancient ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland in an era that dates from about 400 BC to 500 AD. These groups are identified as Celtic, Scythian, Germanic, Sarmatian, Slavic and Baltic tribes. Also, recent archaeological findings in the Kuyavia region confirmed the presence of the Roman Legions on the territory of Poland. These were most likely expeditionary missions sent out to protect the amber trade. The exact time and routes of the original migration and settlement of Slavic peoples lacks written records and can only be defined as fragmented. There is evidence that earlier tribes may have been associated with the ancient Przeworsk culture. Up until the creation of Mieszko's state and his subsequent conversion to Christianity in 966 AD, the main religion of the numerous West Slavic (Lechitic) tribes that inhabited the geographical area of present-day Poland was paganism. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Western Christianity and the religious authority of the Roman Church. However, the transition from paganism was not a smooth and instantaneous process for the rest of the population as evident from the pagan reaction of the 1030s.Poland began to form into a recognizable unitary and territorial entity around the middle of the 10th century under the Piast dynasty. Poland's first historically documented ruler, Mieszko I, accepted Christianity, as the rightful religion of his realm, under the auspices of the Latin Church with the Baptism of Poland in 966. The bulk of the population converted in the course of the next few centuries. In 1000, Boleslaw the Brave, continuing the policy of his father Mieszko, held a Congress of Gniezno and created the metropolis of Gniezno and the dioceses of Kraków, Kołobrzeg, and Wrocław. However, the pagan unrest led to the transfer of the capital to Kraków in 1038 by Casimir I the Restorer.In 1109, Prince Bolesław III Wrymouth defeated the King of Germany Henry V at the Battle of Hundsfeld, stopping the German incursion into Poland. The clash between Bolesław III and Henry V was documented by Gallus Anonymus in his 1118 chronicle. In 1138, Poland fragmented into several smaller duchies when Bolesław divided his lands among his sons. In 1226, Konrad I of Masovia, one of the regional Piast dukes, invited the Teutonic Knights to help him fight the Baltic Prussian pagans; a decision that led to centuries of warfare with the Knights. In 1264, the Statute of Kalisz or the General Charter of Jewish Liberties introduced numerous right for the Jews in Poland, leading to a nearly autonomous "nation within a nation".In the middle of the 13th century, the Silesian branch of the Piast dynasty (Henry I the Bearded and Henry II the Pious, ruled 1238–1241) nearly succeeded in uniting the Polish lands, but the Mongols invaded the country from the east and defeated the combined Polish forces at the Battle of Legnica where Duke Henry II the Pious died. In 1320, after a number of earlier unsuccessful attempts by regional rulers at uniting the Polish dukedoms, Władysław I consolidated his power, took the throne and became the first king of a reunified Poland. His son, Casimir III (reigned 1333–1370), has a reputation as one of the greatest Polish kings, and gained wide recognition for improving the country's infrastructure. He also extended royal protection to Jews, and encouraged their immigration to Poland. Casimir III realized that the nation needed a class of educated people, especially lawyers, who could codify the country's laws and administer the courts and offices. His efforts to create an institution of higher learning in Poland were finally rewarded when Pope Urban V granted him permission to open the University of Kraków.The Golden Liberty of the nobles began to develop under Casimir's rule, when in return for their military support, the king made a series of concessions to the nobility and establishing their legal status as superior to that of the townsfolk. When Casimir the Great died in 1370, leaving no legitimate male heir, the Piast dynasty came to an end.During the 13th and 14th centuries, Poland became a destination for German, Flemish and to a lesser extent Walloon, Danish and Scottish migrants. Also, Jews and Armenians began to settle and flourish in Poland during this era (see History of the Jews in Poland and Armenians in Poland).The Black Death, a plague that ravaged Europe from 1347 to 1351, did not significantly affect Poland, and the country was spared from a major outbreak of the disease. The reason for this was the decision of Casimir the Great to quarantine the nation's borders.The Jagiellon dynasty spanned the late Middle Ages and early Modern Era of Polish history. Beginning with the Lithuanian Grand Duke Jogaila (Władysław II Jagiełło), the Jagiellon dynasty (1386–1572) formed the Polish–Lithuanian union. The partnership brought vast Lithuanian-controlled Rus' areas into Poland's sphere of influence and proved beneficial for the Poles and Lithuanians, who coexisted and cooperated in one of the largest political entities in Europe for the next four centuries.In the Baltic Sea region the struggle of Poland and Lithuania with the Teutonic Knights continued and culminated at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, where a combined Polish-Lithuanian army inflicted a decisive victory against them. In 1466, after the Thirteen Years' War, King Casimir IV Jagiellon gave royal consent to the Peace of Thorn, which created the future Duchy of Prussia under Polish suzerainty. The Jagiellon dynasty at one point also established dynastic control over the kingdoms of Bohemia (1471 onwards) and Hungary. In the south, Poland confronted the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Tatars (by whom they were attacked on 75 separate occasions between 1474 and 1569), and in the east helped Lithuania fight the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Some historians estimate that Crimean Tatar slave-raiding cost Poland-Lithuania one million of its population between the years of 1494 and 1694.Poland was developing as a feudal state, with a predominantly agricultural economy and an increasingly powerful landed nobility. The "Nihil novi" act adopted by the Polish Sejm (parliament) in 1505, transferred most of the legislative power from the monarch to the Sejm, an event which marked the beginning of the period known as "Golden Liberty", when the state was ruled by the "free and equal" Polish nobility. Protestant Reformation movements made deep inroads into Polish Christianity, which resulted in the establishment of policies promoting religious tolerance, unique in Europe at that time. This tolerance allowed the country to avoid most of the religious turmoil that spread over Europe during the 16th century.The European Renaissance evoked in late Jagiellon Poland (under kings Sigismund I the Old and Sigismund II Augustus) a sense of urgency in the need to promote a cultural awakening, and during this period Polish culture and the nation's economy flourished. In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus, an astronomer from Toruń, published his epochal work "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" ("On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres") and thereby became the first proponent of a predictive mathematical model confirming the heliocentric theory, which became the accepted basic model for the practice of modern astronomy. Another major figure associated with the era is the classicist poet Jan Kochanowski.The 1569 Union of Lublin established the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a more closely unified federal state with an elective monarchy, but which was governed largely by the nobility, through a system of local assemblies with a central parliament. The Warsaw Confederation (1573) guaranteed religious freedom for the Polish nobility "(szlachta)" and townsfolk "(mieszczanie)". However, the peasants "(chłopi)" were still subject to severe limitations imposed on them by the nobility. The establishment of the Commonwealth coincided with a period of stability and prosperity in Poland, with the union thereafter becoming a European power and a major cultural entity, occupying approximately one million square kilometers of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as an agent for the dissemination of Western culture through Polonization into areas of modern-day Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Belarus and western Russia.In the 16th and 17th centuries, Poland suffered from a number of dynastic crises during the reigns of the Vasa kings Sigismund III and Władysław IV and found itself engaged in major conflicts with Russia, Sweden and the Ottoman Empire, as well as a series of minor Cossack uprisings. In 1610, a Polish army under the command of Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski seized Moscow after winning the Battle of Klushino. In 1611, the Tsar of Russia paid homage to the King of Poland.After the signing of Truce of Deulino, Poland had in the years 1618–1621 an area of about .From the middle of the 17th century, the nobles' democracy, suffering from internal disorder, gradually declined, thereby leaving the once powerful Commonwealth vulnerable to foreign intervention. Starting in 1648, the Cossack Khmelnytsky Uprising engulfed the south and east, eventually leaving Ukraine divided, with the eastern part, lost by the Commonwealth, becoming a dependency of the Tsardom of Russia. This was followed by the 'Deluge', a Swedish invasion of Poland, which marched through the Polish heartlands and ruined the country's population, culture and infrastructure—around four million of Poland's eleven million inhabitants died in famines and epidemics throughout the 17th century. However, under John III Sobieski the Commonwealth's military prowess was re-established, and in 1683 Polish forces played a major role in the Battle of Vienna against the Ottoman Army, commanded by Kara Mustafa, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.Sobieski's reign marked the end of the nation's golden era. Finding itself subjected to almost constant warfare and suffering enormous population losses as well as massive damage to its economy, the Commonwealth fell into decline. The government became ineffective as a result of large-scale internal conflicts (e.g. Lubomirski Rebellion against John II Casimir and rebellious confederations) and corrupted legislative processes. The nobility fell under the control of a handful of "magnats", and this, compounded with two relatively weak kings of the Saxon Wettin dynasty, Augustus II and Augustus III, as well as the rise of Russia and Prussia after the Great Northern War only served to worsen the Commonwealth's plight. Despite this The Commonwealth-Saxony personal union gave rise to the emergence of the Commonwealth's first reform movement, and laid the foundations for the Polish Enlightenment.During the later part of the 18th century, the Commonwealth made attempts to implement fundamental internal reforms; with the second half of the century bringing a much improved economy, significant population growth and far-reaching progress in the areas of education, intellectual life, art, and especially toward the end of the period, evolution of the social and political system. The most populous capital city of Warsaw replaced Gdańsk (Danzig) as the leading centre of commerce, and the role of the more prosperous urban population increased.The royal election of 1764 resulted in the elevation of Stanisław II August (a Polish aristocrat connected to the "Familia" faction of magnates) to the monarchy. However, elevated to the throne by the Empress Catherine II of Russia, the new king spent much of his reign maneuvering between his desire to implement necessary reforms to save his country, and the necessity to remain in a political relationship and at peace with Russia. This led to the formation of the 1768 Bar Confederation, a "szlachta" rebellion directed against the Polish king and all external influence, which ineptly aimed to preserve Poland's independence and szlachta's privileges. The failed attempts at reform as well as the internal turmoil caused by the Confederation proved the country's weakness and provoked its neighbours. In 1772 the First Partition of the Commonwealth by Prussia, Russia and Austria took place; an act which the "Partition Sejm", under considerable duress, eventually "ratified" "fait accompli". Disregarding this loss, in 1773 the king established the plan of the most necessary reforms, in which the Commission of National Education, the first government education authority in Europe, was established. Corporal punishment of children was officially prohibited in 1783.The Great Sejm convened by Stanisław II August in 1788 successfully adopted the 3 May Constitution, the first set of modern supreme national laws in Europe. However, this document, accused by detractors of harbouring revolutionary sympathies, generated strong opposition from the Commonwealth's nobles and conservatives as well as from Catherine II, who, determined to prevent the rebirth of a strong Commonwealth set about planning the final dismemberment of the Polish-Lithuanian state. Russia was aided in achieving its goal when the Targowica Confederation, an organisation of Polish nobles, appealed to the Empress for help. In May 1792, Russian forces crossed the Commonwealth's frontier, thus beginning the Polish-Russian War.The defensive war fought by the Poles ended prematurely when the King, convinced of the futility of resistance, capitulated and joined the Targowica Confederation, hoping to save the country. The Confederation then took over the government. Russia and Prussia, fearing the mere existence of a Polish state, understanding, that despite the current influence they still cannot control the country, arranged for, and in 1793 executed, the Second Partition of the Commonwealth, which left the country deprived of so much territory that it was practically incapable of independent existence. Eventually, in 1795, following the failed Kościuszko Uprising, the Commonwealth was partitioned one last time by all three of its more powerful neighbours, and with this, effectively ceased to exist. The 18-century British statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke summed up the partitions: "No wise or honest man can approve of that partition, or can contemplate it without prognosticating great mischief from it to all countries at some future time."Poles rebelled several times against the partitioners, particularly near the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. An unsuccessful attempt at defending Poland's sovereignty took place in 1794 during the Kościuszko Uprising, where a popular and distinguished general Tadeusz Kościuszko, who had several years earlier served under Washington in the American Revolutionary War, led Polish insurrectionists against numerically superior Russian forces. Despite the victory at the Battle of Racławice, his ultimate defeat ended Poland's independent existence for 123 years.In 1807, Napoleon I of France temporarily recreated a Polish state as the satellite Duchy of Warsaw, after a successful Greater Poland Uprising of 1806 against Prussian rule. But, after the failed Napoleonic Wars, Poland was again split between the victorious powers at the Congress of Vienna of 1815. The eastern part was ruled by the Russian tsar as Congress Poland, which had a liberal constitution. However, over time the Russian monarch reduced Polish freedoms, and Russia annexed the country in virtually all but name. Meanwhile, the Prussian controlled territory of Poland came under increased Germanization. Thus, in the 19th century, only Habsburg-ruled Austrian Poland, and particularly the Free City of Kraków, allowed free Polish culture to flourish.Throughout the period of the partitions, political and cultural repression of the Polish nation led to the organisation of a number of uprisings against the authorities of the occupying Russian, Prussian and Austrian governments. In 1830, the November Uprising began in Warsaw when, led by Lieutenant Piotr Wysocki, young non-commissioned officers at the Officer Cadet School in Warsaw revolted. They were joined by large segments of Polish society, and together forced Warsaw's Russian garrison to withdraw north of the city.Over the course of the next seven months, Polish forces successfully defeated the Russian armies of Field Marshal Hans Karl von Diebitsch and a number of other Russian commanders; however, finding themselves in a position unsupported by any other foreign powers, save distant France and the newborn United States, and with Prussia and Austria refusing to allow the import of military supplies through their territories, the Poles accepted that the uprising was doomed to failure. Upon the surrender of Warsaw to General Ivan Paskievich, many Polish troops, feeling they could not go on, withdrew into Prussia and there laid down their arms. After the defeat, the semi-independent Congress Poland lost its constitution, army and legislative assembly, and was integrated more closely with the Russian Empire.During the Spring of Nations (a series of revolutions which swept across Europe), Poles took up arms in the Greater Poland Uprising of 1848 to resist Prussian rule. Initially, the uprising manifested itself in the form of civil disobedience but eventually turned into an armed struggle when the Prussian military was sent in to pacify the region. Subsequently, the uprising was suppressed and the semi-autonomous Grand Duchy of Posen, created from the Prussian partition of Poland, was incorporated into Prussia.In 1863, a new Polish uprising against Russian rule began. The January Uprising started out as a spontaneous protest by young Poles against conscription into the Imperial Russian Army. However, the insurrectionists, despite being joined by high-ranking Polish-Lithuanian officers and numerous politicians, were still severely outnumbered and lacking in foreign support. They were forced to resort to guerrilla warfare tactics and failed to win any major military victories. Afterwards no major uprising was witnessed in the Russian-controlled Congress Poland, and Poles resorted instead to fostering economic and cultural self-improvement. Congress Poland was rapidly industrialised towards the end of the 19th century, and successively transformed into the Empire's wealthiest and most developed subject.Despite the political unrest experienced during the partitions, Poland did benefit from large-scale industrialisation and modernisation programs, instituted by the occupying powers, which helped it develop into a more economically coherent and viable entity. This was particularly true in Greater Poland, Silesia and Eastern Pomerania controlled by Prussia (later becoming a part of the German Empire); areas which eventually, thanks largely to the Greater Poland Uprising of 1918 and Silesian Uprisings, were reconstituted as a part of the Second Polish Republic, becoming the country's most prosperous regions.Following World War I all the Allies agreed on the reconstitution of Poland that United States President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed in Point 13 of his Fourteen Points. A total of 2 million Polish troops fought with the armies of the three occupying powers, and 450,000 died. Shortly after the armistice with Germany in November 1918, Poland regained its independence as the Second Polish Republic ("II Rzeczpospolita Polska"). It reaffirmed its independence after a series of military conflicts, the most notable being the Polish–Soviet War (1919–21) when Poland inflicted a crushing defeat on the Red Army at the Battle of Warsaw, an event which is considered to have halted the advance of Communism into Europe and forced Vladimir Lenin to rethink his objective of achieving global socialism. The event is often referred to as the "Miracle at the Vistula".During this period, Poland successfully managed to fuse the territories of the three former partitioning powers into a cohesive nation state. Railways were restructured to direct traffic towards Warsaw instead of the former imperial capitals, a new network of national roads was gradually built up and a major seaport, Gdynia, was opened on the Baltic Coast, so as to allow Polish exports and imports to bypass the politically charged Free City of Danzig. Also, the Polish government embarked on the creation of the Central Industrial Region ("Centralny Okręg Przemysłowy"). The project's goal was to create a heavy industrial center in the middle of the country, which included steal mills, power plants and factories. The inter-war period heralded in a new era of Polish politics. Whilst Polish political activists had faced heavy censorship in the decades up until the First World War, the country now found itself trying to establish a new political tradition. For this reason, many exiled Polish activists, such as Ignacy Paderewski (who would later become prime minister) returned home to help; a significant number of them then went on to take key positions in the newly formed political and governmental structures. Tragedy struck in 1922 when Gabriel Narutowicz, inaugural holder of the presidency, was assassinated at the Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw by a painter and right-wing nationalist Eligiusz Niewiadomski.In 1926, a May coup, led by the hero of the Polish independence campaign Marshal Józef Piłsudski, turned rule of the Second Polish Republic over to the nonpartisan Sanacja ("Healing") movement in an effort to prevent radical political organizations on both the left and the right from destabilizing the country. The movement functioned with relative stability until Piłsudski's death in 1935. Following Marshall Piłsudski's death, Sanation split into several competing factions. By the late 1930s, due to increased threats posed by political extremism inside the country, the Polish government became increasingly heavy-handed, banning a number of radical organizations, including communist and ultra-nationalist political parties, which threatened the stability of the country.World War II began with the Nazi German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, followed by the Soviet invasion of Poland on 17 September. On 28 September 1939, Warsaw fell. As agreed in the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Poland was split into two zones, one occupied by Nazi Germany, the other by the Soviet Union. In 1939–41, the Soviets deported hundreds of thousands of Poles. The Soviet NKVD executed thousands of Polish prisoners of war (inter alia Katyn massacre) ahead of the Operation Barbarossa. German planners had in November 1939 called for "the complete destruction of all Poles" and their fate as outlined in the genocidal "Generalplan Ost".Polish intelligence operatives proved extremely valuable to the Allies, providing much of the intelligence from Europe and beyond, and Polish code breakers were responsible for cracking the Enigma cypher.Poland made the fourth-largest troop contribution in Europe and its troops served both the Polish Government in Exile in the west and Soviet leadership in the east. Polish troops played an important role in the Normandy, Italian and North African Campaigns and are particularly remembered for the Battle of Monte Cassino. In the east, the Soviet-backed Polish 1st Army distinguished itself in the battles for Warsaw and Berlin.The wartime resistance movement, and the Armia Krajowa ("Home Army"), fought against German occupation. It was one of the three largest resistance movements of the entire war, and encompassed a range of clandestine activities, which functioned as an underground state complete with degree-awarding universities and a court system. The resistance was loyal to the exiled government and generally resented the idea of a communist Poland; for this reason, in the summer of 1944 it initiated Operation Tempest, of which the Warsaw Uprising that begun on 1 August 1944 is the best known operation.Nazi German forces under orders from Adolf Hitler set up six German extermination camps in occupied Poland, including Treblinka, Majdanek and Auschwitz. The Germans transported millions of Jews from across occupied Europe to be murdered in those camps.Altogether, 3 million Polish Jews – approximately 90% of Poland's pre-war Jewry – and between 1.8 and 2.8 million ethnic Poles were killed during the German occupation of Poland, including between 50,000 and 100,000 members of the Polish intelligentsia – academics, doctors, lawyers, nobility and priesthood. During the Warsaw Uprising alone, over 150,000 Polish civilians were killed, most were murdered by the Germans during the Wola and Ochota massacres. Around 150,000 Polish civilians were killed by Soviets between 1939 and 1941 during the Soviet Union's occupation of eastern Poland (Kresy), and another estimated 100,000 Poles were murdered by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) between 1943 and 1944 in what became known as the Wołyń Massacres. Of all the countries in the war, Poland lost the highest percentage of its citizens: around 6 million perished – more than one-sixth of Poland's pre-war population – half of them Polish Jews. About 90% of deaths were non-military in nature.In 1945, Poland's borders were shifted westwards. Over two million Polish inhabitants of Kresy were expelled along the Curzon Line by Stalin. The western border became the Oder-Neisse line. As a result, Poland's territory was reduced by 20%, or . The shift forced the migration of millions of other people, most of whom were Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, and Jews.At the insistence of Joseph Stalin, the Yalta Conference sanctioned the formation of a new provisional pro-Communist coalition government in Moscow, which ignored the Polish government-in-exile based in London. This action angered many Poles who considered it a betrayal by the Allies. In 1944, Stalin had made guarantees to Churchill and Roosevelt that he would maintain Poland's sovereignty and allow democratic elections to take place. However, upon achieving victory in 1945, the elections organized by the occupying Soviet authorities were falsified and were used to provide a veneer of legitimacy for Soviet hegemony over Polish affairs. The Soviet Union instituted a new communist government in Poland, analogous to much of the rest of the Eastern Bloc. As elsewhere in Communist Europe, the Soviet influence over Poland was met with armed resistance from the outset which continued into the 1950s.Despite widespread objections, the new Polish government accepted the Soviet annexation of the pre-war eastern regions of Poland (in particular the cities of Wilno and Lwów) and agreed to the permanent garrisoning of Red Army units on Poland's territory. Military alignment within the Warsaw Pact throughout the Cold War came about as a direct result of this change in Poland's political culture. In the European scene, it came to characterize the full-fledged integration of Poland into the brotherhood of communist nations.The new communist government took control with the adoption of the Small Constitution on 19 February 1947. The Polish People's Republic ("Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa") was officially proclaimed in 1952. In 1956, after the death of Bolesław Bierut, the régime of Władysław Gomułka became temporarily more liberal, freeing many people from prison and expanding some personal freedoms. Collectivization in the Polish People's Republic failed. A similar situation repeated itself in the 1970s under Edward Gierek, but most of the time persecution of anti-communist opposition groups persisted. Despite this, Poland was at the time considered to be one of the least oppressive states of the Eastern Bloc.Labour turmoil in 1980 led to the formation of the independent trade union "Solidarity" (""Solidarność""), which over time became a political force. Despite persecution and imposition of martial law in 1981, it eroded the dominance of the Polish United Workers' Party and by 1989 had triumphed in Poland's first partially free and democratic parliamentary elections since the end of the Second World War. Lech Wałęsa, a Solidarity candidate, eventually won the presidency in 1990. The Solidarity movement heralded the collapse of communist regimes and parties across Europe.A shock therapy programme, initiated by Leszek Balcerowicz in the early 1990s, enabled the country to transform its socialist-style planned economy into a market economy. As with other post-communist countries, Poland suffered declines in social and economic standards, but it became the first post-communist country to reach its pre-1989 GDP levels, which it achieved by 1995 thanks largely to its booming economy.Most visibly, there were numerous improvements in human rights, such as freedom of speech, internet freedom (no censorship), civil liberties (1st class) and political rights (1st class), as ranked by Freedom House non-governmental organization. In 1991, Poland became a member of the Visegrád Group and joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance in 1999 along with the Czech Republic and Hungary. Poles then voted to join the European Union in a referendum in June 2003, with Poland becoming a full member on 1 May 2004.Poland joined the Schengen Area in 2007, as a result of which, the country's borders with other member states of the European Union have been dismantled, allowing for full freedom of movement within most of the EU. In contrast to this, a section of Poland's eastern border now constitutes the external EU border with Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. That border has become increasingly well protected, and has led in part to the coining of the phrase 'Fortress Europe', in reference to the seeming 'impossibility' of gaining entry to the EU for citizens of the former Soviet Union.In an effort to strengthen military cooperation with its neighbors, Poland set up the Visegrád Battlegroup with Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia, with a total of 3,000 troops ready for deployment. Also, in eastern Poland, it formed the LITPOLUKRBRIG battle groups with Lithuania and Ukraine. These battle groups will operate outside of NATO and within the European defense initiative framework.On 10 April 2010, the President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, along with 89 other high-ranking Polish officials died in a plane crash near Smolensk, Russia. The president's party was on their way to attend an annual service of commemoration for the victims of the Katyń massacre when the tragedy took place.In 2011, the ruling Civic Platform won parliamentary elections. Poland joined the European Space Agency in 2012, as well as organised the UEFA Euro 2012 (along with Ukraine). In 2013, Poland also became a member of the Development Assistance Committee. In 2014, the Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, was chosen to be President of the European Council, and resigned as prime minister.The 2015 and 2019 elections were won by the conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS), resulting in increased friction between Poland and the EU. In December 2017, Mateusz Morawiecki was sworn in as the new Prime Minister, succeeding Beata Szydlo, in office since 2015. They both represented ruling Law and Justice party, led by party chairman Jarosław Kaczyński. President Andrzej Duda, supported by Law and Justice party, was narrowly re-elected in the 2020 presidential election.Poland's vast territory covers approximately , of which 98.52% is dry land and 1.48% is water. Extending across several geographical regions, the country is the 9th-largest by area in Europe and 69th largest in the world. Topographically, Poland is diverse and has access to the sea, the mountains and open terrain. Although most of the central parts of the country are flat, there is an abundance of lakes, rivers, hills, swamps, beaches, islands and forests elsewhere.In the north-west is the Baltic seacoast spanning from the Bay of Pomerania to the Gulf of Gdańsk. The coast is marked by several spits, coastal lakes (former bays that have been cut off from the sea), and dunes. The largely straight coastline is indented by the Szczecin Lagoon, the Bay of Puck, and the Vistula Lagoon.The central and northern parts of the country lie within the North European Plain. Rising above these lowlands is a geographical region comprising four hilly districts of moraines and moraine-dammed lakes formed during and after the Pleistocene ice age, notably the Pomeranian Lake District, the Greater Polish Lake District, the Kashubian Lake District, and the Masurian Lake District. The Masurian Lake District is the largest of the four and covers much of north-eastern Poland. The lake districts form a series of moraine belts along the southern shore of the Baltic Sea.South of the Northern European Plain are the regions of Lusatia, Silesia and Masovia, which are marked by broad ice-age river valleys. The extreme south of Poland is mountainous; it runs from the Sudetes in the west to the Carpathian Mountains in the east. The highest part of the Carpathian massif is the Tatra Mountain range, along Poland's southern border.The geological structure of Poland has been shaped by the continental collision of Europe and Africa over the past 60 million years and, more recently, by the Quaternary glaciations of northern Europe. Both processes shaped the Sudetes and the Carpathian Mountains. The moraine landscape of northern Poland contains soils made up mostly of sand or loam, while the ice age river valleys of the south often contain loess. The Polish Jura, the Pieniny, and the Western Tatras consist of limestone, whereas the High Tatras, the Beskids, and the Karkonosze mountain ranges are made up mainly of granite and basalts. The Polish Jura Chain has some of the oldest rock formations on the continent of Europe.Poland has over 70 mountains over in elevation, all situated in the Tatras. Poland's highest point is the north-western summit of Mount Rysy at in elevation. At its foot lie the mountain lakes of Czarny Staw (Black Lake) and Morskie Oko (Eye of the Sea), both naturally-made tarns. Other notable uplands include the Pieniny and Holy Cross Mountains, the Table Mountains noted for their unusual rock formations, the Bieszczady in the far southeast of the country in which the highest peak is Tarnica at , and the Gorce Mountains whose highest point is Turbacz at . The highest point of the Sudeten massif is Mount Śnieżka (), shared with the Czech Republic.The lowest point in Poland – at below sea level – is at Raczki Elbląskie, near Elbląg in the Vistula Delta.In the Zagłębie Dąbrowskie (the Coal Fields of Dąbrowa) region in the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland is an area of sparsely vegetated sand known as the Błędów Desert. It covers an area of . It is not a natural desert and was formed by human activity from the Middle Ages onwards.The Baltic Sea activity in Słowiński National Park created sand dunes which in the course of time separated the bay from the sea creating two lakes. As waves and wind carry sand inland the dunes slowly move, at a rate of per year. Some dunes reach the height of up to . The highest peak of the park is Rowokol at above sea level.The longest rivers are the Vistula (), long; the Oder () which forms part of Poland's western border, long; its tributary, the Warta, long; and the Bug, a tributary of the Vistula, long. The Vistula and the Oder flow into the Baltic Sea, as do numerous smaller rivers in Pomerania. Poland's lengthy waterways have been used since early times for navigation; the Vikings ventured up the Polish rivers in their longships. In the Middle Ages and in early modern times, the shipment of tangible goods down the Vistula toward Gdańsk and onward to other parts of Europe took on great importance.With almost ten thousand closed bodies of water covering more than each, Poland has one of the highest numbers of lakes in the world. In Europe, only Finland has a greater density of lakes. The largest lakes, covering more than , are Lake Śniardwy and Lake Mamry in Masuria as well as Lake Łebsko and Lake Drawsko in Pomerania. The lake with the greatest depth—of more than —is Lake Hańcza in the Wigry Lake District, east of Masuria in Podlaskie Voivodeship.The Polish Baltic coast is approximately long and extends from Świnoujście on the islands of Usedom and Wolin in the west to Krynica Morska on the Vistula Spit in the east. For the most part, Poland has a smooth coastline, which has been shaped by the continual movement of sand by currents and winds. This continual erosion and deposition has formed cliffs, dunes, and spits, many of which have migrated landwards to close off former lagoons, such as Łebsko Lake in the Słowiński National Park.The largest spits are Hel Peninsula and the Vistula Spit. The coast line is varied also by Szczecin and Vistula Lagoons and several lakes, including Jamno. The largest Polish Baltic island is Wolin, located within Wolin National Park. The largest sea harbours are Szczecin, Świnoujście, Gdańsk, Gdynia, Police and Kołobrzeg and the main coastal resorts – Świnoujście, Międzydzdroje, Kołobrzeg, Łeba, Sopot, Władysławowo and the Hel Peninsula.In the valley of Pilica river in Tomaszów Mazowiecki there is a unique natural karst spring of water containing calcium salts, that is an object of protection at Blue Springs Nature Reserve in the Sulejów Landscape Park. The red waves are absorbed by water, hence only blue and green are reflected from the bottom of the spring, giving the water atypical colour.Forests cover about 29.6% of Poland's land area based on international standards. Its overall percentage is still increasing. Forests of Poland are managed by the national program of reforestation (KPZL), aiming at an increase of forest-cover to 33% in 2050. The largest forest complex in Poland is Lower Silesian Wilderness.More than 1% of Poland's territory, , is protected within 23 Polish national parks. Three more national parks are projected for Masuria, the Polish Jura, and the eastern Beskids. In addition, wetlands along lakes and rivers in central Poland are legally protected, as are coastal areas in the north. There are 123 areas designated as landscape parks, along with numerous nature reserves and other protected areas under the Natura 2000 network.In 2017, approximately of land was occupied by farms and farmsteads, over half of Poland's total area.Phytogeographically, Poland belongs to the Central European province of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the territory of Poland belongs to three Palearctic Ecoregions of the continental forest spanning Central and Northern European temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregions, as well as the Carpathian montane conifer forest. The most common deciduous trees found across the country are oak, maple, and beech; the most common conifers are pine, spruce, and fir. An estimated 68.7% of all forests are coniferous.Poland has historically been home to rare species of animals, as well as the two largest European mammals: the wisent ("żubr") and aurochs ("tur"). The last aurochs of Europe became extinct in 1627 in the Polish Jaktorów Forest, while the wisent survived until the 20th century only at Białowieża. It has been since reintroduced to other countries. Other wild species include the brown bear in Białowieża, in the Tatras, and in the Beskids; the gray wolf and the Eurasian lynx in various forests; the moose in northern Poland; and the beaver in Masuria, Pomerania, and Podlaskie.Game animals such as red deer, roe deer, and wild boar are found in most woodlands. Eastern Poland abounds in ancient woods, like the Białowieża Forest, that have not been disturbed by human or industrial activity. There are also large forested areas in the mountains, Greater Poland, Pomerania, Lubusz Land, and Lower Silesia. The Lubusz Voivodeship is currently the most arboraceous province in the country; 52% of its territory is occupied by forests.Poland is also a significant breeding ground for a variety of European migratory birds. One quarter of the global population of white storks (40,000 breeding pairs) live in Poland, particularly in the lake districts and the wetlands along the Biebrza, the Narew, and the Warta, which are part of nature reserves or national parks.The climate is mostly temperate throughout the country. The climate is oceanic in the north-west and becomes gradually warmer and continental towards the south-east. Summers are generally warm, with average temperatures between depending on the region. Winters are rather cold, with average temperatures around in the northwest and in the northeast. Precipitation falls throughout the year, although, especially in the east, winter is drier than summer.The warmest region in Poland is Lower Silesia in the southwest of the country, where temperatures in the summer average between but can go as high as on some days in the warmest months of July and August. The warmest cities in Poland are Tarnów in Lesser Poland, and Wrocław in Lower Silesia. The average temperatures in Wrocław are in the summer and in the winter, but Tarnów has the longest summer in all of Poland, which lasts for 115 days, from mid-May to mid-September. The coldest region of Poland is in the northeast, around the area of Suwałki within the Podlaskie Voivodeship, where the climate is affected by cold fronts coming from Scandinavia and Siberia. The average temperature in the winter in Podlaskie ranges from . The biggest impact of the oceanic climate is observed in Świnoujście and Baltic Sea seashore area from Police to Słupsk.Poland is a representative democracy, with a president as the head of state. The government structure centers on the Council of Ministers, led by a prime minister. The president appoints the cabinet according to the proposals of the prime minister, typically from the majority coalition in the Sejm. The president is elected by popular vote every five years. The current president is Andrzej Duda and the prime minister is Mateusz Morawiecki.Polish voters elect a bicameral parliament consisting of a 460-member lower house (Sejm) and a 100-member Senate (Senat). The Sejm is elected under proportional representation according to the d'Hondt method, a method similar to that used in many parliamentary political systems. The Senat, on the other hand, is elected under the first-past-the-post voting method, with one senator being returned from each of the 100 constituencies.With the exception of ethnic minority parties, only candidates of political parties receiving at least 5% of the total national vote can enter the Sejm. When sitting in joint session, members of the Sejm and Senat form the National Assembly (the "Zgromadzenie Narodowe"). The National Assembly is formed on three occasions: when a new president takes the oath of office; when an indictment against the President of the Republic is brought to the State Tribunal ("Trybunał Stanu"); and when a president's permanent incapacity to exercise his duties due to the state of his health is declared. To date only the first instance has occurred.The judicial branch plays an important role in decision-making. Its major institutions include the Supreme Court ("Sąd Najwyższy"); the Supreme Administrative Court ("Naczelny Sąd Administracyjny"); the Constitutional Tribunal ("Trybunał Konstytucyjny"); and the State Tribunal ("Trybunał Stanu"). On the approval of the Senat, the Sejm also appoints the ombudsman or the Commissioner for Civil Rights Protection ("Rzecznik Praw Obywatelskich") for a five-year term. The ombudsman has the duty of guarding the observance and implementation of the rights and liberties of Polish citizens and residents, of the law and of principles of community life and social justice.The Constitution of Poland is the enacted supreme law, and the Polish legal system is based on the principle of civil rights, governed by the code of civil law. The current democratic constitution was adopted by the National Assembly of Poland on 2 April 1997; it guarantees a multi-party state with freedoms of religion, speech and assembly, prohibits the practices of forced medical experimentation, torture or corporal punishment, and acknowledges the inviolability of the home, the right to form trade unions, and the right to strike.The judiciary incorporates a four-tier court system composed of the Supreme Court, the Supreme Administrative Court, Common Courts (District, Regional, Appellate) and the Military Court. Judges are nominated by the National Council of the Judiciary and are appointed for life by the president. The Constitutional and State Tribunals are separate judicial bodies, which rule the constitutional liability of people holding the highest offices of state and supervise the compliance of statutory law, thus protecting the Constitution.Historically, the most significant Polish legal act is the Constitution of 3 May 1791, the first modern constitution in Europe. Instituted as a Government Act, it was designed to redress long-standing political defects of the federative Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and its Golden Liberty. Previously, only the Henrician Articles (1573) signed by each of Poland's elected monarchs could perform the function of a set of basic laws. The new Constitution introduced political equality between townspeople and the nobility ("szlachta"), and placed the peasants under the protection of the government. It abolished pernicious parliamentary policies such as the "liberum veto", which permitted any deputy to rescind all the legislation passed in the interest of a foreign power. The 3 May Constitution sought to supplant the existing anarchy fostered by some of the country's reactionary magnates, with a more egalitarian and democratic constitutional monarchy. The influenced many later democratic movements across the globe. Tax-paying women were allowed to take part in Polish political life until the third partition in 1795. In 1918 the Second Polish Republic became one of the first countries to introduce universal women's suffrage.Poland has a low homicide rate at 0.7 murders per 100,000 people, as of 2018. Rape, assault and violent crime remain at a very low level, although not all cases are recorded by the authorities.Abortion is permitted only in cases of rape, incest or when the woman's life is in danger. Congenital disorder and stillbirth are not covered by the law, forcing some women to seek abortion abroad, and others to seek the assistance of psychiatrists willing to testify on the negative psychological impact of stillbirth. Poland does not criminalize homosexuality, and its legality was confirmed in 1932. The Polish Constitution defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.Poland is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union and has a grand total of 52 representatives in the European Parliament as of 2020. Since joining the union in 2004, successive Polish governments have pursued policies to extend the country's role in European and international affairs. Poland is an emerging regional power in Central Europe. The capital of Warsaw serves as the headquarters for Frontex, the European Union's agency for external border security as well as ODIHR, one of the principal institutions of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.Apart from the European Union, Poland has been a member of NATO since 1999, the UN, the World Trade Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since 1996, European Economic Area, International Energy Agency, Council of Europe, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, International Atomic Energy Agency, European Space Agency, G6, Council of the Baltic Sea States, Visegrád Group, Weimar Triangle, Schengen Agreement, Lublin Triangle and Bucharest Nine.Over the past two decades, Poland significantly strengthened its ties with the United States, thus becoming one of its closest allies in Europe. Poland was part of the US-led coalition force during the Iraq War in 2003, and sent its troops in the first phase of the conflict, jointly with the United Kingdom and Australia. Along with NATO, Poland maintains military presence in the Middle East, the Baltic states and in the Balkans.The Polish Armed Forces are composed of five branches – Land Forces ("Wojska Lądowe"), Navy ("Marynarka Wojenna"), Air Force ("Siły Powietrzne"), Special Forces ("Wojska Specjalne") and the Territorial Defence Force ("Wojska Obrony Terytorialnej"). The military is subordinate to the Ministry of National Defence of the Republic of Poland. However, its commander-in-chief in peacetime is the President of the Republic, who nominates officers, the Minister for National Defence and the chief of staff.As of 2018, the Polish Armed Forces have a combined strength of 144,142 soldiers. The Polish Navy primarily operates on the Baltic Sea and conducts operations such as maritime patrol, search and rescue for the section of the Baltic under Polish sovereignty, as well as hydrographic measurements and research. The Polish Air Force routinely takes part in Baltic Air Policing assignments. In 2003, the F-16C Block 52 was selected as the new general multi-role fighter for the air force. In January 2020, Poland has approved the delivery for F-35 Lightning II combat aircraft. Poland is currently spending 2% of its GDP on defence (approximately US$13.5 billion in 2020), which is expected to grow to 2.5% by 2030. According to SIPRI, the country exported EUR€487 million worth of arms and armaments to other countries, primarily to the United States, Chile, France and South Africa.The mission of the armed forces is the defence of Poland's territorial integrity and Polish interests abroad. The country's national security goal is to further integrate with NATO and European defence, economic, and political institutions. Compulsory military service for men was discontinued in 2008. From 2007, until conscription ended in 2008, the mandatory service was nine months. Polish military doctrine reflects the same defensive nature as that of its NATO partners and the country actively hosts NATO's military exercises. From 1953 to 2009 Poland was a large contributor to various United Nations peacekeeping missions. The Polish Armed Forces took part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, deploying 2,500 soldiers in the south of that country and commanding the 17-nation multinational force in Iraq. Poland also maintains troops in the Middle East, the Baltic states and in the Balkans; 1,650 soldiers were deployed in 2019.Law enforcement in Poland is performed by several agencies which are subordinate to the Ministry of Interior and Administration – the State Police ("Policja"), assigned to investigate crimes or transgression; the Municipal City Guard, which maintains public order; and several specialized agencies, such as the Polish Border Guard. Private security firms are also common, although they possess no legal authority to arrest or detain a suspect. Municipal guards are primarily headed by provincial, regional or city councils; individual guards are not permitted to carry firearms unless instructed by their superior commanding officer or commandant.The Internal Security Agency (ABW, or ISA in English) is the chief counter-intelligence instrument safeguarding Poland's internal security, along with Agencja Wywiadu (AW) which identifies threats and collects secret information abroad. The Central Investigation Bureau of Police (CBŚP) and the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) are responsible for countering organized crime and corruption in state and private institutions.Emergency services in Poland consist of the emergency medical services, search and rescue units of the Polish Armed Forces and State Fire Service. Emergency medical services in Poland are provided for by local and regional governments.All emergency services personnel are uniformed and security services can be easily recognized during regular patrols in both large urban areas or smaller suburban localities.Poland's current voivodeships (provinces) are largely based on the country's historic regions, whereas those of the past two decades (to 1998) had been centred on and named for individual cities. The new units range in area from less than for Opole Voivodeship to more than for Masovian Voivodeship. Administrative authority at the voivodeship level is shared between a government-appointed voivode (governor), an elected regional assembly ("sejmik") and a voivodeship marshal, an executive elected by that assembly.The voivodeships are subdivided into "powiats" (often referred to in English as counties), and these are further divided into "gminas" (also known as communes or municipalities). Major cities normally have the status of both "gmina" and "powiat". Poland has 16 voivodeships, 380 powiats (including 66 cities with "powiat" status), and 2,478 "gminas".Poland's economy and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is currently the sixth largest in the European Union by nominal standards, and the fifth largest by purchasing power parity. It is also one of the fastest growing within the Union. Around 60% of the employed population belongs to the tertiary service sector, 30% to industry and manufacturing, and the remaining 10% to the agricultural sector. Although Poland is a member of EU's single market, the country has not adopted the Euro as legal tender and maintains its own currency – the Polish złoty (zł, PLN).Poland is the regional economic leader in Central Europe, with nearly 40 per cent of the 500 biggest companies in the region (by revenues) as well as a high globalisation rate. The country's largest firms compose the WIG20 and WIG30 indexes, which is traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. According to reports made by the National Bank of Poland, the value of Polish foreign direct investments reached almost 300 billion PLN at the end of 2014. The Central Statistical Office estimated that in 2014 there were 1,437 Polish corporations with interests in 3,194 foreign entities.Having a strong domestic market, low private debt, low unemployment rate, flexible currency, and not being dependent on a single export sector, Poland is the only European economy to have avoided the recession of 2008. The country is the 20th largest exporter of goods and services in the world and its most successful exports include machinery, furniture, food products, clothing, shoes, cosmetics and videogames. These account to approximately 56% of the total GDP, as of 2018. Poland's largest trading partners include Germany, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, France and Italy. Warsaw leads Central Europe in foreign investment. In September 2018, the unemployment rate was estimated at 5.7%, one of the lowest in the European Union. In 2019, Poland passed a law that would exempt workers under the age of 26 from income tax.The Polish banking sector is the largest in the region, with 32.3 branches per 100,000 adults.World Bank, Financial Inclusion Data. Country Dashboard: Poland. The World Bank Group. Retrieved 6 November 2014. The banks are the largest and most developed sector of the country's financial markets. They are regulated by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority. Poland's banking sector has approximately 5 national banks, a network of nearly 600 cooperative banks and 18 branches of foreign-owned banks. In addition, foreign investors have controlling stakes in nearly 40 commercial banks, which make up 68% of the banking capital.Products and goods manufactured in Poland include: electronics, buses and trams (Solaris, Solbus), helicopters and planes (PZL Świdnik, PZL Mielec), trains (Pesa, Newag), ships (Gdańsk Shipyard, Szczecin Shipyard), military equipment (FB "Łucznik" Radom, , Jelcz), medicines (, ), food (Tymbark, Hortex, E. Wedel), clothes (LLP), glass, pottery (Bolesławiec), chemical products and others. Well-known brands and companies include Alior Bank, Orlen&Lotos Group, Inglot Cosmetics, Plus, Play, Brainly, Netguru, GOG.com, CD Projekt, Trefl and Allegro. Poland is also one of the world's biggest producers of copper, silver, coal, furniture, automotive parts and soft drink.Poland experienced a significant increase in the number of tourists after joining the European Union in 2004. With nearly 21 million international arrivals in 2019, tourism contributes considerably to the overall economy and makes up a relatively large proportion of the country's service market.Tourist attractions in Poland vary, from the mountains in the south to the sandy beaches in the north, with a trail of nearly every architectural style. The most visited city is Kraków, which was the former capital of Poland and serves as a relic of the Polish Golden Age and the Renaissance. Kraków also held royal coronations of most Polish kings and monarchs at Wawel, the nation's chief historical landmark. Among other notable sites in the country is Wrocław, one of the oldest cities in Poland which was a model for the founding of Kraków. Wrocław is famous for its dwarfs, a large market square with two town halls, and the oldest Zoological Gardens with one of the world's largest number of animal species. The Polish capital Warsaw and its historical Old Town were entirely reconstructed after wartime destruction. Other cities attracting countless tourists include Gdańsk, Poznań, Lublin, Toruń as well as the site of the German Auschwitz concentration camp in Oświęcim. A notable highlight is the 13th-century Wieliczka Salt Mine with its labyrinthine tunnels, a subterranean lake and chapels carved by miners out of rock salt beneath the ground.Poland's main tourist offerings include outdoor activities such as skiing, sailing, mountain hiking and climbing, as well as agritourism, sightseeing historical monuments. Tourist destinations include the Baltic Sea coast in the north; the Masurian Lake District and Białowieża Forest in the east; on the south Karkonosze, the Table Mountains and the Tatra Mountains, where Rysy – the highest peak of Poland, and Eagle's Path mountain trail are located. The Pieniny and Bieszczady Mountains lie in the extreme south-east. There are over 100 castles in the country, most in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship (inter alia ), and also on the Trail of the Eagles' Nests. The largest castle in the world by land area is situated in Malbork, in north-central Poland.The electricity generation sector in Poland is largely fossil-fuel–based. Many power plants nationwide use Poland's position as a major European exporter of coal to their advantage by continuing to use coal as the primary raw material in the production of their energy. In 2013, Poland scored 48 out of 129 states in the Energy Sustainability Index. The three largest Polish coal mining firms (Węglokoks, Kompania Węglowa and JSW) extract around 100 million tonnes of coal annually.Renewable forms of energy account for a smaller proportion of Poland's full energy generation capacity. However, the national government has set targets for the development of renewable energy sources in Poland (the share of energy from renewable sources in the gross final energy consumption in 2019 was – 12,18%). Increasing the share of energy from renewable sources and a significant reduction in CO2 emissions to be achieved with the help of biofuels, photovoltaics, construction of wind farms on the land and the Baltic Sea, hydroelectric stations and nuclear power plant.Poland has around 164,800,000,000 m of proven natural gas reserves and around 96,380,000 barrels of proven oil reserves. These reserves are exploited by energy supply companies such as PKN Orlen ("the only Polish company listed in the Fortune Global 500"), PGNiG. However, the small amounts of fossil fuels naturally occurring in Poland are insufficient to satisfy the full energy consumption needs of the population and industry. Consequently, the country is a net importer of oil and natural gas. Therefore, since the second decade of the 21st century, Poland has been strongly developing the so-called North Gate in which the most important components are the Baltic Pipe, the Świnoujście LNG terminal and Floating Storage and Regasification Unit in Port of Gdańsk.The 5 largest companies supplying Poland electricity are PGE, Tauron, Enea, and Innogy Poland.Transport in Poland is provided by means of rail, road, marine shipping and air travel. The country is part of EU's Schengen Area and is an important transport hub along neighbouring Germany due to its strategic position in Central Europe. Some of the longest European routes, including the E40, run through Poland.The country has a good network of highways, composed of express roads and motorways. At the start of 2020, Poland had of highways in use. In addition, all local and regional roads are monitored by the National Road Rebuilding Programme, which aims to improve the quality of travel in the countryside and suburban localities.In 2017, the nation had of railway track, the third longest in Europe after Germany and France. The Polish State Railways (PKP) is the dominant railway operator in the country. In December 2014, Poland began to implement high–speed rail routes connecting major Polish cities, and started passenger service using the New Pendolino train, operating at 200 km/h on the Central Rail Line (CMK). Polish regulations allow trains without ETCS to travel at speeds up to 160 km/h, trains with ETCS1 up to 200 km/h, and trains with ETCS2 at over 200 km/h. Most inter-regional connections rail routes in Poland are operated by PKP Intercity, whilst regional trains are run by a number of private operators, the largest of which is Polregio. The largest passenger train station in terms of the number of travelers is Wrocław Główny.The air and maritime transport markets in Poland are largely well developed. Poland has a number of international airports, the largest of which is Warsaw Chopin Airport, the primary global hub for LOT Polish Airlines. It was established in 1928 from a merger of Aerolloyd (1922) and Aero (1925). Other major airports with international connections include John Paul II International Airport Kraków–Balice, Copernicus Airport Wrocław, Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport. Poland has begun preparations for a construction that can handle 100 million passengers of the Central Communication Port.Seaports exist all along Poland's Baltic coast, with most freight operations using Świnoujście, Police, Szczecin, Kołobrzeg, Gdynia, Gdańsk and Elbląg as their base.Passenger ferries link Poland with Scandinavia all year round; these services are provided from Gdańsk and Świnoujście by Polferries, Stena Line from Gdynia and Unity Line from the Świnoujście. The Port of Gdańsk is the only port in the Baltic Sea adapted to receive oceanic vessels.Over the course of history, the Polish people have made considerable contributions in the fields of science, technology and mathematics. Perhaps the most renowned Pole to support this theory was Nicolaus Copernicus ("Mikołaj Kopernik"), who triggered the Copernican Revolution by placing the Sun rather than the Earth at the center of the universe. He also derived a quantity theory of money, which made him a pioneer of economics. Copernicus' achievements and discoveries are considered the basis of Polish culture and cultural identity.Poland's tertiary education institutions; traditional universities, as well as technical, medical, and economic institutions, employ around tens of thousands of researchers and staff members. There are hundreds of research and development institutes. However, in the 19th and 20th centuries many Polish scientists worked abroad; one of the most important of these exiles was Maria Skłodowska-Curie, a physicist and chemist who lived much of her life in France. In 1925 she established Poland's Radium Institute.In the first half of the 20th century, Poland was a flourishing centre of mathematics. Outstanding Polish mathematicians formed the Lwów School of Mathematics (with Stefan Banach, Stanisław Mazur, Hugo Steinhaus, Stanisław Ulam) and Warsaw School of Mathematics (with Alfred Tarski, Kazimierz Kuratowski, Wacław Sierpiński and Antoni Zygmund). Numerous mathematicians, scientists, chemists or economists emigrated due to historic vicissitudes, among them Benoit Mandelbrot, Leonid Hurwicz, Alfred Tarski, Joseph Rotblat and Nobel Prize laureates Roald Hoffmann, Georges Charpak and Tadeusz Reichstein. In the 1930s, mathematician and cryptologist Marian Rejewski invented the Cryptographic Bomb which formed the basis of the effort that allowed the Allies to crack the Enigma code.Over 40 research and development centers and 4,500 researchers make Poland the biggest research and development hub in Central and Eastern Europe. Multinational companies such as: ABB, Delphi, GlaxoSmithKline, Google, Hewlett–Packard, IBM, Intel, LG Electronics, Microsoft, Motorola, Siemens and Samsung all have set up research and development centres in Poland. Companies chose Poland because of the availability of highly qualified labour force, presence of universities, support of authorities, and the largest market in East-Central Europe. According to a KPMG report from 2011, 80% of Poland's current investors are content with their choice and willing to reinvest. Poland has a very well-developed e-administration, thanks to which many official matters can be easily and quickly settled via the Internet. In the UN ranking, Poland is in the top twenty countries with the best-rated e-administration in the world.Poland, with approximately 38.5 million inhabitants, has the ninth-largest population in Europe and the fifth-largest in the European Union. It has a population density of 122 inhabitants per square kilometre (328 per square mile). The total fertility rate in 2020 was estimated at 1.44 children born to a woman, a considerable rise from previous years. In contrast, the total fertility rate in 1925 was 4.68. Furthermore, Poland's population is aging significantly and the median age in 2018 was 41.1 years. The crude death rate in 2020 stood at 10.3 per 1,000 people.Around 60% of Poles and Polish citizens reside in urban areas or major cities and 40% in more rural zones. The most populous administrative province or state is the Masovian Voivodeship and the most populous city is the capital, Warsaw, at 1.8 million inhabitants with a further 2-3 million people living in its metropolitan area. The metropolitan area of Katowice is the largest urban conurbation in Poland with a population between 2.7 million and 5.3 million residents. The least populous and the smallest province in size is the Opole Voivodeship, with just under 1 million people living within its borders. Hence, a substantial portion of the total population is concentrated in the south of Poland, roughly between the cities of Wrocław and Kraków.In the 2011 Polish census, 37,310,341 people reported Polish identity, 846,719 Silesian, 232,547 Kashubian and 147,814 German. Other identities were reported by 163,363 people (0.41%) and 521,470 people (1.35%) did not specify any nationality. Once prominent but now statistically insignificant minority groups include Polish Jews, Lipka Tatars, Armenians, Greeks, Lemkos, the Romani people and the Vietnamese. Ethnic Poles themselves can be divided into many diverse regional ethnographic sub-groups, most notable being the Kashubians, Silesians and Gorals (Highlanders). The statistics do not include recently arrived migrant workers. More than 1.7 million Ukrainian citizens worked legally in Poland in 2017.There is a very strong Polish diaspora around the world, notably in the United States, Germany, United Kingdom and Canada. A strong Polish minority is still present in the territories of contemporary western Ukraine and Belarus, eastern Lithuania, eastern and central Latvia, and northeastern Czech Republic, which were part of Poland in the past. Altogether, the number of ethnic Poles living abroad is estimated to be around 20 million.Polish is the only official and predominant spoken language in Poland, but it is also used throughout the world by Polish minorities in other countries as well as being one of the official languages of the European Union. The deaf communities use Polish Sign Language belonging to the German family of Sign Languages. Polish is also a second language in Lithuania, where it is taught in schools and universities. Contemporary Poland is a linguistically homogeneous nation, with nearly 97% of respondents declaring Polish as their mother tongue.Poland's once multi-ethnic population communicated in numerous languages and lects which faded or disappeared along the course of history. There are currently 15 minority languages in Poland, including one recognized regional language, Kashubian, which is spoken by around 366,000 people in the northern regions of Kashubia and Pomerania.Languages having the status of national minority's language are Armenian, Belarusian, Czech, German, Yiddish, Hebrew, Lithuanian, Russian, Slovak and Ukrainian. Languages having the status of ethnic minority's language are Karaim, Lemko-Rusyn, Tatar and two Romani languages; Polska Roma and Bergitka Roma. Official recognition of a language provides certain rights under conditions prescribed by Polish law, including education and state financial support for promoting that language. Poland recognized secondary administrative languages or auxiliary languages in bilingual municipalities. Currently, German and Kashubian hold such status in 19 municipalities ("gminas"), Belarusian in 9 and Lithuanian in 1. Bilingual signs, names and advertisements are commonplace in those localities. Silesian and Wymysorys (Vilamovian) are not legally recognized or acknowledged as separate languages with a minority status.More than 50% of Polish citizens declare at least basic knowledge of the English language, followed by German (38%).According to the 2015 census, 92.9% of all Polish citizens adhere to the Roman Catholic Church. An estimated 94.2% of the population are believers and 3.1% are irreligious, making Poland one of the more devout countries in Europe. Around 61.6% of all respondents outlined that religion is of high or very high importance. However, church attendance has decreased in recent years; only 38% of worshippers attended mass regularly on Sunday in 2018. Freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Polish Constitution, and the concordat guarantees the teaching of religion in state schools.For centuries the tribes inhabiting the lands of modern-day Poland have practiced various forms of paganism known as "Rodzimowierstwo", or "native faith". In the year 966, Duke Mieszko I converted to Christianity, and submitted to the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. This event came to be known as the Baptism of Poland. However, this did not put an end to pagan beliefs in the country. The persistence was demonstrated by a series of rebellions in the 1030s known as the pagan reaction, which also showed elements of a peasant uprising against medieval feudalism.Religious tolerance was an important part of Polish political culture, though it varied at times. In 1264, the Statute of Kalisz granted Jews unprecedented legal rights not found anywhere in Europe. In 1573, the Warsaw Confederation marked the formal beginning of extensive religious freedoms in Poland. It was partially influenced by the 1572 St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in France, which prompted the nobility to prevent the monarch from carrying out reprehensible atrocities in Poland based on religious affiliation. The religious tolerance also spurred many theological movements such as the Calvinist Polish Brethren, a number of Protestant groups and atheists like Casimir Liszinski, one of the first atheist thinkers in Europe. Anabaptists fleeing 16th-century persecution in the Netherlands and Germany settled in Poland and became known as the Vistula delta Mennonites. From 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła was head of the Roman Catholic Church as Pope John Paul II.Contemporary religious minorities include Christian Orthodox (506,800), various Protestants (150,000) — including 77,500 Lutherans of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church, 23,000 Pentecostals in the Pentecostal Church in Poland, 10,000 Adventists in the Seventh-day Adventist Church and other smaller Evangelical denominations — Jehovah's Witnesses (126,827), Eastern Catholics, Mariavites, Jews, Muslims (Tatars) and neopagans, some of whom are members of the Native Polish Church.Famous sites of Roman Catholic pilgrimage in Poland include the Monastery of Jasna Góra in the city of Częstochowa, Basilica of Our Lady of Licheń, Kraków's Sanctuary of Divine Mercy and Święta Lipka (Holy Linden) in Masuria. Tourists also visit the family home of John Paul II in Wadowice outside Kraków. Christ the King in Świebodzin is the tallest statue of Jesus in the world. Christian Orthodox pilgrims visit Mount Grabarka near Grabarka-Klasztor and the Hasidic Jews travel annually to the grave of a great rabbi in Leżajsk.Medical service providers and hospitals ("szpitale") in Poland are subordinate to the Ministry of Health; it provides administrative oversight and scrutiny of general medical practice, and is obliged to maintain a high standard of hygiene and patient care. Poland has a universal healthcare system based on an all-inclusive insurance system; state subsidised healthcare is available to all citizens covered by the general health insurance program of the National Health Fund (NFZ). Private medical complexes exist nationwide; over 50% of the population uses both public and private sectors.Hospitals are organised according to the regional administrative structure, resultantly most towns, counties or municipalities possess their own provincial hospital or medical clinics. There are six types of hospital facilities, each with a particular area of medical expertise – I Grade Hospitals for general surgery, internal illnesses and obstetrics; II Grade Hospitals for child surgery, neurology, cardiology and ophthalmology; III Grade Hospitals including teaching hospitals for infectious diseases, nephrology, orthopedics, toxicology and transplantology; Oncology Hospitals for cancer treatment and brachytherapy; Pediatric Hospitals for child care; and Nationwide Hospitals for general and acute care.According to the Human Development Report from 2020, the average life expectancy at birth is 79 years (around 75 years for an infant male and 83 years for an infant female); the country has a low infant mortality rate (4 per 1,000 births). In 2019, the principal cause of death was ischemic heart disease; diseases of the circulatory system accounted for 45% of all deaths. In the same year, Poland was also the 15th-largest importer of medications and pharmaceutical products.The Jagiellonian University founded in 1364 by Casimir III in Kraków was the first institution of higher learning established in Poland, and is one of the oldest universities still in continuous operation. Poland's Commission of National Education ("Komisja Edukacji Narodowej"), established in 1773, was the world's first state ministry of education. The framework for primary and secondary schooling in contemporary Poland is established by the Ministry of National Education. Kindergarten attendance is optional for children aged between three and five, with one year being compulsory for six-year-olds. Primary education traditionally begins at the age of seven, although children aged six can attend at the request of their parents or guardians. Elementary school spans eight grades, at the end of which an obligatory three-part exam on Polish, mathematics and a foreign language is to be undertaken. Secondary schooling is dependent on student preference – either a four-year high school ("liceum"), a five-year technical school ("technikum") or various vocational studies ("szkoła branżowa") can be pursued by each individual pupil. A liceum or technikum is concluded with a maturity exit exam ("matura"), which must be passed in order to apply for a university or other institutions of higher learning.The standards of higher tertiary education are imposed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. In Poland, there are over 500 university-level institutions, with technical, medical, economic, agricultural, pedagogical, theological, musical, maritime and military faculties. The University of Warsaw and Warsaw Polytechnic, the University of Wrocław, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and the University of Technology in Gdańsk are among the most prominent. There are three conventional academic degrees in Poland – "licencjat" or "inżynier" (first cycle qualification), "magister" (second cycle qualification) and "doktor" (third cycle qualification).In 2018, the Programme for International Student Assessment, coordinated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, ranked Poland's educational system higher than the OECD average; the study showed that students in Poland perform better academically than in most OECD countries.The culture of Poland is closely connected with its intricate 1,000-year history and forms an important constituent in western civilization. The Poles take great pride in their national identity which is often associated with the colours white and red, and exuded by the expression "biało-czerwoni" ("whitereds"). National symbols, chiefly the crowned white-tailed eagle, are often visible on clothing, insignia and emblems. The appreciation of Poland's traditions and cultural heritage is commonly known as Polonophilia.With origins in the customs of the tribal Lechites, over time the culture of Poland has been influenced by its connection to Western culture and trends, as well as developing its own unique traditions such as Sarmatism. The people of Poland have traditionally been seen as hospitable to artists from abroad and eager to follow cultural and artistic trends popular in foreign countries, for instance, the 16th- and 17th-century tradition of coffin portraits ("portret trumienny") was only observed in Poland and Roman Egypt. In the 19th and 20th centuries the Polish focus on cultural advancement often took precedence over political and economic activity. These factors have contributed to the versatile nature of Polish art.The architectural monuments of great importance are protected by the National Heritage Board of Poland. Over 100 of the country's most significant tangible wonders were enlisted onto the Historic Monuments Register, with further 16 being recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. Poland is renowned for its brick Gothic castles, granaries and churches as well as diversely-styled tenements, market squares and town halls. The majority of Polish cities founded on Magdeburg Law in the Middle Ages evolved around central marketplaces, a distinguishable urban characteristic which can be observed to this day. Medieval and Renaissance cloth halls were once an abundant feature of many towns.There are 13 government-approved annual public holidays – New Year on 1 January, Three Kings' Day on 6 January, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, Labour Day on 1 May, Constitution Day on 3 May, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, Armed Forces Day on 15 August, All Saints' Day on 1 November, Independence Day on 11 November and Christmastide on 25 and 26 December.Particular traditions and superstitious customs observed in Poland are not found elsewhere in Europe. Though Christmas Eve ("Wigilia") is not a public holiday, it remains the most memorable day of the entire year. Trees are decorated on 24 December, hay is placed under the tablecloth to resemble Jesus' manger, Christmas wafers ("opłatek") are shared between gathered guests and a twelve-dish meatless supper is served that same evening when the first star appears. An empty plate and seat are symbolically left at the table for an unexpected guest. On occasion, carolers journey around smaller towns with a folk Turoń creature until the Lent period.A widely-popular doughnut and sweet pastry feast occurs on Fat Thursday, usually 52 days prior to Easter. Eggs for Holy Sunday are painted and placed in decorated baskets that are previously blessed by clergymen in churches on Easter Saturday. Easter Monday is celebrated with pagan "dyngus" festivities, where the youth is engaged in water fights and some girls are gently spanked by colleagues with pussy willows to stimulate fertility.Cemeteries and graves of the deceased are annually visited by family members on All Saints' Day; tombstones are cleaned as a sign of respect and candles are lit to honour the dead on an unprecedented scale.Artists from Poland, including famous musicians such as Chopin, Rubinstein, Paderewski, Penderecki and Wieniawski, and traditional, regionalized folk composers create a lively and diverse music scene, which even recognizes its own music genres, such as sung poetry and disco polo.The origins of Polish music can be traced to the 13th century; manuscripts have been found in Stary Sącz containing polyphonic compositions related to the Parisian Notre Dame School. Other early compositions, such as the melody of "Bogurodzica" and "God Is Born" (a coronation polonaise tune for Polish kings by an unknown composer), may also date back to this period, however, the first known notable composer, Nicholas of Radom, lived in the 15th century. Diomedes Cato, a native-born Italian who lived in Kraków, became a renowned lutenist at the court of Sigismund III; he not only imported some of the musical styles from southern Europe but blended them with native folk music.In the 17th and 18th centuries, Polish baroque composers wrote liturgical music and secular compositions such as concertos and sonatas for voices or instruments. At the end of the 18th century, Polish classical music evolved into national forms like the polonaise. Wojciech Bogusławski is accredited with composing the first Polish national opera, titled "", which premiered in 1794.Traditional Polish folk music has had a major effect on the works of many Polish composers, and no more so than on Fryderyk Chopin, a widely recognised national hero of the arts. All of Chopin's works involve the piano and are technically demanding, emphasising nuance and expressive depth. As a great composer, Chopin invented the musical form known as the instrumental ballade and made major innovations to the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, polonaise, étude, impromptu and prélude, he was also the composer of a number of polonaises which borrowed heavily from traditional Polish folk music. It is largely thanks to him that such pieces gained great popularity throughout Europe during the 19th century. Several Polish composers such as Szymanowski drew inspiration from Chopin's folk-influenced style. Nowadays the most distinctive folk music can be heard in the towns and villages of the mountainous south, particularly in the region surrounding the winter resort town of Zakopane.Poland today has an active music scene, with the jazz and metal genres being particularly popular among the contemporary populace. Polish jazz musicians such as Krzysztof Komeda created a unique style, which was most famous in the 1960s and 1970s and continues to be popular to this day. Poland has also become a major venue for large-scale music festivals, chief among which are the Open'er Festival, Opole Festival and Sopot Festival.Art in Poland has always reflected European trends while maintaining its unique character. The Kraków Academy of Fine Arts, later developed by Jan Matejko, produced monumental portrayals of customs and significant events in Polish history. Other institutions such as the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw were more innovative and focused on both historical and contemporary styles. Notable art academies include the Kraków School of Art and Fashion Design, Art Academy of Szczecin, University of Fine Arts in Poznań and the Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław.Perhaps the most prominent and internationally admired Polish artist was Tamara de Lempicka, who specialized in the style of Art Deco. Lempicka was described as "the first woman artist to become a glamour star." Another notable was Caziel, born Zielenkiewicz, who represented Cubism and Abstraction in France and England.Prior to the 19th century only Daniel Schultz and Italian-born Marcello Bacciarelli had the privilege of being recognized abroad. The Young Poland movement witnessed the birth of modern Polish art, and engaged in a great deal of formal experimentation led by Jacek Malczewski, Stanisław Wyspiański, Józef Mehoffer, and a group of Polish Impressionists. Stanisław Witkiewicz was an ardent supporter of Realism, its main representative being Józef Chełmoński, while Artur Grottger specialized in Romanticism. Within historically-orientated circles, Henryk Siemiradzki dominated with his monumental Academic Art and ancient Roman theme.Since the inter-war years, Polish art and documentary photography has enjoyed worldwide fame and in the 1960s the Polish School of Posters was formed. Throughout the entire country, many national museum and art institutions hold valuable works by famous masters. Major museums in Poland include the National Museum in Warsaw, Poznań, Wrocław, Kraków, and Gdańsk, as well as the Museum of John Paul II Collection, and the Wilanów Museum. Important collections are also held at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Wawel Castle and in the Palace on the Isle. Contemporary art galleries include Zachęta, Ujazdów, and MOCAK. The most distinguished painting of Poland is "Lady with an Ermine" by Leonardo da Vinci, held at the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków. Although not Polish, the work had a strong influence on Polish culture and has been often associated with Polish identity.Polish cities and towns reflect a whole spectrum of European architectural styles. Romanesque architecture is represented by St. Andrew's Church, Kraków, and St. Mary's Church, Gdańsk, is characteristic for the Brick Gothic style found in Poland. Richly decorated attics and arcade loggias are the common elements of the Polish Renaissance architecture, as evident in the City Hall in Poznań. For some time the late renaissance style known as mannerism, most notably in the Bishop's Palace in Kielce, coexisted with the early baroque style, typified in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Kraków.History has not been kind to Poland's architectural monuments. Nonetheless, a number of ancient structures have survived: castles, churches, and stately homes, often unique in the regional or European context. Some of them have been painstakingly restored, like Wawel Castle, or completely reconstructed, including the Old Town and Royal Castle of Warsaw and the Old Town of Gdańsk.The architecture of Gdańsk is mostly of the Hanseatic variety, a Gothic style common among the former trading cities along the Baltic Sea and in the northern part of Central Europe. The architectural style of Wrocław is mainly representative of German architecture since it was for centuries located within the Holy Roman Empire. The centres of Kazimierz Dolny and Sandomierz on the Vistula are good examples of well-preserved medieval towns. Poland's ancient capital, Kraków, ranks among the best-preserved Gothic and Renaissance urban complexes in Europe.The second half of the 17th century is marked by baroque architecture. Side towers, such as those of Branicki Palace in Białystok, are typical for the Polish baroque. The classical Silesian baroque is represented by the University in Wrocław. The profuse decorations of the Branicki Palace in Warsaw are characteristic of the rococo style. The centre of Polish classicism was Warsaw under the rule of the last Polish king Stanisław II Augustus.The Palace on the Isle is a chief example of Polish neoclassical architecture. Lublin Castle represents the Gothic Revival style in architecture, while the Izrael Poznański Palace in Łódź is an example of eclecticism.Traditional folk architecture in the villages and small towns scattered across the vast Polish countryside was characterized by its extensive use of wood and red brick as primary building materials, common for Central Europe. Some of the best preserved and oldest structures include ancient stone temples in Silesia and fortified wooden churches across southeastern Poland in the Beskids and Bieszczady regions of the Carpathian mountains. Numerous examples of secular structures such as Polish manor houses ("dworek"), farmhouses (), granaries, mills, barns and country inns () can still be found in some Polish regions. However, traditional construction methods faded in the early-mid 20th century, when Poland's population experienced a demographic shift to urban dwelling away from the countryside.The earliest examples of Polish literature date to the 12th century, when Poland's official language was Latin, and early published works were predominantly written by foreigners. Gallus Anonymus, a monk of disputed origin, was the first chronicler who meticulously described Poland's culture, language and territories in "Gesta principum Polonorum" (c. 1112–1118). Latin remained the principal tool of literary expression in Poland until the 18th century, when it was replaced in favour of Polish and French. Historically, Polish literature concentrated extensively around the themes of true drama and poetic-expressive romanticism than on fiction. Patriotism, spirituality and aphorisms were paramount and political or social allegories were common moral narratives.The first documented phrase in the Polish language reads ""Day ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai"" ("Let me grind, and you take a rest"), reflecting the use of quern-stone in early Poland. The phrase was recorded by an abbot in the Latin-based "Liber fundationis" from 1269 to 1273, which outlined the history of a Cistercian monastery in the Silesian village of Henryków. The sentence has been included in the UNESCO Memory of World Register. The oldest extant manuscript of fine prose in Old Polish is the "Holy Cross Sermons", and the earliest religious text is the Bible of Queen Sophia. One of the first printing houses was established by Kasper Straube in the 1470s, while Jan Haller was considered the pioneer of commercial print in Poland. Haller's Calendarium cracoviense, an astronomical wall calendar from 1474, is Poland's oldest surviving print.The tradition of extending Polish historiography in Latin was subsequently inherited by Vincent Kadłubek, Bishop of Kraków in the 13th century, and Jan Długosz in the 15th century. This practice, however, was abandoned by Jan Kochanowski, who became one of the first Polish Renaissance authors to write most of his works in Polish, along with Nicholas Rey. Other writers of the Polish Renaissance include Johannes Dantiscus, Andreus Fricius Modrevius, Matthias Sarbievius, Piotr Skarga and Klemens "Ianicius" Janicki, who was laureled by the Pope. The leading figure of the Polish Reformation was theologian and writer John Laski, who, with the permission of King Edward VI of England, created the European Protestant Congregation of London in 1550.During the Baroque era, the Jesuits greatly influenced Polish literature and literary techniques, often relying on God and religious matters. The leading baroque poet was Jan Andrzej Morsztyn, who incorporated Marinism into his publications. Jan Chryzostom Pasek, also a respected baroque writer, is mostly remembered for his tales and memoirs reflecting sarmatian culture in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Subsequently, the Polish Enlightenment was headed by Samuel Linde, Hugo Kołłątaj, Izabela Czartoryska and Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz. In 1776, Ignacy Krasicki composed the first milestone novel entitled "The Adventures of Mr. Nicholas Wisdom".Among the best known Polish Romantics are the "Three Bards" – the three national poets active in the age of foreign partitions – Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki and Zygmunt Krasiński. The narrative poem "Pan Tadeusz" by Mickiewicz is Poland's national epic and a compulsory reading ("lektura") in the country's schools. Joseph Conrad, the son of dramatist Apollo Korzeniowski, came to fame with his English-language novels and stories that are informed with elements of the Polish national experience. Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", "Nostromo" and "Lord Jim" are believed to be one of the finest works ever written, placing him among the greatest novelists of all time. Modern Polish literature is versatile, with its fantasy genre having been particularly praised. The philosophical sci-fi novel "Solaris" is an acclaimed example of Stanisław Lem's literary legacy, whereas "The Witcher", a fantasy series by Andrzej Sapkowski, is a much-celebrated work of contemporary Polish fiction.In the 20th century, five Polish authors were awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature – Henryk Sienkiewicz for "Quo Vadis", Władysław Reymont for "The Peasants", Isaac Bashevis Singer, Czesław Miłosz and Wisława Szymborska. In 2019, Polish author Olga Tokarczuk was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 2018.Polish cuisine has evolved over the centuries to become highly eclectic due to Poland's history. Polish cuisine shares many similarities with other Central European cuisines, especially German and Austrian as well as Jewish, French, Italian and Turkish culinary traditions. Polish-styled cooking in other cultures is often referred to as "cuisine à la polonaise".Polish dishes are usually rich in meat, especially pork, chicken and beef (depending on the region), winter vegetables (sauerkraut cabbage in "bigos"), and spices. It is also characteristic in its use of various kinds of noodles, the most notable of which are kluski, as well as cereals such as "kasha" (from the Polish word kasza) and a variety of breads like the world-renowned bagel. Polish cuisine is hearty and uses a lot of cream and eggs. Festive meals such as the meatless Christmas Eve dinner ("Wigilia") or Easter breakfast could take days to prepare in their entirety.The main course usually includes a serving of meat, such as roast, chicken, or "kotlet schabowy" (breaded pork cutlet), vegetables, side dishes and salads, including "surówka" – shredded root vegetables with lemon and sugar (carrot, celeriac, seared beetroot) or sauerkraut (, ). The side dishes are usually potatoes, rice or cereal. Meals conclude with a dessert such as "sernik" (cheesecake), "makowiec" (poppy seed pastry), or "napoleonka" (cream pie).The Polish national dishes are "bigos" ; "pierogi" ; "kielbasa"; "kotlet schabowy" breaded cutlet; "gołąbki" cabbage rolls; "zrazy" roulade; "pieczeń" roast ; sour cucumber soup ("zupa ogórkowa", ); mushroom soup, ("zupa grzybowa", quite different from the North American cream of mushroom); "zupa pomidorowa" tomato soup ; "rosół" variety of meat broth; "żurek" sour rye soup; "flaki" tripe soup; "barszcz" and "chłodnik" among others.Traditional alcoholic beverages include honey mead, widespread since the 13th century, beer, wine and vodka (old Polish names include "okowita" and "gorzała"). The world's first written mention of vodka originates from Poland. The most popular alcoholic drinks at present are beer and wine which took over from vodka more popular in the years 1980–1998. Tea remains common in Polish society since the 19th century, whilst coffee is drunk widely since the 18th century. Other frequently consumed beverages include various mineral waters and juices, soft drinks popularized by the fast-food chains since the late 20th century, as well as buttermilk, soured milk and kefir.The particular clothing styles in Poland evolved with each century. In the 1600s high-class noblemen and magnates developed a strong sympathy for Orientalism, which was also common in other parts of Europe and became known as Sarmatism. The attire mediated between Western and Ottoman styles and outfits included a żupan, delia, kontusz, pas, decorative karabela swords and less often turbans brought by foreign merchants. The period of Polish Sarmatism eventually faded in the wake of the 18th century.The Polish national dress as well as the fashion and etiquette of Poland also reached the royal court at Versailles in the 1700s. French dresses inspired by Polish attire were called "à la polonaise", meaning "Polish-styled". The most famous example is the "robe à la polonaise", a woman's garment with draped and swagged overskirt, worn over an underskirt or petticoat. Another notable example is the Witzchoura, a long mantle with collar and hood, which was possibly introduced by Napoleon's Polish mistress Maria Walewska. The scope of influence also entailed furniture; rococo Polish beds with canopies became commonplace in French palaces during the 18th century.Several Polish designers and stylists left a lifelong legacy of beauty inventions and cosmetics, most notable being Maksymilian Faktorowicz and Helena Rubinstein. Faktorowicz created a line of cosmetics company in California known as Max Factor and coined the term "make-up" based on the verb phrase "to make up" one's face, now widely used as an alternative for describing cosmetics. Faktorowicz also raised to fame by inventing modern eyelash extensions and by providing services to Hollywood artists.As of 2020, Poland possesses the fifth-largest cosmetic market in Europe. Founded in 1983, Inglot Cosmetics is the country's largest beauty products manufacturer and retailer active in 700 locations worldwide, including retail salons in New York City, London, Milan, Dubai and Las Vegas. Established in 1999, the retail store Reserved is Poland's most successful clothing store chain, operating over 1,700 retail shops in 19 countries. Internationally successful models from Poland include Anja Rubik, Joanna Krupa, Jac Jagaciak, Kasia Struss, Małgosia Bela, and Magdalena Frąckowiak.The history of Polish cinema is as long as the history of cinematography itself. Over the decades, Poland has produced outstanding directors, film producers, cartoonists and actors that achieved world fame, especially in Hollywood. Moreover, Polish inventors played an important role in the development of world cinematography and modern-day television. Among the most famous directors and producers, who worked in Poland as well as abroad are Roman Polański, Andrzej Wajda, Samuel Goldwyn, the Warner brothers (Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack), Max Fleischer, Lee Strasberg, Agnieszka Holland and Krzysztof Kieślowski.In the 19th century, throughout partitioned Poland, numerous amateur inventors, such as Kazimierz Prószyński, were eager to construct a film projector. In 1894, Prószyński was successful in creating a Pleograph, one of the first cameras in the world. The invention, which took photographs and projected pictures, was built before the Lumière brothers lodged their patent. He also patented an Aeroscope, the first successful hand-held operated film camera. In 1897, Jan Szczepanik, obtained a British patent for his Telectroscope. This prototype of television could easily transmit image and sound, thus allowing a live remote view.Polish cinema developed rapidly in the interwar period. The most renowned star of the silent film era was Polish actress Pola Negri. During this time, the Yiddish cinema also evolved in Poland. Films in the Yiddish language with Jewish themes, such as "The Dybbuk" (1937), played an important part in pre-war Polish cinematography. In 1945 the government established 'Film Polski', a state-run film production and distribution organization, with director Aleksander Ford as the head of the company. Ford's "Knights of the Teutonic Order" (1960) was viewed by millions of people in the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and France. This success was followed by the historical films of Jerzy Hoffman and Andrzej Wajda. Wajda's 1975 film "The Promised Land" was nominated at the 48th Academy Awards.In 2015, "Ida" by Paweł Pawlikowski won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2019, Pawlikowski received an Academy Award for Best Director nomination for his historical drama "Cold War". Other well-known Polish Oscar-winning productions include "The Pianist" (2002) by Roman Polański.Poland has a number of major media outlets, chief among which are the national television channels. TVP is Poland's public broadcasting corporation; about a third of its income comes from a broadcast receiver licence, while the rest is made through revenue from commercials and sponsorships. State television operates two mainstream channels, TVP 1 and TVP 2, as well as regional programs for each of the country's 16 voivodeships (as TVP 3). In addition to these general channels, TVP runs a number of genre-specific programmes such as TVP Sport, TVP Historia, TVP Kultura, TVP Rozrywka, TVP Seriale and TVP Polonia, the latter is a state-run channel dedicated to the transmission of Polish language television for the Polish diaspora. Poland has several 24-hour news channels such as Polsat News, TVP Info and TVN 24. Poland also possesses a variety of free-to-air television channels, chiefly TVN, Polsat and TV4.In Poland, there are also daily newspapers like "Gazeta Wyborcza" ("Electoral Gazette"), "Rzeczpospolita" ("The Republic") and "Gazeta Polska Codziennie" ("Polish Daily Newspaper") which provide traditional opinion and news, and tabloids such as "Fakt" and "Super Express". Weeklies include "Tygodnik Angora", "", "Polityka", "Wprost", "Newsweek Polska", "Gość Niedzielny" and "Gazeta Polska".Poland has also emerged as a major hub for video game developers in Europe, with the country now being home to hundreds of studios. Among the most successful ones are CD Projekt, Techland, CI Games and People Can Fly. Some of the most popular video games developed in Poland include The Witcher trilogy. Katowice hosts Intel Extreme Masters, one of the biggest eSports events in the world.Volleyball and Association football are among the country's most popular sports, with a rich history of international competitions. Track and field, basketball, handball, boxing, MMA, motorcycle speedway, ski jumping, cross-country skiing, ice hockey, tennis, fencing, swimming and weightlifting are other popular sports.The golden era of football in Poland occurred throughout the 1970s and went on until the early 1980s when the Polish national football team achieved their best results in any FIFA World Cup competitions finishing 3rd place in the 1974 and the 1982 tournaments. The team won a gold medal in football at the 1972 Summer Olympics and two silver medals, in 1976 and in 1992. In 2012, Poland co-hosted the UEFA European Football Championship.As of May 2021, the Polish men's national volleyball team is ranked as 2nd in the world. Volleyball team won a gold medal in Olympic 1976 Montreal and three gold medals in FIVB World Championship 1974, 2014 and 2018.Mariusz Pudzianowski is a highly successful strongman competitor and has won more World's Strongest Man titles than any other competitor in the world, winning the event in 2008 for the fifth time.Poland has made a distinctive mark in motorcycle speedway racing thanks to Tomasz Gollob and Bartosz Zmarzlik, highly successful Polish riders. The top Ekstraliga division has one of the highest average attendances for any sport in Poland. The national speedway team of Poland is one of the major teams in international speedway.Poles made significant achievements in mountaineering, in particular, in the Himalayas and the winter ascending of the eight-thousanders. Polish mountains are one of the tourist attractions of the country. Hiking, climbing, skiing and mountain biking and attract numerous tourists every year from all over the world. Water sports are the most popular summer recreation activities, with ample locations for fishing, canoeing, kayaking, sailing and windsurfing especially in the northern regions of the country.
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[
"Ewa Kopacz",
"Leszek Miller",
"Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz",
"Mateusz Morawiecki",
"Jan Olszewski",
"Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz",
"Tadeusz Mazowiecki",
"Jarosław Kaczyński",
"Jan Krzysztof Bielecki",
"Hanna Suchocka",
"Beata Szydło",
"Marek Belka",
"Jerzy Buzek",
"Waldemar Pawlak",
"Józef Oleksy"
] |
|
Who was the head of Poland in Oct, 2014?
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October 05, 2014
|
{
"text": [
"Ewa Kopacz"
]
}
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L2_Q36_P6_13
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Jan Olszewski is the head of the government of Poland from Dec, 1991 to Jun, 1992.
Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz is the head of the government of Poland from Feb, 1996 to Oct, 1997.
Waldemar Pawlak is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 1993 to Mar, 1995.
Marek Belka is the head of the government of Poland from May, 2004 to Oct, 2005.
Jarosław Kaczyński is the head of the government of Poland from Jul, 2006 to Nov, 2007.
Jerzy Buzek is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 1997 to Oct, 2001.
Leszek Miller is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 2001 to May, 2004.
Beata Szydło is the head of the government of Poland from Nov, 2015 to Dec, 2017.
Tadeusz Mazowiecki is the head of the government of Poland from Aug, 1989 to Jan, 1991.
Józef Oleksy is the head of the government of Poland from Mar, 1995 to Feb, 1996.
Ewa Kopacz is the head of the government of Poland from Sep, 2014 to Nov, 2015.
Mateusz Morawiecki is the head of the government of Poland from Dec, 2017 to Dec, 2022.
Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 2005 to Jul, 2006.
Donald Tusk is the head of the government of Poland from Nov, 2007 to Sep, 2014.
Jan Krzysztof Bielecki is the head of the government of Poland from Jan, 1991 to Dec, 1991.
Hanna Suchocka is the head of the government of Poland from Jul, 1992 to Oct, 1993.
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PolandPoland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country located in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces, covering an area of , and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With a population of nearly 38.5 million people, Poland is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union. Poland's capital and largest metropolis is Warsaw. Other major cities include Kraków, Łódź, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk, and Szczecin.Poland's topographically diverse territory extends from the beaches along the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in its south. The country is bordered by Lithuania and Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukraine to the east, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the south, and Germany to the west.The history of human activity on Polish soil spans thousands of years. Throughout the late antiquity period it became extensively diverse, with various cultures and tribes settling on the vast Central European Plain. However, it was the Western Polans who dominated the region and gave Poland its name. The establishment of Polish statehood can be traced to 966, when the pagan ruler of a realm coextensive with the territory of present-day Poland embraced Christianity and converted to Catholicism. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented its longstanding political association with Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest (over in area) and most populous nations of 16th and 17th century Europe, with a uniquely liberal political system which adopted Europe's first modern constitution, the Constitution of 3 May 1791.With the passing of prominence and prosperity, the country was partitioned by neighbouring states at the end of the 18th century, and regained independence in 1918 with the Treaty of Versailles. After a series of territorial conflicts, the new multi-ethnic Poland restored its position as a key player in European politics. In September 1939, World War II began with the invasion of Poland by Germany, followed by the Soviets invading Poland in accordance with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Approximately six million Polish citizens, including three million of the country's Jews, perished during the course of the war. As a member of the Eastern Bloc, the Polish People's Republic proclaimed forthwith was a chief signatory of the Warsaw Treaty amidst global Cold War tensions. In the wake of the 1989 events, notably through the emergence and contributions of the Solidarity movement, the communist government was dissolved and Poland re-established itself as a semi-presidential democratic republic.Poland is a developed market, and a middle power. It has the sixth largest economy in the European Union by nominal GDP and the fifth largest by GDP (PPP). It provides very high standards of living, safety and economic freedom, as well as free university education and a universal health care system. The country has 16 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, 15 of which are cultural. Poland is a member state of the Schengen Area, European Union, European Economic Area, the United Nations, NATO, the OECD, the Three Seas Initiative and the Visegrád Group.The origin of the name "Poland" derives from the West Slavic tribe of Polans ("Polanie"), who inhabited the Warta river basin of the present-day Greater Poland region starting in the mid-6th century. The origin of the name "Polanie" itself derives from the Proto-Slavic word "pole" (field). In some languages, such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian, Russian and Turkish, the country's name is derived from the Lendians ("Lędzianie" or "Lachy") who dwelled on the southeasternmost edge of present-day Lesser Poland. Their name likewise derives from the Old Polish word "lęda" (open land or plain).The early Bronze Age in Poland began around 2400 BC, while the Iron Age commenced in approximately 750 BC. During this time, the Lusatian culture, spanning both the Bronze and Iron Ages, became particularly prominent. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement (now reconstructed as an open-air museum), dating from the Lusatian culture of the late Bronze Age, around 748 BC.Throughout Antiquity, many distinct ancient ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland in an era that dates from about 400 BC to 500 AD. These groups are identified as Celtic, Scythian, Germanic, Sarmatian, Slavic and Baltic tribes. Also, recent archaeological findings in the Kuyavia region confirmed the presence of the Roman Legions on the territory of Poland. These were most likely expeditionary missions sent out to protect the amber trade. The exact time and routes of the original migration and settlement of Slavic peoples lacks written records and can only be defined as fragmented. There is evidence that earlier tribes may have been associated with the ancient Przeworsk culture. Up until the creation of Mieszko's state and his subsequent conversion to Christianity in 966 AD, the main religion of the numerous West Slavic (Lechitic) tribes that inhabited the geographical area of present-day Poland was paganism. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Western Christianity and the religious authority of the Roman Church. However, the transition from paganism was not a smooth and instantaneous process for the rest of the population as evident from the pagan reaction of the 1030s.Poland began to form into a recognizable unitary and territorial entity around the middle of the 10th century under the Piast dynasty. Poland's first historically documented ruler, Mieszko I, accepted Christianity, as the rightful religion of his realm, under the auspices of the Latin Church with the Baptism of Poland in 966. The bulk of the population converted in the course of the next few centuries. In 1000, Boleslaw the Brave, continuing the policy of his father Mieszko, held a Congress of Gniezno and created the metropolis of Gniezno and the dioceses of Kraków, Kołobrzeg, and Wrocław. However, the pagan unrest led to the transfer of the capital to Kraków in 1038 by Casimir I the Restorer.In 1109, Prince Bolesław III Wrymouth defeated the King of Germany Henry V at the Battle of Hundsfeld, stopping the German incursion into Poland. The clash between Bolesław III and Henry V was documented by Gallus Anonymus in his 1118 chronicle. In 1138, Poland fragmented into several smaller duchies when Bolesław divided his lands among his sons. In 1226, Konrad I of Masovia, one of the regional Piast dukes, invited the Teutonic Knights to help him fight the Baltic Prussian pagans; a decision that led to centuries of warfare with the Knights. In 1264, the Statute of Kalisz or the General Charter of Jewish Liberties introduced numerous right for the Jews in Poland, leading to a nearly autonomous "nation within a nation".In the middle of the 13th century, the Silesian branch of the Piast dynasty (Henry I the Bearded and Henry II the Pious, ruled 1238–1241) nearly succeeded in uniting the Polish lands, but the Mongols invaded the country from the east and defeated the combined Polish forces at the Battle of Legnica where Duke Henry II the Pious died. In 1320, after a number of earlier unsuccessful attempts by regional rulers at uniting the Polish dukedoms, Władysław I consolidated his power, took the throne and became the first king of a reunified Poland. His son, Casimir III (reigned 1333–1370), has a reputation as one of the greatest Polish kings, and gained wide recognition for improving the country's infrastructure. He also extended royal protection to Jews, and encouraged their immigration to Poland. Casimir III realized that the nation needed a class of educated people, especially lawyers, who could codify the country's laws and administer the courts and offices. His efforts to create an institution of higher learning in Poland were finally rewarded when Pope Urban V granted him permission to open the University of Kraków.The Golden Liberty of the nobles began to develop under Casimir's rule, when in return for their military support, the king made a series of concessions to the nobility and establishing their legal status as superior to that of the townsfolk. When Casimir the Great died in 1370, leaving no legitimate male heir, the Piast dynasty came to an end.During the 13th and 14th centuries, Poland became a destination for German, Flemish and to a lesser extent Walloon, Danish and Scottish migrants. Also, Jews and Armenians began to settle and flourish in Poland during this era (see History of the Jews in Poland and Armenians in Poland).The Black Death, a plague that ravaged Europe from 1347 to 1351, did not significantly affect Poland, and the country was spared from a major outbreak of the disease. The reason for this was the decision of Casimir the Great to quarantine the nation's borders.The Jagiellon dynasty spanned the late Middle Ages and early Modern Era of Polish history. Beginning with the Lithuanian Grand Duke Jogaila (Władysław II Jagiełło), the Jagiellon dynasty (1386–1572) formed the Polish–Lithuanian union. The partnership brought vast Lithuanian-controlled Rus' areas into Poland's sphere of influence and proved beneficial for the Poles and Lithuanians, who coexisted and cooperated in one of the largest political entities in Europe for the next four centuries.In the Baltic Sea region the struggle of Poland and Lithuania with the Teutonic Knights continued and culminated at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, where a combined Polish-Lithuanian army inflicted a decisive victory against them. In 1466, after the Thirteen Years' War, King Casimir IV Jagiellon gave royal consent to the Peace of Thorn, which created the future Duchy of Prussia under Polish suzerainty. The Jagiellon dynasty at one point also established dynastic control over the kingdoms of Bohemia (1471 onwards) and Hungary. In the south, Poland confronted the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Tatars (by whom they were attacked on 75 separate occasions between 1474 and 1569), and in the east helped Lithuania fight the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Some historians estimate that Crimean Tatar slave-raiding cost Poland-Lithuania one million of its population between the years of 1494 and 1694.Poland was developing as a feudal state, with a predominantly agricultural economy and an increasingly powerful landed nobility. The "Nihil novi" act adopted by the Polish Sejm (parliament) in 1505, transferred most of the legislative power from the monarch to the Sejm, an event which marked the beginning of the period known as "Golden Liberty", when the state was ruled by the "free and equal" Polish nobility. Protestant Reformation movements made deep inroads into Polish Christianity, which resulted in the establishment of policies promoting religious tolerance, unique in Europe at that time. This tolerance allowed the country to avoid most of the religious turmoil that spread over Europe during the 16th century.The European Renaissance evoked in late Jagiellon Poland (under kings Sigismund I the Old and Sigismund II Augustus) a sense of urgency in the need to promote a cultural awakening, and during this period Polish culture and the nation's economy flourished. In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus, an astronomer from Toruń, published his epochal work "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" ("On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres") and thereby became the first proponent of a predictive mathematical model confirming the heliocentric theory, which became the accepted basic model for the practice of modern astronomy. Another major figure associated with the era is the classicist poet Jan Kochanowski.The 1569 Union of Lublin established the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a more closely unified federal state with an elective monarchy, but which was governed largely by the nobility, through a system of local assemblies with a central parliament. The Warsaw Confederation (1573) guaranteed religious freedom for the Polish nobility "(szlachta)" and townsfolk "(mieszczanie)". However, the peasants "(chłopi)" were still subject to severe limitations imposed on them by the nobility. The establishment of the Commonwealth coincided with a period of stability and prosperity in Poland, with the union thereafter becoming a European power and a major cultural entity, occupying approximately one million square kilometers of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as an agent for the dissemination of Western culture through Polonization into areas of modern-day Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Belarus and western Russia.In the 16th and 17th centuries, Poland suffered from a number of dynastic crises during the reigns of the Vasa kings Sigismund III and Władysław IV and found itself engaged in major conflicts with Russia, Sweden and the Ottoman Empire, as well as a series of minor Cossack uprisings. In 1610, a Polish army under the command of Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski seized Moscow after winning the Battle of Klushino. In 1611, the Tsar of Russia paid homage to the King of Poland.After the signing of Truce of Deulino, Poland had in the years 1618–1621 an area of about .From the middle of the 17th century, the nobles' democracy, suffering from internal disorder, gradually declined, thereby leaving the once powerful Commonwealth vulnerable to foreign intervention. Starting in 1648, the Cossack Khmelnytsky Uprising engulfed the south and east, eventually leaving Ukraine divided, with the eastern part, lost by the Commonwealth, becoming a dependency of the Tsardom of Russia. This was followed by the 'Deluge', a Swedish invasion of Poland, which marched through the Polish heartlands and ruined the country's population, culture and infrastructure—around four million of Poland's eleven million inhabitants died in famines and epidemics throughout the 17th century. However, under John III Sobieski the Commonwealth's military prowess was re-established, and in 1683 Polish forces played a major role in the Battle of Vienna against the Ottoman Army, commanded by Kara Mustafa, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.Sobieski's reign marked the end of the nation's golden era. Finding itself subjected to almost constant warfare and suffering enormous population losses as well as massive damage to its economy, the Commonwealth fell into decline. The government became ineffective as a result of large-scale internal conflicts (e.g. Lubomirski Rebellion against John II Casimir and rebellious confederations) and corrupted legislative processes. The nobility fell under the control of a handful of "magnats", and this, compounded with two relatively weak kings of the Saxon Wettin dynasty, Augustus II and Augustus III, as well as the rise of Russia and Prussia after the Great Northern War only served to worsen the Commonwealth's plight. Despite this The Commonwealth-Saxony personal union gave rise to the emergence of the Commonwealth's first reform movement, and laid the foundations for the Polish Enlightenment.During the later part of the 18th century, the Commonwealth made attempts to implement fundamental internal reforms; with the second half of the century bringing a much improved economy, significant population growth and far-reaching progress in the areas of education, intellectual life, art, and especially toward the end of the period, evolution of the social and political system. The most populous capital city of Warsaw replaced Gdańsk (Danzig) as the leading centre of commerce, and the role of the more prosperous urban population increased.The royal election of 1764 resulted in the elevation of Stanisław II August (a Polish aristocrat connected to the "Familia" faction of magnates) to the monarchy. However, elevated to the throne by the Empress Catherine II of Russia, the new king spent much of his reign maneuvering between his desire to implement necessary reforms to save his country, and the necessity to remain in a political relationship and at peace with Russia. This led to the formation of the 1768 Bar Confederation, a "szlachta" rebellion directed against the Polish king and all external influence, which ineptly aimed to preserve Poland's independence and szlachta's privileges. The failed attempts at reform as well as the internal turmoil caused by the Confederation proved the country's weakness and provoked its neighbours. In 1772 the First Partition of the Commonwealth by Prussia, Russia and Austria took place; an act which the "Partition Sejm", under considerable duress, eventually "ratified" "fait accompli". Disregarding this loss, in 1773 the king established the plan of the most necessary reforms, in which the Commission of National Education, the first government education authority in Europe, was established. Corporal punishment of children was officially prohibited in 1783.The Great Sejm convened by Stanisław II August in 1788 successfully adopted the 3 May Constitution, the first set of modern supreme national laws in Europe. However, this document, accused by detractors of harbouring revolutionary sympathies, generated strong opposition from the Commonwealth's nobles and conservatives as well as from Catherine II, who, determined to prevent the rebirth of a strong Commonwealth set about planning the final dismemberment of the Polish-Lithuanian state. Russia was aided in achieving its goal when the Targowica Confederation, an organisation of Polish nobles, appealed to the Empress for help. In May 1792, Russian forces crossed the Commonwealth's frontier, thus beginning the Polish-Russian War.The defensive war fought by the Poles ended prematurely when the King, convinced of the futility of resistance, capitulated and joined the Targowica Confederation, hoping to save the country. The Confederation then took over the government. Russia and Prussia, fearing the mere existence of a Polish state, understanding, that despite the current influence they still cannot control the country, arranged for, and in 1793 executed, the Second Partition of the Commonwealth, which left the country deprived of so much territory that it was practically incapable of independent existence. Eventually, in 1795, following the failed Kościuszko Uprising, the Commonwealth was partitioned one last time by all three of its more powerful neighbours, and with this, effectively ceased to exist. The 18-century British statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke summed up the partitions: "No wise or honest man can approve of that partition, or can contemplate it without prognosticating great mischief from it to all countries at some future time."Poles rebelled several times against the partitioners, particularly near the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. An unsuccessful attempt at defending Poland's sovereignty took place in 1794 during the Kościuszko Uprising, where a popular and distinguished general Tadeusz Kościuszko, who had several years earlier served under Washington in the American Revolutionary War, led Polish insurrectionists against numerically superior Russian forces. Despite the victory at the Battle of Racławice, his ultimate defeat ended Poland's independent existence for 123 years.In 1807, Napoleon I of France temporarily recreated a Polish state as the satellite Duchy of Warsaw, after a successful Greater Poland Uprising of 1806 against Prussian rule. But, after the failed Napoleonic Wars, Poland was again split between the victorious powers at the Congress of Vienna of 1815. The eastern part was ruled by the Russian tsar as Congress Poland, which had a liberal constitution. However, over time the Russian monarch reduced Polish freedoms, and Russia annexed the country in virtually all but name. Meanwhile, the Prussian controlled territory of Poland came under increased Germanization. Thus, in the 19th century, only Habsburg-ruled Austrian Poland, and particularly the Free City of Kraków, allowed free Polish culture to flourish.Throughout the period of the partitions, political and cultural repression of the Polish nation led to the organisation of a number of uprisings against the authorities of the occupying Russian, Prussian and Austrian governments. In 1830, the November Uprising began in Warsaw when, led by Lieutenant Piotr Wysocki, young non-commissioned officers at the Officer Cadet School in Warsaw revolted. They were joined by large segments of Polish society, and together forced Warsaw's Russian garrison to withdraw north of the city.Over the course of the next seven months, Polish forces successfully defeated the Russian armies of Field Marshal Hans Karl von Diebitsch and a number of other Russian commanders; however, finding themselves in a position unsupported by any other foreign powers, save distant France and the newborn United States, and with Prussia and Austria refusing to allow the import of military supplies through their territories, the Poles accepted that the uprising was doomed to failure. Upon the surrender of Warsaw to General Ivan Paskievich, many Polish troops, feeling they could not go on, withdrew into Prussia and there laid down their arms. After the defeat, the semi-independent Congress Poland lost its constitution, army and legislative assembly, and was integrated more closely with the Russian Empire.During the Spring of Nations (a series of revolutions which swept across Europe), Poles took up arms in the Greater Poland Uprising of 1848 to resist Prussian rule. Initially, the uprising manifested itself in the form of civil disobedience but eventually turned into an armed struggle when the Prussian military was sent in to pacify the region. Subsequently, the uprising was suppressed and the semi-autonomous Grand Duchy of Posen, created from the Prussian partition of Poland, was incorporated into Prussia.In 1863, a new Polish uprising against Russian rule began. The January Uprising started out as a spontaneous protest by young Poles against conscription into the Imperial Russian Army. However, the insurrectionists, despite being joined by high-ranking Polish-Lithuanian officers and numerous politicians, were still severely outnumbered and lacking in foreign support. They were forced to resort to guerrilla warfare tactics and failed to win any major military victories. Afterwards no major uprising was witnessed in the Russian-controlled Congress Poland, and Poles resorted instead to fostering economic and cultural self-improvement. Congress Poland was rapidly industrialised towards the end of the 19th century, and successively transformed into the Empire's wealthiest and most developed subject.Despite the political unrest experienced during the partitions, Poland did benefit from large-scale industrialisation and modernisation programs, instituted by the occupying powers, which helped it develop into a more economically coherent and viable entity. This was particularly true in Greater Poland, Silesia and Eastern Pomerania controlled by Prussia (later becoming a part of the German Empire); areas which eventually, thanks largely to the Greater Poland Uprising of 1918 and Silesian Uprisings, were reconstituted as a part of the Second Polish Republic, becoming the country's most prosperous regions.Following World War I all the Allies agreed on the reconstitution of Poland that United States President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed in Point 13 of his Fourteen Points. A total of 2 million Polish troops fought with the armies of the three occupying powers, and 450,000 died. Shortly after the armistice with Germany in November 1918, Poland regained its independence as the Second Polish Republic ("II Rzeczpospolita Polska"). It reaffirmed its independence after a series of military conflicts, the most notable being the Polish–Soviet War (1919–21) when Poland inflicted a crushing defeat on the Red Army at the Battle of Warsaw, an event which is considered to have halted the advance of Communism into Europe and forced Vladimir Lenin to rethink his objective of achieving global socialism. The event is often referred to as the "Miracle at the Vistula".During this period, Poland successfully managed to fuse the territories of the three former partitioning powers into a cohesive nation state. Railways were restructured to direct traffic towards Warsaw instead of the former imperial capitals, a new network of national roads was gradually built up and a major seaport, Gdynia, was opened on the Baltic Coast, so as to allow Polish exports and imports to bypass the politically charged Free City of Danzig. Also, the Polish government embarked on the creation of the Central Industrial Region ("Centralny Okręg Przemysłowy"). The project's goal was to create a heavy industrial center in the middle of the country, which included steal mills, power plants and factories. The inter-war period heralded in a new era of Polish politics. Whilst Polish political activists had faced heavy censorship in the decades up until the First World War, the country now found itself trying to establish a new political tradition. For this reason, many exiled Polish activists, such as Ignacy Paderewski (who would later become prime minister) returned home to help; a significant number of them then went on to take key positions in the newly formed political and governmental structures. Tragedy struck in 1922 when Gabriel Narutowicz, inaugural holder of the presidency, was assassinated at the Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw by a painter and right-wing nationalist Eligiusz Niewiadomski.In 1926, a May coup, led by the hero of the Polish independence campaign Marshal Józef Piłsudski, turned rule of the Second Polish Republic over to the nonpartisan Sanacja ("Healing") movement in an effort to prevent radical political organizations on both the left and the right from destabilizing the country. The movement functioned with relative stability until Piłsudski's death in 1935. Following Marshall Piłsudski's death, Sanation split into several competing factions. By the late 1930s, due to increased threats posed by political extremism inside the country, the Polish government became increasingly heavy-handed, banning a number of radical organizations, including communist and ultra-nationalist political parties, which threatened the stability of the country.World War II began with the Nazi German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, followed by the Soviet invasion of Poland on 17 September. On 28 September 1939, Warsaw fell. As agreed in the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Poland was split into two zones, one occupied by Nazi Germany, the other by the Soviet Union. In 1939–41, the Soviets deported hundreds of thousands of Poles. The Soviet NKVD executed thousands of Polish prisoners of war (inter alia Katyn massacre) ahead of the Operation Barbarossa. German planners had in November 1939 called for "the complete destruction of all Poles" and their fate as outlined in the genocidal "Generalplan Ost".Polish intelligence operatives proved extremely valuable to the Allies, providing much of the intelligence from Europe and beyond, and Polish code breakers were responsible for cracking the Enigma cypher.Poland made the fourth-largest troop contribution in Europe and its troops served both the Polish Government in Exile in the west and Soviet leadership in the east. Polish troops played an important role in the Normandy, Italian and North African Campaigns and are particularly remembered for the Battle of Monte Cassino. In the east, the Soviet-backed Polish 1st Army distinguished itself in the battles for Warsaw and Berlin.The wartime resistance movement, and the Armia Krajowa ("Home Army"), fought against German occupation. It was one of the three largest resistance movements of the entire war, and encompassed a range of clandestine activities, which functioned as an underground state complete with degree-awarding universities and a court system. The resistance was loyal to the exiled government and generally resented the idea of a communist Poland; for this reason, in the summer of 1944 it initiated Operation Tempest, of which the Warsaw Uprising that begun on 1 August 1944 is the best known operation.Nazi German forces under orders from Adolf Hitler set up six German extermination camps in occupied Poland, including Treblinka, Majdanek and Auschwitz. The Germans transported millions of Jews from across occupied Europe to be murdered in those camps.Altogether, 3 million Polish Jews – approximately 90% of Poland's pre-war Jewry – and between 1.8 and 2.8 million ethnic Poles were killed during the German occupation of Poland, including between 50,000 and 100,000 members of the Polish intelligentsia – academics, doctors, lawyers, nobility and priesthood. During the Warsaw Uprising alone, over 150,000 Polish civilians were killed, most were murdered by the Germans during the Wola and Ochota massacres. Around 150,000 Polish civilians were killed by Soviets between 1939 and 1941 during the Soviet Union's occupation of eastern Poland (Kresy), and another estimated 100,000 Poles were murdered by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) between 1943 and 1944 in what became known as the Wołyń Massacres. Of all the countries in the war, Poland lost the highest percentage of its citizens: around 6 million perished – more than one-sixth of Poland's pre-war population – half of them Polish Jews. About 90% of deaths were non-military in nature.In 1945, Poland's borders were shifted westwards. Over two million Polish inhabitants of Kresy were expelled along the Curzon Line by Stalin. The western border became the Oder-Neisse line. As a result, Poland's territory was reduced by 20%, or . The shift forced the migration of millions of other people, most of whom were Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, and Jews.At the insistence of Joseph Stalin, the Yalta Conference sanctioned the formation of a new provisional pro-Communist coalition government in Moscow, which ignored the Polish government-in-exile based in London. This action angered many Poles who considered it a betrayal by the Allies. In 1944, Stalin had made guarantees to Churchill and Roosevelt that he would maintain Poland's sovereignty and allow democratic elections to take place. However, upon achieving victory in 1945, the elections organized by the occupying Soviet authorities were falsified and were used to provide a veneer of legitimacy for Soviet hegemony over Polish affairs. The Soviet Union instituted a new communist government in Poland, analogous to much of the rest of the Eastern Bloc. As elsewhere in Communist Europe, the Soviet influence over Poland was met with armed resistance from the outset which continued into the 1950s.Despite widespread objections, the new Polish government accepted the Soviet annexation of the pre-war eastern regions of Poland (in particular the cities of Wilno and Lwów) and agreed to the permanent garrisoning of Red Army units on Poland's territory. Military alignment within the Warsaw Pact throughout the Cold War came about as a direct result of this change in Poland's political culture. In the European scene, it came to characterize the full-fledged integration of Poland into the brotherhood of communist nations.The new communist government took control with the adoption of the Small Constitution on 19 February 1947. The Polish People's Republic ("Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa") was officially proclaimed in 1952. In 1956, after the death of Bolesław Bierut, the régime of Władysław Gomułka became temporarily more liberal, freeing many people from prison and expanding some personal freedoms. Collectivization in the Polish People's Republic failed. A similar situation repeated itself in the 1970s under Edward Gierek, but most of the time persecution of anti-communist opposition groups persisted. Despite this, Poland was at the time considered to be one of the least oppressive states of the Eastern Bloc.Labour turmoil in 1980 led to the formation of the independent trade union "Solidarity" (""Solidarność""), which over time became a political force. Despite persecution and imposition of martial law in 1981, it eroded the dominance of the Polish United Workers' Party and by 1989 had triumphed in Poland's first partially free and democratic parliamentary elections since the end of the Second World War. Lech Wałęsa, a Solidarity candidate, eventually won the presidency in 1990. The Solidarity movement heralded the collapse of communist regimes and parties across Europe.A shock therapy programme, initiated by Leszek Balcerowicz in the early 1990s, enabled the country to transform its socialist-style planned economy into a market economy. As with other post-communist countries, Poland suffered declines in social and economic standards, but it became the first post-communist country to reach its pre-1989 GDP levels, which it achieved by 1995 thanks largely to its booming economy.Most visibly, there were numerous improvements in human rights, such as freedom of speech, internet freedom (no censorship), civil liberties (1st class) and political rights (1st class), as ranked by Freedom House non-governmental organization. In 1991, Poland became a member of the Visegrád Group and joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance in 1999 along with the Czech Republic and Hungary. Poles then voted to join the European Union in a referendum in June 2003, with Poland becoming a full member on 1 May 2004.Poland joined the Schengen Area in 2007, as a result of which, the country's borders with other member states of the European Union have been dismantled, allowing for full freedom of movement within most of the EU. In contrast to this, a section of Poland's eastern border now constitutes the external EU border with Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. That border has become increasingly well protected, and has led in part to the coining of the phrase 'Fortress Europe', in reference to the seeming 'impossibility' of gaining entry to the EU for citizens of the former Soviet Union.In an effort to strengthen military cooperation with its neighbors, Poland set up the Visegrád Battlegroup with Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia, with a total of 3,000 troops ready for deployment. Also, in eastern Poland, it formed the LITPOLUKRBRIG battle groups with Lithuania and Ukraine. These battle groups will operate outside of NATO and within the European defense initiative framework.On 10 April 2010, the President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, along with 89 other high-ranking Polish officials died in a plane crash near Smolensk, Russia. The president's party was on their way to attend an annual service of commemoration for the victims of the Katyń massacre when the tragedy took place.In 2011, the ruling Civic Platform won parliamentary elections. Poland joined the European Space Agency in 2012, as well as organised the UEFA Euro 2012 (along with Ukraine). In 2013, Poland also became a member of the Development Assistance Committee. In 2014, the Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, was chosen to be President of the European Council, and resigned as prime minister.The 2015 and 2019 elections were won by the conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS), resulting in increased friction between Poland and the EU. In December 2017, Mateusz Morawiecki was sworn in as the new Prime Minister, succeeding Beata Szydlo, in office since 2015. They both represented ruling Law and Justice party, led by party chairman Jarosław Kaczyński. President Andrzej Duda, supported by Law and Justice party, was narrowly re-elected in the 2020 presidential election.Poland's vast territory covers approximately , of which 98.52% is dry land and 1.48% is water. Extending across several geographical regions, the country is the 9th-largest by area in Europe and 69th largest in the world. Topographically, Poland is diverse and has access to the sea, the mountains and open terrain. Although most of the central parts of the country are flat, there is an abundance of lakes, rivers, hills, swamps, beaches, islands and forests elsewhere.In the north-west is the Baltic seacoast spanning from the Bay of Pomerania to the Gulf of Gdańsk. The coast is marked by several spits, coastal lakes (former bays that have been cut off from the sea), and dunes. The largely straight coastline is indented by the Szczecin Lagoon, the Bay of Puck, and the Vistula Lagoon.The central and northern parts of the country lie within the North European Plain. Rising above these lowlands is a geographical region comprising four hilly districts of moraines and moraine-dammed lakes formed during and after the Pleistocene ice age, notably the Pomeranian Lake District, the Greater Polish Lake District, the Kashubian Lake District, and the Masurian Lake District. The Masurian Lake District is the largest of the four and covers much of north-eastern Poland. The lake districts form a series of moraine belts along the southern shore of the Baltic Sea.South of the Northern European Plain are the regions of Lusatia, Silesia and Masovia, which are marked by broad ice-age river valleys. The extreme south of Poland is mountainous; it runs from the Sudetes in the west to the Carpathian Mountains in the east. The highest part of the Carpathian massif is the Tatra Mountain range, along Poland's southern border.The geological structure of Poland has been shaped by the continental collision of Europe and Africa over the past 60 million years and, more recently, by the Quaternary glaciations of northern Europe. Both processes shaped the Sudetes and the Carpathian Mountains. The moraine landscape of northern Poland contains soils made up mostly of sand or loam, while the ice age river valleys of the south often contain loess. The Polish Jura, the Pieniny, and the Western Tatras consist of limestone, whereas the High Tatras, the Beskids, and the Karkonosze mountain ranges are made up mainly of granite and basalts. The Polish Jura Chain has some of the oldest rock formations on the continent of Europe.Poland has over 70 mountains over in elevation, all situated in the Tatras. Poland's highest point is the north-western summit of Mount Rysy at in elevation. At its foot lie the mountain lakes of Czarny Staw (Black Lake) and Morskie Oko (Eye of the Sea), both naturally-made tarns. Other notable uplands include the Pieniny and Holy Cross Mountains, the Table Mountains noted for their unusual rock formations, the Bieszczady in the far southeast of the country in which the highest peak is Tarnica at , and the Gorce Mountains whose highest point is Turbacz at . The highest point of the Sudeten massif is Mount Śnieżka (), shared with the Czech Republic.The lowest point in Poland – at below sea level – is at Raczki Elbląskie, near Elbląg in the Vistula Delta.In the Zagłębie Dąbrowskie (the Coal Fields of Dąbrowa) region in the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland is an area of sparsely vegetated sand known as the Błędów Desert. It covers an area of . It is not a natural desert and was formed by human activity from the Middle Ages onwards.The Baltic Sea activity in Słowiński National Park created sand dunes which in the course of time separated the bay from the sea creating two lakes. As waves and wind carry sand inland the dunes slowly move, at a rate of per year. Some dunes reach the height of up to . The highest peak of the park is Rowokol at above sea level.The longest rivers are the Vistula (), long; the Oder () which forms part of Poland's western border, long; its tributary, the Warta, long; and the Bug, a tributary of the Vistula, long. The Vistula and the Oder flow into the Baltic Sea, as do numerous smaller rivers in Pomerania. Poland's lengthy waterways have been used since early times for navigation; the Vikings ventured up the Polish rivers in their longships. In the Middle Ages and in early modern times, the shipment of tangible goods down the Vistula toward Gdańsk and onward to other parts of Europe took on great importance.With almost ten thousand closed bodies of water covering more than each, Poland has one of the highest numbers of lakes in the world. In Europe, only Finland has a greater density of lakes. The largest lakes, covering more than , are Lake Śniardwy and Lake Mamry in Masuria as well as Lake Łebsko and Lake Drawsko in Pomerania. The lake with the greatest depth—of more than —is Lake Hańcza in the Wigry Lake District, east of Masuria in Podlaskie Voivodeship.The Polish Baltic coast is approximately long and extends from Świnoujście on the islands of Usedom and Wolin in the west to Krynica Morska on the Vistula Spit in the east. For the most part, Poland has a smooth coastline, which has been shaped by the continual movement of sand by currents and winds. This continual erosion and deposition has formed cliffs, dunes, and spits, many of which have migrated landwards to close off former lagoons, such as Łebsko Lake in the Słowiński National Park.The largest spits are Hel Peninsula and the Vistula Spit. The coast line is varied also by Szczecin and Vistula Lagoons and several lakes, including Jamno. The largest Polish Baltic island is Wolin, located within Wolin National Park. The largest sea harbours are Szczecin, Świnoujście, Gdańsk, Gdynia, Police and Kołobrzeg and the main coastal resorts – Świnoujście, Międzydzdroje, Kołobrzeg, Łeba, Sopot, Władysławowo and the Hel Peninsula.In the valley of Pilica river in Tomaszów Mazowiecki there is a unique natural karst spring of water containing calcium salts, that is an object of protection at Blue Springs Nature Reserve in the Sulejów Landscape Park. The red waves are absorbed by water, hence only blue and green are reflected from the bottom of the spring, giving the water atypical colour.Forests cover about 29.6% of Poland's land area based on international standards. Its overall percentage is still increasing. Forests of Poland are managed by the national program of reforestation (KPZL), aiming at an increase of forest-cover to 33% in 2050. The largest forest complex in Poland is Lower Silesian Wilderness.More than 1% of Poland's territory, , is protected within 23 Polish national parks. Three more national parks are projected for Masuria, the Polish Jura, and the eastern Beskids. In addition, wetlands along lakes and rivers in central Poland are legally protected, as are coastal areas in the north. There are 123 areas designated as landscape parks, along with numerous nature reserves and other protected areas under the Natura 2000 network.In 2017, approximately of land was occupied by farms and farmsteads, over half of Poland's total area.Phytogeographically, Poland belongs to the Central European province of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the territory of Poland belongs to three Palearctic Ecoregions of the continental forest spanning Central and Northern European temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregions, as well as the Carpathian montane conifer forest. The most common deciduous trees found across the country are oak, maple, and beech; the most common conifers are pine, spruce, and fir. An estimated 68.7% of all forests are coniferous.Poland has historically been home to rare species of animals, as well as the two largest European mammals: the wisent ("żubr") and aurochs ("tur"). The last aurochs of Europe became extinct in 1627 in the Polish Jaktorów Forest, while the wisent survived until the 20th century only at Białowieża. It has been since reintroduced to other countries. Other wild species include the brown bear in Białowieża, in the Tatras, and in the Beskids; the gray wolf and the Eurasian lynx in various forests; the moose in northern Poland; and the beaver in Masuria, Pomerania, and Podlaskie.Game animals such as red deer, roe deer, and wild boar are found in most woodlands. Eastern Poland abounds in ancient woods, like the Białowieża Forest, that have not been disturbed by human or industrial activity. There are also large forested areas in the mountains, Greater Poland, Pomerania, Lubusz Land, and Lower Silesia. The Lubusz Voivodeship is currently the most arboraceous province in the country; 52% of its territory is occupied by forests.Poland is also a significant breeding ground for a variety of European migratory birds. One quarter of the global population of white storks (40,000 breeding pairs) live in Poland, particularly in the lake districts and the wetlands along the Biebrza, the Narew, and the Warta, which are part of nature reserves or national parks.The climate is mostly temperate throughout the country. The climate is oceanic in the north-west and becomes gradually warmer and continental towards the south-east. Summers are generally warm, with average temperatures between depending on the region. Winters are rather cold, with average temperatures around in the northwest and in the northeast. Precipitation falls throughout the year, although, especially in the east, winter is drier than summer.The warmest region in Poland is Lower Silesia in the southwest of the country, where temperatures in the summer average between but can go as high as on some days in the warmest months of July and August. The warmest cities in Poland are Tarnów in Lesser Poland, and Wrocław in Lower Silesia. The average temperatures in Wrocław are in the summer and in the winter, but Tarnów has the longest summer in all of Poland, which lasts for 115 days, from mid-May to mid-September. The coldest region of Poland is in the northeast, around the area of Suwałki within the Podlaskie Voivodeship, where the climate is affected by cold fronts coming from Scandinavia and Siberia. The average temperature in the winter in Podlaskie ranges from . The biggest impact of the oceanic climate is observed in Świnoujście and Baltic Sea seashore area from Police to Słupsk.Poland is a representative democracy, with a president as the head of state. The government structure centers on the Council of Ministers, led by a prime minister. The president appoints the cabinet according to the proposals of the prime minister, typically from the majority coalition in the Sejm. The president is elected by popular vote every five years. The current president is Andrzej Duda and the prime minister is Mateusz Morawiecki.Polish voters elect a bicameral parliament consisting of a 460-member lower house (Sejm) and a 100-member Senate (Senat). The Sejm is elected under proportional representation according to the d'Hondt method, a method similar to that used in many parliamentary political systems. The Senat, on the other hand, is elected under the first-past-the-post voting method, with one senator being returned from each of the 100 constituencies.With the exception of ethnic minority parties, only candidates of political parties receiving at least 5% of the total national vote can enter the Sejm. When sitting in joint session, members of the Sejm and Senat form the National Assembly (the "Zgromadzenie Narodowe"). The National Assembly is formed on three occasions: when a new president takes the oath of office; when an indictment against the President of the Republic is brought to the State Tribunal ("Trybunał Stanu"); and when a president's permanent incapacity to exercise his duties due to the state of his health is declared. To date only the first instance has occurred.The judicial branch plays an important role in decision-making. Its major institutions include the Supreme Court ("Sąd Najwyższy"); the Supreme Administrative Court ("Naczelny Sąd Administracyjny"); the Constitutional Tribunal ("Trybunał Konstytucyjny"); and the State Tribunal ("Trybunał Stanu"). On the approval of the Senat, the Sejm also appoints the ombudsman or the Commissioner for Civil Rights Protection ("Rzecznik Praw Obywatelskich") for a five-year term. The ombudsman has the duty of guarding the observance and implementation of the rights and liberties of Polish citizens and residents, of the law and of principles of community life and social justice.The Constitution of Poland is the enacted supreme law, and the Polish legal system is based on the principle of civil rights, governed by the code of civil law. The current democratic constitution was adopted by the National Assembly of Poland on 2 April 1997; it guarantees a multi-party state with freedoms of religion, speech and assembly, prohibits the practices of forced medical experimentation, torture or corporal punishment, and acknowledges the inviolability of the home, the right to form trade unions, and the right to strike.The judiciary incorporates a four-tier court system composed of the Supreme Court, the Supreme Administrative Court, Common Courts (District, Regional, Appellate) and the Military Court. Judges are nominated by the National Council of the Judiciary and are appointed for life by the president. The Constitutional and State Tribunals are separate judicial bodies, which rule the constitutional liability of people holding the highest offices of state and supervise the compliance of statutory law, thus protecting the Constitution.Historically, the most significant Polish legal act is the Constitution of 3 May 1791, the first modern constitution in Europe. Instituted as a Government Act, it was designed to redress long-standing political defects of the federative Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and its Golden Liberty. Previously, only the Henrician Articles (1573) signed by each of Poland's elected monarchs could perform the function of a set of basic laws. The new Constitution introduced political equality between townspeople and the nobility ("szlachta"), and placed the peasants under the protection of the government. It abolished pernicious parliamentary policies such as the "liberum veto", which permitted any deputy to rescind all the legislation passed in the interest of a foreign power. The 3 May Constitution sought to supplant the existing anarchy fostered by some of the country's reactionary magnates, with a more egalitarian and democratic constitutional monarchy. The influenced many later democratic movements across the globe. Tax-paying women were allowed to take part in Polish political life until the third partition in 1795. In 1918 the Second Polish Republic became one of the first countries to introduce universal women's suffrage.Poland has a low homicide rate at 0.7 murders per 100,000 people, as of 2018. Rape, assault and violent crime remain at a very low level, although not all cases are recorded by the authorities.Abortion is permitted only in cases of rape, incest or when the woman's life is in danger. Congenital disorder and stillbirth are not covered by the law, forcing some women to seek abortion abroad, and others to seek the assistance of psychiatrists willing to testify on the negative psychological impact of stillbirth. Poland does not criminalize homosexuality, and its legality was confirmed in 1932. The Polish Constitution defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.Poland is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union and has a grand total of 52 representatives in the European Parliament as of 2020. Since joining the union in 2004, successive Polish governments have pursued policies to extend the country's role in European and international affairs. Poland is an emerging regional power in Central Europe. The capital of Warsaw serves as the headquarters for Frontex, the European Union's agency for external border security as well as ODIHR, one of the principal institutions of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.Apart from the European Union, Poland has been a member of NATO since 1999, the UN, the World Trade Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since 1996, European Economic Area, International Energy Agency, Council of Europe, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, International Atomic Energy Agency, European Space Agency, G6, Council of the Baltic Sea States, Visegrád Group, Weimar Triangle, Schengen Agreement, Lublin Triangle and Bucharest Nine.Over the past two decades, Poland significantly strengthened its ties with the United States, thus becoming one of its closest allies in Europe. Poland was part of the US-led coalition force during the Iraq War in 2003, and sent its troops in the first phase of the conflict, jointly with the United Kingdom and Australia. Along with NATO, Poland maintains military presence in the Middle East, the Baltic states and in the Balkans.The Polish Armed Forces are composed of five branches – Land Forces ("Wojska Lądowe"), Navy ("Marynarka Wojenna"), Air Force ("Siły Powietrzne"), Special Forces ("Wojska Specjalne") and the Territorial Defence Force ("Wojska Obrony Terytorialnej"). The military is subordinate to the Ministry of National Defence of the Republic of Poland. However, its commander-in-chief in peacetime is the President of the Republic, who nominates officers, the Minister for National Defence and the chief of staff.As of 2018, the Polish Armed Forces have a combined strength of 144,142 soldiers. The Polish Navy primarily operates on the Baltic Sea and conducts operations such as maritime patrol, search and rescue for the section of the Baltic under Polish sovereignty, as well as hydrographic measurements and research. The Polish Air Force routinely takes part in Baltic Air Policing assignments. In 2003, the F-16C Block 52 was selected as the new general multi-role fighter for the air force. In January 2020, Poland has approved the delivery for F-35 Lightning II combat aircraft. Poland is currently spending 2% of its GDP on defence (approximately US$13.5 billion in 2020), which is expected to grow to 2.5% by 2030. According to SIPRI, the country exported EUR€487 million worth of arms and armaments to other countries, primarily to the United States, Chile, France and South Africa.The mission of the armed forces is the defence of Poland's territorial integrity and Polish interests abroad. The country's national security goal is to further integrate with NATO and European defence, economic, and political institutions. Compulsory military service for men was discontinued in 2008. From 2007, until conscription ended in 2008, the mandatory service was nine months. Polish military doctrine reflects the same defensive nature as that of its NATO partners and the country actively hosts NATO's military exercises. From 1953 to 2009 Poland was a large contributor to various United Nations peacekeeping missions. The Polish Armed Forces took part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, deploying 2,500 soldiers in the south of that country and commanding the 17-nation multinational force in Iraq. Poland also maintains troops in the Middle East, the Baltic states and in the Balkans; 1,650 soldiers were deployed in 2019.Law enforcement in Poland is performed by several agencies which are subordinate to the Ministry of Interior and Administration – the State Police ("Policja"), assigned to investigate crimes or transgression; the Municipal City Guard, which maintains public order; and several specialized agencies, such as the Polish Border Guard. Private security firms are also common, although they possess no legal authority to arrest or detain a suspect. Municipal guards are primarily headed by provincial, regional or city councils; individual guards are not permitted to carry firearms unless instructed by their superior commanding officer or commandant.The Internal Security Agency (ABW, or ISA in English) is the chief counter-intelligence instrument safeguarding Poland's internal security, along with Agencja Wywiadu (AW) which identifies threats and collects secret information abroad. The Central Investigation Bureau of Police (CBŚP) and the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) are responsible for countering organized crime and corruption in state and private institutions.Emergency services in Poland consist of the emergency medical services, search and rescue units of the Polish Armed Forces and State Fire Service. Emergency medical services in Poland are provided for by local and regional governments.All emergency services personnel are uniformed and security services can be easily recognized during regular patrols in both large urban areas or smaller suburban localities.Poland's current voivodeships (provinces) are largely based on the country's historic regions, whereas those of the past two decades (to 1998) had been centred on and named for individual cities. The new units range in area from less than for Opole Voivodeship to more than for Masovian Voivodeship. Administrative authority at the voivodeship level is shared between a government-appointed voivode (governor), an elected regional assembly ("sejmik") and a voivodeship marshal, an executive elected by that assembly.The voivodeships are subdivided into "powiats" (often referred to in English as counties), and these are further divided into "gminas" (also known as communes or municipalities). Major cities normally have the status of both "gmina" and "powiat". Poland has 16 voivodeships, 380 powiats (including 66 cities with "powiat" status), and 2,478 "gminas".Poland's economy and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is currently the sixth largest in the European Union by nominal standards, and the fifth largest by purchasing power parity. It is also one of the fastest growing within the Union. Around 60% of the employed population belongs to the tertiary service sector, 30% to industry and manufacturing, and the remaining 10% to the agricultural sector. Although Poland is a member of EU's single market, the country has not adopted the Euro as legal tender and maintains its own currency – the Polish złoty (zł, PLN).Poland is the regional economic leader in Central Europe, with nearly 40 per cent of the 500 biggest companies in the region (by revenues) as well as a high globalisation rate. The country's largest firms compose the WIG20 and WIG30 indexes, which is traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. According to reports made by the National Bank of Poland, the value of Polish foreign direct investments reached almost 300 billion PLN at the end of 2014. The Central Statistical Office estimated that in 2014 there were 1,437 Polish corporations with interests in 3,194 foreign entities.Having a strong domestic market, low private debt, low unemployment rate, flexible currency, and not being dependent on a single export sector, Poland is the only European economy to have avoided the recession of 2008. The country is the 20th largest exporter of goods and services in the world and its most successful exports include machinery, furniture, food products, clothing, shoes, cosmetics and videogames. These account to approximately 56% of the total GDP, as of 2018. Poland's largest trading partners include Germany, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, France and Italy. Warsaw leads Central Europe in foreign investment. In September 2018, the unemployment rate was estimated at 5.7%, one of the lowest in the European Union. In 2019, Poland passed a law that would exempt workers under the age of 26 from income tax.The Polish banking sector is the largest in the region, with 32.3 branches per 100,000 adults.World Bank, Financial Inclusion Data. Country Dashboard: Poland. The World Bank Group. Retrieved 6 November 2014. The banks are the largest and most developed sector of the country's financial markets. They are regulated by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority. Poland's banking sector has approximately 5 national banks, a network of nearly 600 cooperative banks and 18 branches of foreign-owned banks. In addition, foreign investors have controlling stakes in nearly 40 commercial banks, which make up 68% of the banking capital.Products and goods manufactured in Poland include: electronics, buses and trams (Solaris, Solbus), helicopters and planes (PZL Świdnik, PZL Mielec), trains (Pesa, Newag), ships (Gdańsk Shipyard, Szczecin Shipyard), military equipment (FB "Łucznik" Radom, , Jelcz), medicines (, ), food (Tymbark, Hortex, E. Wedel), clothes (LLP), glass, pottery (Bolesławiec), chemical products and others. Well-known brands and companies include Alior Bank, Orlen&Lotos Group, Inglot Cosmetics, Plus, Play, Brainly, Netguru, GOG.com, CD Projekt, Trefl and Allegro. Poland is also one of the world's biggest producers of copper, silver, coal, furniture, automotive parts and soft drink.Poland experienced a significant increase in the number of tourists after joining the European Union in 2004. With nearly 21 million international arrivals in 2019, tourism contributes considerably to the overall economy and makes up a relatively large proportion of the country's service market.Tourist attractions in Poland vary, from the mountains in the south to the sandy beaches in the north, with a trail of nearly every architectural style. The most visited city is Kraków, which was the former capital of Poland and serves as a relic of the Polish Golden Age and the Renaissance. Kraków also held royal coronations of most Polish kings and monarchs at Wawel, the nation's chief historical landmark. Among other notable sites in the country is Wrocław, one of the oldest cities in Poland which was a model for the founding of Kraków. Wrocław is famous for its dwarfs, a large market square with two town halls, and the oldest Zoological Gardens with one of the world's largest number of animal species. The Polish capital Warsaw and its historical Old Town were entirely reconstructed after wartime destruction. Other cities attracting countless tourists include Gdańsk, Poznań, Lublin, Toruń as well as the site of the German Auschwitz concentration camp in Oświęcim. A notable highlight is the 13th-century Wieliczka Salt Mine with its labyrinthine tunnels, a subterranean lake and chapels carved by miners out of rock salt beneath the ground.Poland's main tourist offerings include outdoor activities such as skiing, sailing, mountain hiking and climbing, as well as agritourism, sightseeing historical monuments. Tourist destinations include the Baltic Sea coast in the north; the Masurian Lake District and Białowieża Forest in the east; on the south Karkonosze, the Table Mountains and the Tatra Mountains, where Rysy – the highest peak of Poland, and Eagle's Path mountain trail are located. The Pieniny and Bieszczady Mountains lie in the extreme south-east. There are over 100 castles in the country, most in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship (inter alia ), and also on the Trail of the Eagles' Nests. The largest castle in the world by land area is situated in Malbork, in north-central Poland.The electricity generation sector in Poland is largely fossil-fuel–based. Many power plants nationwide use Poland's position as a major European exporter of coal to their advantage by continuing to use coal as the primary raw material in the production of their energy. In 2013, Poland scored 48 out of 129 states in the Energy Sustainability Index. The three largest Polish coal mining firms (Węglokoks, Kompania Węglowa and JSW) extract around 100 million tonnes of coal annually.Renewable forms of energy account for a smaller proportion of Poland's full energy generation capacity. However, the national government has set targets for the development of renewable energy sources in Poland (the share of energy from renewable sources in the gross final energy consumption in 2019 was – 12,18%). Increasing the share of energy from renewable sources and a significant reduction in CO2 emissions to be achieved with the help of biofuels, photovoltaics, construction of wind farms on the land and the Baltic Sea, hydroelectric stations and nuclear power plant.Poland has around 164,800,000,000 m of proven natural gas reserves and around 96,380,000 barrels of proven oil reserves. These reserves are exploited by energy supply companies such as PKN Orlen ("the only Polish company listed in the Fortune Global 500"), PGNiG. However, the small amounts of fossil fuels naturally occurring in Poland are insufficient to satisfy the full energy consumption needs of the population and industry. Consequently, the country is a net importer of oil and natural gas. Therefore, since the second decade of the 21st century, Poland has been strongly developing the so-called North Gate in which the most important components are the Baltic Pipe, the Świnoujście LNG terminal and Floating Storage and Regasification Unit in Port of Gdańsk.The 5 largest companies supplying Poland electricity are PGE, Tauron, Enea, and Innogy Poland.Transport in Poland is provided by means of rail, road, marine shipping and air travel. The country is part of EU's Schengen Area and is an important transport hub along neighbouring Germany due to its strategic position in Central Europe. Some of the longest European routes, including the E40, run through Poland.The country has a good network of highways, composed of express roads and motorways. At the start of 2020, Poland had of highways in use. In addition, all local and regional roads are monitored by the National Road Rebuilding Programme, which aims to improve the quality of travel in the countryside and suburban localities.In 2017, the nation had of railway track, the third longest in Europe after Germany and France. The Polish State Railways (PKP) is the dominant railway operator in the country. In December 2014, Poland began to implement high–speed rail routes connecting major Polish cities, and started passenger service using the New Pendolino train, operating at 200 km/h on the Central Rail Line (CMK). Polish regulations allow trains without ETCS to travel at speeds up to 160 km/h, trains with ETCS1 up to 200 km/h, and trains with ETCS2 at over 200 km/h. Most inter-regional connections rail routes in Poland are operated by PKP Intercity, whilst regional trains are run by a number of private operators, the largest of which is Polregio. The largest passenger train station in terms of the number of travelers is Wrocław Główny.The air and maritime transport markets in Poland are largely well developed. Poland has a number of international airports, the largest of which is Warsaw Chopin Airport, the primary global hub for LOT Polish Airlines. It was established in 1928 from a merger of Aerolloyd (1922) and Aero (1925). Other major airports with international connections include John Paul II International Airport Kraków–Balice, Copernicus Airport Wrocław, Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport. Poland has begun preparations for a construction that can handle 100 million passengers of the Central Communication Port.Seaports exist all along Poland's Baltic coast, with most freight operations using Świnoujście, Police, Szczecin, Kołobrzeg, Gdynia, Gdańsk and Elbląg as their base.Passenger ferries link Poland with Scandinavia all year round; these services are provided from Gdańsk and Świnoujście by Polferries, Stena Line from Gdynia and Unity Line from the Świnoujście. The Port of Gdańsk is the only port in the Baltic Sea adapted to receive oceanic vessels.Over the course of history, the Polish people have made considerable contributions in the fields of science, technology and mathematics. Perhaps the most renowned Pole to support this theory was Nicolaus Copernicus ("Mikołaj Kopernik"), who triggered the Copernican Revolution by placing the Sun rather than the Earth at the center of the universe. He also derived a quantity theory of money, which made him a pioneer of economics. Copernicus' achievements and discoveries are considered the basis of Polish culture and cultural identity.Poland's tertiary education institutions; traditional universities, as well as technical, medical, and economic institutions, employ around tens of thousands of researchers and staff members. There are hundreds of research and development institutes. However, in the 19th and 20th centuries many Polish scientists worked abroad; one of the most important of these exiles was Maria Skłodowska-Curie, a physicist and chemist who lived much of her life in France. In 1925 she established Poland's Radium Institute.In the first half of the 20th century, Poland was a flourishing centre of mathematics. Outstanding Polish mathematicians formed the Lwów School of Mathematics (with Stefan Banach, Stanisław Mazur, Hugo Steinhaus, Stanisław Ulam) and Warsaw School of Mathematics (with Alfred Tarski, Kazimierz Kuratowski, Wacław Sierpiński and Antoni Zygmund). Numerous mathematicians, scientists, chemists or economists emigrated due to historic vicissitudes, among them Benoit Mandelbrot, Leonid Hurwicz, Alfred Tarski, Joseph Rotblat and Nobel Prize laureates Roald Hoffmann, Georges Charpak and Tadeusz Reichstein. In the 1930s, mathematician and cryptologist Marian Rejewski invented the Cryptographic Bomb which formed the basis of the effort that allowed the Allies to crack the Enigma code.Over 40 research and development centers and 4,500 researchers make Poland the biggest research and development hub in Central and Eastern Europe. Multinational companies such as: ABB, Delphi, GlaxoSmithKline, Google, Hewlett–Packard, IBM, Intel, LG Electronics, Microsoft, Motorola, Siemens and Samsung all have set up research and development centres in Poland. Companies chose Poland because of the availability of highly qualified labour force, presence of universities, support of authorities, and the largest market in East-Central Europe. According to a KPMG report from 2011, 80% of Poland's current investors are content with their choice and willing to reinvest. Poland has a very well-developed e-administration, thanks to which many official matters can be easily and quickly settled via the Internet. In the UN ranking, Poland is in the top twenty countries with the best-rated e-administration in the world.Poland, with approximately 38.5 million inhabitants, has the ninth-largest population in Europe and the fifth-largest in the European Union. It has a population density of 122 inhabitants per square kilometre (328 per square mile). The total fertility rate in 2020 was estimated at 1.44 children born to a woman, a considerable rise from previous years. In contrast, the total fertility rate in 1925 was 4.68. Furthermore, Poland's population is aging significantly and the median age in 2018 was 41.1 years. The crude death rate in 2020 stood at 10.3 per 1,000 people.Around 60% of Poles and Polish citizens reside in urban areas or major cities and 40% in more rural zones. The most populous administrative province or state is the Masovian Voivodeship and the most populous city is the capital, Warsaw, at 1.8 million inhabitants with a further 2-3 million people living in its metropolitan area. The metropolitan area of Katowice is the largest urban conurbation in Poland with a population between 2.7 million and 5.3 million residents. The least populous and the smallest province in size is the Opole Voivodeship, with just under 1 million people living within its borders. Hence, a substantial portion of the total population is concentrated in the south of Poland, roughly between the cities of Wrocław and Kraków.In the 2011 Polish census, 37,310,341 people reported Polish identity, 846,719 Silesian, 232,547 Kashubian and 147,814 German. Other identities were reported by 163,363 people (0.41%) and 521,470 people (1.35%) did not specify any nationality. Once prominent but now statistically insignificant minority groups include Polish Jews, Lipka Tatars, Armenians, Greeks, Lemkos, the Romani people and the Vietnamese. Ethnic Poles themselves can be divided into many diverse regional ethnographic sub-groups, most notable being the Kashubians, Silesians and Gorals (Highlanders). The statistics do not include recently arrived migrant workers. More than 1.7 million Ukrainian citizens worked legally in Poland in 2017.There is a very strong Polish diaspora around the world, notably in the United States, Germany, United Kingdom and Canada. A strong Polish minority is still present in the territories of contemporary western Ukraine and Belarus, eastern Lithuania, eastern and central Latvia, and northeastern Czech Republic, which were part of Poland in the past. Altogether, the number of ethnic Poles living abroad is estimated to be around 20 million.Polish is the only official and predominant spoken language in Poland, but it is also used throughout the world by Polish minorities in other countries as well as being one of the official languages of the European Union. The deaf communities use Polish Sign Language belonging to the German family of Sign Languages. Polish is also a second language in Lithuania, where it is taught in schools and universities. Contemporary Poland is a linguistically homogeneous nation, with nearly 97% of respondents declaring Polish as their mother tongue.Poland's once multi-ethnic population communicated in numerous languages and lects which faded or disappeared along the course of history. There are currently 15 minority languages in Poland, including one recognized regional language, Kashubian, which is spoken by around 366,000 people in the northern regions of Kashubia and Pomerania.Languages having the status of national minority's language are Armenian, Belarusian, Czech, German, Yiddish, Hebrew, Lithuanian, Russian, Slovak and Ukrainian. Languages having the status of ethnic minority's language are Karaim, Lemko-Rusyn, Tatar and two Romani languages; Polska Roma and Bergitka Roma. Official recognition of a language provides certain rights under conditions prescribed by Polish law, including education and state financial support for promoting that language. Poland recognized secondary administrative languages or auxiliary languages in bilingual municipalities. Currently, German and Kashubian hold such status in 19 municipalities ("gminas"), Belarusian in 9 and Lithuanian in 1. Bilingual signs, names and advertisements are commonplace in those localities. Silesian and Wymysorys (Vilamovian) are not legally recognized or acknowledged as separate languages with a minority status.More than 50% of Polish citizens declare at least basic knowledge of the English language, followed by German (38%).According to the 2015 census, 92.9% of all Polish citizens adhere to the Roman Catholic Church. An estimated 94.2% of the population are believers and 3.1% are irreligious, making Poland one of the more devout countries in Europe. Around 61.6% of all respondents outlined that religion is of high or very high importance. However, church attendance has decreased in recent years; only 38% of worshippers attended mass regularly on Sunday in 2018. Freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Polish Constitution, and the concordat guarantees the teaching of religion in state schools.For centuries the tribes inhabiting the lands of modern-day Poland have practiced various forms of paganism known as "Rodzimowierstwo", or "native faith". In the year 966, Duke Mieszko I converted to Christianity, and submitted to the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. This event came to be known as the Baptism of Poland. However, this did not put an end to pagan beliefs in the country. The persistence was demonstrated by a series of rebellions in the 1030s known as the pagan reaction, which also showed elements of a peasant uprising against medieval feudalism.Religious tolerance was an important part of Polish political culture, though it varied at times. In 1264, the Statute of Kalisz granted Jews unprecedented legal rights not found anywhere in Europe. In 1573, the Warsaw Confederation marked the formal beginning of extensive religious freedoms in Poland. It was partially influenced by the 1572 St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in France, which prompted the nobility to prevent the monarch from carrying out reprehensible atrocities in Poland based on religious affiliation. The religious tolerance also spurred many theological movements such as the Calvinist Polish Brethren, a number of Protestant groups and atheists like Casimir Liszinski, one of the first atheist thinkers in Europe. Anabaptists fleeing 16th-century persecution in the Netherlands and Germany settled in Poland and became known as the Vistula delta Mennonites. From 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła was head of the Roman Catholic Church as Pope John Paul II.Contemporary religious minorities include Christian Orthodox (506,800), various Protestants (150,000) — including 77,500 Lutherans of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church, 23,000 Pentecostals in the Pentecostal Church in Poland, 10,000 Adventists in the Seventh-day Adventist Church and other smaller Evangelical denominations — Jehovah's Witnesses (126,827), Eastern Catholics, Mariavites, Jews, Muslims (Tatars) and neopagans, some of whom are members of the Native Polish Church.Famous sites of Roman Catholic pilgrimage in Poland include the Monastery of Jasna Góra in the city of Częstochowa, Basilica of Our Lady of Licheń, Kraków's Sanctuary of Divine Mercy and Święta Lipka (Holy Linden) in Masuria. Tourists also visit the family home of John Paul II in Wadowice outside Kraków. Christ the King in Świebodzin is the tallest statue of Jesus in the world. Christian Orthodox pilgrims visit Mount Grabarka near Grabarka-Klasztor and the Hasidic Jews travel annually to the grave of a great rabbi in Leżajsk.Medical service providers and hospitals ("szpitale") in Poland are subordinate to the Ministry of Health; it provides administrative oversight and scrutiny of general medical practice, and is obliged to maintain a high standard of hygiene and patient care. Poland has a universal healthcare system based on an all-inclusive insurance system; state subsidised healthcare is available to all citizens covered by the general health insurance program of the National Health Fund (NFZ). Private medical complexes exist nationwide; over 50% of the population uses both public and private sectors.Hospitals are organised according to the regional administrative structure, resultantly most towns, counties or municipalities possess their own provincial hospital or medical clinics. There are six types of hospital facilities, each with a particular area of medical expertise – I Grade Hospitals for general surgery, internal illnesses and obstetrics; II Grade Hospitals for child surgery, neurology, cardiology and ophthalmology; III Grade Hospitals including teaching hospitals for infectious diseases, nephrology, orthopedics, toxicology and transplantology; Oncology Hospitals for cancer treatment and brachytherapy; Pediatric Hospitals for child care; and Nationwide Hospitals for general and acute care.According to the Human Development Report from 2020, the average life expectancy at birth is 79 years (around 75 years for an infant male and 83 years for an infant female); the country has a low infant mortality rate (4 per 1,000 births). In 2019, the principal cause of death was ischemic heart disease; diseases of the circulatory system accounted for 45% of all deaths. In the same year, Poland was also the 15th-largest importer of medications and pharmaceutical products.The Jagiellonian University founded in 1364 by Casimir III in Kraków was the first institution of higher learning established in Poland, and is one of the oldest universities still in continuous operation. Poland's Commission of National Education ("Komisja Edukacji Narodowej"), established in 1773, was the world's first state ministry of education. The framework for primary and secondary schooling in contemporary Poland is established by the Ministry of National Education. Kindergarten attendance is optional for children aged between three and five, with one year being compulsory for six-year-olds. Primary education traditionally begins at the age of seven, although children aged six can attend at the request of their parents or guardians. Elementary school spans eight grades, at the end of which an obligatory three-part exam on Polish, mathematics and a foreign language is to be undertaken. Secondary schooling is dependent on student preference – either a four-year high school ("liceum"), a five-year technical school ("technikum") or various vocational studies ("szkoła branżowa") can be pursued by each individual pupil. A liceum or technikum is concluded with a maturity exit exam ("matura"), which must be passed in order to apply for a university or other institutions of higher learning.The standards of higher tertiary education are imposed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. In Poland, there are over 500 university-level institutions, with technical, medical, economic, agricultural, pedagogical, theological, musical, maritime and military faculties. The University of Warsaw and Warsaw Polytechnic, the University of Wrocław, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and the University of Technology in Gdańsk are among the most prominent. There are three conventional academic degrees in Poland – "licencjat" or "inżynier" (first cycle qualification), "magister" (second cycle qualification) and "doktor" (third cycle qualification).In 2018, the Programme for International Student Assessment, coordinated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, ranked Poland's educational system higher than the OECD average; the study showed that students in Poland perform better academically than in most OECD countries.The culture of Poland is closely connected with its intricate 1,000-year history and forms an important constituent in western civilization. The Poles take great pride in their national identity which is often associated with the colours white and red, and exuded by the expression "biało-czerwoni" ("whitereds"). National symbols, chiefly the crowned white-tailed eagle, are often visible on clothing, insignia and emblems. The appreciation of Poland's traditions and cultural heritage is commonly known as Polonophilia.With origins in the customs of the tribal Lechites, over time the culture of Poland has been influenced by its connection to Western culture and trends, as well as developing its own unique traditions such as Sarmatism. The people of Poland have traditionally been seen as hospitable to artists from abroad and eager to follow cultural and artistic trends popular in foreign countries, for instance, the 16th- and 17th-century tradition of coffin portraits ("portret trumienny") was only observed in Poland and Roman Egypt. In the 19th and 20th centuries the Polish focus on cultural advancement often took precedence over political and economic activity. These factors have contributed to the versatile nature of Polish art.The architectural monuments of great importance are protected by the National Heritage Board of Poland. Over 100 of the country's most significant tangible wonders were enlisted onto the Historic Monuments Register, with further 16 being recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. Poland is renowned for its brick Gothic castles, granaries and churches as well as diversely-styled tenements, market squares and town halls. The majority of Polish cities founded on Magdeburg Law in the Middle Ages evolved around central marketplaces, a distinguishable urban characteristic which can be observed to this day. Medieval and Renaissance cloth halls were once an abundant feature of many towns.There are 13 government-approved annual public holidays – New Year on 1 January, Three Kings' Day on 6 January, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, Labour Day on 1 May, Constitution Day on 3 May, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, Armed Forces Day on 15 August, All Saints' Day on 1 November, Independence Day on 11 November and Christmastide on 25 and 26 December.Particular traditions and superstitious customs observed in Poland are not found elsewhere in Europe. Though Christmas Eve ("Wigilia") is not a public holiday, it remains the most memorable day of the entire year. Trees are decorated on 24 December, hay is placed under the tablecloth to resemble Jesus' manger, Christmas wafers ("opłatek") are shared between gathered guests and a twelve-dish meatless supper is served that same evening when the first star appears. An empty plate and seat are symbolically left at the table for an unexpected guest. On occasion, carolers journey around smaller towns with a folk Turoń creature until the Lent period.A widely-popular doughnut and sweet pastry feast occurs on Fat Thursday, usually 52 days prior to Easter. Eggs for Holy Sunday are painted and placed in decorated baskets that are previously blessed by clergymen in churches on Easter Saturday. Easter Monday is celebrated with pagan "dyngus" festivities, where the youth is engaged in water fights and some girls are gently spanked by colleagues with pussy willows to stimulate fertility.Cemeteries and graves of the deceased are annually visited by family members on All Saints' Day; tombstones are cleaned as a sign of respect and candles are lit to honour the dead on an unprecedented scale.Artists from Poland, including famous musicians such as Chopin, Rubinstein, Paderewski, Penderecki and Wieniawski, and traditional, regionalized folk composers create a lively and diverse music scene, which even recognizes its own music genres, such as sung poetry and disco polo.The origins of Polish music can be traced to the 13th century; manuscripts have been found in Stary Sącz containing polyphonic compositions related to the Parisian Notre Dame School. Other early compositions, such as the melody of "Bogurodzica" and "God Is Born" (a coronation polonaise tune for Polish kings by an unknown composer), may also date back to this period, however, the first known notable composer, Nicholas of Radom, lived in the 15th century. Diomedes Cato, a native-born Italian who lived in Kraków, became a renowned lutenist at the court of Sigismund III; he not only imported some of the musical styles from southern Europe but blended them with native folk music.In the 17th and 18th centuries, Polish baroque composers wrote liturgical music and secular compositions such as concertos and sonatas for voices or instruments. At the end of the 18th century, Polish classical music evolved into national forms like the polonaise. Wojciech Bogusławski is accredited with composing the first Polish national opera, titled "", which premiered in 1794.Traditional Polish folk music has had a major effect on the works of many Polish composers, and no more so than on Fryderyk Chopin, a widely recognised national hero of the arts. All of Chopin's works involve the piano and are technically demanding, emphasising nuance and expressive depth. As a great composer, Chopin invented the musical form known as the instrumental ballade and made major innovations to the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, polonaise, étude, impromptu and prélude, he was also the composer of a number of polonaises which borrowed heavily from traditional Polish folk music. It is largely thanks to him that such pieces gained great popularity throughout Europe during the 19th century. Several Polish composers such as Szymanowski drew inspiration from Chopin's folk-influenced style. Nowadays the most distinctive folk music can be heard in the towns and villages of the mountainous south, particularly in the region surrounding the winter resort town of Zakopane.Poland today has an active music scene, with the jazz and metal genres being particularly popular among the contemporary populace. Polish jazz musicians such as Krzysztof Komeda created a unique style, which was most famous in the 1960s and 1970s and continues to be popular to this day. Poland has also become a major venue for large-scale music festivals, chief among which are the Open'er Festival, Opole Festival and Sopot Festival.Art in Poland has always reflected European trends while maintaining its unique character. The Kraków Academy of Fine Arts, later developed by Jan Matejko, produced monumental portrayals of customs and significant events in Polish history. Other institutions such as the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw were more innovative and focused on both historical and contemporary styles. Notable art academies include the Kraków School of Art and Fashion Design, Art Academy of Szczecin, University of Fine Arts in Poznań and the Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław.Perhaps the most prominent and internationally admired Polish artist was Tamara de Lempicka, who specialized in the style of Art Deco. Lempicka was described as "the first woman artist to become a glamour star." Another notable was Caziel, born Zielenkiewicz, who represented Cubism and Abstraction in France and England.Prior to the 19th century only Daniel Schultz and Italian-born Marcello Bacciarelli had the privilege of being recognized abroad. The Young Poland movement witnessed the birth of modern Polish art, and engaged in a great deal of formal experimentation led by Jacek Malczewski, Stanisław Wyspiański, Józef Mehoffer, and a group of Polish Impressionists. Stanisław Witkiewicz was an ardent supporter of Realism, its main representative being Józef Chełmoński, while Artur Grottger specialized in Romanticism. Within historically-orientated circles, Henryk Siemiradzki dominated with his monumental Academic Art and ancient Roman theme.Since the inter-war years, Polish art and documentary photography has enjoyed worldwide fame and in the 1960s the Polish School of Posters was formed. Throughout the entire country, many national museum and art institutions hold valuable works by famous masters. Major museums in Poland include the National Museum in Warsaw, Poznań, Wrocław, Kraków, and Gdańsk, as well as the Museum of John Paul II Collection, and the Wilanów Museum. Important collections are also held at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Wawel Castle and in the Palace on the Isle. Contemporary art galleries include Zachęta, Ujazdów, and MOCAK. The most distinguished painting of Poland is "Lady with an Ermine" by Leonardo da Vinci, held at the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków. Although not Polish, the work had a strong influence on Polish culture and has been often associated with Polish identity.Polish cities and towns reflect a whole spectrum of European architectural styles. Romanesque architecture is represented by St. Andrew's Church, Kraków, and St. Mary's Church, Gdańsk, is characteristic for the Brick Gothic style found in Poland. Richly decorated attics and arcade loggias are the common elements of the Polish Renaissance architecture, as evident in the City Hall in Poznań. For some time the late renaissance style known as mannerism, most notably in the Bishop's Palace in Kielce, coexisted with the early baroque style, typified in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Kraków.History has not been kind to Poland's architectural monuments. Nonetheless, a number of ancient structures have survived: castles, churches, and stately homes, often unique in the regional or European context. Some of them have been painstakingly restored, like Wawel Castle, or completely reconstructed, including the Old Town and Royal Castle of Warsaw and the Old Town of Gdańsk.The architecture of Gdańsk is mostly of the Hanseatic variety, a Gothic style common among the former trading cities along the Baltic Sea and in the northern part of Central Europe. The architectural style of Wrocław is mainly representative of German architecture since it was for centuries located within the Holy Roman Empire. The centres of Kazimierz Dolny and Sandomierz on the Vistula are good examples of well-preserved medieval towns. Poland's ancient capital, Kraków, ranks among the best-preserved Gothic and Renaissance urban complexes in Europe.The second half of the 17th century is marked by baroque architecture. Side towers, such as those of Branicki Palace in Białystok, are typical for the Polish baroque. The classical Silesian baroque is represented by the University in Wrocław. The profuse decorations of the Branicki Palace in Warsaw are characteristic of the rococo style. The centre of Polish classicism was Warsaw under the rule of the last Polish king Stanisław II Augustus.The Palace on the Isle is a chief example of Polish neoclassical architecture. Lublin Castle represents the Gothic Revival style in architecture, while the Izrael Poznański Palace in Łódź is an example of eclecticism.Traditional folk architecture in the villages and small towns scattered across the vast Polish countryside was characterized by its extensive use of wood and red brick as primary building materials, common for Central Europe. Some of the best preserved and oldest structures include ancient stone temples in Silesia and fortified wooden churches across southeastern Poland in the Beskids and Bieszczady regions of the Carpathian mountains. Numerous examples of secular structures such as Polish manor houses ("dworek"), farmhouses (), granaries, mills, barns and country inns () can still be found in some Polish regions. However, traditional construction methods faded in the early-mid 20th century, when Poland's population experienced a demographic shift to urban dwelling away from the countryside.The earliest examples of Polish literature date to the 12th century, when Poland's official language was Latin, and early published works were predominantly written by foreigners. Gallus Anonymus, a monk of disputed origin, was the first chronicler who meticulously described Poland's culture, language and territories in "Gesta principum Polonorum" (c. 1112–1118). Latin remained the principal tool of literary expression in Poland until the 18th century, when it was replaced in favour of Polish and French. Historically, Polish literature concentrated extensively around the themes of true drama and poetic-expressive romanticism than on fiction. Patriotism, spirituality and aphorisms were paramount and political or social allegories were common moral narratives.The first documented phrase in the Polish language reads ""Day ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai"" ("Let me grind, and you take a rest"), reflecting the use of quern-stone in early Poland. The phrase was recorded by an abbot in the Latin-based "Liber fundationis" from 1269 to 1273, which outlined the history of a Cistercian monastery in the Silesian village of Henryków. The sentence has been included in the UNESCO Memory of World Register. The oldest extant manuscript of fine prose in Old Polish is the "Holy Cross Sermons", and the earliest religious text is the Bible of Queen Sophia. One of the first printing houses was established by Kasper Straube in the 1470s, while Jan Haller was considered the pioneer of commercial print in Poland. Haller's Calendarium cracoviense, an astronomical wall calendar from 1474, is Poland's oldest surviving print.The tradition of extending Polish historiography in Latin was subsequently inherited by Vincent Kadłubek, Bishop of Kraków in the 13th century, and Jan Długosz in the 15th century. This practice, however, was abandoned by Jan Kochanowski, who became one of the first Polish Renaissance authors to write most of his works in Polish, along with Nicholas Rey. Other writers of the Polish Renaissance include Johannes Dantiscus, Andreus Fricius Modrevius, Matthias Sarbievius, Piotr Skarga and Klemens "Ianicius" Janicki, who was laureled by the Pope. The leading figure of the Polish Reformation was theologian and writer John Laski, who, with the permission of King Edward VI of England, created the European Protestant Congregation of London in 1550.During the Baroque era, the Jesuits greatly influenced Polish literature and literary techniques, often relying on God and religious matters. The leading baroque poet was Jan Andrzej Morsztyn, who incorporated Marinism into his publications. Jan Chryzostom Pasek, also a respected baroque writer, is mostly remembered for his tales and memoirs reflecting sarmatian culture in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Subsequently, the Polish Enlightenment was headed by Samuel Linde, Hugo Kołłątaj, Izabela Czartoryska and Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz. In 1776, Ignacy Krasicki composed the first milestone novel entitled "The Adventures of Mr. Nicholas Wisdom".Among the best known Polish Romantics are the "Three Bards" – the three national poets active in the age of foreign partitions – Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki and Zygmunt Krasiński. The narrative poem "Pan Tadeusz" by Mickiewicz is Poland's national epic and a compulsory reading ("lektura") in the country's schools. Joseph Conrad, the son of dramatist Apollo Korzeniowski, came to fame with his English-language novels and stories that are informed with elements of the Polish national experience. Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", "Nostromo" and "Lord Jim" are believed to be one of the finest works ever written, placing him among the greatest novelists of all time. Modern Polish literature is versatile, with its fantasy genre having been particularly praised. The philosophical sci-fi novel "Solaris" is an acclaimed example of Stanisław Lem's literary legacy, whereas "The Witcher", a fantasy series by Andrzej Sapkowski, is a much-celebrated work of contemporary Polish fiction.In the 20th century, five Polish authors were awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature – Henryk Sienkiewicz for "Quo Vadis", Władysław Reymont for "The Peasants", Isaac Bashevis Singer, Czesław Miłosz and Wisława Szymborska. In 2019, Polish author Olga Tokarczuk was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 2018.Polish cuisine has evolved over the centuries to become highly eclectic due to Poland's history. Polish cuisine shares many similarities with other Central European cuisines, especially German and Austrian as well as Jewish, French, Italian and Turkish culinary traditions. Polish-styled cooking in other cultures is often referred to as "cuisine à la polonaise".Polish dishes are usually rich in meat, especially pork, chicken and beef (depending on the region), winter vegetables (sauerkraut cabbage in "bigos"), and spices. It is also characteristic in its use of various kinds of noodles, the most notable of which are kluski, as well as cereals such as "kasha" (from the Polish word kasza) and a variety of breads like the world-renowned bagel. Polish cuisine is hearty and uses a lot of cream and eggs. Festive meals such as the meatless Christmas Eve dinner ("Wigilia") or Easter breakfast could take days to prepare in their entirety.The main course usually includes a serving of meat, such as roast, chicken, or "kotlet schabowy" (breaded pork cutlet), vegetables, side dishes and salads, including "surówka" – shredded root vegetables with lemon and sugar (carrot, celeriac, seared beetroot) or sauerkraut (, ). The side dishes are usually potatoes, rice or cereal. Meals conclude with a dessert such as "sernik" (cheesecake), "makowiec" (poppy seed pastry), or "napoleonka" (cream pie).The Polish national dishes are "bigos" ; "pierogi" ; "kielbasa"; "kotlet schabowy" breaded cutlet; "gołąbki" cabbage rolls; "zrazy" roulade; "pieczeń" roast ; sour cucumber soup ("zupa ogórkowa", ); mushroom soup, ("zupa grzybowa", quite different from the North American cream of mushroom); "zupa pomidorowa" tomato soup ; "rosół" variety of meat broth; "żurek" sour rye soup; "flaki" tripe soup; "barszcz" and "chłodnik" among others.Traditional alcoholic beverages include honey mead, widespread since the 13th century, beer, wine and vodka (old Polish names include "okowita" and "gorzała"). The world's first written mention of vodka originates from Poland. The most popular alcoholic drinks at present are beer and wine which took over from vodka more popular in the years 1980–1998. Tea remains common in Polish society since the 19th century, whilst coffee is drunk widely since the 18th century. Other frequently consumed beverages include various mineral waters and juices, soft drinks popularized by the fast-food chains since the late 20th century, as well as buttermilk, soured milk and kefir.The particular clothing styles in Poland evolved with each century. In the 1600s high-class noblemen and magnates developed a strong sympathy for Orientalism, which was also common in other parts of Europe and became known as Sarmatism. The attire mediated between Western and Ottoman styles and outfits included a żupan, delia, kontusz, pas, decorative karabela swords and less often turbans brought by foreign merchants. The period of Polish Sarmatism eventually faded in the wake of the 18th century.The Polish national dress as well as the fashion and etiquette of Poland also reached the royal court at Versailles in the 1700s. French dresses inspired by Polish attire were called "à la polonaise", meaning "Polish-styled". The most famous example is the "robe à la polonaise", a woman's garment with draped and swagged overskirt, worn over an underskirt or petticoat. Another notable example is the Witzchoura, a long mantle with collar and hood, which was possibly introduced by Napoleon's Polish mistress Maria Walewska. The scope of influence also entailed furniture; rococo Polish beds with canopies became commonplace in French palaces during the 18th century.Several Polish designers and stylists left a lifelong legacy of beauty inventions and cosmetics, most notable being Maksymilian Faktorowicz and Helena Rubinstein. Faktorowicz created a line of cosmetics company in California known as Max Factor and coined the term "make-up" based on the verb phrase "to make up" one's face, now widely used as an alternative for describing cosmetics. Faktorowicz also raised to fame by inventing modern eyelash extensions and by providing services to Hollywood artists.As of 2020, Poland possesses the fifth-largest cosmetic market in Europe. Founded in 1983, Inglot Cosmetics is the country's largest beauty products manufacturer and retailer active in 700 locations worldwide, including retail salons in New York City, London, Milan, Dubai and Las Vegas. Established in 1999, the retail store Reserved is Poland's most successful clothing store chain, operating over 1,700 retail shops in 19 countries. Internationally successful models from Poland include Anja Rubik, Joanna Krupa, Jac Jagaciak, Kasia Struss, Małgosia Bela, and Magdalena Frąckowiak.The history of Polish cinema is as long as the history of cinematography itself. Over the decades, Poland has produced outstanding directors, film producers, cartoonists and actors that achieved world fame, especially in Hollywood. Moreover, Polish inventors played an important role in the development of world cinematography and modern-day television. Among the most famous directors and producers, who worked in Poland as well as abroad are Roman Polański, Andrzej Wajda, Samuel Goldwyn, the Warner brothers (Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack), Max Fleischer, Lee Strasberg, Agnieszka Holland and Krzysztof Kieślowski.In the 19th century, throughout partitioned Poland, numerous amateur inventors, such as Kazimierz Prószyński, were eager to construct a film projector. In 1894, Prószyński was successful in creating a Pleograph, one of the first cameras in the world. The invention, which took photographs and projected pictures, was built before the Lumière brothers lodged their patent. He also patented an Aeroscope, the first successful hand-held operated film camera. In 1897, Jan Szczepanik, obtained a British patent for his Telectroscope. This prototype of television could easily transmit image and sound, thus allowing a live remote view.Polish cinema developed rapidly in the interwar period. The most renowned star of the silent film era was Polish actress Pola Negri. During this time, the Yiddish cinema also evolved in Poland. Films in the Yiddish language with Jewish themes, such as "The Dybbuk" (1937), played an important part in pre-war Polish cinematography. In 1945 the government established 'Film Polski', a state-run film production and distribution organization, with director Aleksander Ford as the head of the company. Ford's "Knights of the Teutonic Order" (1960) was viewed by millions of people in the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and France. This success was followed by the historical films of Jerzy Hoffman and Andrzej Wajda. Wajda's 1975 film "The Promised Land" was nominated at the 48th Academy Awards.In 2015, "Ida" by Paweł Pawlikowski won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2019, Pawlikowski received an Academy Award for Best Director nomination for his historical drama "Cold War". Other well-known Polish Oscar-winning productions include "The Pianist" (2002) by Roman Polański.Poland has a number of major media outlets, chief among which are the national television channels. TVP is Poland's public broadcasting corporation; about a third of its income comes from a broadcast receiver licence, while the rest is made through revenue from commercials and sponsorships. State television operates two mainstream channels, TVP 1 and TVP 2, as well as regional programs for each of the country's 16 voivodeships (as TVP 3). In addition to these general channels, TVP runs a number of genre-specific programmes such as TVP Sport, TVP Historia, TVP Kultura, TVP Rozrywka, TVP Seriale and TVP Polonia, the latter is a state-run channel dedicated to the transmission of Polish language television for the Polish diaspora. Poland has several 24-hour news channels such as Polsat News, TVP Info and TVN 24. Poland also possesses a variety of free-to-air television channels, chiefly TVN, Polsat and TV4.In Poland, there are also daily newspapers like "Gazeta Wyborcza" ("Electoral Gazette"), "Rzeczpospolita" ("The Republic") and "Gazeta Polska Codziennie" ("Polish Daily Newspaper") which provide traditional opinion and news, and tabloids such as "Fakt" and "Super Express". Weeklies include "Tygodnik Angora", "", "Polityka", "Wprost", "Newsweek Polska", "Gość Niedzielny" and "Gazeta Polska".Poland has also emerged as a major hub for video game developers in Europe, with the country now being home to hundreds of studios. Among the most successful ones are CD Projekt, Techland, CI Games and People Can Fly. Some of the most popular video games developed in Poland include The Witcher trilogy. Katowice hosts Intel Extreme Masters, one of the biggest eSports events in the world.Volleyball and Association football are among the country's most popular sports, with a rich history of international competitions. Track and field, basketball, handball, boxing, MMA, motorcycle speedway, ski jumping, cross-country skiing, ice hockey, tennis, fencing, swimming and weightlifting are other popular sports.The golden era of football in Poland occurred throughout the 1970s and went on until the early 1980s when the Polish national football team achieved their best results in any FIFA World Cup competitions finishing 3rd place in the 1974 and the 1982 tournaments. The team won a gold medal in football at the 1972 Summer Olympics and two silver medals, in 1976 and in 1992. In 2012, Poland co-hosted the UEFA European Football Championship.As of May 2021, the Polish men's national volleyball team is ranked as 2nd in the world. Volleyball team won a gold medal in Olympic 1976 Montreal and three gold medals in FIVB World Championship 1974, 2014 and 2018.Mariusz Pudzianowski is a highly successful strongman competitor and has won more World's Strongest Man titles than any other competitor in the world, winning the event in 2008 for the fifth time.Poland has made a distinctive mark in motorcycle speedway racing thanks to Tomasz Gollob and Bartosz Zmarzlik, highly successful Polish riders. The top Ekstraliga division has one of the highest average attendances for any sport in Poland. The national speedway team of Poland is one of the major teams in international speedway.Poles made significant achievements in mountaineering, in particular, in the Himalayas and the winter ascending of the eight-thousanders. Polish mountains are one of the tourist attractions of the country. Hiking, climbing, skiing and mountain biking and attract numerous tourists every year from all over the world. Water sports are the most popular summer recreation activities, with ample locations for fishing, canoeing, kayaking, sailing and windsurfing especially in the northern regions of the country.
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[
"Leszek Miller",
"Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz",
"Mateusz Morawiecki",
"Jan Olszewski",
"Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz",
"Tadeusz Mazowiecki",
"Jarosław Kaczyński",
"Jan Krzysztof Bielecki",
"Hanna Suchocka",
"Donald Tusk",
"Beata Szydło",
"Marek Belka",
"Jerzy Buzek",
"Waldemar Pawlak",
"Józef Oleksy"
] |
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Who was the head of Poland in Nov, 2015?
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November 28, 2015
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{
"text": [
"Beata Szydło",
"Ewa Kopacz"
]
}
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L2_Q36_P6_14
|
Ewa Kopacz is the head of the government of Poland from Sep, 2014 to Nov, 2015.
Waldemar Pawlak is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 1993 to Mar, 1995.
Hanna Suchocka is the head of the government of Poland from Jul, 1992 to Oct, 1993.
Jan Olszewski is the head of the government of Poland from Dec, 1991 to Jun, 1992.
Józef Oleksy is the head of the government of Poland from Mar, 1995 to Feb, 1996.
Beata Szydło is the head of the government of Poland from Nov, 2015 to Dec, 2017.
Jarosław Kaczyński is the head of the government of Poland from Jul, 2006 to Nov, 2007.
Jan Krzysztof Bielecki is the head of the government of Poland from Jan, 1991 to Dec, 1991.
Leszek Miller is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 2001 to May, 2004.
Marek Belka is the head of the government of Poland from May, 2004 to Oct, 2005.
Mateusz Morawiecki is the head of the government of Poland from Dec, 2017 to Dec, 2022.
Jerzy Buzek is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 1997 to Oct, 2001.
Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz is the head of the government of Poland from Feb, 1996 to Oct, 1997.
Tadeusz Mazowiecki is the head of the government of Poland from Aug, 1989 to Jan, 1991.
Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 2005 to Jul, 2006.
Donald Tusk is the head of the government of Poland from Nov, 2007 to Sep, 2014.
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PolandPoland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country located in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces, covering an area of , and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With a population of nearly 38.5 million people, Poland is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union. Poland's capital and largest metropolis is Warsaw. Other major cities include Kraków, Łódź, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk, and Szczecin.Poland's topographically diverse territory extends from the beaches along the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in its south. The country is bordered by Lithuania and Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukraine to the east, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the south, and Germany to the west.The history of human activity on Polish soil spans thousands of years. Throughout the late antiquity period it became extensively diverse, with various cultures and tribes settling on the vast Central European Plain. However, it was the Western Polans who dominated the region and gave Poland its name. The establishment of Polish statehood can be traced to 966, when the pagan ruler of a realm coextensive with the territory of present-day Poland embraced Christianity and converted to Catholicism. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented its longstanding political association with Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest (over in area) and most populous nations of 16th and 17th century Europe, with a uniquely liberal political system which adopted Europe's first modern constitution, the Constitution of 3 May 1791.With the passing of prominence and prosperity, the country was partitioned by neighbouring states at the end of the 18th century, and regained independence in 1918 with the Treaty of Versailles. After a series of territorial conflicts, the new multi-ethnic Poland restored its position as a key player in European politics. In September 1939, World War II began with the invasion of Poland by Germany, followed by the Soviets invading Poland in accordance with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Approximately six million Polish citizens, including three million of the country's Jews, perished during the course of the war. As a member of the Eastern Bloc, the Polish People's Republic proclaimed forthwith was a chief signatory of the Warsaw Treaty amidst global Cold War tensions. In the wake of the 1989 events, notably through the emergence and contributions of the Solidarity movement, the communist government was dissolved and Poland re-established itself as a semi-presidential democratic republic.Poland is a developed market, and a middle power. It has the sixth largest economy in the European Union by nominal GDP and the fifth largest by GDP (PPP). It provides very high standards of living, safety and economic freedom, as well as free university education and a universal health care system. The country has 16 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, 15 of which are cultural. Poland is a member state of the Schengen Area, European Union, European Economic Area, the United Nations, NATO, the OECD, the Three Seas Initiative and the Visegrád Group.The origin of the name "Poland" derives from the West Slavic tribe of Polans ("Polanie"), who inhabited the Warta river basin of the present-day Greater Poland region starting in the mid-6th century. The origin of the name "Polanie" itself derives from the Proto-Slavic word "pole" (field). In some languages, such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian, Russian and Turkish, the country's name is derived from the Lendians ("Lędzianie" or "Lachy") who dwelled on the southeasternmost edge of present-day Lesser Poland. Their name likewise derives from the Old Polish word "lęda" (open land or plain).The early Bronze Age in Poland began around 2400 BC, while the Iron Age commenced in approximately 750 BC. During this time, the Lusatian culture, spanning both the Bronze and Iron Ages, became particularly prominent. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement (now reconstructed as an open-air museum), dating from the Lusatian culture of the late Bronze Age, around 748 BC.Throughout Antiquity, many distinct ancient ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland in an era that dates from about 400 BC to 500 AD. These groups are identified as Celtic, Scythian, Germanic, Sarmatian, Slavic and Baltic tribes. Also, recent archaeological findings in the Kuyavia region confirmed the presence of the Roman Legions on the territory of Poland. These were most likely expeditionary missions sent out to protect the amber trade. The exact time and routes of the original migration and settlement of Slavic peoples lacks written records and can only be defined as fragmented. There is evidence that earlier tribes may have been associated with the ancient Przeworsk culture. Up until the creation of Mieszko's state and his subsequent conversion to Christianity in 966 AD, the main religion of the numerous West Slavic (Lechitic) tribes that inhabited the geographical area of present-day Poland was paganism. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Western Christianity and the religious authority of the Roman Church. However, the transition from paganism was not a smooth and instantaneous process for the rest of the population as evident from the pagan reaction of the 1030s.Poland began to form into a recognizable unitary and territorial entity around the middle of the 10th century under the Piast dynasty. Poland's first historically documented ruler, Mieszko I, accepted Christianity, as the rightful religion of his realm, under the auspices of the Latin Church with the Baptism of Poland in 966. The bulk of the population converted in the course of the next few centuries. In 1000, Boleslaw the Brave, continuing the policy of his father Mieszko, held a Congress of Gniezno and created the metropolis of Gniezno and the dioceses of Kraków, Kołobrzeg, and Wrocław. However, the pagan unrest led to the transfer of the capital to Kraków in 1038 by Casimir I the Restorer.In 1109, Prince Bolesław III Wrymouth defeated the King of Germany Henry V at the Battle of Hundsfeld, stopping the German incursion into Poland. The clash between Bolesław III and Henry V was documented by Gallus Anonymus in his 1118 chronicle. In 1138, Poland fragmented into several smaller duchies when Bolesław divided his lands among his sons. In 1226, Konrad I of Masovia, one of the regional Piast dukes, invited the Teutonic Knights to help him fight the Baltic Prussian pagans; a decision that led to centuries of warfare with the Knights. In 1264, the Statute of Kalisz or the General Charter of Jewish Liberties introduced numerous right for the Jews in Poland, leading to a nearly autonomous "nation within a nation".In the middle of the 13th century, the Silesian branch of the Piast dynasty (Henry I the Bearded and Henry II the Pious, ruled 1238–1241) nearly succeeded in uniting the Polish lands, but the Mongols invaded the country from the east and defeated the combined Polish forces at the Battle of Legnica where Duke Henry II the Pious died. In 1320, after a number of earlier unsuccessful attempts by regional rulers at uniting the Polish dukedoms, Władysław I consolidated his power, took the throne and became the first king of a reunified Poland. His son, Casimir III (reigned 1333–1370), has a reputation as one of the greatest Polish kings, and gained wide recognition for improving the country's infrastructure. He also extended royal protection to Jews, and encouraged their immigration to Poland. Casimir III realized that the nation needed a class of educated people, especially lawyers, who could codify the country's laws and administer the courts and offices. His efforts to create an institution of higher learning in Poland were finally rewarded when Pope Urban V granted him permission to open the University of Kraków.The Golden Liberty of the nobles began to develop under Casimir's rule, when in return for their military support, the king made a series of concessions to the nobility and establishing their legal status as superior to that of the townsfolk. When Casimir the Great died in 1370, leaving no legitimate male heir, the Piast dynasty came to an end.During the 13th and 14th centuries, Poland became a destination for German, Flemish and to a lesser extent Walloon, Danish and Scottish migrants. Also, Jews and Armenians began to settle and flourish in Poland during this era (see History of the Jews in Poland and Armenians in Poland).The Black Death, a plague that ravaged Europe from 1347 to 1351, did not significantly affect Poland, and the country was spared from a major outbreak of the disease. The reason for this was the decision of Casimir the Great to quarantine the nation's borders.The Jagiellon dynasty spanned the late Middle Ages and early Modern Era of Polish history. Beginning with the Lithuanian Grand Duke Jogaila (Władysław II Jagiełło), the Jagiellon dynasty (1386–1572) formed the Polish–Lithuanian union. The partnership brought vast Lithuanian-controlled Rus' areas into Poland's sphere of influence and proved beneficial for the Poles and Lithuanians, who coexisted and cooperated in one of the largest political entities in Europe for the next four centuries.In the Baltic Sea region the struggle of Poland and Lithuania with the Teutonic Knights continued and culminated at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, where a combined Polish-Lithuanian army inflicted a decisive victory against them. In 1466, after the Thirteen Years' War, King Casimir IV Jagiellon gave royal consent to the Peace of Thorn, which created the future Duchy of Prussia under Polish suzerainty. The Jagiellon dynasty at one point also established dynastic control over the kingdoms of Bohemia (1471 onwards) and Hungary. In the south, Poland confronted the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Tatars (by whom they were attacked on 75 separate occasions between 1474 and 1569), and in the east helped Lithuania fight the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Some historians estimate that Crimean Tatar slave-raiding cost Poland-Lithuania one million of its population between the years of 1494 and 1694.Poland was developing as a feudal state, with a predominantly agricultural economy and an increasingly powerful landed nobility. The "Nihil novi" act adopted by the Polish Sejm (parliament) in 1505, transferred most of the legislative power from the monarch to the Sejm, an event which marked the beginning of the period known as "Golden Liberty", when the state was ruled by the "free and equal" Polish nobility. Protestant Reformation movements made deep inroads into Polish Christianity, which resulted in the establishment of policies promoting religious tolerance, unique in Europe at that time. This tolerance allowed the country to avoid most of the religious turmoil that spread over Europe during the 16th century.The European Renaissance evoked in late Jagiellon Poland (under kings Sigismund I the Old and Sigismund II Augustus) a sense of urgency in the need to promote a cultural awakening, and during this period Polish culture and the nation's economy flourished. In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus, an astronomer from Toruń, published his epochal work "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" ("On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres") and thereby became the first proponent of a predictive mathematical model confirming the heliocentric theory, which became the accepted basic model for the practice of modern astronomy. Another major figure associated with the era is the classicist poet Jan Kochanowski.The 1569 Union of Lublin established the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a more closely unified federal state with an elective monarchy, but which was governed largely by the nobility, through a system of local assemblies with a central parliament. The Warsaw Confederation (1573) guaranteed religious freedom for the Polish nobility "(szlachta)" and townsfolk "(mieszczanie)". However, the peasants "(chłopi)" were still subject to severe limitations imposed on them by the nobility. The establishment of the Commonwealth coincided with a period of stability and prosperity in Poland, with the union thereafter becoming a European power and a major cultural entity, occupying approximately one million square kilometers of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as an agent for the dissemination of Western culture through Polonization into areas of modern-day Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Belarus and western Russia.In the 16th and 17th centuries, Poland suffered from a number of dynastic crises during the reigns of the Vasa kings Sigismund III and Władysław IV and found itself engaged in major conflicts with Russia, Sweden and the Ottoman Empire, as well as a series of minor Cossack uprisings. In 1610, a Polish army under the command of Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski seized Moscow after winning the Battle of Klushino. In 1611, the Tsar of Russia paid homage to the King of Poland.After the signing of Truce of Deulino, Poland had in the years 1618–1621 an area of about .From the middle of the 17th century, the nobles' democracy, suffering from internal disorder, gradually declined, thereby leaving the once powerful Commonwealth vulnerable to foreign intervention. Starting in 1648, the Cossack Khmelnytsky Uprising engulfed the south and east, eventually leaving Ukraine divided, with the eastern part, lost by the Commonwealth, becoming a dependency of the Tsardom of Russia. This was followed by the 'Deluge', a Swedish invasion of Poland, which marched through the Polish heartlands and ruined the country's population, culture and infrastructure—around four million of Poland's eleven million inhabitants died in famines and epidemics throughout the 17th century. However, under John III Sobieski the Commonwealth's military prowess was re-established, and in 1683 Polish forces played a major role in the Battle of Vienna against the Ottoman Army, commanded by Kara Mustafa, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.Sobieski's reign marked the end of the nation's golden era. Finding itself subjected to almost constant warfare and suffering enormous population losses as well as massive damage to its economy, the Commonwealth fell into decline. The government became ineffective as a result of large-scale internal conflicts (e.g. Lubomirski Rebellion against John II Casimir and rebellious confederations) and corrupted legislative processes. The nobility fell under the control of a handful of "magnats", and this, compounded with two relatively weak kings of the Saxon Wettin dynasty, Augustus II and Augustus III, as well as the rise of Russia and Prussia after the Great Northern War only served to worsen the Commonwealth's plight. Despite this The Commonwealth-Saxony personal union gave rise to the emergence of the Commonwealth's first reform movement, and laid the foundations for the Polish Enlightenment.During the later part of the 18th century, the Commonwealth made attempts to implement fundamental internal reforms; with the second half of the century bringing a much improved economy, significant population growth and far-reaching progress in the areas of education, intellectual life, art, and especially toward the end of the period, evolution of the social and political system. The most populous capital city of Warsaw replaced Gdańsk (Danzig) as the leading centre of commerce, and the role of the more prosperous urban population increased.The royal election of 1764 resulted in the elevation of Stanisław II August (a Polish aristocrat connected to the "Familia" faction of magnates) to the monarchy. However, elevated to the throne by the Empress Catherine II of Russia, the new king spent much of his reign maneuvering between his desire to implement necessary reforms to save his country, and the necessity to remain in a political relationship and at peace with Russia. This led to the formation of the 1768 Bar Confederation, a "szlachta" rebellion directed against the Polish king and all external influence, which ineptly aimed to preserve Poland's independence and szlachta's privileges. The failed attempts at reform as well as the internal turmoil caused by the Confederation proved the country's weakness and provoked its neighbours. In 1772 the First Partition of the Commonwealth by Prussia, Russia and Austria took place; an act which the "Partition Sejm", under considerable duress, eventually "ratified" "fait accompli". Disregarding this loss, in 1773 the king established the plan of the most necessary reforms, in which the Commission of National Education, the first government education authority in Europe, was established. Corporal punishment of children was officially prohibited in 1783.The Great Sejm convened by Stanisław II August in 1788 successfully adopted the 3 May Constitution, the first set of modern supreme national laws in Europe. However, this document, accused by detractors of harbouring revolutionary sympathies, generated strong opposition from the Commonwealth's nobles and conservatives as well as from Catherine II, who, determined to prevent the rebirth of a strong Commonwealth set about planning the final dismemberment of the Polish-Lithuanian state. Russia was aided in achieving its goal when the Targowica Confederation, an organisation of Polish nobles, appealed to the Empress for help. In May 1792, Russian forces crossed the Commonwealth's frontier, thus beginning the Polish-Russian War.The defensive war fought by the Poles ended prematurely when the King, convinced of the futility of resistance, capitulated and joined the Targowica Confederation, hoping to save the country. The Confederation then took over the government. Russia and Prussia, fearing the mere existence of a Polish state, understanding, that despite the current influence they still cannot control the country, arranged for, and in 1793 executed, the Second Partition of the Commonwealth, which left the country deprived of so much territory that it was practically incapable of independent existence. Eventually, in 1795, following the failed Kościuszko Uprising, the Commonwealth was partitioned one last time by all three of its more powerful neighbours, and with this, effectively ceased to exist. The 18-century British statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke summed up the partitions: "No wise or honest man can approve of that partition, or can contemplate it without prognosticating great mischief from it to all countries at some future time."Poles rebelled several times against the partitioners, particularly near the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. An unsuccessful attempt at defending Poland's sovereignty took place in 1794 during the Kościuszko Uprising, where a popular and distinguished general Tadeusz Kościuszko, who had several years earlier served under Washington in the American Revolutionary War, led Polish insurrectionists against numerically superior Russian forces. Despite the victory at the Battle of Racławice, his ultimate defeat ended Poland's independent existence for 123 years.In 1807, Napoleon I of France temporarily recreated a Polish state as the satellite Duchy of Warsaw, after a successful Greater Poland Uprising of 1806 against Prussian rule. But, after the failed Napoleonic Wars, Poland was again split between the victorious powers at the Congress of Vienna of 1815. The eastern part was ruled by the Russian tsar as Congress Poland, which had a liberal constitution. However, over time the Russian monarch reduced Polish freedoms, and Russia annexed the country in virtually all but name. Meanwhile, the Prussian controlled territory of Poland came under increased Germanization. Thus, in the 19th century, only Habsburg-ruled Austrian Poland, and particularly the Free City of Kraków, allowed free Polish culture to flourish.Throughout the period of the partitions, political and cultural repression of the Polish nation led to the organisation of a number of uprisings against the authorities of the occupying Russian, Prussian and Austrian governments. In 1830, the November Uprising began in Warsaw when, led by Lieutenant Piotr Wysocki, young non-commissioned officers at the Officer Cadet School in Warsaw revolted. They were joined by large segments of Polish society, and together forced Warsaw's Russian garrison to withdraw north of the city.Over the course of the next seven months, Polish forces successfully defeated the Russian armies of Field Marshal Hans Karl von Diebitsch and a number of other Russian commanders; however, finding themselves in a position unsupported by any other foreign powers, save distant France and the newborn United States, and with Prussia and Austria refusing to allow the import of military supplies through their territories, the Poles accepted that the uprising was doomed to failure. Upon the surrender of Warsaw to General Ivan Paskievich, many Polish troops, feeling they could not go on, withdrew into Prussia and there laid down their arms. After the defeat, the semi-independent Congress Poland lost its constitution, army and legislative assembly, and was integrated more closely with the Russian Empire.During the Spring of Nations (a series of revolutions which swept across Europe), Poles took up arms in the Greater Poland Uprising of 1848 to resist Prussian rule. Initially, the uprising manifested itself in the form of civil disobedience but eventually turned into an armed struggle when the Prussian military was sent in to pacify the region. Subsequently, the uprising was suppressed and the semi-autonomous Grand Duchy of Posen, created from the Prussian partition of Poland, was incorporated into Prussia.In 1863, a new Polish uprising against Russian rule began. The January Uprising started out as a spontaneous protest by young Poles against conscription into the Imperial Russian Army. However, the insurrectionists, despite being joined by high-ranking Polish-Lithuanian officers and numerous politicians, were still severely outnumbered and lacking in foreign support. They were forced to resort to guerrilla warfare tactics and failed to win any major military victories. Afterwards no major uprising was witnessed in the Russian-controlled Congress Poland, and Poles resorted instead to fostering economic and cultural self-improvement. Congress Poland was rapidly industrialised towards the end of the 19th century, and successively transformed into the Empire's wealthiest and most developed subject.Despite the political unrest experienced during the partitions, Poland did benefit from large-scale industrialisation and modernisation programs, instituted by the occupying powers, which helped it develop into a more economically coherent and viable entity. This was particularly true in Greater Poland, Silesia and Eastern Pomerania controlled by Prussia (later becoming a part of the German Empire); areas which eventually, thanks largely to the Greater Poland Uprising of 1918 and Silesian Uprisings, were reconstituted as a part of the Second Polish Republic, becoming the country's most prosperous regions.Following World War I all the Allies agreed on the reconstitution of Poland that United States President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed in Point 13 of his Fourteen Points. A total of 2 million Polish troops fought with the armies of the three occupying powers, and 450,000 died. Shortly after the armistice with Germany in November 1918, Poland regained its independence as the Second Polish Republic ("II Rzeczpospolita Polska"). It reaffirmed its independence after a series of military conflicts, the most notable being the Polish–Soviet War (1919–21) when Poland inflicted a crushing defeat on the Red Army at the Battle of Warsaw, an event which is considered to have halted the advance of Communism into Europe and forced Vladimir Lenin to rethink his objective of achieving global socialism. The event is often referred to as the "Miracle at the Vistula".During this period, Poland successfully managed to fuse the territories of the three former partitioning powers into a cohesive nation state. Railways were restructured to direct traffic towards Warsaw instead of the former imperial capitals, a new network of national roads was gradually built up and a major seaport, Gdynia, was opened on the Baltic Coast, so as to allow Polish exports and imports to bypass the politically charged Free City of Danzig. Also, the Polish government embarked on the creation of the Central Industrial Region ("Centralny Okręg Przemysłowy"). The project's goal was to create a heavy industrial center in the middle of the country, which included steal mills, power plants and factories. The inter-war period heralded in a new era of Polish politics. Whilst Polish political activists had faced heavy censorship in the decades up until the First World War, the country now found itself trying to establish a new political tradition. For this reason, many exiled Polish activists, such as Ignacy Paderewski (who would later become prime minister) returned home to help; a significant number of them then went on to take key positions in the newly formed political and governmental structures. Tragedy struck in 1922 when Gabriel Narutowicz, inaugural holder of the presidency, was assassinated at the Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw by a painter and right-wing nationalist Eligiusz Niewiadomski.In 1926, a May coup, led by the hero of the Polish independence campaign Marshal Józef Piłsudski, turned rule of the Second Polish Republic over to the nonpartisan Sanacja ("Healing") movement in an effort to prevent radical political organizations on both the left and the right from destabilizing the country. The movement functioned with relative stability until Piłsudski's death in 1935. Following Marshall Piłsudski's death, Sanation split into several competing factions. By the late 1930s, due to increased threats posed by political extremism inside the country, the Polish government became increasingly heavy-handed, banning a number of radical organizations, including communist and ultra-nationalist political parties, which threatened the stability of the country.World War II began with the Nazi German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, followed by the Soviet invasion of Poland on 17 September. On 28 September 1939, Warsaw fell. As agreed in the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Poland was split into two zones, one occupied by Nazi Germany, the other by the Soviet Union. In 1939–41, the Soviets deported hundreds of thousands of Poles. The Soviet NKVD executed thousands of Polish prisoners of war (inter alia Katyn massacre) ahead of the Operation Barbarossa. German planners had in November 1939 called for "the complete destruction of all Poles" and their fate as outlined in the genocidal "Generalplan Ost".Polish intelligence operatives proved extremely valuable to the Allies, providing much of the intelligence from Europe and beyond, and Polish code breakers were responsible for cracking the Enigma cypher.Poland made the fourth-largest troop contribution in Europe and its troops served both the Polish Government in Exile in the west and Soviet leadership in the east. Polish troops played an important role in the Normandy, Italian and North African Campaigns and are particularly remembered for the Battle of Monte Cassino. In the east, the Soviet-backed Polish 1st Army distinguished itself in the battles for Warsaw and Berlin.The wartime resistance movement, and the Armia Krajowa ("Home Army"), fought against German occupation. It was one of the three largest resistance movements of the entire war, and encompassed a range of clandestine activities, which functioned as an underground state complete with degree-awarding universities and a court system. The resistance was loyal to the exiled government and generally resented the idea of a communist Poland; for this reason, in the summer of 1944 it initiated Operation Tempest, of which the Warsaw Uprising that begun on 1 August 1944 is the best known operation.Nazi German forces under orders from Adolf Hitler set up six German extermination camps in occupied Poland, including Treblinka, Majdanek and Auschwitz. The Germans transported millions of Jews from across occupied Europe to be murdered in those camps.Altogether, 3 million Polish Jews – approximately 90% of Poland's pre-war Jewry – and between 1.8 and 2.8 million ethnic Poles were killed during the German occupation of Poland, including between 50,000 and 100,000 members of the Polish intelligentsia – academics, doctors, lawyers, nobility and priesthood. During the Warsaw Uprising alone, over 150,000 Polish civilians were killed, most were murdered by the Germans during the Wola and Ochota massacres. Around 150,000 Polish civilians were killed by Soviets between 1939 and 1941 during the Soviet Union's occupation of eastern Poland (Kresy), and another estimated 100,000 Poles were murdered by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) between 1943 and 1944 in what became known as the Wołyń Massacres. Of all the countries in the war, Poland lost the highest percentage of its citizens: around 6 million perished – more than one-sixth of Poland's pre-war population – half of them Polish Jews. About 90% of deaths were non-military in nature.In 1945, Poland's borders were shifted westwards. Over two million Polish inhabitants of Kresy were expelled along the Curzon Line by Stalin. The western border became the Oder-Neisse line. As a result, Poland's territory was reduced by 20%, or . The shift forced the migration of millions of other people, most of whom were Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, and Jews.At the insistence of Joseph Stalin, the Yalta Conference sanctioned the formation of a new provisional pro-Communist coalition government in Moscow, which ignored the Polish government-in-exile based in London. This action angered many Poles who considered it a betrayal by the Allies. In 1944, Stalin had made guarantees to Churchill and Roosevelt that he would maintain Poland's sovereignty and allow democratic elections to take place. However, upon achieving victory in 1945, the elections organized by the occupying Soviet authorities were falsified and were used to provide a veneer of legitimacy for Soviet hegemony over Polish affairs. The Soviet Union instituted a new communist government in Poland, analogous to much of the rest of the Eastern Bloc. As elsewhere in Communist Europe, the Soviet influence over Poland was met with armed resistance from the outset which continued into the 1950s.Despite widespread objections, the new Polish government accepted the Soviet annexation of the pre-war eastern regions of Poland (in particular the cities of Wilno and Lwów) and agreed to the permanent garrisoning of Red Army units on Poland's territory. Military alignment within the Warsaw Pact throughout the Cold War came about as a direct result of this change in Poland's political culture. In the European scene, it came to characterize the full-fledged integration of Poland into the brotherhood of communist nations.The new communist government took control with the adoption of the Small Constitution on 19 February 1947. The Polish People's Republic ("Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa") was officially proclaimed in 1952. In 1956, after the death of Bolesław Bierut, the régime of Władysław Gomułka became temporarily more liberal, freeing many people from prison and expanding some personal freedoms. Collectivization in the Polish People's Republic failed. A similar situation repeated itself in the 1970s under Edward Gierek, but most of the time persecution of anti-communist opposition groups persisted. Despite this, Poland was at the time considered to be one of the least oppressive states of the Eastern Bloc.Labour turmoil in 1980 led to the formation of the independent trade union "Solidarity" (""Solidarność""), which over time became a political force. Despite persecution and imposition of martial law in 1981, it eroded the dominance of the Polish United Workers' Party and by 1989 had triumphed in Poland's first partially free and democratic parliamentary elections since the end of the Second World War. Lech Wałęsa, a Solidarity candidate, eventually won the presidency in 1990. The Solidarity movement heralded the collapse of communist regimes and parties across Europe.A shock therapy programme, initiated by Leszek Balcerowicz in the early 1990s, enabled the country to transform its socialist-style planned economy into a market economy. As with other post-communist countries, Poland suffered declines in social and economic standards, but it became the first post-communist country to reach its pre-1989 GDP levels, which it achieved by 1995 thanks largely to its booming economy.Most visibly, there were numerous improvements in human rights, such as freedom of speech, internet freedom (no censorship), civil liberties (1st class) and political rights (1st class), as ranked by Freedom House non-governmental organization. In 1991, Poland became a member of the Visegrád Group and joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance in 1999 along with the Czech Republic and Hungary. Poles then voted to join the European Union in a referendum in June 2003, with Poland becoming a full member on 1 May 2004.Poland joined the Schengen Area in 2007, as a result of which, the country's borders with other member states of the European Union have been dismantled, allowing for full freedom of movement within most of the EU. In contrast to this, a section of Poland's eastern border now constitutes the external EU border with Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. That border has become increasingly well protected, and has led in part to the coining of the phrase 'Fortress Europe', in reference to the seeming 'impossibility' of gaining entry to the EU for citizens of the former Soviet Union.In an effort to strengthen military cooperation with its neighbors, Poland set up the Visegrád Battlegroup with Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia, with a total of 3,000 troops ready for deployment. Also, in eastern Poland, it formed the LITPOLUKRBRIG battle groups with Lithuania and Ukraine. These battle groups will operate outside of NATO and within the European defense initiative framework.On 10 April 2010, the President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, along with 89 other high-ranking Polish officials died in a plane crash near Smolensk, Russia. The president's party was on their way to attend an annual service of commemoration for the victims of the Katyń massacre when the tragedy took place.In 2011, the ruling Civic Platform won parliamentary elections. Poland joined the European Space Agency in 2012, as well as organised the UEFA Euro 2012 (along with Ukraine). In 2013, Poland also became a member of the Development Assistance Committee. In 2014, the Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, was chosen to be President of the European Council, and resigned as prime minister.The 2015 and 2019 elections were won by the conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS), resulting in increased friction between Poland and the EU. In December 2017, Mateusz Morawiecki was sworn in as the new Prime Minister, succeeding Beata Szydlo, in office since 2015. They both represented ruling Law and Justice party, led by party chairman Jarosław Kaczyński. President Andrzej Duda, supported by Law and Justice party, was narrowly re-elected in the 2020 presidential election.Poland's vast territory covers approximately , of which 98.52% is dry land and 1.48% is water. Extending across several geographical regions, the country is the 9th-largest by area in Europe and 69th largest in the world. Topographically, Poland is diverse and has access to the sea, the mountains and open terrain. Although most of the central parts of the country are flat, there is an abundance of lakes, rivers, hills, swamps, beaches, islands and forests elsewhere.In the north-west is the Baltic seacoast spanning from the Bay of Pomerania to the Gulf of Gdańsk. The coast is marked by several spits, coastal lakes (former bays that have been cut off from the sea), and dunes. The largely straight coastline is indented by the Szczecin Lagoon, the Bay of Puck, and the Vistula Lagoon.The central and northern parts of the country lie within the North European Plain. Rising above these lowlands is a geographical region comprising four hilly districts of moraines and moraine-dammed lakes formed during and after the Pleistocene ice age, notably the Pomeranian Lake District, the Greater Polish Lake District, the Kashubian Lake District, and the Masurian Lake District. The Masurian Lake District is the largest of the four and covers much of north-eastern Poland. The lake districts form a series of moraine belts along the southern shore of the Baltic Sea.South of the Northern European Plain are the regions of Lusatia, Silesia and Masovia, which are marked by broad ice-age river valleys. The extreme south of Poland is mountainous; it runs from the Sudetes in the west to the Carpathian Mountains in the east. The highest part of the Carpathian massif is the Tatra Mountain range, along Poland's southern border.The geological structure of Poland has been shaped by the continental collision of Europe and Africa over the past 60 million years and, more recently, by the Quaternary glaciations of northern Europe. Both processes shaped the Sudetes and the Carpathian Mountains. The moraine landscape of northern Poland contains soils made up mostly of sand or loam, while the ice age river valleys of the south often contain loess. The Polish Jura, the Pieniny, and the Western Tatras consist of limestone, whereas the High Tatras, the Beskids, and the Karkonosze mountain ranges are made up mainly of granite and basalts. The Polish Jura Chain has some of the oldest rock formations on the continent of Europe.Poland has over 70 mountains over in elevation, all situated in the Tatras. Poland's highest point is the north-western summit of Mount Rysy at in elevation. At its foot lie the mountain lakes of Czarny Staw (Black Lake) and Morskie Oko (Eye of the Sea), both naturally-made tarns. Other notable uplands include the Pieniny and Holy Cross Mountains, the Table Mountains noted for their unusual rock formations, the Bieszczady in the far southeast of the country in which the highest peak is Tarnica at , and the Gorce Mountains whose highest point is Turbacz at . The highest point of the Sudeten massif is Mount Śnieżka (), shared with the Czech Republic.The lowest point in Poland – at below sea level – is at Raczki Elbląskie, near Elbląg in the Vistula Delta.In the Zagłębie Dąbrowskie (the Coal Fields of Dąbrowa) region in the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland is an area of sparsely vegetated sand known as the Błędów Desert. It covers an area of . It is not a natural desert and was formed by human activity from the Middle Ages onwards.The Baltic Sea activity in Słowiński National Park created sand dunes which in the course of time separated the bay from the sea creating two lakes. As waves and wind carry sand inland the dunes slowly move, at a rate of per year. Some dunes reach the height of up to . The highest peak of the park is Rowokol at above sea level.The longest rivers are the Vistula (), long; the Oder () which forms part of Poland's western border, long; its tributary, the Warta, long; and the Bug, a tributary of the Vistula, long. The Vistula and the Oder flow into the Baltic Sea, as do numerous smaller rivers in Pomerania. Poland's lengthy waterways have been used since early times for navigation; the Vikings ventured up the Polish rivers in their longships. In the Middle Ages and in early modern times, the shipment of tangible goods down the Vistula toward Gdańsk and onward to other parts of Europe took on great importance.With almost ten thousand closed bodies of water covering more than each, Poland has one of the highest numbers of lakes in the world. In Europe, only Finland has a greater density of lakes. The largest lakes, covering more than , are Lake Śniardwy and Lake Mamry in Masuria as well as Lake Łebsko and Lake Drawsko in Pomerania. The lake with the greatest depth—of more than —is Lake Hańcza in the Wigry Lake District, east of Masuria in Podlaskie Voivodeship.The Polish Baltic coast is approximately long and extends from Świnoujście on the islands of Usedom and Wolin in the west to Krynica Morska on the Vistula Spit in the east. For the most part, Poland has a smooth coastline, which has been shaped by the continual movement of sand by currents and winds. This continual erosion and deposition has formed cliffs, dunes, and spits, many of which have migrated landwards to close off former lagoons, such as Łebsko Lake in the Słowiński National Park.The largest spits are Hel Peninsula and the Vistula Spit. The coast line is varied also by Szczecin and Vistula Lagoons and several lakes, including Jamno. The largest Polish Baltic island is Wolin, located within Wolin National Park. The largest sea harbours are Szczecin, Świnoujście, Gdańsk, Gdynia, Police and Kołobrzeg and the main coastal resorts – Świnoujście, Międzydzdroje, Kołobrzeg, Łeba, Sopot, Władysławowo and the Hel Peninsula.In the valley of Pilica river in Tomaszów Mazowiecki there is a unique natural karst spring of water containing calcium salts, that is an object of protection at Blue Springs Nature Reserve in the Sulejów Landscape Park. The red waves are absorbed by water, hence only blue and green are reflected from the bottom of the spring, giving the water atypical colour.Forests cover about 29.6% of Poland's land area based on international standards. Its overall percentage is still increasing. Forests of Poland are managed by the national program of reforestation (KPZL), aiming at an increase of forest-cover to 33% in 2050. The largest forest complex in Poland is Lower Silesian Wilderness.More than 1% of Poland's territory, , is protected within 23 Polish national parks. Three more national parks are projected for Masuria, the Polish Jura, and the eastern Beskids. In addition, wetlands along lakes and rivers in central Poland are legally protected, as are coastal areas in the north. There are 123 areas designated as landscape parks, along with numerous nature reserves and other protected areas under the Natura 2000 network.In 2017, approximately of land was occupied by farms and farmsteads, over half of Poland's total area.Phytogeographically, Poland belongs to the Central European province of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the territory of Poland belongs to three Palearctic Ecoregions of the continental forest spanning Central and Northern European temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregions, as well as the Carpathian montane conifer forest. The most common deciduous trees found across the country are oak, maple, and beech; the most common conifers are pine, spruce, and fir. An estimated 68.7% of all forests are coniferous.Poland has historically been home to rare species of animals, as well as the two largest European mammals: the wisent ("żubr") and aurochs ("tur"). The last aurochs of Europe became extinct in 1627 in the Polish Jaktorów Forest, while the wisent survived until the 20th century only at Białowieża. It has been since reintroduced to other countries. Other wild species include the brown bear in Białowieża, in the Tatras, and in the Beskids; the gray wolf and the Eurasian lynx in various forests; the moose in northern Poland; and the beaver in Masuria, Pomerania, and Podlaskie.Game animals such as red deer, roe deer, and wild boar are found in most woodlands. Eastern Poland abounds in ancient woods, like the Białowieża Forest, that have not been disturbed by human or industrial activity. There are also large forested areas in the mountains, Greater Poland, Pomerania, Lubusz Land, and Lower Silesia. The Lubusz Voivodeship is currently the most arboraceous province in the country; 52% of its territory is occupied by forests.Poland is also a significant breeding ground for a variety of European migratory birds. One quarter of the global population of white storks (40,000 breeding pairs) live in Poland, particularly in the lake districts and the wetlands along the Biebrza, the Narew, and the Warta, which are part of nature reserves or national parks.The climate is mostly temperate throughout the country. The climate is oceanic in the north-west and becomes gradually warmer and continental towards the south-east. Summers are generally warm, with average temperatures between depending on the region. Winters are rather cold, with average temperatures around in the northwest and in the northeast. Precipitation falls throughout the year, although, especially in the east, winter is drier than summer.The warmest region in Poland is Lower Silesia in the southwest of the country, where temperatures in the summer average between but can go as high as on some days in the warmest months of July and August. The warmest cities in Poland are Tarnów in Lesser Poland, and Wrocław in Lower Silesia. The average temperatures in Wrocław are in the summer and in the winter, but Tarnów has the longest summer in all of Poland, which lasts for 115 days, from mid-May to mid-September. The coldest region of Poland is in the northeast, around the area of Suwałki within the Podlaskie Voivodeship, where the climate is affected by cold fronts coming from Scandinavia and Siberia. The average temperature in the winter in Podlaskie ranges from . The biggest impact of the oceanic climate is observed in Świnoujście and Baltic Sea seashore area from Police to Słupsk.Poland is a representative democracy, with a president as the head of state. The government structure centers on the Council of Ministers, led by a prime minister. The president appoints the cabinet according to the proposals of the prime minister, typically from the majority coalition in the Sejm. The president is elected by popular vote every five years. The current president is Andrzej Duda and the prime minister is Mateusz Morawiecki.Polish voters elect a bicameral parliament consisting of a 460-member lower house (Sejm) and a 100-member Senate (Senat). The Sejm is elected under proportional representation according to the d'Hondt method, a method similar to that used in many parliamentary political systems. The Senat, on the other hand, is elected under the first-past-the-post voting method, with one senator being returned from each of the 100 constituencies.With the exception of ethnic minority parties, only candidates of political parties receiving at least 5% of the total national vote can enter the Sejm. When sitting in joint session, members of the Sejm and Senat form the National Assembly (the "Zgromadzenie Narodowe"). The National Assembly is formed on three occasions: when a new president takes the oath of office; when an indictment against the President of the Republic is brought to the State Tribunal ("Trybunał Stanu"); and when a president's permanent incapacity to exercise his duties due to the state of his health is declared. To date only the first instance has occurred.The judicial branch plays an important role in decision-making. Its major institutions include the Supreme Court ("Sąd Najwyższy"); the Supreme Administrative Court ("Naczelny Sąd Administracyjny"); the Constitutional Tribunal ("Trybunał Konstytucyjny"); and the State Tribunal ("Trybunał Stanu"). On the approval of the Senat, the Sejm also appoints the ombudsman or the Commissioner for Civil Rights Protection ("Rzecznik Praw Obywatelskich") for a five-year term. The ombudsman has the duty of guarding the observance and implementation of the rights and liberties of Polish citizens and residents, of the law and of principles of community life and social justice.The Constitution of Poland is the enacted supreme law, and the Polish legal system is based on the principle of civil rights, governed by the code of civil law. The current democratic constitution was adopted by the National Assembly of Poland on 2 April 1997; it guarantees a multi-party state with freedoms of religion, speech and assembly, prohibits the practices of forced medical experimentation, torture or corporal punishment, and acknowledges the inviolability of the home, the right to form trade unions, and the right to strike.The judiciary incorporates a four-tier court system composed of the Supreme Court, the Supreme Administrative Court, Common Courts (District, Regional, Appellate) and the Military Court. Judges are nominated by the National Council of the Judiciary and are appointed for life by the president. The Constitutional and State Tribunals are separate judicial bodies, which rule the constitutional liability of people holding the highest offices of state and supervise the compliance of statutory law, thus protecting the Constitution.Historically, the most significant Polish legal act is the Constitution of 3 May 1791, the first modern constitution in Europe. Instituted as a Government Act, it was designed to redress long-standing political defects of the federative Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and its Golden Liberty. Previously, only the Henrician Articles (1573) signed by each of Poland's elected monarchs could perform the function of a set of basic laws. The new Constitution introduced political equality between townspeople and the nobility ("szlachta"), and placed the peasants under the protection of the government. It abolished pernicious parliamentary policies such as the "liberum veto", which permitted any deputy to rescind all the legislation passed in the interest of a foreign power. The 3 May Constitution sought to supplant the existing anarchy fostered by some of the country's reactionary magnates, with a more egalitarian and democratic constitutional monarchy. The influenced many later democratic movements across the globe. Tax-paying women were allowed to take part in Polish political life until the third partition in 1795. In 1918 the Second Polish Republic became one of the first countries to introduce universal women's suffrage.Poland has a low homicide rate at 0.7 murders per 100,000 people, as of 2018. Rape, assault and violent crime remain at a very low level, although not all cases are recorded by the authorities.Abortion is permitted only in cases of rape, incest or when the woman's life is in danger. Congenital disorder and stillbirth are not covered by the law, forcing some women to seek abortion abroad, and others to seek the assistance of psychiatrists willing to testify on the negative psychological impact of stillbirth. Poland does not criminalize homosexuality, and its legality was confirmed in 1932. The Polish Constitution defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.Poland is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union and has a grand total of 52 representatives in the European Parliament as of 2020. Since joining the union in 2004, successive Polish governments have pursued policies to extend the country's role in European and international affairs. Poland is an emerging regional power in Central Europe. The capital of Warsaw serves as the headquarters for Frontex, the European Union's agency for external border security as well as ODIHR, one of the principal institutions of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.Apart from the European Union, Poland has been a member of NATO since 1999, the UN, the World Trade Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since 1996, European Economic Area, International Energy Agency, Council of Europe, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, International Atomic Energy Agency, European Space Agency, G6, Council of the Baltic Sea States, Visegrád Group, Weimar Triangle, Schengen Agreement, Lublin Triangle and Bucharest Nine.Over the past two decades, Poland significantly strengthened its ties with the United States, thus becoming one of its closest allies in Europe. Poland was part of the US-led coalition force during the Iraq War in 2003, and sent its troops in the first phase of the conflict, jointly with the United Kingdom and Australia. Along with NATO, Poland maintains military presence in the Middle East, the Baltic states and in the Balkans.The Polish Armed Forces are composed of five branches – Land Forces ("Wojska Lądowe"), Navy ("Marynarka Wojenna"), Air Force ("Siły Powietrzne"), Special Forces ("Wojska Specjalne") and the Territorial Defence Force ("Wojska Obrony Terytorialnej"). The military is subordinate to the Ministry of National Defence of the Republic of Poland. However, its commander-in-chief in peacetime is the President of the Republic, who nominates officers, the Minister for National Defence and the chief of staff.As of 2018, the Polish Armed Forces have a combined strength of 144,142 soldiers. The Polish Navy primarily operates on the Baltic Sea and conducts operations such as maritime patrol, search and rescue for the section of the Baltic under Polish sovereignty, as well as hydrographic measurements and research. The Polish Air Force routinely takes part in Baltic Air Policing assignments. In 2003, the F-16C Block 52 was selected as the new general multi-role fighter for the air force. In January 2020, Poland has approved the delivery for F-35 Lightning II combat aircraft. Poland is currently spending 2% of its GDP on defence (approximately US$13.5 billion in 2020), which is expected to grow to 2.5% by 2030. According to SIPRI, the country exported EUR€487 million worth of arms and armaments to other countries, primarily to the United States, Chile, France and South Africa.The mission of the armed forces is the defence of Poland's territorial integrity and Polish interests abroad. The country's national security goal is to further integrate with NATO and European defence, economic, and political institutions. Compulsory military service for men was discontinued in 2008. From 2007, until conscription ended in 2008, the mandatory service was nine months. Polish military doctrine reflects the same defensive nature as that of its NATO partners and the country actively hosts NATO's military exercises. From 1953 to 2009 Poland was a large contributor to various United Nations peacekeeping missions. The Polish Armed Forces took part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, deploying 2,500 soldiers in the south of that country and commanding the 17-nation multinational force in Iraq. Poland also maintains troops in the Middle East, the Baltic states and in the Balkans; 1,650 soldiers were deployed in 2019.Law enforcement in Poland is performed by several agencies which are subordinate to the Ministry of Interior and Administration – the State Police ("Policja"), assigned to investigate crimes or transgression; the Municipal City Guard, which maintains public order; and several specialized agencies, such as the Polish Border Guard. Private security firms are also common, although they possess no legal authority to arrest or detain a suspect. Municipal guards are primarily headed by provincial, regional or city councils; individual guards are not permitted to carry firearms unless instructed by their superior commanding officer or commandant.The Internal Security Agency (ABW, or ISA in English) is the chief counter-intelligence instrument safeguarding Poland's internal security, along with Agencja Wywiadu (AW) which identifies threats and collects secret information abroad. The Central Investigation Bureau of Police (CBŚP) and the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) are responsible for countering organized crime and corruption in state and private institutions.Emergency services in Poland consist of the emergency medical services, search and rescue units of the Polish Armed Forces and State Fire Service. Emergency medical services in Poland are provided for by local and regional governments.All emergency services personnel are uniformed and security services can be easily recognized during regular patrols in both large urban areas or smaller suburban localities.Poland's current voivodeships (provinces) are largely based on the country's historic regions, whereas those of the past two decades (to 1998) had been centred on and named for individual cities. The new units range in area from less than for Opole Voivodeship to more than for Masovian Voivodeship. Administrative authority at the voivodeship level is shared between a government-appointed voivode (governor), an elected regional assembly ("sejmik") and a voivodeship marshal, an executive elected by that assembly.The voivodeships are subdivided into "powiats" (often referred to in English as counties), and these are further divided into "gminas" (also known as communes or municipalities). Major cities normally have the status of both "gmina" and "powiat". Poland has 16 voivodeships, 380 powiats (including 66 cities with "powiat" status), and 2,478 "gminas".Poland's economy and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is currently the sixth largest in the European Union by nominal standards, and the fifth largest by purchasing power parity. It is also one of the fastest growing within the Union. Around 60% of the employed population belongs to the tertiary service sector, 30% to industry and manufacturing, and the remaining 10% to the agricultural sector. Although Poland is a member of EU's single market, the country has not adopted the Euro as legal tender and maintains its own currency – the Polish złoty (zł, PLN).Poland is the regional economic leader in Central Europe, with nearly 40 per cent of the 500 biggest companies in the region (by revenues) as well as a high globalisation rate. The country's largest firms compose the WIG20 and WIG30 indexes, which is traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. According to reports made by the National Bank of Poland, the value of Polish foreign direct investments reached almost 300 billion PLN at the end of 2014. The Central Statistical Office estimated that in 2014 there were 1,437 Polish corporations with interests in 3,194 foreign entities.Having a strong domestic market, low private debt, low unemployment rate, flexible currency, and not being dependent on a single export sector, Poland is the only European economy to have avoided the recession of 2008. The country is the 20th largest exporter of goods and services in the world and its most successful exports include machinery, furniture, food products, clothing, shoes, cosmetics and videogames. These account to approximately 56% of the total GDP, as of 2018. Poland's largest trading partners include Germany, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, France and Italy. Warsaw leads Central Europe in foreign investment. In September 2018, the unemployment rate was estimated at 5.7%, one of the lowest in the European Union. In 2019, Poland passed a law that would exempt workers under the age of 26 from income tax.The Polish banking sector is the largest in the region, with 32.3 branches per 100,000 adults.World Bank, Financial Inclusion Data. Country Dashboard: Poland. The World Bank Group. Retrieved 6 November 2014. The banks are the largest and most developed sector of the country's financial markets. They are regulated by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority. Poland's banking sector has approximately 5 national banks, a network of nearly 600 cooperative banks and 18 branches of foreign-owned banks. In addition, foreign investors have controlling stakes in nearly 40 commercial banks, which make up 68% of the banking capital.Products and goods manufactured in Poland include: electronics, buses and trams (Solaris, Solbus), helicopters and planes (PZL Świdnik, PZL Mielec), trains (Pesa, Newag), ships (Gdańsk Shipyard, Szczecin Shipyard), military equipment (FB "Łucznik" Radom, , Jelcz), medicines (, ), food (Tymbark, Hortex, E. Wedel), clothes (LLP), glass, pottery (Bolesławiec), chemical products and others. Well-known brands and companies include Alior Bank, Orlen&Lotos Group, Inglot Cosmetics, Plus, Play, Brainly, Netguru, GOG.com, CD Projekt, Trefl and Allegro. Poland is also one of the world's biggest producers of copper, silver, coal, furniture, automotive parts and soft drink.Poland experienced a significant increase in the number of tourists after joining the European Union in 2004. With nearly 21 million international arrivals in 2019, tourism contributes considerably to the overall economy and makes up a relatively large proportion of the country's service market.Tourist attractions in Poland vary, from the mountains in the south to the sandy beaches in the north, with a trail of nearly every architectural style. The most visited city is Kraków, which was the former capital of Poland and serves as a relic of the Polish Golden Age and the Renaissance. Kraków also held royal coronations of most Polish kings and monarchs at Wawel, the nation's chief historical landmark. Among other notable sites in the country is Wrocław, one of the oldest cities in Poland which was a model for the founding of Kraków. Wrocław is famous for its dwarfs, a large market square with two town halls, and the oldest Zoological Gardens with one of the world's largest number of animal species. The Polish capital Warsaw and its historical Old Town were entirely reconstructed after wartime destruction. Other cities attracting countless tourists include Gdańsk, Poznań, Lublin, Toruń as well as the site of the German Auschwitz concentration camp in Oświęcim. A notable highlight is the 13th-century Wieliczka Salt Mine with its labyrinthine tunnels, a subterranean lake and chapels carved by miners out of rock salt beneath the ground.Poland's main tourist offerings include outdoor activities such as skiing, sailing, mountain hiking and climbing, as well as agritourism, sightseeing historical monuments. Tourist destinations include the Baltic Sea coast in the north; the Masurian Lake District and Białowieża Forest in the east; on the south Karkonosze, the Table Mountains and the Tatra Mountains, where Rysy – the highest peak of Poland, and Eagle's Path mountain trail are located. The Pieniny and Bieszczady Mountains lie in the extreme south-east. There are over 100 castles in the country, most in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship (inter alia ), and also on the Trail of the Eagles' Nests. The largest castle in the world by land area is situated in Malbork, in north-central Poland.The electricity generation sector in Poland is largely fossil-fuel–based. Many power plants nationwide use Poland's position as a major European exporter of coal to their advantage by continuing to use coal as the primary raw material in the production of their energy. In 2013, Poland scored 48 out of 129 states in the Energy Sustainability Index. The three largest Polish coal mining firms (Węglokoks, Kompania Węglowa and JSW) extract around 100 million tonnes of coal annually.Renewable forms of energy account for a smaller proportion of Poland's full energy generation capacity. However, the national government has set targets for the development of renewable energy sources in Poland (the share of energy from renewable sources in the gross final energy consumption in 2019 was – 12,18%). Increasing the share of energy from renewable sources and a significant reduction in CO2 emissions to be achieved with the help of biofuels, photovoltaics, construction of wind farms on the land and the Baltic Sea, hydroelectric stations and nuclear power plant.Poland has around 164,800,000,000 m of proven natural gas reserves and around 96,380,000 barrels of proven oil reserves. These reserves are exploited by energy supply companies such as PKN Orlen ("the only Polish company listed in the Fortune Global 500"), PGNiG. However, the small amounts of fossil fuels naturally occurring in Poland are insufficient to satisfy the full energy consumption needs of the population and industry. Consequently, the country is a net importer of oil and natural gas. Therefore, since the second decade of the 21st century, Poland has been strongly developing the so-called North Gate in which the most important components are the Baltic Pipe, the Świnoujście LNG terminal and Floating Storage and Regasification Unit in Port of Gdańsk.The 5 largest companies supplying Poland electricity are PGE, Tauron, Enea, and Innogy Poland.Transport in Poland is provided by means of rail, road, marine shipping and air travel. The country is part of EU's Schengen Area and is an important transport hub along neighbouring Germany due to its strategic position in Central Europe. Some of the longest European routes, including the E40, run through Poland.The country has a good network of highways, composed of express roads and motorways. At the start of 2020, Poland had of highways in use. In addition, all local and regional roads are monitored by the National Road Rebuilding Programme, which aims to improve the quality of travel in the countryside and suburban localities.In 2017, the nation had of railway track, the third longest in Europe after Germany and France. The Polish State Railways (PKP) is the dominant railway operator in the country. In December 2014, Poland began to implement high–speed rail routes connecting major Polish cities, and started passenger service using the New Pendolino train, operating at 200 km/h on the Central Rail Line (CMK). Polish regulations allow trains without ETCS to travel at speeds up to 160 km/h, trains with ETCS1 up to 200 km/h, and trains with ETCS2 at over 200 km/h. Most inter-regional connections rail routes in Poland are operated by PKP Intercity, whilst regional trains are run by a number of private operators, the largest of which is Polregio. The largest passenger train station in terms of the number of travelers is Wrocław Główny.The air and maritime transport markets in Poland are largely well developed. Poland has a number of international airports, the largest of which is Warsaw Chopin Airport, the primary global hub for LOT Polish Airlines. It was established in 1928 from a merger of Aerolloyd (1922) and Aero (1925). Other major airports with international connections include John Paul II International Airport Kraków–Balice, Copernicus Airport Wrocław, Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport. Poland has begun preparations for a construction that can handle 100 million passengers of the Central Communication Port.Seaports exist all along Poland's Baltic coast, with most freight operations using Świnoujście, Police, Szczecin, Kołobrzeg, Gdynia, Gdańsk and Elbląg as their base.Passenger ferries link Poland with Scandinavia all year round; these services are provided from Gdańsk and Świnoujście by Polferries, Stena Line from Gdynia and Unity Line from the Świnoujście. The Port of Gdańsk is the only port in the Baltic Sea adapted to receive oceanic vessels.Over the course of history, the Polish people have made considerable contributions in the fields of science, technology and mathematics. Perhaps the most renowned Pole to support this theory was Nicolaus Copernicus ("Mikołaj Kopernik"), who triggered the Copernican Revolution by placing the Sun rather than the Earth at the center of the universe. He also derived a quantity theory of money, which made him a pioneer of economics. Copernicus' achievements and discoveries are considered the basis of Polish culture and cultural identity.Poland's tertiary education institutions; traditional universities, as well as technical, medical, and economic institutions, employ around tens of thousands of researchers and staff members. There are hundreds of research and development institutes. However, in the 19th and 20th centuries many Polish scientists worked abroad; one of the most important of these exiles was Maria Skłodowska-Curie, a physicist and chemist who lived much of her life in France. In 1925 she established Poland's Radium Institute.In the first half of the 20th century, Poland was a flourishing centre of mathematics. Outstanding Polish mathematicians formed the Lwów School of Mathematics (with Stefan Banach, Stanisław Mazur, Hugo Steinhaus, Stanisław Ulam) and Warsaw School of Mathematics (with Alfred Tarski, Kazimierz Kuratowski, Wacław Sierpiński and Antoni Zygmund). Numerous mathematicians, scientists, chemists or economists emigrated due to historic vicissitudes, among them Benoit Mandelbrot, Leonid Hurwicz, Alfred Tarski, Joseph Rotblat and Nobel Prize laureates Roald Hoffmann, Georges Charpak and Tadeusz Reichstein. In the 1930s, mathematician and cryptologist Marian Rejewski invented the Cryptographic Bomb which formed the basis of the effort that allowed the Allies to crack the Enigma code.Over 40 research and development centers and 4,500 researchers make Poland the biggest research and development hub in Central and Eastern Europe. Multinational companies such as: ABB, Delphi, GlaxoSmithKline, Google, Hewlett–Packard, IBM, Intel, LG Electronics, Microsoft, Motorola, Siemens and Samsung all have set up research and development centres in Poland. Companies chose Poland because of the availability of highly qualified labour force, presence of universities, support of authorities, and the largest market in East-Central Europe. According to a KPMG report from 2011, 80% of Poland's current investors are content with their choice and willing to reinvest. Poland has a very well-developed e-administration, thanks to which many official matters can be easily and quickly settled via the Internet. In the UN ranking, Poland is in the top twenty countries with the best-rated e-administration in the world.Poland, with approximately 38.5 million inhabitants, has the ninth-largest population in Europe and the fifth-largest in the European Union. It has a population density of 122 inhabitants per square kilometre (328 per square mile). The total fertility rate in 2020 was estimated at 1.44 children born to a woman, a considerable rise from previous years. In contrast, the total fertility rate in 1925 was 4.68. Furthermore, Poland's population is aging significantly and the median age in 2018 was 41.1 years. The crude death rate in 2020 stood at 10.3 per 1,000 people.Around 60% of Poles and Polish citizens reside in urban areas or major cities and 40% in more rural zones. The most populous administrative province or state is the Masovian Voivodeship and the most populous city is the capital, Warsaw, at 1.8 million inhabitants with a further 2-3 million people living in its metropolitan area. The metropolitan area of Katowice is the largest urban conurbation in Poland with a population between 2.7 million and 5.3 million residents. The least populous and the smallest province in size is the Opole Voivodeship, with just under 1 million people living within its borders. Hence, a substantial portion of the total population is concentrated in the south of Poland, roughly between the cities of Wrocław and Kraków.In the 2011 Polish census, 37,310,341 people reported Polish identity, 846,719 Silesian, 232,547 Kashubian and 147,814 German. Other identities were reported by 163,363 people (0.41%) and 521,470 people (1.35%) did not specify any nationality. Once prominent but now statistically insignificant minority groups include Polish Jews, Lipka Tatars, Armenians, Greeks, Lemkos, the Romani people and the Vietnamese. Ethnic Poles themselves can be divided into many diverse regional ethnographic sub-groups, most notable being the Kashubians, Silesians and Gorals (Highlanders). The statistics do not include recently arrived migrant workers. More than 1.7 million Ukrainian citizens worked legally in Poland in 2017.There is a very strong Polish diaspora around the world, notably in the United States, Germany, United Kingdom and Canada. A strong Polish minority is still present in the territories of contemporary western Ukraine and Belarus, eastern Lithuania, eastern and central Latvia, and northeastern Czech Republic, which were part of Poland in the past. Altogether, the number of ethnic Poles living abroad is estimated to be around 20 million.Polish is the only official and predominant spoken language in Poland, but it is also used throughout the world by Polish minorities in other countries as well as being one of the official languages of the European Union. The deaf communities use Polish Sign Language belonging to the German family of Sign Languages. Polish is also a second language in Lithuania, where it is taught in schools and universities. Contemporary Poland is a linguistically homogeneous nation, with nearly 97% of respondents declaring Polish as their mother tongue.Poland's once multi-ethnic population communicated in numerous languages and lects which faded or disappeared along the course of history. There are currently 15 minority languages in Poland, including one recognized regional language, Kashubian, which is spoken by around 366,000 people in the northern regions of Kashubia and Pomerania.Languages having the status of national minority's language are Armenian, Belarusian, Czech, German, Yiddish, Hebrew, Lithuanian, Russian, Slovak and Ukrainian. Languages having the status of ethnic minority's language are Karaim, Lemko-Rusyn, Tatar and two Romani languages; Polska Roma and Bergitka Roma. Official recognition of a language provides certain rights under conditions prescribed by Polish law, including education and state financial support for promoting that language. Poland recognized secondary administrative languages or auxiliary languages in bilingual municipalities. Currently, German and Kashubian hold such status in 19 municipalities ("gminas"), Belarusian in 9 and Lithuanian in 1. Bilingual signs, names and advertisements are commonplace in those localities. Silesian and Wymysorys (Vilamovian) are not legally recognized or acknowledged as separate languages with a minority status.More than 50% of Polish citizens declare at least basic knowledge of the English language, followed by German (38%).According to the 2015 census, 92.9% of all Polish citizens adhere to the Roman Catholic Church. An estimated 94.2% of the population are believers and 3.1% are irreligious, making Poland one of the more devout countries in Europe. Around 61.6% of all respondents outlined that religion is of high or very high importance. However, church attendance has decreased in recent years; only 38% of worshippers attended mass regularly on Sunday in 2018. Freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Polish Constitution, and the concordat guarantees the teaching of religion in state schools.For centuries the tribes inhabiting the lands of modern-day Poland have practiced various forms of paganism known as "Rodzimowierstwo", or "native faith". In the year 966, Duke Mieszko I converted to Christianity, and submitted to the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. This event came to be known as the Baptism of Poland. However, this did not put an end to pagan beliefs in the country. The persistence was demonstrated by a series of rebellions in the 1030s known as the pagan reaction, which also showed elements of a peasant uprising against medieval feudalism.Religious tolerance was an important part of Polish political culture, though it varied at times. In 1264, the Statute of Kalisz granted Jews unprecedented legal rights not found anywhere in Europe. In 1573, the Warsaw Confederation marked the formal beginning of extensive religious freedoms in Poland. It was partially influenced by the 1572 St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in France, which prompted the nobility to prevent the monarch from carrying out reprehensible atrocities in Poland based on religious affiliation. The religious tolerance also spurred many theological movements such as the Calvinist Polish Brethren, a number of Protestant groups and atheists like Casimir Liszinski, one of the first atheist thinkers in Europe. Anabaptists fleeing 16th-century persecution in the Netherlands and Germany settled in Poland and became known as the Vistula delta Mennonites. From 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła was head of the Roman Catholic Church as Pope John Paul II.Contemporary religious minorities include Christian Orthodox (506,800), various Protestants (150,000) — including 77,500 Lutherans of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church, 23,000 Pentecostals in the Pentecostal Church in Poland, 10,000 Adventists in the Seventh-day Adventist Church and other smaller Evangelical denominations — Jehovah's Witnesses (126,827), Eastern Catholics, Mariavites, Jews, Muslims (Tatars) and neopagans, some of whom are members of the Native Polish Church.Famous sites of Roman Catholic pilgrimage in Poland include the Monastery of Jasna Góra in the city of Częstochowa, Basilica of Our Lady of Licheń, Kraków's Sanctuary of Divine Mercy and Święta Lipka (Holy Linden) in Masuria. Tourists also visit the family home of John Paul II in Wadowice outside Kraków. Christ the King in Świebodzin is the tallest statue of Jesus in the world. Christian Orthodox pilgrims visit Mount Grabarka near Grabarka-Klasztor and the Hasidic Jews travel annually to the grave of a great rabbi in Leżajsk.Medical service providers and hospitals ("szpitale") in Poland are subordinate to the Ministry of Health; it provides administrative oversight and scrutiny of general medical practice, and is obliged to maintain a high standard of hygiene and patient care. Poland has a universal healthcare system based on an all-inclusive insurance system; state subsidised healthcare is available to all citizens covered by the general health insurance program of the National Health Fund (NFZ). Private medical complexes exist nationwide; over 50% of the population uses both public and private sectors.Hospitals are organised according to the regional administrative structure, resultantly most towns, counties or municipalities possess their own provincial hospital or medical clinics. There are six types of hospital facilities, each with a particular area of medical expertise – I Grade Hospitals for general surgery, internal illnesses and obstetrics; II Grade Hospitals for child surgery, neurology, cardiology and ophthalmology; III Grade Hospitals including teaching hospitals for infectious diseases, nephrology, orthopedics, toxicology and transplantology; Oncology Hospitals for cancer treatment and brachytherapy; Pediatric Hospitals for child care; and Nationwide Hospitals for general and acute care.According to the Human Development Report from 2020, the average life expectancy at birth is 79 years (around 75 years for an infant male and 83 years for an infant female); the country has a low infant mortality rate (4 per 1,000 births). In 2019, the principal cause of death was ischemic heart disease; diseases of the circulatory system accounted for 45% of all deaths. In the same year, Poland was also the 15th-largest importer of medications and pharmaceutical products.The Jagiellonian University founded in 1364 by Casimir III in Kraków was the first institution of higher learning established in Poland, and is one of the oldest universities still in continuous operation. Poland's Commission of National Education ("Komisja Edukacji Narodowej"), established in 1773, was the world's first state ministry of education. The framework for primary and secondary schooling in contemporary Poland is established by the Ministry of National Education. Kindergarten attendance is optional for children aged between three and five, with one year being compulsory for six-year-olds. Primary education traditionally begins at the age of seven, although children aged six can attend at the request of their parents or guardians. Elementary school spans eight grades, at the end of which an obligatory three-part exam on Polish, mathematics and a foreign language is to be undertaken. Secondary schooling is dependent on student preference – either a four-year high school ("liceum"), a five-year technical school ("technikum") or various vocational studies ("szkoła branżowa") can be pursued by each individual pupil. A liceum or technikum is concluded with a maturity exit exam ("matura"), which must be passed in order to apply for a university or other institutions of higher learning.The standards of higher tertiary education are imposed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. In Poland, there are over 500 university-level institutions, with technical, medical, economic, agricultural, pedagogical, theological, musical, maritime and military faculties. The University of Warsaw and Warsaw Polytechnic, the University of Wrocław, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and the University of Technology in Gdańsk are among the most prominent. There are three conventional academic degrees in Poland – "licencjat" or "inżynier" (first cycle qualification), "magister" (second cycle qualification) and "doktor" (third cycle qualification).In 2018, the Programme for International Student Assessment, coordinated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, ranked Poland's educational system higher than the OECD average; the study showed that students in Poland perform better academically than in most OECD countries.The culture of Poland is closely connected with its intricate 1,000-year history and forms an important constituent in western civilization. The Poles take great pride in their national identity which is often associated with the colours white and red, and exuded by the expression "biało-czerwoni" ("whitereds"). National symbols, chiefly the crowned white-tailed eagle, are often visible on clothing, insignia and emblems. The appreciation of Poland's traditions and cultural heritage is commonly known as Polonophilia.With origins in the customs of the tribal Lechites, over time the culture of Poland has been influenced by its connection to Western culture and trends, as well as developing its own unique traditions such as Sarmatism. The people of Poland have traditionally been seen as hospitable to artists from abroad and eager to follow cultural and artistic trends popular in foreign countries, for instance, the 16th- and 17th-century tradition of coffin portraits ("portret trumienny") was only observed in Poland and Roman Egypt. In the 19th and 20th centuries the Polish focus on cultural advancement often took precedence over political and economic activity. These factors have contributed to the versatile nature of Polish art.The architectural monuments of great importance are protected by the National Heritage Board of Poland. Over 100 of the country's most significant tangible wonders were enlisted onto the Historic Monuments Register, with further 16 being recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. Poland is renowned for its brick Gothic castles, granaries and churches as well as diversely-styled tenements, market squares and town halls. The majority of Polish cities founded on Magdeburg Law in the Middle Ages evolved around central marketplaces, a distinguishable urban characteristic which can be observed to this day. Medieval and Renaissance cloth halls were once an abundant feature of many towns.There are 13 government-approved annual public holidays – New Year on 1 January, Three Kings' Day on 6 January, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, Labour Day on 1 May, Constitution Day on 3 May, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, Armed Forces Day on 15 August, All Saints' Day on 1 November, Independence Day on 11 November and Christmastide on 25 and 26 December.Particular traditions and superstitious customs observed in Poland are not found elsewhere in Europe. Though Christmas Eve ("Wigilia") is not a public holiday, it remains the most memorable day of the entire year. Trees are decorated on 24 December, hay is placed under the tablecloth to resemble Jesus' manger, Christmas wafers ("opłatek") are shared between gathered guests and a twelve-dish meatless supper is served that same evening when the first star appears. An empty plate and seat are symbolically left at the table for an unexpected guest. On occasion, carolers journey around smaller towns with a folk Turoń creature until the Lent period.A widely-popular doughnut and sweet pastry feast occurs on Fat Thursday, usually 52 days prior to Easter. Eggs for Holy Sunday are painted and placed in decorated baskets that are previously blessed by clergymen in churches on Easter Saturday. Easter Monday is celebrated with pagan "dyngus" festivities, where the youth is engaged in water fights and some girls are gently spanked by colleagues with pussy willows to stimulate fertility.Cemeteries and graves of the deceased are annually visited by family members on All Saints' Day; tombstones are cleaned as a sign of respect and candles are lit to honour the dead on an unprecedented scale.Artists from Poland, including famous musicians such as Chopin, Rubinstein, Paderewski, Penderecki and Wieniawski, and traditional, regionalized folk composers create a lively and diverse music scene, which even recognizes its own music genres, such as sung poetry and disco polo.The origins of Polish music can be traced to the 13th century; manuscripts have been found in Stary Sącz containing polyphonic compositions related to the Parisian Notre Dame School. Other early compositions, such as the melody of "Bogurodzica" and "God Is Born" (a coronation polonaise tune for Polish kings by an unknown composer), may also date back to this period, however, the first known notable composer, Nicholas of Radom, lived in the 15th century. Diomedes Cato, a native-born Italian who lived in Kraków, became a renowned lutenist at the court of Sigismund III; he not only imported some of the musical styles from southern Europe but blended them with native folk music.In the 17th and 18th centuries, Polish baroque composers wrote liturgical music and secular compositions such as concertos and sonatas for voices or instruments. At the end of the 18th century, Polish classical music evolved into national forms like the polonaise. Wojciech Bogusławski is accredited with composing the first Polish national opera, titled "", which premiered in 1794.Traditional Polish folk music has had a major effect on the works of many Polish composers, and no more so than on Fryderyk Chopin, a widely recognised national hero of the arts. All of Chopin's works involve the piano and are technically demanding, emphasising nuance and expressive depth. As a great composer, Chopin invented the musical form known as the instrumental ballade and made major innovations to the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, polonaise, étude, impromptu and prélude, he was also the composer of a number of polonaises which borrowed heavily from traditional Polish folk music. It is largely thanks to him that such pieces gained great popularity throughout Europe during the 19th century. Several Polish composers such as Szymanowski drew inspiration from Chopin's folk-influenced style. Nowadays the most distinctive folk music can be heard in the towns and villages of the mountainous south, particularly in the region surrounding the winter resort town of Zakopane.Poland today has an active music scene, with the jazz and metal genres being particularly popular among the contemporary populace. Polish jazz musicians such as Krzysztof Komeda created a unique style, which was most famous in the 1960s and 1970s and continues to be popular to this day. Poland has also become a major venue for large-scale music festivals, chief among which are the Open'er Festival, Opole Festival and Sopot Festival.Art in Poland has always reflected European trends while maintaining its unique character. The Kraków Academy of Fine Arts, later developed by Jan Matejko, produced monumental portrayals of customs and significant events in Polish history. Other institutions such as the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw were more innovative and focused on both historical and contemporary styles. Notable art academies include the Kraków School of Art and Fashion Design, Art Academy of Szczecin, University of Fine Arts in Poznań and the Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław.Perhaps the most prominent and internationally admired Polish artist was Tamara de Lempicka, who specialized in the style of Art Deco. Lempicka was described as "the first woman artist to become a glamour star." Another notable was Caziel, born Zielenkiewicz, who represented Cubism and Abstraction in France and England.Prior to the 19th century only Daniel Schultz and Italian-born Marcello Bacciarelli had the privilege of being recognized abroad. The Young Poland movement witnessed the birth of modern Polish art, and engaged in a great deal of formal experimentation led by Jacek Malczewski, Stanisław Wyspiański, Józef Mehoffer, and a group of Polish Impressionists. Stanisław Witkiewicz was an ardent supporter of Realism, its main representative being Józef Chełmoński, while Artur Grottger specialized in Romanticism. Within historically-orientated circles, Henryk Siemiradzki dominated with his monumental Academic Art and ancient Roman theme.Since the inter-war years, Polish art and documentary photography has enjoyed worldwide fame and in the 1960s the Polish School of Posters was formed. Throughout the entire country, many national museum and art institutions hold valuable works by famous masters. Major museums in Poland include the National Museum in Warsaw, Poznań, Wrocław, Kraków, and Gdańsk, as well as the Museum of John Paul II Collection, and the Wilanów Museum. Important collections are also held at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Wawel Castle and in the Palace on the Isle. Contemporary art galleries include Zachęta, Ujazdów, and MOCAK. The most distinguished painting of Poland is "Lady with an Ermine" by Leonardo da Vinci, held at the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków. Although not Polish, the work had a strong influence on Polish culture and has been often associated with Polish identity.Polish cities and towns reflect a whole spectrum of European architectural styles. Romanesque architecture is represented by St. Andrew's Church, Kraków, and St. Mary's Church, Gdańsk, is characteristic for the Brick Gothic style found in Poland. Richly decorated attics and arcade loggias are the common elements of the Polish Renaissance architecture, as evident in the City Hall in Poznań. For some time the late renaissance style known as mannerism, most notably in the Bishop's Palace in Kielce, coexisted with the early baroque style, typified in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Kraków.History has not been kind to Poland's architectural monuments. Nonetheless, a number of ancient structures have survived: castles, churches, and stately homes, often unique in the regional or European context. Some of them have been painstakingly restored, like Wawel Castle, or completely reconstructed, including the Old Town and Royal Castle of Warsaw and the Old Town of Gdańsk.The architecture of Gdańsk is mostly of the Hanseatic variety, a Gothic style common among the former trading cities along the Baltic Sea and in the northern part of Central Europe. The architectural style of Wrocław is mainly representative of German architecture since it was for centuries located within the Holy Roman Empire. The centres of Kazimierz Dolny and Sandomierz on the Vistula are good examples of well-preserved medieval towns. Poland's ancient capital, Kraków, ranks among the best-preserved Gothic and Renaissance urban complexes in Europe.The second half of the 17th century is marked by baroque architecture. Side towers, such as those of Branicki Palace in Białystok, are typical for the Polish baroque. The classical Silesian baroque is represented by the University in Wrocław. The profuse decorations of the Branicki Palace in Warsaw are characteristic of the rococo style. The centre of Polish classicism was Warsaw under the rule of the last Polish king Stanisław II Augustus.The Palace on the Isle is a chief example of Polish neoclassical architecture. Lublin Castle represents the Gothic Revival style in architecture, while the Izrael Poznański Palace in Łódź is an example of eclecticism.Traditional folk architecture in the villages and small towns scattered across the vast Polish countryside was characterized by its extensive use of wood and red brick as primary building materials, common for Central Europe. Some of the best preserved and oldest structures include ancient stone temples in Silesia and fortified wooden churches across southeastern Poland in the Beskids and Bieszczady regions of the Carpathian mountains. Numerous examples of secular structures such as Polish manor houses ("dworek"), farmhouses (), granaries, mills, barns and country inns () can still be found in some Polish regions. However, traditional construction methods faded in the early-mid 20th century, when Poland's population experienced a demographic shift to urban dwelling away from the countryside.The earliest examples of Polish literature date to the 12th century, when Poland's official language was Latin, and early published works were predominantly written by foreigners. Gallus Anonymus, a monk of disputed origin, was the first chronicler who meticulously described Poland's culture, language and territories in "Gesta principum Polonorum" (c. 1112–1118). Latin remained the principal tool of literary expression in Poland until the 18th century, when it was replaced in favour of Polish and French. Historically, Polish literature concentrated extensively around the themes of true drama and poetic-expressive romanticism than on fiction. Patriotism, spirituality and aphorisms were paramount and political or social allegories were common moral narratives.The first documented phrase in the Polish language reads ""Day ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai"" ("Let me grind, and you take a rest"), reflecting the use of quern-stone in early Poland. The phrase was recorded by an abbot in the Latin-based "Liber fundationis" from 1269 to 1273, which outlined the history of a Cistercian monastery in the Silesian village of Henryków. The sentence has been included in the UNESCO Memory of World Register. The oldest extant manuscript of fine prose in Old Polish is the "Holy Cross Sermons", and the earliest religious text is the Bible of Queen Sophia. One of the first printing houses was established by Kasper Straube in the 1470s, while Jan Haller was considered the pioneer of commercial print in Poland. Haller's Calendarium cracoviense, an astronomical wall calendar from 1474, is Poland's oldest surviving print.The tradition of extending Polish historiography in Latin was subsequently inherited by Vincent Kadłubek, Bishop of Kraków in the 13th century, and Jan Długosz in the 15th century. This practice, however, was abandoned by Jan Kochanowski, who became one of the first Polish Renaissance authors to write most of his works in Polish, along with Nicholas Rey. Other writers of the Polish Renaissance include Johannes Dantiscus, Andreus Fricius Modrevius, Matthias Sarbievius, Piotr Skarga and Klemens "Ianicius" Janicki, who was laureled by the Pope. The leading figure of the Polish Reformation was theologian and writer John Laski, who, with the permission of King Edward VI of England, created the European Protestant Congregation of London in 1550.During the Baroque era, the Jesuits greatly influenced Polish literature and literary techniques, often relying on God and religious matters. The leading baroque poet was Jan Andrzej Morsztyn, who incorporated Marinism into his publications. Jan Chryzostom Pasek, also a respected baroque writer, is mostly remembered for his tales and memoirs reflecting sarmatian culture in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Subsequently, the Polish Enlightenment was headed by Samuel Linde, Hugo Kołłątaj, Izabela Czartoryska and Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz. In 1776, Ignacy Krasicki composed the first milestone novel entitled "The Adventures of Mr. Nicholas Wisdom".Among the best known Polish Romantics are the "Three Bards" – the three national poets active in the age of foreign partitions – Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki and Zygmunt Krasiński. The narrative poem "Pan Tadeusz" by Mickiewicz is Poland's national epic and a compulsory reading ("lektura") in the country's schools. Joseph Conrad, the son of dramatist Apollo Korzeniowski, came to fame with his English-language novels and stories that are informed with elements of the Polish national experience. Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", "Nostromo" and "Lord Jim" are believed to be one of the finest works ever written, placing him among the greatest novelists of all time. Modern Polish literature is versatile, with its fantasy genre having been particularly praised. The philosophical sci-fi novel "Solaris" is an acclaimed example of Stanisław Lem's literary legacy, whereas "The Witcher", a fantasy series by Andrzej Sapkowski, is a much-celebrated work of contemporary Polish fiction.In the 20th century, five Polish authors were awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature – Henryk Sienkiewicz for "Quo Vadis", Władysław Reymont for "The Peasants", Isaac Bashevis Singer, Czesław Miłosz and Wisława Szymborska. In 2019, Polish author Olga Tokarczuk was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 2018.Polish cuisine has evolved over the centuries to become highly eclectic due to Poland's history. Polish cuisine shares many similarities with other Central European cuisines, especially German and Austrian as well as Jewish, French, Italian and Turkish culinary traditions. Polish-styled cooking in other cultures is often referred to as "cuisine à la polonaise".Polish dishes are usually rich in meat, especially pork, chicken and beef (depending on the region), winter vegetables (sauerkraut cabbage in "bigos"), and spices. It is also characteristic in its use of various kinds of noodles, the most notable of which are kluski, as well as cereals such as "kasha" (from the Polish word kasza) and a variety of breads like the world-renowned bagel. Polish cuisine is hearty and uses a lot of cream and eggs. Festive meals such as the meatless Christmas Eve dinner ("Wigilia") or Easter breakfast could take days to prepare in their entirety.The main course usually includes a serving of meat, such as roast, chicken, or "kotlet schabowy" (breaded pork cutlet), vegetables, side dishes and salads, including "surówka" – shredded root vegetables with lemon and sugar (carrot, celeriac, seared beetroot) or sauerkraut (, ). The side dishes are usually potatoes, rice or cereal. Meals conclude with a dessert such as "sernik" (cheesecake), "makowiec" (poppy seed pastry), or "napoleonka" (cream pie).The Polish national dishes are "bigos" ; "pierogi" ; "kielbasa"; "kotlet schabowy" breaded cutlet; "gołąbki" cabbage rolls; "zrazy" roulade; "pieczeń" roast ; sour cucumber soup ("zupa ogórkowa", ); mushroom soup, ("zupa grzybowa", quite different from the North American cream of mushroom); "zupa pomidorowa" tomato soup ; "rosół" variety of meat broth; "żurek" sour rye soup; "flaki" tripe soup; "barszcz" and "chłodnik" among others.Traditional alcoholic beverages include honey mead, widespread since the 13th century, beer, wine and vodka (old Polish names include "okowita" and "gorzała"). The world's first written mention of vodka originates from Poland. The most popular alcoholic drinks at present are beer and wine which took over from vodka more popular in the years 1980–1998. Tea remains common in Polish society since the 19th century, whilst coffee is drunk widely since the 18th century. Other frequently consumed beverages include various mineral waters and juices, soft drinks popularized by the fast-food chains since the late 20th century, as well as buttermilk, soured milk and kefir.The particular clothing styles in Poland evolved with each century. In the 1600s high-class noblemen and magnates developed a strong sympathy for Orientalism, which was also common in other parts of Europe and became known as Sarmatism. The attire mediated between Western and Ottoman styles and outfits included a żupan, delia, kontusz, pas, decorative karabela swords and less often turbans brought by foreign merchants. The period of Polish Sarmatism eventually faded in the wake of the 18th century.The Polish national dress as well as the fashion and etiquette of Poland also reached the royal court at Versailles in the 1700s. French dresses inspired by Polish attire were called "à la polonaise", meaning "Polish-styled". The most famous example is the "robe à la polonaise", a woman's garment with draped and swagged overskirt, worn over an underskirt or petticoat. Another notable example is the Witzchoura, a long mantle with collar and hood, which was possibly introduced by Napoleon's Polish mistress Maria Walewska. The scope of influence also entailed furniture; rococo Polish beds with canopies became commonplace in French palaces during the 18th century.Several Polish designers and stylists left a lifelong legacy of beauty inventions and cosmetics, most notable being Maksymilian Faktorowicz and Helena Rubinstein. Faktorowicz created a line of cosmetics company in California known as Max Factor and coined the term "make-up" based on the verb phrase "to make up" one's face, now widely used as an alternative for describing cosmetics. Faktorowicz also raised to fame by inventing modern eyelash extensions and by providing services to Hollywood artists.As of 2020, Poland possesses the fifth-largest cosmetic market in Europe. Founded in 1983, Inglot Cosmetics is the country's largest beauty products manufacturer and retailer active in 700 locations worldwide, including retail salons in New York City, London, Milan, Dubai and Las Vegas. Established in 1999, the retail store Reserved is Poland's most successful clothing store chain, operating over 1,700 retail shops in 19 countries. Internationally successful models from Poland include Anja Rubik, Joanna Krupa, Jac Jagaciak, Kasia Struss, Małgosia Bela, and Magdalena Frąckowiak.The history of Polish cinema is as long as the history of cinematography itself. Over the decades, Poland has produced outstanding directors, film producers, cartoonists and actors that achieved world fame, especially in Hollywood. Moreover, Polish inventors played an important role in the development of world cinematography and modern-day television. Among the most famous directors and producers, who worked in Poland as well as abroad are Roman Polański, Andrzej Wajda, Samuel Goldwyn, the Warner brothers (Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack), Max Fleischer, Lee Strasberg, Agnieszka Holland and Krzysztof Kieślowski.In the 19th century, throughout partitioned Poland, numerous amateur inventors, such as Kazimierz Prószyński, were eager to construct a film projector. In 1894, Prószyński was successful in creating a Pleograph, one of the first cameras in the world. The invention, which took photographs and projected pictures, was built before the Lumière brothers lodged their patent. He also patented an Aeroscope, the first successful hand-held operated film camera. In 1897, Jan Szczepanik, obtained a British patent for his Telectroscope. This prototype of television could easily transmit image and sound, thus allowing a live remote view.Polish cinema developed rapidly in the interwar period. The most renowned star of the silent film era was Polish actress Pola Negri. During this time, the Yiddish cinema also evolved in Poland. Films in the Yiddish language with Jewish themes, such as "The Dybbuk" (1937), played an important part in pre-war Polish cinematography. In 1945 the government established 'Film Polski', a state-run film production and distribution organization, with director Aleksander Ford as the head of the company. Ford's "Knights of the Teutonic Order" (1960) was viewed by millions of people in the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and France. This success was followed by the historical films of Jerzy Hoffman and Andrzej Wajda. Wajda's 1975 film "The Promised Land" was nominated at the 48th Academy Awards.In 2015, "Ida" by Paweł Pawlikowski won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2019, Pawlikowski received an Academy Award for Best Director nomination for his historical drama "Cold War". Other well-known Polish Oscar-winning productions include "The Pianist" (2002) by Roman Polański.Poland has a number of major media outlets, chief among which are the national television channels. TVP is Poland's public broadcasting corporation; about a third of its income comes from a broadcast receiver licence, while the rest is made through revenue from commercials and sponsorships. State television operates two mainstream channels, TVP 1 and TVP 2, as well as regional programs for each of the country's 16 voivodeships (as TVP 3). In addition to these general channels, TVP runs a number of genre-specific programmes such as TVP Sport, TVP Historia, TVP Kultura, TVP Rozrywka, TVP Seriale and TVP Polonia, the latter is a state-run channel dedicated to the transmission of Polish language television for the Polish diaspora. Poland has several 24-hour news channels such as Polsat News, TVP Info and TVN 24. Poland also possesses a variety of free-to-air television channels, chiefly TVN, Polsat and TV4.In Poland, there are also daily newspapers like "Gazeta Wyborcza" ("Electoral Gazette"), "Rzeczpospolita" ("The Republic") and "Gazeta Polska Codziennie" ("Polish Daily Newspaper") which provide traditional opinion and news, and tabloids such as "Fakt" and "Super Express". Weeklies include "Tygodnik Angora", "", "Polityka", "Wprost", "Newsweek Polska", "Gość Niedzielny" and "Gazeta Polska".Poland has also emerged as a major hub for video game developers in Europe, with the country now being home to hundreds of studios. Among the most successful ones are CD Projekt, Techland, CI Games and People Can Fly. Some of the most popular video games developed in Poland include The Witcher trilogy. Katowice hosts Intel Extreme Masters, one of the biggest eSports events in the world.Volleyball and Association football are among the country's most popular sports, with a rich history of international competitions. Track and field, basketball, handball, boxing, MMA, motorcycle speedway, ski jumping, cross-country skiing, ice hockey, tennis, fencing, swimming and weightlifting are other popular sports.The golden era of football in Poland occurred throughout the 1970s and went on until the early 1980s when the Polish national football team achieved their best results in any FIFA World Cup competitions finishing 3rd place in the 1974 and the 1982 tournaments. The team won a gold medal in football at the 1972 Summer Olympics and two silver medals, in 1976 and in 1992. In 2012, Poland co-hosted the UEFA European Football Championship.As of May 2021, the Polish men's national volleyball team is ranked as 2nd in the world. Volleyball team won a gold medal in Olympic 1976 Montreal and three gold medals in FIVB World Championship 1974, 2014 and 2018.Mariusz Pudzianowski is a highly successful strongman competitor and has won more World's Strongest Man titles than any other competitor in the world, winning the event in 2008 for the fifth time.Poland has made a distinctive mark in motorcycle speedway racing thanks to Tomasz Gollob and Bartosz Zmarzlik, highly successful Polish riders. The top Ekstraliga division has one of the highest average attendances for any sport in Poland. The national speedway team of Poland is one of the major teams in international speedway.Poles made significant achievements in mountaineering, in particular, in the Himalayas and the winter ascending of the eight-thousanders. Polish mountains are one of the tourist attractions of the country. Hiking, climbing, skiing and mountain biking and attract numerous tourists every year from all over the world. Water sports are the most popular summer recreation activities, with ample locations for fishing, canoeing, kayaking, sailing and windsurfing especially in the northern regions of the country.
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[
"Leszek Miller",
"Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz",
"Mateusz Morawiecki",
"Jan Olszewski",
"Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz",
"Tadeusz Mazowiecki",
"Jarosław Kaczyński",
"Jan Krzysztof Bielecki",
"Hanna Suchocka",
"Donald Tusk",
"Marek Belka",
"Jerzy Buzek",
"Waldemar Pawlak",
"Józef Oleksy",
"Ewa Kopacz",
"Leszek Miller",
"Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz",
"Mateusz Morawiecki",
"Jan Olszewski",
"Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz",
"Tadeusz Mazowiecki",
"Jarosław Kaczyński",
"Jan Krzysztof Bielecki",
"Hanna Suchocka",
"Donald Tusk",
"Marek Belka",
"Jerzy Buzek",
"Waldemar Pawlak",
"Józef Oleksy"
] |
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Who was the head of Poland in Apr, 2020?
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April 09, 2020
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{
"text": [
"Mateusz Morawiecki"
]
}
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L2_Q36_P6_15
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Donald Tusk is the head of the government of Poland from Nov, 2007 to Sep, 2014.
Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz is the head of the government of Poland from Feb, 1996 to Oct, 1997.
Jan Krzysztof Bielecki is the head of the government of Poland from Jan, 1991 to Dec, 1991.
Marek Belka is the head of the government of Poland from May, 2004 to Oct, 2005.
Jerzy Buzek is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 1997 to Oct, 2001.
Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 2005 to Jul, 2006.
Waldemar Pawlak is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 1993 to Mar, 1995.
Leszek Miller is the head of the government of Poland from Oct, 2001 to May, 2004.
Józef Oleksy is the head of the government of Poland from Mar, 1995 to Feb, 1996.
Beata Szydło is the head of the government of Poland from Nov, 2015 to Dec, 2017.
Tadeusz Mazowiecki is the head of the government of Poland from Aug, 1989 to Jan, 1991.
Hanna Suchocka is the head of the government of Poland from Jul, 1992 to Oct, 1993.
Jarosław Kaczyński is the head of the government of Poland from Jul, 2006 to Nov, 2007.
Mateusz Morawiecki is the head of the government of Poland from Dec, 2017 to Dec, 2022.
Jan Olszewski is the head of the government of Poland from Dec, 1991 to Jun, 1992.
Ewa Kopacz is the head of the government of Poland from Sep, 2014 to Nov, 2015.
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PolandPoland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country located in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces, covering an area of , and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With a population of nearly 38.5 million people, Poland is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union. Poland's capital and largest metropolis is Warsaw. Other major cities include Kraków, Łódź, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk, and Szczecin.Poland's topographically diverse territory extends from the beaches along the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in its south. The country is bordered by Lithuania and Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukraine to the east, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the south, and Germany to the west.The history of human activity on Polish soil spans thousands of years. Throughout the late antiquity period it became extensively diverse, with various cultures and tribes settling on the vast Central European Plain. However, it was the Western Polans who dominated the region and gave Poland its name. The establishment of Polish statehood can be traced to 966, when the pagan ruler of a realm coextensive with the territory of present-day Poland embraced Christianity and converted to Catholicism. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented its longstanding political association with Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest (over in area) and most populous nations of 16th and 17th century Europe, with a uniquely liberal political system which adopted Europe's first modern constitution, the Constitution of 3 May 1791.With the passing of prominence and prosperity, the country was partitioned by neighbouring states at the end of the 18th century, and regained independence in 1918 with the Treaty of Versailles. After a series of territorial conflicts, the new multi-ethnic Poland restored its position as a key player in European politics. In September 1939, World War II began with the invasion of Poland by Germany, followed by the Soviets invading Poland in accordance with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Approximately six million Polish citizens, including three million of the country's Jews, perished during the course of the war. As a member of the Eastern Bloc, the Polish People's Republic proclaimed forthwith was a chief signatory of the Warsaw Treaty amidst global Cold War tensions. In the wake of the 1989 events, notably through the emergence and contributions of the Solidarity movement, the communist government was dissolved and Poland re-established itself as a semi-presidential democratic republic.Poland is a developed market, and a middle power. It has the sixth largest economy in the European Union by nominal GDP and the fifth largest by GDP (PPP). It provides very high standards of living, safety and economic freedom, as well as free university education and a universal health care system. The country has 16 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, 15 of which are cultural. Poland is a member state of the Schengen Area, European Union, European Economic Area, the United Nations, NATO, the OECD, the Three Seas Initiative and the Visegrád Group.The origin of the name "Poland" derives from the West Slavic tribe of Polans ("Polanie"), who inhabited the Warta river basin of the present-day Greater Poland region starting in the mid-6th century. The origin of the name "Polanie" itself derives from the Proto-Slavic word "pole" (field). In some languages, such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian, Russian and Turkish, the country's name is derived from the Lendians ("Lędzianie" or "Lachy") who dwelled on the southeasternmost edge of present-day Lesser Poland. Their name likewise derives from the Old Polish word "lęda" (open land or plain).The early Bronze Age in Poland began around 2400 BC, while the Iron Age commenced in approximately 750 BC. During this time, the Lusatian culture, spanning both the Bronze and Iron Ages, became particularly prominent. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement (now reconstructed as an open-air museum), dating from the Lusatian culture of the late Bronze Age, around 748 BC.Throughout Antiquity, many distinct ancient ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland in an era that dates from about 400 BC to 500 AD. These groups are identified as Celtic, Scythian, Germanic, Sarmatian, Slavic and Baltic tribes. Also, recent archaeological findings in the Kuyavia region confirmed the presence of the Roman Legions on the territory of Poland. These were most likely expeditionary missions sent out to protect the amber trade. The exact time and routes of the original migration and settlement of Slavic peoples lacks written records and can only be defined as fragmented. There is evidence that earlier tribes may have been associated with the ancient Przeworsk culture. Up until the creation of Mieszko's state and his subsequent conversion to Christianity in 966 AD, the main religion of the numerous West Slavic (Lechitic) tribes that inhabited the geographical area of present-day Poland was paganism. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Western Christianity and the religious authority of the Roman Church. However, the transition from paganism was not a smooth and instantaneous process for the rest of the population as evident from the pagan reaction of the 1030s.Poland began to form into a recognizable unitary and territorial entity around the middle of the 10th century under the Piast dynasty. Poland's first historically documented ruler, Mieszko I, accepted Christianity, as the rightful religion of his realm, under the auspices of the Latin Church with the Baptism of Poland in 966. The bulk of the population converted in the course of the next few centuries. In 1000, Boleslaw the Brave, continuing the policy of his father Mieszko, held a Congress of Gniezno and created the metropolis of Gniezno and the dioceses of Kraków, Kołobrzeg, and Wrocław. However, the pagan unrest led to the transfer of the capital to Kraków in 1038 by Casimir I the Restorer.In 1109, Prince Bolesław III Wrymouth defeated the King of Germany Henry V at the Battle of Hundsfeld, stopping the German incursion into Poland. The clash between Bolesław III and Henry V was documented by Gallus Anonymus in his 1118 chronicle. In 1138, Poland fragmented into several smaller duchies when Bolesław divided his lands among his sons. In 1226, Konrad I of Masovia, one of the regional Piast dukes, invited the Teutonic Knights to help him fight the Baltic Prussian pagans; a decision that led to centuries of warfare with the Knights. In 1264, the Statute of Kalisz or the General Charter of Jewish Liberties introduced numerous right for the Jews in Poland, leading to a nearly autonomous "nation within a nation".In the middle of the 13th century, the Silesian branch of the Piast dynasty (Henry I the Bearded and Henry II the Pious, ruled 1238–1241) nearly succeeded in uniting the Polish lands, but the Mongols invaded the country from the east and defeated the combined Polish forces at the Battle of Legnica where Duke Henry II the Pious died. In 1320, after a number of earlier unsuccessful attempts by regional rulers at uniting the Polish dukedoms, Władysław I consolidated his power, took the throne and became the first king of a reunified Poland. His son, Casimir III (reigned 1333–1370), has a reputation as one of the greatest Polish kings, and gained wide recognition for improving the country's infrastructure. He also extended royal protection to Jews, and encouraged their immigration to Poland. Casimir III realized that the nation needed a class of educated people, especially lawyers, who could codify the country's laws and administer the courts and offices. His efforts to create an institution of higher learning in Poland were finally rewarded when Pope Urban V granted him permission to open the University of Kraków.The Golden Liberty of the nobles began to develop under Casimir's rule, when in return for their military support, the king made a series of concessions to the nobility and establishing their legal status as superior to that of the townsfolk. When Casimir the Great died in 1370, leaving no legitimate male heir, the Piast dynasty came to an end.During the 13th and 14th centuries, Poland became a destination for German, Flemish and to a lesser extent Walloon, Danish and Scottish migrants. Also, Jews and Armenians began to settle and flourish in Poland during this era (see History of the Jews in Poland and Armenians in Poland).The Black Death, a plague that ravaged Europe from 1347 to 1351, did not significantly affect Poland, and the country was spared from a major outbreak of the disease. The reason for this was the decision of Casimir the Great to quarantine the nation's borders.The Jagiellon dynasty spanned the late Middle Ages and early Modern Era of Polish history. Beginning with the Lithuanian Grand Duke Jogaila (Władysław II Jagiełło), the Jagiellon dynasty (1386–1572) formed the Polish–Lithuanian union. The partnership brought vast Lithuanian-controlled Rus' areas into Poland's sphere of influence and proved beneficial for the Poles and Lithuanians, who coexisted and cooperated in one of the largest political entities in Europe for the next four centuries.In the Baltic Sea region the struggle of Poland and Lithuania with the Teutonic Knights continued and culminated at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, where a combined Polish-Lithuanian army inflicted a decisive victory against them. In 1466, after the Thirteen Years' War, King Casimir IV Jagiellon gave royal consent to the Peace of Thorn, which created the future Duchy of Prussia under Polish suzerainty. The Jagiellon dynasty at one point also established dynastic control over the kingdoms of Bohemia (1471 onwards) and Hungary. In the south, Poland confronted the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Tatars (by whom they were attacked on 75 separate occasions between 1474 and 1569), and in the east helped Lithuania fight the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Some historians estimate that Crimean Tatar slave-raiding cost Poland-Lithuania one million of its population between the years of 1494 and 1694.Poland was developing as a feudal state, with a predominantly agricultural economy and an increasingly powerful landed nobility. The "Nihil novi" act adopted by the Polish Sejm (parliament) in 1505, transferred most of the legislative power from the monarch to the Sejm, an event which marked the beginning of the period known as "Golden Liberty", when the state was ruled by the "free and equal" Polish nobility. Protestant Reformation movements made deep inroads into Polish Christianity, which resulted in the establishment of policies promoting religious tolerance, unique in Europe at that time. This tolerance allowed the country to avoid most of the religious turmoil that spread over Europe during the 16th century.The European Renaissance evoked in late Jagiellon Poland (under kings Sigismund I the Old and Sigismund II Augustus) a sense of urgency in the need to promote a cultural awakening, and during this period Polish culture and the nation's economy flourished. In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus, an astronomer from Toruń, published his epochal work "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" ("On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres") and thereby became the first proponent of a predictive mathematical model confirming the heliocentric theory, which became the accepted basic model for the practice of modern astronomy. Another major figure associated with the era is the classicist poet Jan Kochanowski.The 1569 Union of Lublin established the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a more closely unified federal state with an elective monarchy, but which was governed largely by the nobility, through a system of local assemblies with a central parliament. The Warsaw Confederation (1573) guaranteed religious freedom for the Polish nobility "(szlachta)" and townsfolk "(mieszczanie)". However, the peasants "(chłopi)" were still subject to severe limitations imposed on them by the nobility. The establishment of the Commonwealth coincided with a period of stability and prosperity in Poland, with the union thereafter becoming a European power and a major cultural entity, occupying approximately one million square kilometers of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as an agent for the dissemination of Western culture through Polonization into areas of modern-day Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Belarus and western Russia.In the 16th and 17th centuries, Poland suffered from a number of dynastic crises during the reigns of the Vasa kings Sigismund III and Władysław IV and found itself engaged in major conflicts with Russia, Sweden and the Ottoman Empire, as well as a series of minor Cossack uprisings. In 1610, a Polish army under the command of Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski seized Moscow after winning the Battle of Klushino. In 1611, the Tsar of Russia paid homage to the King of Poland.After the signing of Truce of Deulino, Poland had in the years 1618–1621 an area of about .From the middle of the 17th century, the nobles' democracy, suffering from internal disorder, gradually declined, thereby leaving the once powerful Commonwealth vulnerable to foreign intervention. Starting in 1648, the Cossack Khmelnytsky Uprising engulfed the south and east, eventually leaving Ukraine divided, with the eastern part, lost by the Commonwealth, becoming a dependency of the Tsardom of Russia. This was followed by the 'Deluge', a Swedish invasion of Poland, which marched through the Polish heartlands and ruined the country's population, culture and infrastructure—around four million of Poland's eleven million inhabitants died in famines and epidemics throughout the 17th century. However, under John III Sobieski the Commonwealth's military prowess was re-established, and in 1683 Polish forces played a major role in the Battle of Vienna against the Ottoman Army, commanded by Kara Mustafa, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.Sobieski's reign marked the end of the nation's golden era. Finding itself subjected to almost constant warfare and suffering enormous population losses as well as massive damage to its economy, the Commonwealth fell into decline. The government became ineffective as a result of large-scale internal conflicts (e.g. Lubomirski Rebellion against John II Casimir and rebellious confederations) and corrupted legislative processes. The nobility fell under the control of a handful of "magnats", and this, compounded with two relatively weak kings of the Saxon Wettin dynasty, Augustus II and Augustus III, as well as the rise of Russia and Prussia after the Great Northern War only served to worsen the Commonwealth's plight. Despite this The Commonwealth-Saxony personal union gave rise to the emergence of the Commonwealth's first reform movement, and laid the foundations for the Polish Enlightenment.During the later part of the 18th century, the Commonwealth made attempts to implement fundamental internal reforms; with the second half of the century bringing a much improved economy, significant population growth and far-reaching progress in the areas of education, intellectual life, art, and especially toward the end of the period, evolution of the social and political system. The most populous capital city of Warsaw replaced Gdańsk (Danzig) as the leading centre of commerce, and the role of the more prosperous urban population increased.The royal election of 1764 resulted in the elevation of Stanisław II August (a Polish aristocrat connected to the "Familia" faction of magnates) to the monarchy. However, elevated to the throne by the Empress Catherine II of Russia, the new king spent much of his reign maneuvering between his desire to implement necessary reforms to save his country, and the necessity to remain in a political relationship and at peace with Russia. This led to the formation of the 1768 Bar Confederation, a "szlachta" rebellion directed against the Polish king and all external influence, which ineptly aimed to preserve Poland's independence and szlachta's privileges. The failed attempts at reform as well as the internal turmoil caused by the Confederation proved the country's weakness and provoked its neighbours. In 1772 the First Partition of the Commonwealth by Prussia, Russia and Austria took place; an act which the "Partition Sejm", under considerable duress, eventually "ratified" "fait accompli". Disregarding this loss, in 1773 the king established the plan of the most necessary reforms, in which the Commission of National Education, the first government education authority in Europe, was established. Corporal punishment of children was officially prohibited in 1783.The Great Sejm convened by Stanisław II August in 1788 successfully adopted the 3 May Constitution, the first set of modern supreme national laws in Europe. However, this document, accused by detractors of harbouring revolutionary sympathies, generated strong opposition from the Commonwealth's nobles and conservatives as well as from Catherine II, who, determined to prevent the rebirth of a strong Commonwealth set about planning the final dismemberment of the Polish-Lithuanian state. Russia was aided in achieving its goal when the Targowica Confederation, an organisation of Polish nobles, appealed to the Empress for help. In May 1792, Russian forces crossed the Commonwealth's frontier, thus beginning the Polish-Russian War.The defensive war fought by the Poles ended prematurely when the King, convinced of the futility of resistance, capitulated and joined the Targowica Confederation, hoping to save the country. The Confederation then took over the government. Russia and Prussia, fearing the mere existence of a Polish state, understanding, that despite the current influence they still cannot control the country, arranged for, and in 1793 executed, the Second Partition of the Commonwealth, which left the country deprived of so much territory that it was practically incapable of independent existence. Eventually, in 1795, following the failed Kościuszko Uprising, the Commonwealth was partitioned one last time by all three of its more powerful neighbours, and with this, effectively ceased to exist. The 18-century British statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke summed up the partitions: "No wise or honest man can approve of that partition, or can contemplate it without prognosticating great mischief from it to all countries at some future time."Poles rebelled several times against the partitioners, particularly near the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. An unsuccessful attempt at defending Poland's sovereignty took place in 1794 during the Kościuszko Uprising, where a popular and distinguished general Tadeusz Kościuszko, who had several years earlier served under Washington in the American Revolutionary War, led Polish insurrectionists against numerically superior Russian forces. Despite the victory at the Battle of Racławice, his ultimate defeat ended Poland's independent existence for 123 years.In 1807, Napoleon I of France temporarily recreated a Polish state as the satellite Duchy of Warsaw, after a successful Greater Poland Uprising of 1806 against Prussian rule. But, after the failed Napoleonic Wars, Poland was again split between the victorious powers at the Congress of Vienna of 1815. The eastern part was ruled by the Russian tsar as Congress Poland, which had a liberal constitution. However, over time the Russian monarch reduced Polish freedoms, and Russia annexed the country in virtually all but name. Meanwhile, the Prussian controlled territory of Poland came under increased Germanization. Thus, in the 19th century, only Habsburg-ruled Austrian Poland, and particularly the Free City of Kraków, allowed free Polish culture to flourish.Throughout the period of the partitions, political and cultural repression of the Polish nation led to the organisation of a number of uprisings against the authorities of the occupying Russian, Prussian and Austrian governments. In 1830, the November Uprising began in Warsaw when, led by Lieutenant Piotr Wysocki, young non-commissioned officers at the Officer Cadet School in Warsaw revolted. They were joined by large segments of Polish society, and together forced Warsaw's Russian garrison to withdraw north of the city.Over the course of the next seven months, Polish forces successfully defeated the Russian armies of Field Marshal Hans Karl von Diebitsch and a number of other Russian commanders; however, finding themselves in a position unsupported by any other foreign powers, save distant France and the newborn United States, and with Prussia and Austria refusing to allow the import of military supplies through their territories, the Poles accepted that the uprising was doomed to failure. Upon the surrender of Warsaw to General Ivan Paskievich, many Polish troops, feeling they could not go on, withdrew into Prussia and there laid down their arms. After the defeat, the semi-independent Congress Poland lost its constitution, army and legislative assembly, and was integrated more closely with the Russian Empire.During the Spring of Nations (a series of revolutions which swept across Europe), Poles took up arms in the Greater Poland Uprising of 1848 to resist Prussian rule. Initially, the uprising manifested itself in the form of civil disobedience but eventually turned into an armed struggle when the Prussian military was sent in to pacify the region. Subsequently, the uprising was suppressed and the semi-autonomous Grand Duchy of Posen, created from the Prussian partition of Poland, was incorporated into Prussia.In 1863, a new Polish uprising against Russian rule began. The January Uprising started out as a spontaneous protest by young Poles against conscription into the Imperial Russian Army. However, the insurrectionists, despite being joined by high-ranking Polish-Lithuanian officers and numerous politicians, were still severely outnumbered and lacking in foreign support. They were forced to resort to guerrilla warfare tactics and failed to win any major military victories. Afterwards no major uprising was witnessed in the Russian-controlled Congress Poland, and Poles resorted instead to fostering economic and cultural self-improvement. Congress Poland was rapidly industrialised towards the end of the 19th century, and successively transformed into the Empire's wealthiest and most developed subject.Despite the political unrest experienced during the partitions, Poland did benefit from large-scale industrialisation and modernisation programs, instituted by the occupying powers, which helped it develop into a more economically coherent and viable entity. This was particularly true in Greater Poland, Silesia and Eastern Pomerania controlled by Prussia (later becoming a part of the German Empire); areas which eventually, thanks largely to the Greater Poland Uprising of 1918 and Silesian Uprisings, were reconstituted as a part of the Second Polish Republic, becoming the country's most prosperous regions.Following World War I all the Allies agreed on the reconstitution of Poland that United States President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed in Point 13 of his Fourteen Points. A total of 2 million Polish troops fought with the armies of the three occupying powers, and 450,000 died. Shortly after the armistice with Germany in November 1918, Poland regained its independence as the Second Polish Republic ("II Rzeczpospolita Polska"). It reaffirmed its independence after a series of military conflicts, the most notable being the Polish–Soviet War (1919–21) when Poland inflicted a crushing defeat on the Red Army at the Battle of Warsaw, an event which is considered to have halted the advance of Communism into Europe and forced Vladimir Lenin to rethink his objective of achieving global socialism. The event is often referred to as the "Miracle at the Vistula".During this period, Poland successfully managed to fuse the territories of the three former partitioning powers into a cohesive nation state. Railways were restructured to direct traffic towards Warsaw instead of the former imperial capitals, a new network of national roads was gradually built up and a major seaport, Gdynia, was opened on the Baltic Coast, so as to allow Polish exports and imports to bypass the politically charged Free City of Danzig. Also, the Polish government embarked on the creation of the Central Industrial Region ("Centralny Okręg Przemysłowy"). The project's goal was to create a heavy industrial center in the middle of the country, which included steal mills, power plants and factories. The inter-war period heralded in a new era of Polish politics. Whilst Polish political activists had faced heavy censorship in the decades up until the First World War, the country now found itself trying to establish a new political tradition. For this reason, many exiled Polish activists, such as Ignacy Paderewski (who would later become prime minister) returned home to help; a significant number of them then went on to take key positions in the newly formed political and governmental structures. Tragedy struck in 1922 when Gabriel Narutowicz, inaugural holder of the presidency, was assassinated at the Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw by a painter and right-wing nationalist Eligiusz Niewiadomski.In 1926, a May coup, led by the hero of the Polish independence campaign Marshal Józef Piłsudski, turned rule of the Second Polish Republic over to the nonpartisan Sanacja ("Healing") movement in an effort to prevent radical political organizations on both the left and the right from destabilizing the country. The movement functioned with relative stability until Piłsudski's death in 1935. Following Marshall Piłsudski's death, Sanation split into several competing factions. By the late 1930s, due to increased threats posed by political extremism inside the country, the Polish government became increasingly heavy-handed, banning a number of radical organizations, including communist and ultra-nationalist political parties, which threatened the stability of the country.World War II began with the Nazi German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, followed by the Soviet invasion of Poland on 17 September. On 28 September 1939, Warsaw fell. As agreed in the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Poland was split into two zones, one occupied by Nazi Germany, the other by the Soviet Union. In 1939–41, the Soviets deported hundreds of thousands of Poles. The Soviet NKVD executed thousands of Polish prisoners of war (inter alia Katyn massacre) ahead of the Operation Barbarossa. German planners had in November 1939 called for "the complete destruction of all Poles" and their fate as outlined in the genocidal "Generalplan Ost".Polish intelligence operatives proved extremely valuable to the Allies, providing much of the intelligence from Europe and beyond, and Polish code breakers were responsible for cracking the Enigma cypher.Poland made the fourth-largest troop contribution in Europe and its troops served both the Polish Government in Exile in the west and Soviet leadership in the east. Polish troops played an important role in the Normandy, Italian and North African Campaigns and are particularly remembered for the Battle of Monte Cassino. In the east, the Soviet-backed Polish 1st Army distinguished itself in the battles for Warsaw and Berlin.The wartime resistance movement, and the Armia Krajowa ("Home Army"), fought against German occupation. It was one of the three largest resistance movements of the entire war, and encompassed a range of clandestine activities, which functioned as an underground state complete with degree-awarding universities and a court system. The resistance was loyal to the exiled government and generally resented the idea of a communist Poland; for this reason, in the summer of 1944 it initiated Operation Tempest, of which the Warsaw Uprising that begun on 1 August 1944 is the best known operation.Nazi German forces under orders from Adolf Hitler set up six German extermination camps in occupied Poland, including Treblinka, Majdanek and Auschwitz. The Germans transported millions of Jews from across occupied Europe to be murdered in those camps.Altogether, 3 million Polish Jews – approximately 90% of Poland's pre-war Jewry – and between 1.8 and 2.8 million ethnic Poles were killed during the German occupation of Poland, including between 50,000 and 100,000 members of the Polish intelligentsia – academics, doctors, lawyers, nobility and priesthood. During the Warsaw Uprising alone, over 150,000 Polish civilians were killed, most were murdered by the Germans during the Wola and Ochota massacres. Around 150,000 Polish civilians were killed by Soviets between 1939 and 1941 during the Soviet Union's occupation of eastern Poland (Kresy), and another estimated 100,000 Poles were murdered by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) between 1943 and 1944 in what became known as the Wołyń Massacres. Of all the countries in the war, Poland lost the highest percentage of its citizens: around 6 million perished – more than one-sixth of Poland's pre-war population – half of them Polish Jews. About 90% of deaths were non-military in nature.In 1945, Poland's borders were shifted westwards. Over two million Polish inhabitants of Kresy were expelled along the Curzon Line by Stalin. The western border became the Oder-Neisse line. As a result, Poland's territory was reduced by 20%, or . The shift forced the migration of millions of other people, most of whom were Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, and Jews.At the insistence of Joseph Stalin, the Yalta Conference sanctioned the formation of a new provisional pro-Communist coalition government in Moscow, which ignored the Polish government-in-exile based in London. This action angered many Poles who considered it a betrayal by the Allies. In 1944, Stalin had made guarantees to Churchill and Roosevelt that he would maintain Poland's sovereignty and allow democratic elections to take place. However, upon achieving victory in 1945, the elections organized by the occupying Soviet authorities were falsified and were used to provide a veneer of legitimacy for Soviet hegemony over Polish affairs. The Soviet Union instituted a new communist government in Poland, analogous to much of the rest of the Eastern Bloc. As elsewhere in Communist Europe, the Soviet influence over Poland was met with armed resistance from the outset which continued into the 1950s.Despite widespread objections, the new Polish government accepted the Soviet annexation of the pre-war eastern regions of Poland (in particular the cities of Wilno and Lwów) and agreed to the permanent garrisoning of Red Army units on Poland's territory. Military alignment within the Warsaw Pact throughout the Cold War came about as a direct result of this change in Poland's political culture. In the European scene, it came to characterize the full-fledged integration of Poland into the brotherhood of communist nations.The new communist government took control with the adoption of the Small Constitution on 19 February 1947. The Polish People's Republic ("Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa") was officially proclaimed in 1952. In 1956, after the death of Bolesław Bierut, the régime of Władysław Gomułka became temporarily more liberal, freeing many people from prison and expanding some personal freedoms. Collectivization in the Polish People's Republic failed. A similar situation repeated itself in the 1970s under Edward Gierek, but most of the time persecution of anti-communist opposition groups persisted. Despite this, Poland was at the time considered to be one of the least oppressive states of the Eastern Bloc.Labour turmoil in 1980 led to the formation of the independent trade union "Solidarity" (""Solidarność""), which over time became a political force. Despite persecution and imposition of martial law in 1981, it eroded the dominance of the Polish United Workers' Party and by 1989 had triumphed in Poland's first partially free and democratic parliamentary elections since the end of the Second World War. Lech Wałęsa, a Solidarity candidate, eventually won the presidency in 1990. The Solidarity movement heralded the collapse of communist regimes and parties across Europe.A shock therapy programme, initiated by Leszek Balcerowicz in the early 1990s, enabled the country to transform its socialist-style planned economy into a market economy. As with other post-communist countries, Poland suffered declines in social and economic standards, but it became the first post-communist country to reach its pre-1989 GDP levels, which it achieved by 1995 thanks largely to its booming economy.Most visibly, there were numerous improvements in human rights, such as freedom of speech, internet freedom (no censorship), civil liberties (1st class) and political rights (1st class), as ranked by Freedom House non-governmental organization. In 1991, Poland became a member of the Visegrád Group and joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance in 1999 along with the Czech Republic and Hungary. Poles then voted to join the European Union in a referendum in June 2003, with Poland becoming a full member on 1 May 2004.Poland joined the Schengen Area in 2007, as a result of which, the country's borders with other member states of the European Union have been dismantled, allowing for full freedom of movement within most of the EU. In contrast to this, a section of Poland's eastern border now constitutes the external EU border with Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. That border has become increasingly well protected, and has led in part to the coining of the phrase 'Fortress Europe', in reference to the seeming 'impossibility' of gaining entry to the EU for citizens of the former Soviet Union.In an effort to strengthen military cooperation with its neighbors, Poland set up the Visegrád Battlegroup with Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia, with a total of 3,000 troops ready for deployment. Also, in eastern Poland, it formed the LITPOLUKRBRIG battle groups with Lithuania and Ukraine. These battle groups will operate outside of NATO and within the European defense initiative framework.On 10 April 2010, the President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, along with 89 other high-ranking Polish officials died in a plane crash near Smolensk, Russia. The president's party was on their way to attend an annual service of commemoration for the victims of the Katyń massacre when the tragedy took place.In 2011, the ruling Civic Platform won parliamentary elections. Poland joined the European Space Agency in 2012, as well as organised the UEFA Euro 2012 (along with Ukraine). In 2013, Poland also became a member of the Development Assistance Committee. In 2014, the Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, was chosen to be President of the European Council, and resigned as prime minister.The 2015 and 2019 elections were won by the conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS), resulting in increased friction between Poland and the EU. In December 2017, Mateusz Morawiecki was sworn in as the new Prime Minister, succeeding Beata Szydlo, in office since 2015. They both represented ruling Law and Justice party, led by party chairman Jarosław Kaczyński. President Andrzej Duda, supported by Law and Justice party, was narrowly re-elected in the 2020 presidential election.Poland's vast territory covers approximately , of which 98.52% is dry land and 1.48% is water. Extending across several geographical regions, the country is the 9th-largest by area in Europe and 69th largest in the world. Topographically, Poland is diverse and has access to the sea, the mountains and open terrain. Although most of the central parts of the country are flat, there is an abundance of lakes, rivers, hills, swamps, beaches, islands and forests elsewhere.In the north-west is the Baltic seacoast spanning from the Bay of Pomerania to the Gulf of Gdańsk. The coast is marked by several spits, coastal lakes (former bays that have been cut off from the sea), and dunes. The largely straight coastline is indented by the Szczecin Lagoon, the Bay of Puck, and the Vistula Lagoon.The central and northern parts of the country lie within the North European Plain. Rising above these lowlands is a geographical region comprising four hilly districts of moraines and moraine-dammed lakes formed during and after the Pleistocene ice age, notably the Pomeranian Lake District, the Greater Polish Lake District, the Kashubian Lake District, and the Masurian Lake District. The Masurian Lake District is the largest of the four and covers much of north-eastern Poland. The lake districts form a series of moraine belts along the southern shore of the Baltic Sea.South of the Northern European Plain are the regions of Lusatia, Silesia and Masovia, which are marked by broad ice-age river valleys. The extreme south of Poland is mountainous; it runs from the Sudetes in the west to the Carpathian Mountains in the east. The highest part of the Carpathian massif is the Tatra Mountain range, along Poland's southern border.The geological structure of Poland has been shaped by the continental collision of Europe and Africa over the past 60 million years and, more recently, by the Quaternary glaciations of northern Europe. Both processes shaped the Sudetes and the Carpathian Mountains. The moraine landscape of northern Poland contains soils made up mostly of sand or loam, while the ice age river valleys of the south often contain loess. The Polish Jura, the Pieniny, and the Western Tatras consist of limestone, whereas the High Tatras, the Beskids, and the Karkonosze mountain ranges are made up mainly of granite and basalts. The Polish Jura Chain has some of the oldest rock formations on the continent of Europe.Poland has over 70 mountains over in elevation, all situated in the Tatras. Poland's highest point is the north-western summit of Mount Rysy at in elevation. At its foot lie the mountain lakes of Czarny Staw (Black Lake) and Morskie Oko (Eye of the Sea), both naturally-made tarns. Other notable uplands include the Pieniny and Holy Cross Mountains, the Table Mountains noted for their unusual rock formations, the Bieszczady in the far southeast of the country in which the highest peak is Tarnica at , and the Gorce Mountains whose highest point is Turbacz at . The highest point of the Sudeten massif is Mount Śnieżka (), shared with the Czech Republic.The lowest point in Poland – at below sea level – is at Raczki Elbląskie, near Elbląg in the Vistula Delta.In the Zagłębie Dąbrowskie (the Coal Fields of Dąbrowa) region in the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland is an area of sparsely vegetated sand known as the Błędów Desert. It covers an area of . It is not a natural desert and was formed by human activity from the Middle Ages onwards.The Baltic Sea activity in Słowiński National Park created sand dunes which in the course of time separated the bay from the sea creating two lakes. As waves and wind carry sand inland the dunes slowly move, at a rate of per year. Some dunes reach the height of up to . The highest peak of the park is Rowokol at above sea level.The longest rivers are the Vistula (), long; the Oder () which forms part of Poland's western border, long; its tributary, the Warta, long; and the Bug, a tributary of the Vistula, long. The Vistula and the Oder flow into the Baltic Sea, as do numerous smaller rivers in Pomerania. Poland's lengthy waterways have been used since early times for navigation; the Vikings ventured up the Polish rivers in their longships. In the Middle Ages and in early modern times, the shipment of tangible goods down the Vistula toward Gdańsk and onward to other parts of Europe took on great importance.With almost ten thousand closed bodies of water covering more than each, Poland has one of the highest numbers of lakes in the world. In Europe, only Finland has a greater density of lakes. The largest lakes, covering more than , are Lake Śniardwy and Lake Mamry in Masuria as well as Lake Łebsko and Lake Drawsko in Pomerania. The lake with the greatest depth—of more than —is Lake Hańcza in the Wigry Lake District, east of Masuria in Podlaskie Voivodeship.The Polish Baltic coast is approximately long and extends from Świnoujście on the islands of Usedom and Wolin in the west to Krynica Morska on the Vistula Spit in the east. For the most part, Poland has a smooth coastline, which has been shaped by the continual movement of sand by currents and winds. This continual erosion and deposition has formed cliffs, dunes, and spits, many of which have migrated landwards to close off former lagoons, such as Łebsko Lake in the Słowiński National Park.The largest spits are Hel Peninsula and the Vistula Spit. The coast line is varied also by Szczecin and Vistula Lagoons and several lakes, including Jamno. The largest Polish Baltic island is Wolin, located within Wolin National Park. The largest sea harbours are Szczecin, Świnoujście, Gdańsk, Gdynia, Police and Kołobrzeg and the main coastal resorts – Świnoujście, Międzydzdroje, Kołobrzeg, Łeba, Sopot, Władysławowo and the Hel Peninsula.In the valley of Pilica river in Tomaszów Mazowiecki there is a unique natural karst spring of water containing calcium salts, that is an object of protection at Blue Springs Nature Reserve in the Sulejów Landscape Park. The red waves are absorbed by water, hence only blue and green are reflected from the bottom of the spring, giving the water atypical colour.Forests cover about 29.6% of Poland's land area based on international standards. Its overall percentage is still increasing. Forests of Poland are managed by the national program of reforestation (KPZL), aiming at an increase of forest-cover to 33% in 2050. The largest forest complex in Poland is Lower Silesian Wilderness.More than 1% of Poland's territory, , is protected within 23 Polish national parks. Three more national parks are projected for Masuria, the Polish Jura, and the eastern Beskids. In addition, wetlands along lakes and rivers in central Poland are legally protected, as are coastal areas in the north. There are 123 areas designated as landscape parks, along with numerous nature reserves and other protected areas under the Natura 2000 network.In 2017, approximately of land was occupied by farms and farmsteads, over half of Poland's total area.Phytogeographically, Poland belongs to the Central European province of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the territory of Poland belongs to three Palearctic Ecoregions of the continental forest spanning Central and Northern European temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregions, as well as the Carpathian montane conifer forest. The most common deciduous trees found across the country are oak, maple, and beech; the most common conifers are pine, spruce, and fir. An estimated 68.7% of all forests are coniferous.Poland has historically been home to rare species of animals, as well as the two largest European mammals: the wisent ("żubr") and aurochs ("tur"). The last aurochs of Europe became extinct in 1627 in the Polish Jaktorów Forest, while the wisent survived until the 20th century only at Białowieża. It has been since reintroduced to other countries. Other wild species include the brown bear in Białowieża, in the Tatras, and in the Beskids; the gray wolf and the Eurasian lynx in various forests; the moose in northern Poland; and the beaver in Masuria, Pomerania, and Podlaskie.Game animals such as red deer, roe deer, and wild boar are found in most woodlands. Eastern Poland abounds in ancient woods, like the Białowieża Forest, that have not been disturbed by human or industrial activity. There are also large forested areas in the mountains, Greater Poland, Pomerania, Lubusz Land, and Lower Silesia. The Lubusz Voivodeship is currently the most arboraceous province in the country; 52% of its territory is occupied by forests.Poland is also a significant breeding ground for a variety of European migratory birds. One quarter of the global population of white storks (40,000 breeding pairs) live in Poland, particularly in the lake districts and the wetlands along the Biebrza, the Narew, and the Warta, which are part of nature reserves or national parks.The climate is mostly temperate throughout the country. The climate is oceanic in the north-west and becomes gradually warmer and continental towards the south-east. Summers are generally warm, with average temperatures between depending on the region. Winters are rather cold, with average temperatures around in the northwest and in the northeast. Precipitation falls throughout the year, although, especially in the east, winter is drier than summer.The warmest region in Poland is Lower Silesia in the southwest of the country, where temperatures in the summer average between but can go as high as on some days in the warmest months of July and August. The warmest cities in Poland are Tarnów in Lesser Poland, and Wrocław in Lower Silesia. The average temperatures in Wrocław are in the summer and in the winter, but Tarnów has the longest summer in all of Poland, which lasts for 115 days, from mid-May to mid-September. The coldest region of Poland is in the northeast, around the area of Suwałki within the Podlaskie Voivodeship, where the climate is affected by cold fronts coming from Scandinavia and Siberia. The average temperature in the winter in Podlaskie ranges from . The biggest impact of the oceanic climate is observed in Świnoujście and Baltic Sea seashore area from Police to Słupsk.Poland is a representative democracy, with a president as the head of state. The government structure centers on the Council of Ministers, led by a prime minister. The president appoints the cabinet according to the proposals of the prime minister, typically from the majority coalition in the Sejm. The president is elected by popular vote every five years. The current president is Andrzej Duda and the prime minister is Mateusz Morawiecki.Polish voters elect a bicameral parliament consisting of a 460-member lower house (Sejm) and a 100-member Senate (Senat). The Sejm is elected under proportional representation according to the d'Hondt method, a method similar to that used in many parliamentary political systems. The Senat, on the other hand, is elected under the first-past-the-post voting method, with one senator being returned from each of the 100 constituencies.With the exception of ethnic minority parties, only candidates of political parties receiving at least 5% of the total national vote can enter the Sejm. When sitting in joint session, members of the Sejm and Senat form the National Assembly (the "Zgromadzenie Narodowe"). The National Assembly is formed on three occasions: when a new president takes the oath of office; when an indictment against the President of the Republic is brought to the State Tribunal ("Trybunał Stanu"); and when a president's permanent incapacity to exercise his duties due to the state of his health is declared. To date only the first instance has occurred.The judicial branch plays an important role in decision-making. Its major institutions include the Supreme Court ("Sąd Najwyższy"); the Supreme Administrative Court ("Naczelny Sąd Administracyjny"); the Constitutional Tribunal ("Trybunał Konstytucyjny"); and the State Tribunal ("Trybunał Stanu"). On the approval of the Senat, the Sejm also appoints the ombudsman or the Commissioner for Civil Rights Protection ("Rzecznik Praw Obywatelskich") for a five-year term. The ombudsman has the duty of guarding the observance and implementation of the rights and liberties of Polish citizens and residents, of the law and of principles of community life and social justice.The Constitution of Poland is the enacted supreme law, and the Polish legal system is based on the principle of civil rights, governed by the code of civil law. The current democratic constitution was adopted by the National Assembly of Poland on 2 April 1997; it guarantees a multi-party state with freedoms of religion, speech and assembly, prohibits the practices of forced medical experimentation, torture or corporal punishment, and acknowledges the inviolability of the home, the right to form trade unions, and the right to strike.The judiciary incorporates a four-tier court system composed of the Supreme Court, the Supreme Administrative Court, Common Courts (District, Regional, Appellate) and the Military Court. Judges are nominated by the National Council of the Judiciary and are appointed for life by the president. The Constitutional and State Tribunals are separate judicial bodies, which rule the constitutional liability of people holding the highest offices of state and supervise the compliance of statutory law, thus protecting the Constitution.Historically, the most significant Polish legal act is the Constitution of 3 May 1791, the first modern constitution in Europe. Instituted as a Government Act, it was designed to redress long-standing political defects of the federative Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and its Golden Liberty. Previously, only the Henrician Articles (1573) signed by each of Poland's elected monarchs could perform the function of a set of basic laws. The new Constitution introduced political equality between townspeople and the nobility ("szlachta"), and placed the peasants under the protection of the government. It abolished pernicious parliamentary policies such as the "liberum veto", which permitted any deputy to rescind all the legislation passed in the interest of a foreign power. The 3 May Constitution sought to supplant the existing anarchy fostered by some of the country's reactionary magnates, with a more egalitarian and democratic constitutional monarchy. The influenced many later democratic movements across the globe. Tax-paying women were allowed to take part in Polish political life until the third partition in 1795. In 1918 the Second Polish Republic became one of the first countries to introduce universal women's suffrage.Poland has a low homicide rate at 0.7 murders per 100,000 people, as of 2018. Rape, assault and violent crime remain at a very low level, although not all cases are recorded by the authorities.Abortion is permitted only in cases of rape, incest or when the woman's life is in danger. Congenital disorder and stillbirth are not covered by the law, forcing some women to seek abortion abroad, and others to seek the assistance of psychiatrists willing to testify on the negative psychological impact of stillbirth. Poland does not criminalize homosexuality, and its legality was confirmed in 1932. The Polish Constitution defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.Poland is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union and has a grand total of 52 representatives in the European Parliament as of 2020. Since joining the union in 2004, successive Polish governments have pursued policies to extend the country's role in European and international affairs. Poland is an emerging regional power in Central Europe. The capital of Warsaw serves as the headquarters for Frontex, the European Union's agency for external border security as well as ODIHR, one of the principal institutions of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.Apart from the European Union, Poland has been a member of NATO since 1999, the UN, the World Trade Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since 1996, European Economic Area, International Energy Agency, Council of Europe, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, International Atomic Energy Agency, European Space Agency, G6, Council of the Baltic Sea States, Visegrád Group, Weimar Triangle, Schengen Agreement, Lublin Triangle and Bucharest Nine.Over the past two decades, Poland significantly strengthened its ties with the United States, thus becoming one of its closest allies in Europe. Poland was part of the US-led coalition force during the Iraq War in 2003, and sent its troops in the first phase of the conflict, jointly with the United Kingdom and Australia. Along with NATO, Poland maintains military presence in the Middle East, the Baltic states and in the Balkans.The Polish Armed Forces are composed of five branches – Land Forces ("Wojska Lądowe"), Navy ("Marynarka Wojenna"), Air Force ("Siły Powietrzne"), Special Forces ("Wojska Specjalne") and the Territorial Defence Force ("Wojska Obrony Terytorialnej"). The military is subordinate to the Ministry of National Defence of the Republic of Poland. However, its commander-in-chief in peacetime is the President of the Republic, who nominates officers, the Minister for National Defence and the chief of staff.As of 2018, the Polish Armed Forces have a combined strength of 144,142 soldiers. The Polish Navy primarily operates on the Baltic Sea and conducts operations such as maritime patrol, search and rescue for the section of the Baltic under Polish sovereignty, as well as hydrographic measurements and research. The Polish Air Force routinely takes part in Baltic Air Policing assignments. In 2003, the F-16C Block 52 was selected as the new general multi-role fighter for the air force. In January 2020, Poland has approved the delivery for F-35 Lightning II combat aircraft. Poland is currently spending 2% of its GDP on defence (approximately US$13.5 billion in 2020), which is expected to grow to 2.5% by 2030. According to SIPRI, the country exported EUR€487 million worth of arms and armaments to other countries, primarily to the United States, Chile, France and South Africa.The mission of the armed forces is the defence of Poland's territorial integrity and Polish interests abroad. The country's national security goal is to further integrate with NATO and European defence, economic, and political institutions. Compulsory military service for men was discontinued in 2008. From 2007, until conscription ended in 2008, the mandatory service was nine months. Polish military doctrine reflects the same defensive nature as that of its NATO partners and the country actively hosts NATO's military exercises. From 1953 to 2009 Poland was a large contributor to various United Nations peacekeeping missions. The Polish Armed Forces took part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, deploying 2,500 soldiers in the south of that country and commanding the 17-nation multinational force in Iraq. Poland also maintains troops in the Middle East, the Baltic states and in the Balkans; 1,650 soldiers were deployed in 2019.Law enforcement in Poland is performed by several agencies which are subordinate to the Ministry of Interior and Administration – the State Police ("Policja"), assigned to investigate crimes or transgression; the Municipal City Guard, which maintains public order; and several specialized agencies, such as the Polish Border Guard. Private security firms are also common, although they possess no legal authority to arrest or detain a suspect. Municipal guards are primarily headed by provincial, regional or city councils; individual guards are not permitted to carry firearms unless instructed by their superior commanding officer or commandant.The Internal Security Agency (ABW, or ISA in English) is the chief counter-intelligence instrument safeguarding Poland's internal security, along with Agencja Wywiadu (AW) which identifies threats and collects secret information abroad. The Central Investigation Bureau of Police (CBŚP) and the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) are responsible for countering organized crime and corruption in state and private institutions.Emergency services in Poland consist of the emergency medical services, search and rescue units of the Polish Armed Forces and State Fire Service. Emergency medical services in Poland are provided for by local and regional governments.All emergency services personnel are uniformed and security services can be easily recognized during regular patrols in both large urban areas or smaller suburban localities.Poland's current voivodeships (provinces) are largely based on the country's historic regions, whereas those of the past two decades (to 1998) had been centred on and named for individual cities. The new units range in area from less than for Opole Voivodeship to more than for Masovian Voivodeship. Administrative authority at the voivodeship level is shared between a government-appointed voivode (governor), an elected regional assembly ("sejmik") and a voivodeship marshal, an executive elected by that assembly.The voivodeships are subdivided into "powiats" (often referred to in English as counties), and these are further divided into "gminas" (also known as communes or municipalities). Major cities normally have the status of both "gmina" and "powiat". Poland has 16 voivodeships, 380 powiats (including 66 cities with "powiat" status), and 2,478 "gminas".Poland's economy and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is currently the sixth largest in the European Union by nominal standards, and the fifth largest by purchasing power parity. It is also one of the fastest growing within the Union. Around 60% of the employed population belongs to the tertiary service sector, 30% to industry and manufacturing, and the remaining 10% to the agricultural sector. Although Poland is a member of EU's single market, the country has not adopted the Euro as legal tender and maintains its own currency – the Polish złoty (zł, PLN).Poland is the regional economic leader in Central Europe, with nearly 40 per cent of the 500 biggest companies in the region (by revenues) as well as a high globalisation rate. The country's largest firms compose the WIG20 and WIG30 indexes, which is traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. According to reports made by the National Bank of Poland, the value of Polish foreign direct investments reached almost 300 billion PLN at the end of 2014. The Central Statistical Office estimated that in 2014 there were 1,437 Polish corporations with interests in 3,194 foreign entities.Having a strong domestic market, low private debt, low unemployment rate, flexible currency, and not being dependent on a single export sector, Poland is the only European economy to have avoided the recession of 2008. The country is the 20th largest exporter of goods and services in the world and its most successful exports include machinery, furniture, food products, clothing, shoes, cosmetics and videogames. These account to approximately 56% of the total GDP, as of 2018. Poland's largest trading partners include Germany, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, France and Italy. Warsaw leads Central Europe in foreign investment. In September 2018, the unemployment rate was estimated at 5.7%, one of the lowest in the European Union. In 2019, Poland passed a law that would exempt workers under the age of 26 from income tax.The Polish banking sector is the largest in the region, with 32.3 branches per 100,000 adults.World Bank, Financial Inclusion Data. Country Dashboard: Poland. The World Bank Group. Retrieved 6 November 2014. The banks are the largest and most developed sector of the country's financial markets. They are regulated by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority. Poland's banking sector has approximately 5 national banks, a network of nearly 600 cooperative banks and 18 branches of foreign-owned banks. In addition, foreign investors have controlling stakes in nearly 40 commercial banks, which make up 68% of the banking capital.Products and goods manufactured in Poland include: electronics, buses and trams (Solaris, Solbus), helicopters and planes (PZL Świdnik, PZL Mielec), trains (Pesa, Newag), ships (Gdańsk Shipyard, Szczecin Shipyard), military equipment (FB "Łucznik" Radom, , Jelcz), medicines (, ), food (Tymbark, Hortex, E. Wedel), clothes (LLP), glass, pottery (Bolesławiec), chemical products and others. Well-known brands and companies include Alior Bank, Orlen&Lotos Group, Inglot Cosmetics, Plus, Play, Brainly, Netguru, GOG.com, CD Projekt, Trefl and Allegro. Poland is also one of the world's biggest producers of copper, silver, coal, furniture, automotive parts and soft drink.Poland experienced a significant increase in the number of tourists after joining the European Union in 2004. With nearly 21 million international arrivals in 2019, tourism contributes considerably to the overall economy and makes up a relatively large proportion of the country's service market.Tourist attractions in Poland vary, from the mountains in the south to the sandy beaches in the north, with a trail of nearly every architectural style. The most visited city is Kraków, which was the former capital of Poland and serves as a relic of the Polish Golden Age and the Renaissance. Kraków also held royal coronations of most Polish kings and monarchs at Wawel, the nation's chief historical landmark. Among other notable sites in the country is Wrocław, one of the oldest cities in Poland which was a model for the founding of Kraków. Wrocław is famous for its dwarfs, a large market square with two town halls, and the oldest Zoological Gardens with one of the world's largest number of animal species. The Polish capital Warsaw and its historical Old Town were entirely reconstructed after wartime destruction. Other cities attracting countless tourists include Gdańsk, Poznań, Lublin, Toruń as well as the site of the German Auschwitz concentration camp in Oświęcim. A notable highlight is the 13th-century Wieliczka Salt Mine with its labyrinthine tunnels, a subterranean lake and chapels carved by miners out of rock salt beneath the ground.Poland's main tourist offerings include outdoor activities such as skiing, sailing, mountain hiking and climbing, as well as agritourism, sightseeing historical monuments. Tourist destinations include the Baltic Sea coast in the north; the Masurian Lake District and Białowieża Forest in the east; on the south Karkonosze, the Table Mountains and the Tatra Mountains, where Rysy – the highest peak of Poland, and Eagle's Path mountain trail are located. The Pieniny and Bieszczady Mountains lie in the extreme south-east. There are over 100 castles in the country, most in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship (inter alia ), and also on the Trail of the Eagles' Nests. The largest castle in the world by land area is situated in Malbork, in north-central Poland.The electricity generation sector in Poland is largely fossil-fuel–based. Many power plants nationwide use Poland's position as a major European exporter of coal to their advantage by continuing to use coal as the primary raw material in the production of their energy. In 2013, Poland scored 48 out of 129 states in the Energy Sustainability Index. The three largest Polish coal mining firms (Węglokoks, Kompania Węglowa and JSW) extract around 100 million tonnes of coal annually.Renewable forms of energy account for a smaller proportion of Poland's full energy generation capacity. However, the national government has set targets for the development of renewable energy sources in Poland (the share of energy from renewable sources in the gross final energy consumption in 2019 was – 12,18%). Increasing the share of energy from renewable sources and a significant reduction in CO2 emissions to be achieved with the help of biofuels, photovoltaics, construction of wind farms on the land and the Baltic Sea, hydroelectric stations and nuclear power plant.Poland has around 164,800,000,000 m of proven natural gas reserves and around 96,380,000 barrels of proven oil reserves. These reserves are exploited by energy supply companies such as PKN Orlen ("the only Polish company listed in the Fortune Global 500"), PGNiG. However, the small amounts of fossil fuels naturally occurring in Poland are insufficient to satisfy the full energy consumption needs of the population and industry. Consequently, the country is a net importer of oil and natural gas. Therefore, since the second decade of the 21st century, Poland has been strongly developing the so-called North Gate in which the most important components are the Baltic Pipe, the Świnoujście LNG terminal and Floating Storage and Regasification Unit in Port of Gdańsk.The 5 largest companies supplying Poland electricity are PGE, Tauron, Enea, and Innogy Poland.Transport in Poland is provided by means of rail, road, marine shipping and air travel. The country is part of EU's Schengen Area and is an important transport hub along neighbouring Germany due to its strategic position in Central Europe. Some of the longest European routes, including the E40, run through Poland.The country has a good network of highways, composed of express roads and motorways. At the start of 2020, Poland had of highways in use. In addition, all local and regional roads are monitored by the National Road Rebuilding Programme, which aims to improve the quality of travel in the countryside and suburban localities.In 2017, the nation had of railway track, the third longest in Europe after Germany and France. The Polish State Railways (PKP) is the dominant railway operator in the country. In December 2014, Poland began to implement high–speed rail routes connecting major Polish cities, and started passenger service using the New Pendolino train, operating at 200 km/h on the Central Rail Line (CMK). Polish regulations allow trains without ETCS to travel at speeds up to 160 km/h, trains with ETCS1 up to 200 km/h, and trains with ETCS2 at over 200 km/h. Most inter-regional connections rail routes in Poland are operated by PKP Intercity, whilst regional trains are run by a number of private operators, the largest of which is Polregio. The largest passenger train station in terms of the number of travelers is Wrocław Główny.The air and maritime transport markets in Poland are largely well developed. Poland has a number of international airports, the largest of which is Warsaw Chopin Airport, the primary global hub for LOT Polish Airlines. It was established in 1928 from a merger of Aerolloyd (1922) and Aero (1925). Other major airports with international connections include John Paul II International Airport Kraków–Balice, Copernicus Airport Wrocław, Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport. Poland has begun preparations for a construction that can handle 100 million passengers of the Central Communication Port.Seaports exist all along Poland's Baltic coast, with most freight operations using Świnoujście, Police, Szczecin, Kołobrzeg, Gdynia, Gdańsk and Elbląg as their base.Passenger ferries link Poland with Scandinavia all year round; these services are provided from Gdańsk and Świnoujście by Polferries, Stena Line from Gdynia and Unity Line from the Świnoujście. The Port of Gdańsk is the only port in the Baltic Sea adapted to receive oceanic vessels.Over the course of history, the Polish people have made considerable contributions in the fields of science, technology and mathematics. Perhaps the most renowned Pole to support this theory was Nicolaus Copernicus ("Mikołaj Kopernik"), who triggered the Copernican Revolution by placing the Sun rather than the Earth at the center of the universe. He also derived a quantity theory of money, which made him a pioneer of economics. Copernicus' achievements and discoveries are considered the basis of Polish culture and cultural identity.Poland's tertiary education institutions; traditional universities, as well as technical, medical, and economic institutions, employ around tens of thousands of researchers and staff members. There are hundreds of research and development institutes. However, in the 19th and 20th centuries many Polish scientists worked abroad; one of the most important of these exiles was Maria Skłodowska-Curie, a physicist and chemist who lived much of her life in France. In 1925 she established Poland's Radium Institute.In the first half of the 20th century, Poland was a flourishing centre of mathematics. Outstanding Polish mathematicians formed the Lwów School of Mathematics (with Stefan Banach, Stanisław Mazur, Hugo Steinhaus, Stanisław Ulam) and Warsaw School of Mathematics (with Alfred Tarski, Kazimierz Kuratowski, Wacław Sierpiński and Antoni Zygmund). Numerous mathematicians, scientists, chemists or economists emigrated due to historic vicissitudes, among them Benoit Mandelbrot, Leonid Hurwicz, Alfred Tarski, Joseph Rotblat and Nobel Prize laureates Roald Hoffmann, Georges Charpak and Tadeusz Reichstein. In the 1930s, mathematician and cryptologist Marian Rejewski invented the Cryptographic Bomb which formed the basis of the effort that allowed the Allies to crack the Enigma code.Over 40 research and development centers and 4,500 researchers make Poland the biggest research and development hub in Central and Eastern Europe. Multinational companies such as: ABB, Delphi, GlaxoSmithKline, Google, Hewlett–Packard, IBM, Intel, LG Electronics, Microsoft, Motorola, Siemens and Samsung all have set up research and development centres in Poland. Companies chose Poland because of the availability of highly qualified labour force, presence of universities, support of authorities, and the largest market in East-Central Europe. According to a KPMG report from 2011, 80% of Poland's current investors are content with their choice and willing to reinvest. Poland has a very well-developed e-administration, thanks to which many official matters can be easily and quickly settled via the Internet. In the UN ranking, Poland is in the top twenty countries with the best-rated e-administration in the world.Poland, with approximately 38.5 million inhabitants, has the ninth-largest population in Europe and the fifth-largest in the European Union. It has a population density of 122 inhabitants per square kilometre (328 per square mile). The total fertility rate in 2020 was estimated at 1.44 children born to a woman, a considerable rise from previous years. In contrast, the total fertility rate in 1925 was 4.68. Furthermore, Poland's population is aging significantly and the median age in 2018 was 41.1 years. The crude death rate in 2020 stood at 10.3 per 1,000 people.Around 60% of Poles and Polish citizens reside in urban areas or major cities and 40% in more rural zones. The most populous administrative province or state is the Masovian Voivodeship and the most populous city is the capital, Warsaw, at 1.8 million inhabitants with a further 2-3 million people living in its metropolitan area. The metropolitan area of Katowice is the largest urban conurbation in Poland with a population between 2.7 million and 5.3 million residents. The least populous and the smallest province in size is the Opole Voivodeship, with just under 1 million people living within its borders. Hence, a substantial portion of the total population is concentrated in the south of Poland, roughly between the cities of Wrocław and Kraków.In the 2011 Polish census, 37,310,341 people reported Polish identity, 846,719 Silesian, 232,547 Kashubian and 147,814 German. Other identities were reported by 163,363 people (0.41%) and 521,470 people (1.35%) did not specify any nationality. Once prominent but now statistically insignificant minority groups include Polish Jews, Lipka Tatars, Armenians, Greeks, Lemkos, the Romani people and the Vietnamese. Ethnic Poles themselves can be divided into many diverse regional ethnographic sub-groups, most notable being the Kashubians, Silesians and Gorals (Highlanders). The statistics do not include recently arrived migrant workers. More than 1.7 million Ukrainian citizens worked legally in Poland in 2017.There is a very strong Polish diaspora around the world, notably in the United States, Germany, United Kingdom and Canada. A strong Polish minority is still present in the territories of contemporary western Ukraine and Belarus, eastern Lithuania, eastern and central Latvia, and northeastern Czech Republic, which were part of Poland in the past. Altogether, the number of ethnic Poles living abroad is estimated to be around 20 million.Polish is the only official and predominant spoken language in Poland, but it is also used throughout the world by Polish minorities in other countries as well as being one of the official languages of the European Union. The deaf communities use Polish Sign Language belonging to the German family of Sign Languages. Polish is also a second language in Lithuania, where it is taught in schools and universities. Contemporary Poland is a linguistically homogeneous nation, with nearly 97% of respondents declaring Polish as their mother tongue.Poland's once multi-ethnic population communicated in numerous languages and lects which faded or disappeared along the course of history. There are currently 15 minority languages in Poland, including one recognized regional language, Kashubian, which is spoken by around 366,000 people in the northern regions of Kashubia and Pomerania.Languages having the status of national minority's language are Armenian, Belarusian, Czech, German, Yiddish, Hebrew, Lithuanian, Russian, Slovak and Ukrainian. Languages having the status of ethnic minority's language are Karaim, Lemko-Rusyn, Tatar and two Romani languages; Polska Roma and Bergitka Roma. Official recognition of a language provides certain rights under conditions prescribed by Polish law, including education and state financial support for promoting that language. Poland recognized secondary administrative languages or auxiliary languages in bilingual municipalities. Currently, German and Kashubian hold such status in 19 municipalities ("gminas"), Belarusian in 9 and Lithuanian in 1. Bilingual signs, names and advertisements are commonplace in those localities. Silesian and Wymysorys (Vilamovian) are not legally recognized or acknowledged as separate languages with a minority status.More than 50% of Polish citizens declare at least basic knowledge of the English language, followed by German (38%).According to the 2015 census, 92.9% of all Polish citizens adhere to the Roman Catholic Church. An estimated 94.2% of the population are believers and 3.1% are irreligious, making Poland one of the more devout countries in Europe. Around 61.6% of all respondents outlined that religion is of high or very high importance. However, church attendance has decreased in recent years; only 38% of worshippers attended mass regularly on Sunday in 2018. Freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Polish Constitution, and the concordat guarantees the teaching of religion in state schools.For centuries the tribes inhabiting the lands of modern-day Poland have practiced various forms of paganism known as "Rodzimowierstwo", or "native faith". In the year 966, Duke Mieszko I converted to Christianity, and submitted to the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. This event came to be known as the Baptism of Poland. However, this did not put an end to pagan beliefs in the country. The persistence was demonstrated by a series of rebellions in the 1030s known as the pagan reaction, which also showed elements of a peasant uprising against medieval feudalism.Religious tolerance was an important part of Polish political culture, though it varied at times. In 1264, the Statute of Kalisz granted Jews unprecedented legal rights not found anywhere in Europe. In 1573, the Warsaw Confederation marked the formal beginning of extensive religious freedoms in Poland. It was partially influenced by the 1572 St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in France, which prompted the nobility to prevent the monarch from carrying out reprehensible atrocities in Poland based on religious affiliation. The religious tolerance also spurred many theological movements such as the Calvinist Polish Brethren, a number of Protestant groups and atheists like Casimir Liszinski, one of the first atheist thinkers in Europe. Anabaptists fleeing 16th-century persecution in the Netherlands and Germany settled in Poland and became known as the Vistula delta Mennonites. From 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła was head of the Roman Catholic Church as Pope John Paul II.Contemporary religious minorities include Christian Orthodox (506,800), various Protestants (150,000) — including 77,500 Lutherans of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church, 23,000 Pentecostals in the Pentecostal Church in Poland, 10,000 Adventists in the Seventh-day Adventist Church and other smaller Evangelical denominations — Jehovah's Witnesses (126,827), Eastern Catholics, Mariavites, Jews, Muslims (Tatars) and neopagans, some of whom are members of the Native Polish Church.Famous sites of Roman Catholic pilgrimage in Poland include the Monastery of Jasna Góra in the city of Częstochowa, Basilica of Our Lady of Licheń, Kraków's Sanctuary of Divine Mercy and Święta Lipka (Holy Linden) in Masuria. Tourists also visit the family home of John Paul II in Wadowice outside Kraków. Christ the King in Świebodzin is the tallest statue of Jesus in the world. Christian Orthodox pilgrims visit Mount Grabarka near Grabarka-Klasztor and the Hasidic Jews travel annually to the grave of a great rabbi in Leżajsk.Medical service providers and hospitals ("szpitale") in Poland are subordinate to the Ministry of Health; it provides administrative oversight and scrutiny of general medical practice, and is obliged to maintain a high standard of hygiene and patient care. Poland has a universal healthcare system based on an all-inclusive insurance system; state subsidised healthcare is available to all citizens covered by the general health insurance program of the National Health Fund (NFZ). Private medical complexes exist nationwide; over 50% of the population uses both public and private sectors.Hospitals are organised according to the regional administrative structure, resultantly most towns, counties or municipalities possess their own provincial hospital or medical clinics. There are six types of hospital facilities, each with a particular area of medical expertise – I Grade Hospitals for general surgery, internal illnesses and obstetrics; II Grade Hospitals for child surgery, neurology, cardiology and ophthalmology; III Grade Hospitals including teaching hospitals for infectious diseases, nephrology, orthopedics, toxicology and transplantology; Oncology Hospitals for cancer treatment and brachytherapy; Pediatric Hospitals for child care; and Nationwide Hospitals for general and acute care.According to the Human Development Report from 2020, the average life expectancy at birth is 79 years (around 75 years for an infant male and 83 years for an infant female); the country has a low infant mortality rate (4 per 1,000 births). In 2019, the principal cause of death was ischemic heart disease; diseases of the circulatory system accounted for 45% of all deaths. In the same year, Poland was also the 15th-largest importer of medications and pharmaceutical products.The Jagiellonian University founded in 1364 by Casimir III in Kraków was the first institution of higher learning established in Poland, and is one of the oldest universities still in continuous operation. Poland's Commission of National Education ("Komisja Edukacji Narodowej"), established in 1773, was the world's first state ministry of education. The framework for primary and secondary schooling in contemporary Poland is established by the Ministry of National Education. Kindergarten attendance is optional for children aged between three and five, with one year being compulsory for six-year-olds. Primary education traditionally begins at the age of seven, although children aged six can attend at the request of their parents or guardians. Elementary school spans eight grades, at the end of which an obligatory three-part exam on Polish, mathematics and a foreign language is to be undertaken. Secondary schooling is dependent on student preference – either a four-year high school ("liceum"), a five-year technical school ("technikum") or various vocational studies ("szkoła branżowa") can be pursued by each individual pupil. A liceum or technikum is concluded with a maturity exit exam ("matura"), which must be passed in order to apply for a university or other institutions of higher learning.The standards of higher tertiary education are imposed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. In Poland, there are over 500 university-level institutions, with technical, medical, economic, agricultural, pedagogical, theological, musical, maritime and military faculties. The University of Warsaw and Warsaw Polytechnic, the University of Wrocław, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and the University of Technology in Gdańsk are among the most prominent. There are three conventional academic degrees in Poland – "licencjat" or "inżynier" (first cycle qualification), "magister" (second cycle qualification) and "doktor" (third cycle qualification).In 2018, the Programme for International Student Assessment, coordinated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, ranked Poland's educational system higher than the OECD average; the study showed that students in Poland perform better academically than in most OECD countries.The culture of Poland is closely connected with its intricate 1,000-year history and forms an important constituent in western civilization. The Poles take great pride in their national identity which is often associated with the colours white and red, and exuded by the expression "biało-czerwoni" ("whitereds"). National symbols, chiefly the crowned white-tailed eagle, are often visible on clothing, insignia and emblems. The appreciation of Poland's traditions and cultural heritage is commonly known as Polonophilia.With origins in the customs of the tribal Lechites, over time the culture of Poland has been influenced by its connection to Western culture and trends, as well as developing its own unique traditions such as Sarmatism. The people of Poland have traditionally been seen as hospitable to artists from abroad and eager to follow cultural and artistic trends popular in foreign countries, for instance, the 16th- and 17th-century tradition of coffin portraits ("portret trumienny") was only observed in Poland and Roman Egypt. In the 19th and 20th centuries the Polish focus on cultural advancement often took precedence over political and economic activity. These factors have contributed to the versatile nature of Polish art.The architectural monuments of great importance are protected by the National Heritage Board of Poland. Over 100 of the country's most significant tangible wonders were enlisted onto the Historic Monuments Register, with further 16 being recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. Poland is renowned for its brick Gothic castles, granaries and churches as well as diversely-styled tenements, market squares and town halls. The majority of Polish cities founded on Magdeburg Law in the Middle Ages evolved around central marketplaces, a distinguishable urban characteristic which can be observed to this day. Medieval and Renaissance cloth halls were once an abundant feature of many towns.There are 13 government-approved annual public holidays – New Year on 1 January, Three Kings' Day on 6 January, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, Labour Day on 1 May, Constitution Day on 3 May, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, Armed Forces Day on 15 August, All Saints' Day on 1 November, Independence Day on 11 November and Christmastide on 25 and 26 December.Particular traditions and superstitious customs observed in Poland are not found elsewhere in Europe. Though Christmas Eve ("Wigilia") is not a public holiday, it remains the most memorable day of the entire year. Trees are decorated on 24 December, hay is placed under the tablecloth to resemble Jesus' manger, Christmas wafers ("opłatek") are shared between gathered guests and a twelve-dish meatless supper is served that same evening when the first star appears. An empty plate and seat are symbolically left at the table for an unexpected guest. On occasion, carolers journey around smaller towns with a folk Turoń creature until the Lent period.A widely-popular doughnut and sweet pastry feast occurs on Fat Thursday, usually 52 days prior to Easter. Eggs for Holy Sunday are painted and placed in decorated baskets that are previously blessed by clergymen in churches on Easter Saturday. Easter Monday is celebrated with pagan "dyngus" festivities, where the youth is engaged in water fights and some girls are gently spanked by colleagues with pussy willows to stimulate fertility.Cemeteries and graves of the deceased are annually visited by family members on All Saints' Day; tombstones are cleaned as a sign of respect and candles are lit to honour the dead on an unprecedented scale.Artists from Poland, including famous musicians such as Chopin, Rubinstein, Paderewski, Penderecki and Wieniawski, and traditional, regionalized folk composers create a lively and diverse music scene, which even recognizes its own music genres, such as sung poetry and disco polo.The origins of Polish music can be traced to the 13th century; manuscripts have been found in Stary Sącz containing polyphonic compositions related to the Parisian Notre Dame School. Other early compositions, such as the melody of "Bogurodzica" and "God Is Born" (a coronation polonaise tune for Polish kings by an unknown composer), may also date back to this period, however, the first known notable composer, Nicholas of Radom, lived in the 15th century. Diomedes Cato, a native-born Italian who lived in Kraków, became a renowned lutenist at the court of Sigismund III; he not only imported some of the musical styles from southern Europe but blended them with native folk music.In the 17th and 18th centuries, Polish baroque composers wrote liturgical music and secular compositions such as concertos and sonatas for voices or instruments. At the end of the 18th century, Polish classical music evolved into national forms like the polonaise. Wojciech Bogusławski is accredited with composing the first Polish national opera, titled "", which premiered in 1794.Traditional Polish folk music has had a major effect on the works of many Polish composers, and no more so than on Fryderyk Chopin, a widely recognised national hero of the arts. All of Chopin's works involve the piano and are technically demanding, emphasising nuance and expressive depth. As a great composer, Chopin invented the musical form known as the instrumental ballade and made major innovations to the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, polonaise, étude, impromptu and prélude, he was also the composer of a number of polonaises which borrowed heavily from traditional Polish folk music. It is largely thanks to him that such pieces gained great popularity throughout Europe during the 19th century. Several Polish composers such as Szymanowski drew inspiration from Chopin's folk-influenced style. Nowadays the most distinctive folk music can be heard in the towns and villages of the mountainous south, particularly in the region surrounding the winter resort town of Zakopane.Poland today has an active music scene, with the jazz and metal genres being particularly popular among the contemporary populace. Polish jazz musicians such as Krzysztof Komeda created a unique style, which was most famous in the 1960s and 1970s and continues to be popular to this day. Poland has also become a major venue for large-scale music festivals, chief among which are the Open'er Festival, Opole Festival and Sopot Festival.Art in Poland has always reflected European trends while maintaining its unique character. The Kraków Academy of Fine Arts, later developed by Jan Matejko, produced monumental portrayals of customs and significant events in Polish history. Other institutions such as the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw were more innovative and focused on both historical and contemporary styles. Notable art academies include the Kraków School of Art and Fashion Design, Art Academy of Szczecin, University of Fine Arts in Poznań and the Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław.Perhaps the most prominent and internationally admired Polish artist was Tamara de Lempicka, who specialized in the style of Art Deco. Lempicka was described as "the first woman artist to become a glamour star." Another notable was Caziel, born Zielenkiewicz, who represented Cubism and Abstraction in France and England.Prior to the 19th century only Daniel Schultz and Italian-born Marcello Bacciarelli had the privilege of being recognized abroad. The Young Poland movement witnessed the birth of modern Polish art, and engaged in a great deal of formal experimentation led by Jacek Malczewski, Stanisław Wyspiański, Józef Mehoffer, and a group of Polish Impressionists. Stanisław Witkiewicz was an ardent supporter of Realism, its main representative being Józef Chełmoński, while Artur Grottger specialized in Romanticism. Within historically-orientated circles, Henryk Siemiradzki dominated with his monumental Academic Art and ancient Roman theme.Since the inter-war years, Polish art and documentary photography has enjoyed worldwide fame and in the 1960s the Polish School of Posters was formed. Throughout the entire country, many national museum and art institutions hold valuable works by famous masters. Major museums in Poland include the National Museum in Warsaw, Poznań, Wrocław, Kraków, and Gdańsk, as well as the Museum of John Paul II Collection, and the Wilanów Museum. Important collections are also held at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Wawel Castle and in the Palace on the Isle. Contemporary art galleries include Zachęta, Ujazdów, and MOCAK. The most distinguished painting of Poland is "Lady with an Ermine" by Leonardo da Vinci, held at the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków. Although not Polish, the work had a strong influence on Polish culture and has been often associated with Polish identity.Polish cities and towns reflect a whole spectrum of European architectural styles. Romanesque architecture is represented by St. Andrew's Church, Kraków, and St. Mary's Church, Gdańsk, is characteristic for the Brick Gothic style found in Poland. Richly decorated attics and arcade loggias are the common elements of the Polish Renaissance architecture, as evident in the City Hall in Poznań. For some time the late renaissance style known as mannerism, most notably in the Bishop's Palace in Kielce, coexisted with the early baroque style, typified in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Kraków.History has not been kind to Poland's architectural monuments. Nonetheless, a number of ancient structures have survived: castles, churches, and stately homes, often unique in the regional or European context. Some of them have been painstakingly restored, like Wawel Castle, or completely reconstructed, including the Old Town and Royal Castle of Warsaw and the Old Town of Gdańsk.The architecture of Gdańsk is mostly of the Hanseatic variety, a Gothic style common among the former trading cities along the Baltic Sea and in the northern part of Central Europe. The architectural style of Wrocław is mainly representative of German architecture since it was for centuries located within the Holy Roman Empire. The centres of Kazimierz Dolny and Sandomierz on the Vistula are good examples of well-preserved medieval towns. Poland's ancient capital, Kraków, ranks among the best-preserved Gothic and Renaissance urban complexes in Europe.The second half of the 17th century is marked by baroque architecture. Side towers, such as those of Branicki Palace in Białystok, are typical for the Polish baroque. The classical Silesian baroque is represented by the University in Wrocław. The profuse decorations of the Branicki Palace in Warsaw are characteristic of the rococo style. The centre of Polish classicism was Warsaw under the rule of the last Polish king Stanisław II Augustus.The Palace on the Isle is a chief example of Polish neoclassical architecture. Lublin Castle represents the Gothic Revival style in architecture, while the Izrael Poznański Palace in Łódź is an example of eclecticism.Traditional folk architecture in the villages and small towns scattered across the vast Polish countryside was characterized by its extensive use of wood and red brick as primary building materials, common for Central Europe. Some of the best preserved and oldest structures include ancient stone temples in Silesia and fortified wooden churches across southeastern Poland in the Beskids and Bieszczady regions of the Carpathian mountains. Numerous examples of secular structures such as Polish manor houses ("dworek"), farmhouses (), granaries, mills, barns and country inns () can still be found in some Polish regions. However, traditional construction methods faded in the early-mid 20th century, when Poland's population experienced a demographic shift to urban dwelling away from the countryside.The earliest examples of Polish literature date to the 12th century, when Poland's official language was Latin, and early published works were predominantly written by foreigners. Gallus Anonymus, a monk of disputed origin, was the first chronicler who meticulously described Poland's culture, language and territories in "Gesta principum Polonorum" (c. 1112–1118). Latin remained the principal tool of literary expression in Poland until the 18th century, when it was replaced in favour of Polish and French. Historically, Polish literature concentrated extensively around the themes of true drama and poetic-expressive romanticism than on fiction. Patriotism, spirituality and aphorisms were paramount and political or social allegories were common moral narratives.The first documented phrase in the Polish language reads ""Day ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai"" ("Let me grind, and you take a rest"), reflecting the use of quern-stone in early Poland. The phrase was recorded by an abbot in the Latin-based "Liber fundationis" from 1269 to 1273, which outlined the history of a Cistercian monastery in the Silesian village of Henryków. The sentence has been included in the UNESCO Memory of World Register. The oldest extant manuscript of fine prose in Old Polish is the "Holy Cross Sermons", and the earliest religious text is the Bible of Queen Sophia. One of the first printing houses was established by Kasper Straube in the 1470s, while Jan Haller was considered the pioneer of commercial print in Poland. Haller's Calendarium cracoviense, an astronomical wall calendar from 1474, is Poland's oldest surviving print.The tradition of extending Polish historiography in Latin was subsequently inherited by Vincent Kadłubek, Bishop of Kraków in the 13th century, and Jan Długosz in the 15th century. This practice, however, was abandoned by Jan Kochanowski, who became one of the first Polish Renaissance authors to write most of his works in Polish, along with Nicholas Rey. Other writers of the Polish Renaissance include Johannes Dantiscus, Andreus Fricius Modrevius, Matthias Sarbievius, Piotr Skarga and Klemens "Ianicius" Janicki, who was laureled by the Pope. The leading figure of the Polish Reformation was theologian and writer John Laski, who, with the permission of King Edward VI of England, created the European Protestant Congregation of London in 1550.During the Baroque era, the Jesuits greatly influenced Polish literature and literary techniques, often relying on God and religious matters. The leading baroque poet was Jan Andrzej Morsztyn, who incorporated Marinism into his publications. Jan Chryzostom Pasek, also a respected baroque writer, is mostly remembered for his tales and memoirs reflecting sarmatian culture in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Subsequently, the Polish Enlightenment was headed by Samuel Linde, Hugo Kołłątaj, Izabela Czartoryska and Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz. In 1776, Ignacy Krasicki composed the first milestone novel entitled "The Adventures of Mr. Nicholas Wisdom".Among the best known Polish Romantics are the "Three Bards" – the three national poets active in the age of foreign partitions – Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki and Zygmunt Krasiński. The narrative poem "Pan Tadeusz" by Mickiewicz is Poland's national epic and a compulsory reading ("lektura") in the country's schools. Joseph Conrad, the son of dramatist Apollo Korzeniowski, came to fame with his English-language novels and stories that are informed with elements of the Polish national experience. Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", "Nostromo" and "Lord Jim" are believed to be one of the finest works ever written, placing him among the greatest novelists of all time. Modern Polish literature is versatile, with its fantasy genre having been particularly praised. The philosophical sci-fi novel "Solaris" is an acclaimed example of Stanisław Lem's literary legacy, whereas "The Witcher", a fantasy series by Andrzej Sapkowski, is a much-celebrated work of contemporary Polish fiction.In the 20th century, five Polish authors were awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature – Henryk Sienkiewicz for "Quo Vadis", Władysław Reymont for "The Peasants", Isaac Bashevis Singer, Czesław Miłosz and Wisława Szymborska. In 2019, Polish author Olga Tokarczuk was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 2018.Polish cuisine has evolved over the centuries to become highly eclectic due to Poland's history. Polish cuisine shares many similarities with other Central European cuisines, especially German and Austrian as well as Jewish, French, Italian and Turkish culinary traditions. Polish-styled cooking in other cultures is often referred to as "cuisine à la polonaise".Polish dishes are usually rich in meat, especially pork, chicken and beef (depending on the region), winter vegetables (sauerkraut cabbage in "bigos"), and spices. It is also characteristic in its use of various kinds of noodles, the most notable of which are kluski, as well as cereals such as "kasha" (from the Polish word kasza) and a variety of breads like the world-renowned bagel. Polish cuisine is hearty and uses a lot of cream and eggs. Festive meals such as the meatless Christmas Eve dinner ("Wigilia") or Easter breakfast could take days to prepare in their entirety.The main course usually includes a serving of meat, such as roast, chicken, or "kotlet schabowy" (breaded pork cutlet), vegetables, side dishes and salads, including "surówka" – shredded root vegetables with lemon and sugar (carrot, celeriac, seared beetroot) or sauerkraut (, ). The side dishes are usually potatoes, rice or cereal. Meals conclude with a dessert such as "sernik" (cheesecake), "makowiec" (poppy seed pastry), or "napoleonka" (cream pie).The Polish national dishes are "bigos" ; "pierogi" ; "kielbasa"; "kotlet schabowy" breaded cutlet; "gołąbki" cabbage rolls; "zrazy" roulade; "pieczeń" roast ; sour cucumber soup ("zupa ogórkowa", ); mushroom soup, ("zupa grzybowa", quite different from the North American cream of mushroom); "zupa pomidorowa" tomato soup ; "rosół" variety of meat broth; "żurek" sour rye soup; "flaki" tripe soup; "barszcz" and "chłodnik" among others.Traditional alcoholic beverages include honey mead, widespread since the 13th century, beer, wine and vodka (old Polish names include "okowita" and "gorzała"). The world's first written mention of vodka originates from Poland. The most popular alcoholic drinks at present are beer and wine which took over from vodka more popular in the years 1980–1998. Tea remains common in Polish society since the 19th century, whilst coffee is drunk widely since the 18th century. Other frequently consumed beverages include various mineral waters and juices, soft drinks popularized by the fast-food chains since the late 20th century, as well as buttermilk, soured milk and kefir.The particular clothing styles in Poland evolved with each century. In the 1600s high-class noblemen and magnates developed a strong sympathy for Orientalism, which was also common in other parts of Europe and became known as Sarmatism. The attire mediated between Western and Ottoman styles and outfits included a żupan, delia, kontusz, pas, decorative karabela swords and less often turbans brought by foreign merchants. The period of Polish Sarmatism eventually faded in the wake of the 18th century.The Polish national dress as well as the fashion and etiquette of Poland also reached the royal court at Versailles in the 1700s. French dresses inspired by Polish attire were called "à la polonaise", meaning "Polish-styled". The most famous example is the "robe à la polonaise", a woman's garment with draped and swagged overskirt, worn over an underskirt or petticoat. Another notable example is the Witzchoura, a long mantle with collar and hood, which was possibly introduced by Napoleon's Polish mistress Maria Walewska. The scope of influence also entailed furniture; rococo Polish beds with canopies became commonplace in French palaces during the 18th century.Several Polish designers and stylists left a lifelong legacy of beauty inventions and cosmetics, most notable being Maksymilian Faktorowicz and Helena Rubinstein. Faktorowicz created a line of cosmetics company in California known as Max Factor and coined the term "make-up" based on the verb phrase "to make up" one's face, now widely used as an alternative for describing cosmetics. Faktorowicz also raised to fame by inventing modern eyelash extensions and by providing services to Hollywood artists.As of 2020, Poland possesses the fifth-largest cosmetic market in Europe. Founded in 1983, Inglot Cosmetics is the country's largest beauty products manufacturer and retailer active in 700 locations worldwide, including retail salons in New York City, London, Milan, Dubai and Las Vegas. Established in 1999, the retail store Reserved is Poland's most successful clothing store chain, operating over 1,700 retail shops in 19 countries. Internationally successful models from Poland include Anja Rubik, Joanna Krupa, Jac Jagaciak, Kasia Struss, Małgosia Bela, and Magdalena Frąckowiak.The history of Polish cinema is as long as the history of cinematography itself. Over the decades, Poland has produced outstanding directors, film producers, cartoonists and actors that achieved world fame, especially in Hollywood. Moreover, Polish inventors played an important role in the development of world cinematography and modern-day television. Among the most famous directors and producers, who worked in Poland as well as abroad are Roman Polański, Andrzej Wajda, Samuel Goldwyn, the Warner brothers (Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack), Max Fleischer, Lee Strasberg, Agnieszka Holland and Krzysztof Kieślowski.In the 19th century, throughout partitioned Poland, numerous amateur inventors, such as Kazimierz Prószyński, were eager to construct a film projector. In 1894, Prószyński was successful in creating a Pleograph, one of the first cameras in the world. The invention, which took photographs and projected pictures, was built before the Lumière brothers lodged their patent. He also patented an Aeroscope, the first successful hand-held operated film camera. In 1897, Jan Szczepanik, obtained a British patent for his Telectroscope. This prototype of television could easily transmit image and sound, thus allowing a live remote view.Polish cinema developed rapidly in the interwar period. The most renowned star of the silent film era was Polish actress Pola Negri. During this time, the Yiddish cinema also evolved in Poland. Films in the Yiddish language with Jewish themes, such as "The Dybbuk" (1937), played an important part in pre-war Polish cinematography. In 1945 the government established 'Film Polski', a state-run film production and distribution organization, with director Aleksander Ford as the head of the company. Ford's "Knights of the Teutonic Order" (1960) was viewed by millions of people in the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and France. This success was followed by the historical films of Jerzy Hoffman and Andrzej Wajda. Wajda's 1975 film "The Promised Land" was nominated at the 48th Academy Awards.In 2015, "Ida" by Paweł Pawlikowski won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2019, Pawlikowski received an Academy Award for Best Director nomination for his historical drama "Cold War". Other well-known Polish Oscar-winning productions include "The Pianist" (2002) by Roman Polański.Poland has a number of major media outlets, chief among which are the national television channels. TVP is Poland's public broadcasting corporation; about a third of its income comes from a broadcast receiver licence, while the rest is made through revenue from commercials and sponsorships. State television operates two mainstream channels, TVP 1 and TVP 2, as well as regional programs for each of the country's 16 voivodeships (as TVP 3). In addition to these general channels, TVP runs a number of genre-specific programmes such as TVP Sport, TVP Historia, TVP Kultura, TVP Rozrywka, TVP Seriale and TVP Polonia, the latter is a state-run channel dedicated to the transmission of Polish language television for the Polish diaspora. Poland has several 24-hour news channels such as Polsat News, TVP Info and TVN 24. Poland also possesses a variety of free-to-air television channels, chiefly TVN, Polsat and TV4.In Poland, there are also daily newspapers like "Gazeta Wyborcza" ("Electoral Gazette"), "Rzeczpospolita" ("The Republic") and "Gazeta Polska Codziennie" ("Polish Daily Newspaper") which provide traditional opinion and news, and tabloids such as "Fakt" and "Super Express". Weeklies include "Tygodnik Angora", "", "Polityka", "Wprost", "Newsweek Polska", "Gość Niedzielny" and "Gazeta Polska".Poland has also emerged as a major hub for video game developers in Europe, with the country now being home to hundreds of studios. Among the most successful ones are CD Projekt, Techland, CI Games and People Can Fly. Some of the most popular video games developed in Poland include The Witcher trilogy. Katowice hosts Intel Extreme Masters, one of the biggest eSports events in the world.Volleyball and Association football are among the country's most popular sports, with a rich history of international competitions. Track and field, basketball, handball, boxing, MMA, motorcycle speedway, ski jumping, cross-country skiing, ice hockey, tennis, fencing, swimming and weightlifting are other popular sports.The golden era of football in Poland occurred throughout the 1970s and went on until the early 1980s when the Polish national football team achieved their best results in any FIFA World Cup competitions finishing 3rd place in the 1974 and the 1982 tournaments. The team won a gold medal in football at the 1972 Summer Olympics and two silver medals, in 1976 and in 1992. In 2012, Poland co-hosted the UEFA European Football Championship.As of May 2021, the Polish men's national volleyball team is ranked as 2nd in the world. Volleyball team won a gold medal in Olympic 1976 Montreal and three gold medals in FIVB World Championship 1974, 2014 and 2018.Mariusz Pudzianowski is a highly successful strongman competitor and has won more World's Strongest Man titles than any other competitor in the world, winning the event in 2008 for the fifth time.Poland has made a distinctive mark in motorcycle speedway racing thanks to Tomasz Gollob and Bartosz Zmarzlik, highly successful Polish riders. The top Ekstraliga division has one of the highest average attendances for any sport in Poland. The national speedway team of Poland is one of the major teams in international speedway.Poles made significant achievements in mountaineering, in particular, in the Himalayas and the winter ascending of the eight-thousanders. Polish mountains are one of the tourist attractions of the country. Hiking, climbing, skiing and mountain biking and attract numerous tourists every year from all over the world. Water sports are the most popular summer recreation activities, with ample locations for fishing, canoeing, kayaking, sailing and windsurfing especially in the northern regions of the country.
|
[
"Ewa Kopacz",
"Leszek Miller",
"Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz",
"Jan Olszewski",
"Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz",
"Tadeusz Mazowiecki",
"Jarosław Kaczyński",
"Jan Krzysztof Bielecki",
"Hanna Suchocka",
"Donald Tusk",
"Beata Szydło",
"Marek Belka",
"Jerzy Buzek",
"Waldemar Pawlak",
"Józef Oleksy"
] |
|
Which position did Pedro Alejandrino del Solar hold in Oct, 1873?
|
October 07, 1873
|
{
"text": [
"member of the Senate of Peru"
]
}
|
L2_Q6068089_P39_0
|
Pedro Alejandrino del Solar holds the position of Member of the Chamber of Deputies of Peru from Jan, 1886 to Jan, 1889.
Pedro Alejandrino del Solar holds the position of President of the Council of Ministers of Peru from Apr, 1889 to Feb, 1890.
Pedro Alejandrino del Solar holds the position of member of the Senate of Peru from Jan, 1868 to Jan, 1875.
|
Pedro Alejandrino del SolarPedro Alejandrino del Solar Gabans (November 26, 1829 – June 6, 1909) was a Peruvian lawyer, journalist and diplomat. He was born in Lima, Peru. He graduated from the National University of San Marcos and served on its faculty. He served as the President of the Chamber of Deputies from May 1886 to June 1886. He was three-time Prime Minister of Peru (June–October 1886, Nov 1886 – August 1887, April 1889 – February 1890). He served as the first vice president from 1890 to 1894. He also served as minister of justice, and in the Senate of Peru.
|
[
"President of the Council of Ministers of Peru",
"Member of the Chamber of Deputies of Peru"
] |
|
Which position did Pedro Alejandrino del Solar hold in May, 1886?
|
May 28, 1886
|
{
"text": [
"Member of the Chamber of Deputies of Peru"
]
}
|
L2_Q6068089_P39_1
|
Pedro Alejandrino del Solar holds the position of President of the Council of Ministers of Peru from Apr, 1889 to Feb, 1890.
Pedro Alejandrino del Solar holds the position of member of the Senate of Peru from Jan, 1868 to Jan, 1875.
Pedro Alejandrino del Solar holds the position of Member of the Chamber of Deputies of Peru from Jan, 1886 to Jan, 1889.
|
Pedro Alejandrino del SolarPedro Alejandrino del Solar Gabans (November 26, 1829 – June 6, 1909) was a Peruvian lawyer, journalist and diplomat. He was born in Lima, Peru. He graduated from the National University of San Marcos and served on its faculty. He served as the President of the Chamber of Deputies from May 1886 to June 1886. He was three-time Prime Minister of Peru (June–October 1886, Nov 1886 – August 1887, April 1889 – February 1890). He served as the first vice president from 1890 to 1894. He also served as minister of justice, and in the Senate of Peru.
|
[
"member of the Senate of Peru",
"President of the Council of Ministers of Peru"
] |
|
Which position did Pedro Alejandrino del Solar hold in Nov, 1889?
|
November 06, 1889
|
{
"text": [
"President of the Council of Ministers of Peru"
]
}
|
L2_Q6068089_P39_2
|
Pedro Alejandrino del Solar holds the position of President of the Council of Ministers of Peru from Apr, 1889 to Feb, 1890.
Pedro Alejandrino del Solar holds the position of Member of the Chamber of Deputies of Peru from Jan, 1886 to Jan, 1889.
Pedro Alejandrino del Solar holds the position of member of the Senate of Peru from Jan, 1868 to Jan, 1875.
|
Pedro Alejandrino del SolarPedro Alejandrino del Solar Gabans (November 26, 1829 – June 6, 1909) was a Peruvian lawyer, journalist and diplomat. He was born in Lima, Peru. He graduated from the National University of San Marcos and served on its faculty. He served as the President of the Chamber of Deputies from May 1886 to June 1886. He was three-time Prime Minister of Peru (June–October 1886, Nov 1886 – August 1887, April 1889 – February 1890). He served as the first vice president from 1890 to 1894. He also served as minister of justice, and in the Senate of Peru.
|
[
"member of the Senate of Peru",
"Member of the Chamber of Deputies of Peru"
] |
|
Which team did Ludwig Janda play for in Aug, 1937?
|
August 11, 1937
|
{
"text": [
"SpVgg Greuther Fürth"
]
}
|
L2_Q879689_P54_0
|
Ludwig Janda plays for SpVgg Greuther Fürth from Jan, 1936 to Jan, 1938.
Ludwig Janda plays for ACF Fiorentina from Jan, 1949 to Jan, 1951.
Ludwig Janda plays for Novara Calcio from Jan, 1951 to Jan, 1954.
Ludwig Janda plays for TSV 1860 München from Jan, 1945 to Jan, 1949.
Ludwig Janda plays for Luftwaffen-SV Hamburg from Jan, 1943 to Jan, 1944.
|
Ludwig JandaLudwig Janda (13 January 1919 – 22 August 1981) was a German football player and manager who played for SpVgg Fürth, 1860 München, AC Fiorentina and Novara Calcio.In 1949, he transferred from 1860 München to AC Fiorentina for a fee of DM 30,000. He made his league debut on Boxing Day in a 0–0 draw against Palermo, becoming the first German to play in Serie A.
|
[
"Luftwaffen-SV Hamburg",
"Novara Calcio",
"ACF Fiorentina",
"TSV 1860 München"
] |
|
Which team did Ludwig Janda play for in Jan, 1943?
|
January 15, 1943
|
{
"text": [
"Luftwaffen-SV Hamburg"
]
}
|
L2_Q879689_P54_1
|
Ludwig Janda plays for SpVgg Greuther Fürth from Jan, 1936 to Jan, 1938.
Ludwig Janda plays for ACF Fiorentina from Jan, 1949 to Jan, 1951.
Ludwig Janda plays for Luftwaffen-SV Hamburg from Jan, 1943 to Jan, 1944.
Ludwig Janda plays for Novara Calcio from Jan, 1951 to Jan, 1954.
Ludwig Janda plays for TSV 1860 München from Jan, 1945 to Jan, 1949.
|
Ludwig JandaLudwig Janda (13 January 1919 – 22 August 1981) was a German football player and manager who played for SpVgg Fürth, 1860 München, AC Fiorentina and Novara Calcio.In 1949, he transferred from 1860 München to AC Fiorentina for a fee of DM 30,000. He made his league debut on Boxing Day in a 0–0 draw against Palermo, becoming the first German to play in Serie A.
|
[
"SpVgg Greuther Fürth",
"TSV 1860 München",
"ACF Fiorentina",
"Novara Calcio"
] |
|
Which team did Ludwig Janda play for in Jul, 1947?
|
July 28, 1947
|
{
"text": [
"TSV 1860 München"
]
}
|
L2_Q879689_P54_2
|
Ludwig Janda plays for TSV 1860 München from Jan, 1945 to Jan, 1949.
Ludwig Janda plays for Novara Calcio from Jan, 1951 to Jan, 1954.
Ludwig Janda plays for Luftwaffen-SV Hamburg from Jan, 1943 to Jan, 1944.
Ludwig Janda plays for ACF Fiorentina from Jan, 1949 to Jan, 1951.
Ludwig Janda plays for SpVgg Greuther Fürth from Jan, 1936 to Jan, 1938.
|
Ludwig JandaLudwig Janda (13 January 1919 – 22 August 1981) was a German football player and manager who played for SpVgg Fürth, 1860 München, AC Fiorentina and Novara Calcio.In 1949, he transferred from 1860 München to AC Fiorentina for a fee of DM 30,000. He made his league debut on Boxing Day in a 0–0 draw against Palermo, becoming the first German to play in Serie A.
|
[
"Luftwaffen-SV Hamburg",
"SpVgg Greuther Fürth",
"ACF Fiorentina",
"Novara Calcio"
] |
|
Which team did Ludwig Janda play for in Oct, 1949?
|
October 05, 1949
|
{
"text": [
"ACF Fiorentina"
]
}
|
L2_Q879689_P54_3
|
Ludwig Janda plays for Novara Calcio from Jan, 1951 to Jan, 1954.
Ludwig Janda plays for TSV 1860 München from Jan, 1945 to Jan, 1949.
Ludwig Janda plays for SpVgg Greuther Fürth from Jan, 1936 to Jan, 1938.
Ludwig Janda plays for ACF Fiorentina from Jan, 1949 to Jan, 1951.
Ludwig Janda plays for Luftwaffen-SV Hamburg from Jan, 1943 to Jan, 1944.
|
Ludwig JandaLudwig Janda (13 January 1919 – 22 August 1981) was a German football player and manager who played for SpVgg Fürth, 1860 München, AC Fiorentina and Novara Calcio.In 1949, he transferred from 1860 München to AC Fiorentina for a fee of DM 30,000. He made his league debut on Boxing Day in a 0–0 draw against Palermo, becoming the first German to play in Serie A.
|
[
"Luftwaffen-SV Hamburg",
"SpVgg Greuther Fürth",
"TSV 1860 München",
"Novara Calcio"
] |
|
Which team did Ludwig Janda play for in Aug, 1951?
|
August 29, 1951
|
{
"text": [
"Novara Calcio"
]
}
|
L2_Q879689_P54_4
|
Ludwig Janda plays for Luftwaffen-SV Hamburg from Jan, 1943 to Jan, 1944.
Ludwig Janda plays for SpVgg Greuther Fürth from Jan, 1936 to Jan, 1938.
Ludwig Janda plays for ACF Fiorentina from Jan, 1949 to Jan, 1951.
Ludwig Janda plays for TSV 1860 München from Jan, 1945 to Jan, 1949.
Ludwig Janda plays for Novara Calcio from Jan, 1951 to Jan, 1954.
|
Ludwig JandaLudwig Janda (13 January 1919 – 22 August 1981) was a German football player and manager who played for SpVgg Fürth, 1860 München, AC Fiorentina and Novara Calcio.In 1949, he transferred from 1860 München to AC Fiorentina for a fee of DM 30,000. He made his league debut on Boxing Day in a 0–0 draw against Palermo, becoming the first German to play in Serie A.
|
[
"Luftwaffen-SV Hamburg",
"SpVgg Greuther Fürth",
"ACF Fiorentina",
"TSV 1860 München"
] |
|
Which position did Alexander McArthur hold in Nov, 1874?
|
November 29, 1874
|
{
"text": [
"Member of the 21st Parliament of the United Kingdom"
]
}
|
L2_Q4719574_P39_0
|
Alexander McArthur holds the position of Member of the 22nd Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1880 to Nov, 1885.
Alexander McArthur holds the position of Member of the 23rd Parliament of the United Kingdom from Nov, 1885 to Jun, 1886.
Alexander McArthur holds the position of Member of the 21st Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jan, 1874 to Mar, 1880.
Alexander McArthur holds the position of Member of the 24th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1886 to Jun, 1892.
|
Alexander McArthurAlexander McArthur (10 March 1814 – 1 August 1909) was an Irish-born Australian and British businessman. He was a politician in both countries.McArthur was born at Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Ireland, the son of John McArthur, a Wesleyan minister, and his wife Sarah, née Finlay. In 1830 he was apprenticed to a merchant in Omagh. He emigrated to Australia and arrived at Sydney on 24 January 1842.After starting business with a consignment from his brother William McArthur, he became a partner of William Little and James H. Atkinson. He was a devout Methodist and in 1843 he was elected to the committee of the Wesleyan Auxiliary Missionary Society of New South Wales. He was also treasurer of the Young Men's Christian Association of Sydney and a committee member of the Benevolent Asylum, the New South Wales Auxiliary Bible Society and other charities.McArthur returned to Ireland in 1848 and in 1850 he and his brother formed W. and A. McArthur & Co. merchants of softgoods. Back in Sydney in 1851, he was very successful as a shipping agent for the export of gold. His firm built a large warehouse in Sydney and opened branches in Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane and Auckland.McArthur visited England in 1854 and 1855. After this, he became a member of the Sydney Chamber of Commerce, took a share in the Australian Joint Stock Bank, and became a director of several building societies, insurance companies and mining companies. He also became a magistrate.In June 1859 McArthur was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for Newtown. He was a free trader and opposed state aid to religion. After being re-elected for Newtown in December 1860, he resigned in June 1861 when he was appointed to the New South Wales Legislative Council. In 1863 McArthur went to England to take over the London business and as a result vacated his seat through absence in October 1865.McArthur was then a London merchant engaged in colonial trade and lived at Raleigh Hall, Brixton. He was a J. P. for Surrey and Deputy Lieutenant for the City of London. He became a Fellow of the Imperial Institute and from 1863 a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He became a member of the Royal Colonial Institute in 1869, and also of the Victoria Institute and the British Association. From 1870 to 1873 he was a member of the first London School Board. In 1874 he was chosen as the Liberal Party candidate for Leicester. As an "advanced Liberal", his programme had much in common with Joseph Chamberlain's 'New Radicalism' and included the assimilation of the county to the borough franchise, reform of the land laws, abolition of clause 25 of the Education Act, and legislation against intemperance. He was elected Member of Parliament for Leicester in 1874. In parliament he advocated the annexation of Fiji, stricter observance of the Sabbath and Home Rule for Ireland. He retired after holding the seat for 18 years in 1892. In 1898 his firm became a limited liability company and in 1908 was reconstituted after liquidation. McArthur died at Sydenham, London at the age of 95.On 19 August 1853 at Toxteth Park Chapel, Liverpool, he married Maria Bowden, second daughter of Rev. William. B. Boyce, and had six sons and two daughters. His son William Alexander McArthur also became an MP.He is buried with his family in a large mausoleum in West Norwood Cemetery.
|
[
"Member of the 22nd Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 23rd Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 24th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
|
Which position did Alexander McArthur hold in Jan, 1884?
|
January 08, 1884
|
{
"text": [
"Member of the 22nd Parliament of the United Kingdom"
]
}
|
L2_Q4719574_P39_1
|
Alexander McArthur holds the position of Member of the 21st Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jan, 1874 to Mar, 1880.
Alexander McArthur holds the position of Member of the 22nd Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1880 to Nov, 1885.
Alexander McArthur holds the position of Member of the 24th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1886 to Jun, 1892.
Alexander McArthur holds the position of Member of the 23rd Parliament of the United Kingdom from Nov, 1885 to Jun, 1886.
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Alexander McArthurAlexander McArthur (10 March 1814 – 1 August 1909) was an Irish-born Australian and British businessman. He was a politician in both countries.McArthur was born at Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Ireland, the son of John McArthur, a Wesleyan minister, and his wife Sarah, née Finlay. In 1830 he was apprenticed to a merchant in Omagh. He emigrated to Australia and arrived at Sydney on 24 January 1842.After starting business with a consignment from his brother William McArthur, he became a partner of William Little and James H. Atkinson. He was a devout Methodist and in 1843 he was elected to the committee of the Wesleyan Auxiliary Missionary Society of New South Wales. He was also treasurer of the Young Men's Christian Association of Sydney and a committee member of the Benevolent Asylum, the New South Wales Auxiliary Bible Society and other charities.McArthur returned to Ireland in 1848 and in 1850 he and his brother formed W. and A. McArthur & Co. merchants of softgoods. Back in Sydney in 1851, he was very successful as a shipping agent for the export of gold. His firm built a large warehouse in Sydney and opened branches in Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane and Auckland.McArthur visited England in 1854 and 1855. After this, he became a member of the Sydney Chamber of Commerce, took a share in the Australian Joint Stock Bank, and became a director of several building societies, insurance companies and mining companies. He also became a magistrate.In June 1859 McArthur was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for Newtown. He was a free trader and opposed state aid to religion. After being re-elected for Newtown in December 1860, he resigned in June 1861 when he was appointed to the New South Wales Legislative Council. In 1863 McArthur went to England to take over the London business and as a result vacated his seat through absence in October 1865.McArthur was then a London merchant engaged in colonial trade and lived at Raleigh Hall, Brixton. He was a J. P. for Surrey and Deputy Lieutenant for the City of London. He became a Fellow of the Imperial Institute and from 1863 a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He became a member of the Royal Colonial Institute in 1869, and also of the Victoria Institute and the British Association. From 1870 to 1873 he was a member of the first London School Board. In 1874 he was chosen as the Liberal Party candidate for Leicester. As an "advanced Liberal", his programme had much in common with Joseph Chamberlain's 'New Radicalism' and included the assimilation of the county to the borough franchise, reform of the land laws, abolition of clause 25 of the Education Act, and legislation against intemperance. He was elected Member of Parliament for Leicester in 1874. In parliament he advocated the annexation of Fiji, stricter observance of the Sabbath and Home Rule for Ireland. He retired after holding the seat for 18 years in 1892. In 1898 his firm became a limited liability company and in 1908 was reconstituted after liquidation. McArthur died at Sydenham, London at the age of 95.On 19 August 1853 at Toxteth Park Chapel, Liverpool, he married Maria Bowden, second daughter of Rev. William. B. Boyce, and had six sons and two daughters. His son William Alexander McArthur also became an MP.He is buried with his family in a large mausoleum in West Norwood Cemetery.
|
[
"Member of the 21st Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 23rd Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 24th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
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Which position did Alexander McArthur hold in Dec, 1885?
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December 27, 1885
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{
"text": [
"Member of the 23rd Parliament of the United Kingdom"
]
}
|
L2_Q4719574_P39_2
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Alexander McArthur holds the position of Member of the 23rd Parliament of the United Kingdom from Nov, 1885 to Jun, 1886.
Alexander McArthur holds the position of Member of the 21st Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jan, 1874 to Mar, 1880.
Alexander McArthur holds the position of Member of the 24th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1886 to Jun, 1892.
Alexander McArthur holds the position of Member of the 22nd Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1880 to Nov, 1885.
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Alexander McArthurAlexander McArthur (10 March 1814 – 1 August 1909) was an Irish-born Australian and British businessman. He was a politician in both countries.McArthur was born at Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Ireland, the son of John McArthur, a Wesleyan minister, and his wife Sarah, née Finlay. In 1830 he was apprenticed to a merchant in Omagh. He emigrated to Australia and arrived at Sydney on 24 January 1842.After starting business with a consignment from his brother William McArthur, he became a partner of William Little and James H. Atkinson. He was a devout Methodist and in 1843 he was elected to the committee of the Wesleyan Auxiliary Missionary Society of New South Wales. He was also treasurer of the Young Men's Christian Association of Sydney and a committee member of the Benevolent Asylum, the New South Wales Auxiliary Bible Society and other charities.McArthur returned to Ireland in 1848 and in 1850 he and his brother formed W. and A. McArthur & Co. merchants of softgoods. Back in Sydney in 1851, he was very successful as a shipping agent for the export of gold. His firm built a large warehouse in Sydney and opened branches in Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane and Auckland.McArthur visited England in 1854 and 1855. After this, he became a member of the Sydney Chamber of Commerce, took a share in the Australian Joint Stock Bank, and became a director of several building societies, insurance companies and mining companies. He also became a magistrate.In June 1859 McArthur was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for Newtown. He was a free trader and opposed state aid to religion. After being re-elected for Newtown in December 1860, he resigned in June 1861 when he was appointed to the New South Wales Legislative Council. In 1863 McArthur went to England to take over the London business and as a result vacated his seat through absence in October 1865.McArthur was then a London merchant engaged in colonial trade and lived at Raleigh Hall, Brixton. He was a J. P. for Surrey and Deputy Lieutenant for the City of London. He became a Fellow of the Imperial Institute and from 1863 a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He became a member of the Royal Colonial Institute in 1869, and also of the Victoria Institute and the British Association. From 1870 to 1873 he was a member of the first London School Board. In 1874 he was chosen as the Liberal Party candidate for Leicester. As an "advanced Liberal", his programme had much in common with Joseph Chamberlain's 'New Radicalism' and included the assimilation of the county to the borough franchise, reform of the land laws, abolition of clause 25 of the Education Act, and legislation against intemperance. He was elected Member of Parliament for Leicester in 1874. In parliament he advocated the annexation of Fiji, stricter observance of the Sabbath and Home Rule for Ireland. He retired after holding the seat for 18 years in 1892. In 1898 his firm became a limited liability company and in 1908 was reconstituted after liquidation. McArthur died at Sydenham, London at the age of 95.On 19 August 1853 at Toxteth Park Chapel, Liverpool, he married Maria Bowden, second daughter of Rev. William. B. Boyce, and had six sons and two daughters. His son William Alexander McArthur also became an MP.He is buried with his family in a large mausoleum in West Norwood Cemetery.
|
[
"Member of the 21st Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 22nd Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 24th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
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Which position did Alexander McArthur hold in Apr, 1887?
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April 27, 1887
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{
"text": [
"Member of the 24th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
]
}
|
L2_Q4719574_P39_3
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Alexander McArthur holds the position of Member of the 24th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1886 to Jun, 1892.
Alexander McArthur holds the position of Member of the 22nd Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1880 to Nov, 1885.
Alexander McArthur holds the position of Member of the 23rd Parliament of the United Kingdom from Nov, 1885 to Jun, 1886.
Alexander McArthur holds the position of Member of the 21st Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jan, 1874 to Mar, 1880.
|
Alexander McArthurAlexander McArthur (10 March 1814 – 1 August 1909) was an Irish-born Australian and British businessman. He was a politician in both countries.McArthur was born at Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Ireland, the son of John McArthur, a Wesleyan minister, and his wife Sarah, née Finlay. In 1830 he was apprenticed to a merchant in Omagh. He emigrated to Australia and arrived at Sydney on 24 January 1842.After starting business with a consignment from his brother William McArthur, he became a partner of William Little and James H. Atkinson. He was a devout Methodist and in 1843 he was elected to the committee of the Wesleyan Auxiliary Missionary Society of New South Wales. He was also treasurer of the Young Men's Christian Association of Sydney and a committee member of the Benevolent Asylum, the New South Wales Auxiliary Bible Society and other charities.McArthur returned to Ireland in 1848 and in 1850 he and his brother formed W. and A. McArthur & Co. merchants of softgoods. Back in Sydney in 1851, he was very successful as a shipping agent for the export of gold. His firm built a large warehouse in Sydney and opened branches in Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane and Auckland.McArthur visited England in 1854 and 1855. After this, he became a member of the Sydney Chamber of Commerce, took a share in the Australian Joint Stock Bank, and became a director of several building societies, insurance companies and mining companies. He also became a magistrate.In June 1859 McArthur was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for Newtown. He was a free trader and opposed state aid to religion. After being re-elected for Newtown in December 1860, he resigned in June 1861 when he was appointed to the New South Wales Legislative Council. In 1863 McArthur went to England to take over the London business and as a result vacated his seat through absence in October 1865.McArthur was then a London merchant engaged in colonial trade and lived at Raleigh Hall, Brixton. He was a J. P. for Surrey and Deputy Lieutenant for the City of London. He became a Fellow of the Imperial Institute and from 1863 a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He became a member of the Royal Colonial Institute in 1869, and also of the Victoria Institute and the British Association. From 1870 to 1873 he was a member of the first London School Board. In 1874 he was chosen as the Liberal Party candidate for Leicester. As an "advanced Liberal", his programme had much in common with Joseph Chamberlain's 'New Radicalism' and included the assimilation of the county to the borough franchise, reform of the land laws, abolition of clause 25 of the Education Act, and legislation against intemperance. He was elected Member of Parliament for Leicester in 1874. In parliament he advocated the annexation of Fiji, stricter observance of the Sabbath and Home Rule for Ireland. He retired after holding the seat for 18 years in 1892. In 1898 his firm became a limited liability company and in 1908 was reconstituted after liquidation. McArthur died at Sydenham, London at the age of 95.On 19 August 1853 at Toxteth Park Chapel, Liverpool, he married Maria Bowden, second daughter of Rev. William. B. Boyce, and had six sons and two daughters. His son William Alexander McArthur also became an MP.He is buried with his family in a large mausoleum in West Norwood Cemetery.
|
[
"Member of the 21st Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 22nd Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 23rd Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
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Which position did Bjarne Lyngstad hold in Jul, 1958?
|
July 30, 1958
|
{
"text": [
"mayor of Inderøy",
"deputy member of the Parliament of Norway"
]
}
|
L2_Q4571889_P39_0
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Bjarne Lyngstad holds the position of mayor of Inderøy from Jan, 1958 to Jan, 1959.
Bjarne Lyngstad holds the position of deputy member of the Parliament of Norway from Jan, 1958 to Jan, 1961.
Bjarne Lyngstad holds the position of Minister of Agriculture and Food (Norway) from Oct, 1965 to Aug, 1970.
Bjarne Lyngstad holds the position of member of the Parliament of Norway from Oct, 1965 to Sep, 1969.
Bjarne Lyngstad holds the position of Minister of Local Government and Regional Development from Aug, 1963 to Sep, 1963.
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Bjarne LyngstadBjarne Lyngstad (9 January 1901 – 4 September 1971) was a Norwegian politician for the Liberal Party.He was born in Inderøy.From August to September 1963 he served as the Minister of Local Government and Work Affairs during the short-lived centre-right cabinet Lyng. When another centre-right cabinet was formed in 1965, under Prime Minister Per Borten, Lyngstad was appointed Minister of Agriculture and held this position until 21 August 1970.He was elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Nord-Trøndelag in 1961 and was re-elected on one occasion. During his stints as cabinet member, which included the entire second term, he was replaced by deputy representative Ola H. Kveli. Lyngstad had served in the position of deputy representative during the terms 1954–1957 and 1958–1961.Lyngstad was a long-time member of the Inderøy municipality council, serving as deputy mayor in the periods 1945–1947 and 1955 to 1961 and mayor from 1947 to 1952.
|
[
"member of the Parliament of Norway",
"Minister of Local Government and Regional Development",
"Minister of Agriculture and Food (Norway)"
] |
|
Which position did Bjarne Lyngstad hold in Mar, 1959?
|
March 04, 1959
|
{
"text": [
"deputy member of the Parliament of Norway"
]
}
|
L2_Q4571889_P39_1
|
Bjarne Lyngstad holds the position of member of the Parliament of Norway from Oct, 1965 to Sep, 1969.
Bjarne Lyngstad holds the position of deputy member of the Parliament of Norway from Jan, 1958 to Jan, 1961.
Bjarne Lyngstad holds the position of Minister of Agriculture and Food (Norway) from Oct, 1965 to Aug, 1970.
Bjarne Lyngstad holds the position of Minister of Local Government and Regional Development from Aug, 1963 to Sep, 1963.
Bjarne Lyngstad holds the position of mayor of Inderøy from Jan, 1958 to Jan, 1959.
|
Bjarne LyngstadBjarne Lyngstad (9 January 1901 – 4 September 1971) was a Norwegian politician for the Liberal Party.He was born in Inderøy.From August to September 1963 he served as the Minister of Local Government and Work Affairs during the short-lived centre-right cabinet Lyng. When another centre-right cabinet was formed in 1965, under Prime Minister Per Borten, Lyngstad was appointed Minister of Agriculture and held this position until 21 August 1970.He was elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Nord-Trøndelag in 1961 and was re-elected on one occasion. During his stints as cabinet member, which included the entire second term, he was replaced by deputy representative Ola H. Kveli. Lyngstad had served in the position of deputy representative during the terms 1954–1957 and 1958–1961.Lyngstad was a long-time member of the Inderøy municipality council, serving as deputy mayor in the periods 1945–1947 and 1955 to 1961 and mayor from 1947 to 1952.
|
[
"mayor of Inderøy",
"member of the Parliament of Norway",
"Minister of Local Government and Regional Development",
"Minister of Agriculture and Food (Norway)"
] |
|
Which position did Bjarne Lyngstad hold in Sep, 1963?
|
September 15, 1963
|
{
"text": [
"Minister of Local Government and Regional Development"
]
}
|
L2_Q4571889_P39_2
|
Bjarne Lyngstad holds the position of mayor of Inderøy from Jan, 1958 to Jan, 1959.
Bjarne Lyngstad holds the position of member of the Parliament of Norway from Oct, 1965 to Sep, 1969.
Bjarne Lyngstad holds the position of Minister of Agriculture and Food (Norway) from Oct, 1965 to Aug, 1970.
Bjarne Lyngstad holds the position of Minister of Local Government and Regional Development from Aug, 1963 to Sep, 1963.
Bjarne Lyngstad holds the position of deputy member of the Parliament of Norway from Jan, 1958 to Jan, 1961.
|
Bjarne LyngstadBjarne Lyngstad (9 January 1901 – 4 September 1971) was a Norwegian politician for the Liberal Party.He was born in Inderøy.From August to September 1963 he served as the Minister of Local Government and Work Affairs during the short-lived centre-right cabinet Lyng. When another centre-right cabinet was formed in 1965, under Prime Minister Per Borten, Lyngstad was appointed Minister of Agriculture and held this position until 21 August 1970.He was elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Nord-Trøndelag in 1961 and was re-elected on one occasion. During his stints as cabinet member, which included the entire second term, he was replaced by deputy representative Ola H. Kveli. Lyngstad had served in the position of deputy representative during the terms 1954–1957 and 1958–1961.Lyngstad was a long-time member of the Inderøy municipality council, serving as deputy mayor in the periods 1945–1947 and 1955 to 1961 and mayor from 1947 to 1952.
|
[
"mayor of Inderøy",
"member of the Parliament of Norway",
"deputy member of the Parliament of Norway",
"Minister of Agriculture and Food (Norway)"
] |
|
Which position did Bjarne Lyngstad hold in Mar, 1967?
|
March 19, 1967
|
{
"text": [
"member of the Parliament of Norway",
"Minister of Agriculture and Food (Norway)"
]
}
|
L2_Q4571889_P39_3
|
Bjarne Lyngstad holds the position of mayor of Inderøy from Jan, 1958 to Jan, 1959.
Bjarne Lyngstad holds the position of member of the Parliament of Norway from Oct, 1965 to Sep, 1969.
Bjarne Lyngstad holds the position of Minister of Agriculture and Food (Norway) from Oct, 1965 to Aug, 1970.
Bjarne Lyngstad holds the position of deputy member of the Parliament of Norway from Jan, 1958 to Jan, 1961.
Bjarne Lyngstad holds the position of Minister of Local Government and Regional Development from Aug, 1963 to Sep, 1963.
|
Bjarne LyngstadBjarne Lyngstad (9 January 1901 – 4 September 1971) was a Norwegian politician for the Liberal Party.He was born in Inderøy.From August to September 1963 he served as the Minister of Local Government and Work Affairs during the short-lived centre-right cabinet Lyng. When another centre-right cabinet was formed in 1965, under Prime Minister Per Borten, Lyngstad was appointed Minister of Agriculture and held this position until 21 August 1970.He was elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Nord-Trøndelag in 1961 and was re-elected on one occasion. During his stints as cabinet member, which included the entire second term, he was replaced by deputy representative Ola H. Kveli. Lyngstad had served in the position of deputy representative during the terms 1954–1957 and 1958–1961.Lyngstad was a long-time member of the Inderøy municipality council, serving as deputy mayor in the periods 1945–1947 and 1955 to 1961 and mayor from 1947 to 1952.
|
[
"mayor of Inderøy",
"Minister of Local Government and Regional Development",
"deputy member of the Parliament of Norway"
] |
|
Which position did Bjarne Lyngstad hold in Dec, 1967?
|
December 18, 1967
|
{
"text": [
"member of the Parliament of Norway",
"Minister of Agriculture and Food (Norway)"
]
}
|
L2_Q4571889_P39_4
|
Bjarne Lyngstad holds the position of Minister of Agriculture and Food (Norway) from Oct, 1965 to Aug, 1970.
Bjarne Lyngstad holds the position of member of the Parliament of Norway from Oct, 1965 to Sep, 1969.
Bjarne Lyngstad holds the position of mayor of Inderøy from Jan, 1958 to Jan, 1959.
Bjarne Lyngstad holds the position of Minister of Local Government and Regional Development from Aug, 1963 to Sep, 1963.
Bjarne Lyngstad holds the position of deputy member of the Parliament of Norway from Jan, 1958 to Jan, 1961.
|
Bjarne LyngstadBjarne Lyngstad (9 January 1901 – 4 September 1971) was a Norwegian politician for the Liberal Party.He was born in Inderøy.From August to September 1963 he served as the Minister of Local Government and Work Affairs during the short-lived centre-right cabinet Lyng. When another centre-right cabinet was formed in 1965, under Prime Minister Per Borten, Lyngstad was appointed Minister of Agriculture and held this position until 21 August 1970.He was elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Nord-Trøndelag in 1961 and was re-elected on one occasion. During his stints as cabinet member, which included the entire second term, he was replaced by deputy representative Ola H. Kveli. Lyngstad had served in the position of deputy representative during the terms 1954–1957 and 1958–1961.Lyngstad was a long-time member of the Inderøy municipality council, serving as deputy mayor in the periods 1945–1947 and 1955 to 1961 and mayor from 1947 to 1952.
|
[
"mayor of Inderøy",
"Minister of Local Government and Regional Development",
"deputy member of the Parliament of Norway"
] |
|
Who was the head of Prats de Lluçanès in Dec, 1988?
|
December 09, 1988
|
{
"text": [
"Ramon Vall i Ciuró"
]
}
|
L2_Q13814_P6_0
|
Ramon Vall i Ciuró is the head of the government of Prats de Lluçanès from Jan, 1979 to Jan, 2003.
Ramon Besora i Torradeflot is the head of the government of Prats de Lluçanès from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2007.
Lluís Vila i Vilalta is the head of the government of Prats de Lluçanès from Jan, 2007 to Jan, 2015.
Jordi Bruch i Franch is the head of the government of Prats de Lluçanès from Jan, 2019 to Dec, 2022.
Isaac Peraire Soler is the head of the government of Prats de Lluçanès from Jan, 2015 to Jan, 2019.
|
Prats de LluçanèsPrats de Lluçanès ((Officially and in Catalan, ; ) is a municipality in the "comarca" of Osona in Catalonia, Spain. It is situated in the west of the "comarca", on a plain between the Lluçanès and Merlès rivers, and is served by the C-154 road between Vic and Gironella.In 2015, the municipality voted to join a proposed new comarca of Lluçanès, of which it would be the capital, but the plan was put on hold due to insufficient support.
|
[
"Ramon Besora i Torradeflot",
"Jordi Bruch i Franch",
"Isaac Peraire Soler",
"Lluís Vila i Vilalta"
] |
|
Who was the head of Prats de Lluçanès in Dec, 2004?
|
December 19, 2004
|
{
"text": [
"Ramon Besora i Torradeflot"
]
}
|
L2_Q13814_P6_1
|
Isaac Peraire Soler is the head of the government of Prats de Lluçanès from Jan, 2015 to Jan, 2019.
Jordi Bruch i Franch is the head of the government of Prats de Lluçanès from Jan, 2019 to Dec, 2022.
Lluís Vila i Vilalta is the head of the government of Prats de Lluçanès from Jan, 2007 to Jan, 2015.
Ramon Vall i Ciuró is the head of the government of Prats de Lluçanès from Jan, 1979 to Jan, 2003.
Ramon Besora i Torradeflot is the head of the government of Prats de Lluçanès from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2007.
|
Prats de LluçanèsPrats de Lluçanès ((Officially and in Catalan, ; ) is a municipality in the "comarca" of Osona in Catalonia, Spain. It is situated in the west of the "comarca", on a plain between the Lluçanès and Merlès rivers, and is served by the C-154 road between Vic and Gironella.In 2015, the municipality voted to join a proposed new comarca of Lluçanès, of which it would be the capital, but the plan was put on hold due to insufficient support.
|
[
"Ramon Vall i Ciuró",
"Lluís Vila i Vilalta",
"Jordi Bruch i Franch",
"Isaac Peraire Soler"
] |
|
Who was the head of Prats de Lluçanès in Sep, 2012?
|
September 18, 2012
|
{
"text": [
"Lluís Vila i Vilalta"
]
}
|
L2_Q13814_P6_2
|
Isaac Peraire Soler is the head of the government of Prats de Lluçanès from Jan, 2015 to Jan, 2019.
Lluís Vila i Vilalta is the head of the government of Prats de Lluçanès from Jan, 2007 to Jan, 2015.
Ramon Vall i Ciuró is the head of the government of Prats de Lluçanès from Jan, 1979 to Jan, 2003.
Jordi Bruch i Franch is the head of the government of Prats de Lluçanès from Jan, 2019 to Dec, 2022.
Ramon Besora i Torradeflot is the head of the government of Prats de Lluçanès from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2007.
|
Prats de LluçanèsPrats de Lluçanès ((Officially and in Catalan, ; ) is a municipality in the "comarca" of Osona in Catalonia, Spain. It is situated in the west of the "comarca", on a plain between the Lluçanès and Merlès rivers, and is served by the C-154 road between Vic and Gironella.In 2015, the municipality voted to join a proposed new comarca of Lluçanès, of which it would be the capital, but the plan was put on hold due to insufficient support.
|
[
"Ramon Vall i Ciuró",
"Ramon Besora i Torradeflot",
"Jordi Bruch i Franch",
"Isaac Peraire Soler"
] |
|
Who was the head of Prats de Lluçanès in May, 2018?
|
May 26, 2018
|
{
"text": [
"Isaac Peraire Soler"
]
}
|
L2_Q13814_P6_3
|
Isaac Peraire Soler is the head of the government of Prats de Lluçanès from Jan, 2015 to Jan, 2019.
Ramon Vall i Ciuró is the head of the government of Prats de Lluçanès from Jan, 1979 to Jan, 2003.
Ramon Besora i Torradeflot is the head of the government of Prats de Lluçanès from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2007.
Jordi Bruch i Franch is the head of the government of Prats de Lluçanès from Jan, 2019 to Dec, 2022.
Lluís Vila i Vilalta is the head of the government of Prats de Lluçanès from Jan, 2007 to Jan, 2015.
|
Prats de LluçanèsPrats de Lluçanès ((Officially and in Catalan, ; ) is a municipality in the "comarca" of Osona in Catalonia, Spain. It is situated in the west of the "comarca", on a plain between the Lluçanès and Merlès rivers, and is served by the C-154 road between Vic and Gironella.In 2015, the municipality voted to join a proposed new comarca of Lluçanès, of which it would be the capital, but the plan was put on hold due to insufficient support.
|
[
"Ramon Besora i Torradeflot",
"Jordi Bruch i Franch",
"Ramon Vall i Ciuró",
"Lluís Vila i Vilalta"
] |
|
Who was the head of Prats de Lluçanès in Aug, 2021?
|
August 19, 2021
|
{
"text": [
"Jordi Bruch i Franch"
]
}
|
L2_Q13814_P6_4
|
Isaac Peraire Soler is the head of the government of Prats de Lluçanès from Jan, 2015 to Jan, 2019.
Lluís Vila i Vilalta is the head of the government of Prats de Lluçanès from Jan, 2007 to Jan, 2015.
Ramon Vall i Ciuró is the head of the government of Prats de Lluçanès from Jan, 1979 to Jan, 2003.
Ramon Besora i Torradeflot is the head of the government of Prats de Lluçanès from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2007.
Jordi Bruch i Franch is the head of the government of Prats de Lluçanès from Jan, 2019 to Dec, 2022.
|
Prats de LluçanèsPrats de Lluçanès ((Officially and in Catalan, ; ) is a municipality in the "comarca" of Osona in Catalonia, Spain. It is situated in the west of the "comarca", on a plain between the Lluçanès and Merlès rivers, and is served by the C-154 road between Vic and Gironella.In 2015, the municipality voted to join a proposed new comarca of Lluçanès, of which it would be the capital, but the plan was put on hold due to insufficient support.
|
[
"Ramon Vall i Ciuró",
"Ramon Besora i Torradeflot",
"Isaac Peraire Soler",
"Lluís Vila i Vilalta"
] |
|
Who was the head coach of the team Aris Thessaloniki F.C. in May, 2016?
|
May 02, 2016
|
{
"text": [
"Nikos Anastopoulos"
]
}
|
L2_Q219926_P286_0
|
Paco Herrera is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Jan, 2018 to Nov, 2018.
Michael Oenning is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Oct, 2019 to Sep, 2020.
Apostolos Mantzios is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Sep, 2020 to Feb, 2022.
Nikos Anastopoulos is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Jan, 2015 to Jan, 2017.
Germán Burgos is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Feb, 2022 to Aug, 2022.
Alan Pardew is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Sep, 2022 to Dec, 2022.
Savvas Pantelidis is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Nov, 2018 to Sep, 2019.
|
Aris Thessaloniki F.C.Aris Thessaloniki Football Club () or simply Aris FC or AFC is a Greek professional football club based in the city of Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece. Created in 1914 as "Aris Thessaloniki Football Club", the club was a founding member of the Macedonian Football Clubs Association, as well as the Hellenic Football Federation. The colours of the club are golden/yellow, a dominant colour in the culture of Macedonia and reminiscent of the Byzantine heritage of Thessaloniki, and black. It is named after Ares, the ancient Olympian "God of War," associated also with courage and masculinity, whose image is portrayed on the club's logo as depicted in the Ludovisi Ares sculpture.Aris was also one of the strongest and most popular teams in Greece during the interwar period. They have won the Greek championship three times (1928, 1932, 1946), the Greek Cup once (1970), and they had an undefeated home record in European competitions for 28 matches from 1968 to 2020, when they lost to Kolos. The team's home ground is the Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium.The club was established as a football club ("Podosferikos Syllogos Aris Thessalonikis") by a group of 22 young friends in a coffee bar in Votsi area on 25 March 1914 and given the name Aris from Ares, the ancient god of war. Its nickname was inspired by the two Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, when Greece fought against the Ottoman Empire before engaging in a war with Bulgaria. In Greek mythology, Aris was a deity who was in conflict with Heracles, the mythological character after which Aris's rival football team, Iraklis, was named. Aris holds a fierce rivalry with PAOK. At first, the club was based on a near the Arch and Tomb of Galerius, but after the accession of two minor football clubs in 1919 and 1921 the club's base was moved near to Flemming Street of eastern Thessaloniki. The first stadium was built on the site where Mars Field Park currently lies on Stratou Avenue. Quickly the club became very popular and soon new teams apart from football were established.During this early stage of football in Greece no professional league was established. Instead, three minor leagues [in Macedonia (E.P.S.M.), Athens (E.P.S.A.) and Piraeus (E.P.S.P.)] were created, with the champions of each league competing in a postseason mini tournament to claim the title of the national champion. The first official game was held in 1923 against Megas Alexandros Thessaloniki (Alexander the Great), another Thessalonician team. That year marked the first title, when Aris was named regional champion of Macedonia, something that was repeated next year.In 1926 the club was renamed "Athletic Club Aris Thessaloniki" to include also other sports than football.Aris' first major success was between 1927 and 1928 when they won the first Greek Championship, beating finalists Atromitos and Ethnikos Piraeus exploiting the abstention from the championship teams of RECs. In the first race on 24 May, the team of Thessaloniki prevailed 3–1 Atromitos, while three days after losing to Ethnikos Piraeus 3–2. In iterative matches played in June in Thessaloniki, Aris won both of his opponents by 3–1 and thus crowned the first champion of Greece. Coach of the team was the German Thomas Kessler, and prominent players of Aris were, among others, Kostas Vikelidis, Savvas Vogiatzis that emerged and top scorer with six goals, Nikos Aggelakis, scorer of the finals with four goals and Dionysis Caltech.The following year, it was held the final stage of national championships although Aris won the championship title in Thessaloniki, playing two matches barrage against PAOK. The first took place on 12 May 1929 and ended 1–1, while the second was held on 2 June with Aris to beats 4–3, having Nikos Aggelakis scoring a hat-trick.On 20 April 1929, the first friendly match took place between Aris and Panathinaikos, the "yellows" to defeat 5–4.The second championship came four years later in 1932, only this time his opponents were Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, AEK, Ethnikos, PAOK and Iraklis. Aris managed to collect 22 points in this mini tournament, four more than the second, Panathinaikos, scoring large wins like 7–0 against Panathinaikos, 7–3 against Iraklis and 3–0 versus AEK and Olympiacos in Athens, also new star players emerged, Kitsios, Aggelakis, Bogdanos, Gigopoulos, while Belgian manager De Valer guided effectively the club.Four years after winning the first Panhellenic title, the "yellows" won the championship. Aris became champion amassing a total of 22 points, four more than second Panathinaikos and scoring big wins like 7–0 against Panathinaikos with four goals Maywood, 6–1 on Apollon Athens with six goals in the Aggelakis' first home appearance with the first group of Kleanthis Vikelidis, 7–3 vs Iraklis with four goals Kitsos and away 0–3 over Olympiacos, PAOK and AEK. Leading scorer of the league emerged Nikos Kitsos with 15 goals and Nikos Aggelakis to 14.Big stars of that team were Kitsos, Aggelakis, Caltech, and Vogdanou Gkikopoulos while coach De Valera.That same year, the EPO instituted for the first time the Greek Cup, Mars crashing Panathinaikos 7–2 in the quarterfinal. This was followed by victory over Apollon Athens, to reach the final where they lost 5–3 from AEK Athens, losing the chance to win the first doubles.Aris won their third title in 1946, playing against two teams, AEK from Athens and Olympiacos from Piraeus, champions of the other two minor domestic leagues. Aris beat Olympiacos twice, scoring two goals and conceding none; came to a draw with AEK in Athens and defeated them in PAOK's stadium in Thessaloniki (score 4–1). Aris has not won a championship since the establishment of the First Division (1959).Up to 1959, when the united First Division was created, Aris managed to finish first 14 times in the Macedonian division.Aris' status remained high during this period, which was marked by the construction of the club's homeground, the Kleanthis Vikelides Stadium, named after the legendary homonymous player. Before World War II, Aris' homeground was located in the center of the city, near the Thessaloniki International Fair, but was abandoned in 1936 in order for the "Pedion tou Areos" park ("Mars Field") to be created. The club managed to buy some land during 1951 in a quarter of the city named Charilaou, where the new Stadium was slowly built.Also in 1959, the tripartite minor league system was abandoned and a new, unified Championship was created.The club's accomplishments during these years were significant. It was one of the first teams in Greece to qualify for European tournaments. Under the leadership of Alexandros Alexiades, Giorgos Pantziaras and Takis Loukanidis.Aris earned high placings in the League during the 1960s and 1970s, with apex the 1970 Hellenic Cup Title against the club's fierce rival, PAOK, in Kaftanzoglio Stadium.In the 1970s, Aris was reorganized and a vast number of young players from Thessaloniki, including Kouis, Foiros, Drambis, Zindros and Papafloratos led the club. Its most important achievements during that period included a successful 1980 UEFA campaign when Aris eliminated Benfica and Perugia. Aris was also the first Greek club to score a victory both in Italy and Portugal. At home, the team shared first place with Olympiacos at the end of the 1980 campaign, though it lost the title 2–0 in a tie-breaker against the Piraeus club in Volos National Stadium.After the mid-1980s and the retirement of the club's honored old guard, Aris entered in a slow decline, rarely reaching European league qualification or notable Greek League position, which—in combination with appreciable financial troubles that left the club near bankruptcy—led to the club's relegation to the Second Division in 1997 and 2005. Both times though Aris managed to resume its place in the first division.In recent years, specially after the creation of an Aris Members' Society that controls the club's fortunes, Aris has qualified several times for the UEFA Europa League, finished fourth in the Super League three times, and has reached in the Greek Cup Final four times, losing in 2003, 2005, 2008 and 2010, when 25,000 Aris fans went to Athens in the biggest ever move of fans in Greece. In 2008 and 2010 Aris made it through to the UEFA Europa League group stage after eliminating Real Zaragoza and Austria Wien respectively during the Cup's play-off rounds. During the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League they managed to play for the first time in club's history in Europe after Christmas, after a very good appearance in the group stage where they won 1–0 at home and 2–3 away and eliminated the title holders Atlético Madrid. Recent developments include the interest from the club's board to construct a new, modern stadium in eastern Thessaloniki Metropolitan Area to replace the obsolete Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium and the modernization and expansion of the club's training facilities in Neo Rysio, Thessaloniki.Also, in a unique move for Greek standards, the board decided in December 2009 to establish a radio station, "Aris FM 92.8" in order to promote the communication between Aris fans around the country and the coverage of the clubs activities. In 2014, due to financial problems Aris was relegated to the third tier of Greek football.After their relegation many were wondering who was going to take care of the team. American business man Alex Kalas emerged the first season with him in charge of the football department while they failed to gain promotion to the Football League. In summer 2015 where the next elections for the role of head of football department Kalas won again and promised to put more money into the club. Kalas also made a number of signings, Honduran legend Carlos Costly, Sierra Leone international John Kamara, Spaniard Guillermo Pérez Moreno, Portuguese footballer Fábio Ruben Moreira Tavares, defender Paschalis Melissas and defender Stavros Petavrakis. Due to Aris failing to get into the second division Kalas was sacked despite only being there for a month. Aris would have to play another year in Gamma Ethniki.While in the Gamma Ethniki, the team demanded that the Hellenic Football Federation allow them to be promoted to a higher level of Greek football. The federation declined to do this and several appeals against the decision were rejected. As a result, 10,000 fans took to the streets on the 26 and 31 August 2015 in Thessaloniki to protest the decision. These protests caused clashes between the police and the fans that led to arrests and Aris didn't manage to get promoted to the professional divisions.Although after the Aris election Arvanitidis became leader of the football department, Theodoros Karypidis was named the head of football department the day afterwards. He signed many players in a few days including former Greek footballer of the club Andreas Tatos, former Real Madrid defender Raul Bravo club legend Sergio Koke, as well as many Super League quality players like Kostas Kaznaferis, Vasilios Rovas, Nikos Tsoumanis, Giannis Siderakis as well as many others. Theodoros Karipidis appointed Nikos Anastopoulos as the manager. During the 2015–16 season Aris managed to be promoted to the second division of Greece with a 21-point difference from the second club. Finally, Irene Karypidis became the major shareholder with overwhelming proportion over 89%.Aris' fan base is spread across all the economic classes in the city of Thessaloniki and all over Greece. Their rivalry is against clubs such as arch-rival PAOK, but also against the biggest clubs of Athens Olympiacos, Panathinaikos and AEK Athens. Matches against PAOK are local derbies and an event that splits Thessaloniki and Northern Greece in two. Aris' main fan club is called "Super 3" and has symbol a bulldog. It exist since 1988 with 50 more Super 3 clubs spread all over Greece and Europe. There are over 12,000 Super 3 members. In the rest of Europe there are also some organized Aris' fan clubs in countries such as Germany, Italy and Sweden. According to some polls Aris is the 5th most popular team in Greece with around 300.000 fans, an amount quite big considering the lack of titles for many decades.Against Panathinaikos in the 2010 Greek Cup final, 30,000 Aris fans descended to Athens to what has been described as "the biggest football fans move in Greece".The club's anthem ("Aris Victorious") was written in 1926.A company of young Thessalonians inspired the name of the club by Ares, the ancient Olympian "God of War", after the successful military operations of the Kingdom of Greece during the Balkan Wars, and the liberation of Thessaloniki in 1912 from the Ottoman empire. The emblem of the team is a resting Ares (Greek: Άρης), as depicted in the Ludovisi Ares sculpture. This emblem was chosen in the late 1970s to replace an older and simpler logo which was used since 1914. Also, during the 2000s, a scheme of meander was added to the crest.The colors of the team are yellow or gold of glory, dominant colour in the culture of Macedonia, and black. Alternative colours also used include white or even dark red uniforms. During the 2000s, the club introduced also a shade of lime.FirstAlternativeThe following table shows in detail Aris kit manufacturers and shirt sponsors by year:The stadium of Aris Thessaloniki is named "Kleanthis Vikelides" after the club's legendary player. It is located at 69 Alkminis, Charilaou; 54249 Thessaloniki, and was built in 1951. In 1972, it got a new roof, in 1975 a new north stand, and in 2004, it was fully renovated. Its current total capacity is 22,800 spectators.Since the late 1970s, Aris Thessaloniki has created its own training grounds in Neo Rysio (Dasigenio Sports Center), just outside Thessaloniki near the International Airport covering three hectares and including football fields, hosting area with gym, pool and sauna, press room, offices, restaurant and locker rooms. The facilities were rebuilt in September 2010 after a demand placed by manager Héctor Cúper. The facilities were renovated again in 2018 and the grass was ultimately changed in 2019.Super League GreeceSecond Division GreeceThird Division GreeceGreek Football CupBest position in bold.Key: 3R = Third Round, 4R = Fourth Round, 5R = Fifth Round, GS = Group Stage, QF = Quarter-finals, SF = Semi-finals, RU = Runner-up.Official websitesNews sitesMedia
|
[
"Alan Pardew",
"Germán Burgos",
"Michael Oenning",
"Savvas Pantelidis",
"Apostolos Mantzios",
"Paco Herrera"
] |
|
Who was the head coach of the team Aris Thessaloniki F.C. in Jul, 2018?
|
July 27, 2018
|
{
"text": [
"Paco Herrera"
]
}
|
L2_Q219926_P286_1
|
Paco Herrera is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Jan, 2018 to Nov, 2018.
Michael Oenning is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Oct, 2019 to Sep, 2020.
Germán Burgos is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Feb, 2022 to Aug, 2022.
Apostolos Mantzios is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Sep, 2020 to Feb, 2022.
Alan Pardew is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Sep, 2022 to Dec, 2022.
Savvas Pantelidis is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Nov, 2018 to Sep, 2019.
Nikos Anastopoulos is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Jan, 2015 to Jan, 2017.
|
Aris Thessaloniki F.C.Aris Thessaloniki Football Club () or simply Aris FC or AFC is a Greek professional football club based in the city of Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece. Created in 1914 as "Aris Thessaloniki Football Club", the club was a founding member of the Macedonian Football Clubs Association, as well as the Hellenic Football Federation. The colours of the club are golden/yellow, a dominant colour in the culture of Macedonia and reminiscent of the Byzantine heritage of Thessaloniki, and black. It is named after Ares, the ancient Olympian "God of War," associated also with courage and masculinity, whose image is portrayed on the club's logo as depicted in the Ludovisi Ares sculpture.Aris was also one of the strongest and most popular teams in Greece during the interwar period. They have won the Greek championship three times (1928, 1932, 1946), the Greek Cup once (1970), and they had an undefeated home record in European competitions for 28 matches from 1968 to 2020, when they lost to Kolos. The team's home ground is the Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium.The club was established as a football club ("Podosferikos Syllogos Aris Thessalonikis") by a group of 22 young friends in a coffee bar in Votsi area on 25 March 1914 and given the name Aris from Ares, the ancient god of war. Its nickname was inspired by the two Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, when Greece fought against the Ottoman Empire before engaging in a war with Bulgaria. In Greek mythology, Aris was a deity who was in conflict with Heracles, the mythological character after which Aris's rival football team, Iraklis, was named. Aris holds a fierce rivalry with PAOK. At first, the club was based on a near the Arch and Tomb of Galerius, but after the accession of two minor football clubs in 1919 and 1921 the club's base was moved near to Flemming Street of eastern Thessaloniki. The first stadium was built on the site where Mars Field Park currently lies on Stratou Avenue. Quickly the club became very popular and soon new teams apart from football were established.During this early stage of football in Greece no professional league was established. Instead, three minor leagues [in Macedonia (E.P.S.M.), Athens (E.P.S.A.) and Piraeus (E.P.S.P.)] were created, with the champions of each league competing in a postseason mini tournament to claim the title of the national champion. The first official game was held in 1923 against Megas Alexandros Thessaloniki (Alexander the Great), another Thessalonician team. That year marked the first title, when Aris was named regional champion of Macedonia, something that was repeated next year.In 1926 the club was renamed "Athletic Club Aris Thessaloniki" to include also other sports than football.Aris' first major success was between 1927 and 1928 when they won the first Greek Championship, beating finalists Atromitos and Ethnikos Piraeus exploiting the abstention from the championship teams of RECs. In the first race on 24 May, the team of Thessaloniki prevailed 3–1 Atromitos, while three days after losing to Ethnikos Piraeus 3–2. In iterative matches played in June in Thessaloniki, Aris won both of his opponents by 3–1 and thus crowned the first champion of Greece. Coach of the team was the German Thomas Kessler, and prominent players of Aris were, among others, Kostas Vikelidis, Savvas Vogiatzis that emerged and top scorer with six goals, Nikos Aggelakis, scorer of the finals with four goals and Dionysis Caltech.The following year, it was held the final stage of national championships although Aris won the championship title in Thessaloniki, playing two matches barrage against PAOK. The first took place on 12 May 1929 and ended 1–1, while the second was held on 2 June with Aris to beats 4–3, having Nikos Aggelakis scoring a hat-trick.On 20 April 1929, the first friendly match took place between Aris and Panathinaikos, the "yellows" to defeat 5–4.The second championship came four years later in 1932, only this time his opponents were Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, AEK, Ethnikos, PAOK and Iraklis. Aris managed to collect 22 points in this mini tournament, four more than the second, Panathinaikos, scoring large wins like 7–0 against Panathinaikos, 7–3 against Iraklis and 3–0 versus AEK and Olympiacos in Athens, also new star players emerged, Kitsios, Aggelakis, Bogdanos, Gigopoulos, while Belgian manager De Valer guided effectively the club.Four years after winning the first Panhellenic title, the "yellows" won the championship. Aris became champion amassing a total of 22 points, four more than second Panathinaikos and scoring big wins like 7–0 against Panathinaikos with four goals Maywood, 6–1 on Apollon Athens with six goals in the Aggelakis' first home appearance with the first group of Kleanthis Vikelidis, 7–3 vs Iraklis with four goals Kitsos and away 0–3 over Olympiacos, PAOK and AEK. Leading scorer of the league emerged Nikos Kitsos with 15 goals and Nikos Aggelakis to 14.Big stars of that team were Kitsos, Aggelakis, Caltech, and Vogdanou Gkikopoulos while coach De Valera.That same year, the EPO instituted for the first time the Greek Cup, Mars crashing Panathinaikos 7–2 in the quarterfinal. This was followed by victory over Apollon Athens, to reach the final where they lost 5–3 from AEK Athens, losing the chance to win the first doubles.Aris won their third title in 1946, playing against two teams, AEK from Athens and Olympiacos from Piraeus, champions of the other two minor domestic leagues. Aris beat Olympiacos twice, scoring two goals and conceding none; came to a draw with AEK in Athens and defeated them in PAOK's stadium in Thessaloniki (score 4–1). Aris has not won a championship since the establishment of the First Division (1959).Up to 1959, when the united First Division was created, Aris managed to finish first 14 times in the Macedonian division.Aris' status remained high during this period, which was marked by the construction of the club's homeground, the Kleanthis Vikelides Stadium, named after the legendary homonymous player. Before World War II, Aris' homeground was located in the center of the city, near the Thessaloniki International Fair, but was abandoned in 1936 in order for the "Pedion tou Areos" park ("Mars Field") to be created. The club managed to buy some land during 1951 in a quarter of the city named Charilaou, where the new Stadium was slowly built.Also in 1959, the tripartite minor league system was abandoned and a new, unified Championship was created.The club's accomplishments during these years were significant. It was one of the first teams in Greece to qualify for European tournaments. Under the leadership of Alexandros Alexiades, Giorgos Pantziaras and Takis Loukanidis.Aris earned high placings in the League during the 1960s and 1970s, with apex the 1970 Hellenic Cup Title against the club's fierce rival, PAOK, in Kaftanzoglio Stadium.In the 1970s, Aris was reorganized and a vast number of young players from Thessaloniki, including Kouis, Foiros, Drambis, Zindros and Papafloratos led the club. Its most important achievements during that period included a successful 1980 UEFA campaign when Aris eliminated Benfica and Perugia. Aris was also the first Greek club to score a victory both in Italy and Portugal. At home, the team shared first place with Olympiacos at the end of the 1980 campaign, though it lost the title 2–0 in a tie-breaker against the Piraeus club in Volos National Stadium.After the mid-1980s and the retirement of the club's honored old guard, Aris entered in a slow decline, rarely reaching European league qualification or notable Greek League position, which—in combination with appreciable financial troubles that left the club near bankruptcy—led to the club's relegation to the Second Division in 1997 and 2005. Both times though Aris managed to resume its place in the first division.In recent years, specially after the creation of an Aris Members' Society that controls the club's fortunes, Aris has qualified several times for the UEFA Europa League, finished fourth in the Super League three times, and has reached in the Greek Cup Final four times, losing in 2003, 2005, 2008 and 2010, when 25,000 Aris fans went to Athens in the biggest ever move of fans in Greece. In 2008 and 2010 Aris made it through to the UEFA Europa League group stage after eliminating Real Zaragoza and Austria Wien respectively during the Cup's play-off rounds. During the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League they managed to play for the first time in club's history in Europe after Christmas, after a very good appearance in the group stage where they won 1–0 at home and 2–3 away and eliminated the title holders Atlético Madrid. Recent developments include the interest from the club's board to construct a new, modern stadium in eastern Thessaloniki Metropolitan Area to replace the obsolete Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium and the modernization and expansion of the club's training facilities in Neo Rysio, Thessaloniki.Also, in a unique move for Greek standards, the board decided in December 2009 to establish a radio station, "Aris FM 92.8" in order to promote the communication between Aris fans around the country and the coverage of the clubs activities. In 2014, due to financial problems Aris was relegated to the third tier of Greek football.After their relegation many were wondering who was going to take care of the team. American business man Alex Kalas emerged the first season with him in charge of the football department while they failed to gain promotion to the Football League. In summer 2015 where the next elections for the role of head of football department Kalas won again and promised to put more money into the club. Kalas also made a number of signings, Honduran legend Carlos Costly, Sierra Leone international John Kamara, Spaniard Guillermo Pérez Moreno, Portuguese footballer Fábio Ruben Moreira Tavares, defender Paschalis Melissas and defender Stavros Petavrakis. Due to Aris failing to get into the second division Kalas was sacked despite only being there for a month. Aris would have to play another year in Gamma Ethniki.While in the Gamma Ethniki, the team demanded that the Hellenic Football Federation allow them to be promoted to a higher level of Greek football. The federation declined to do this and several appeals against the decision were rejected. As a result, 10,000 fans took to the streets on the 26 and 31 August 2015 in Thessaloniki to protest the decision. These protests caused clashes between the police and the fans that led to arrests and Aris didn't manage to get promoted to the professional divisions.Although after the Aris election Arvanitidis became leader of the football department, Theodoros Karypidis was named the head of football department the day afterwards. He signed many players in a few days including former Greek footballer of the club Andreas Tatos, former Real Madrid defender Raul Bravo club legend Sergio Koke, as well as many Super League quality players like Kostas Kaznaferis, Vasilios Rovas, Nikos Tsoumanis, Giannis Siderakis as well as many others. Theodoros Karipidis appointed Nikos Anastopoulos as the manager. During the 2015–16 season Aris managed to be promoted to the second division of Greece with a 21-point difference from the second club. Finally, Irene Karypidis became the major shareholder with overwhelming proportion over 89%.Aris' fan base is spread across all the economic classes in the city of Thessaloniki and all over Greece. Their rivalry is against clubs such as arch-rival PAOK, but also against the biggest clubs of Athens Olympiacos, Panathinaikos and AEK Athens. Matches against PAOK are local derbies and an event that splits Thessaloniki and Northern Greece in two. Aris' main fan club is called "Super 3" and has symbol a bulldog. It exist since 1988 with 50 more Super 3 clubs spread all over Greece and Europe. There are over 12,000 Super 3 members. In the rest of Europe there are also some organized Aris' fan clubs in countries such as Germany, Italy and Sweden. According to some polls Aris is the 5th most popular team in Greece with around 300.000 fans, an amount quite big considering the lack of titles for many decades.Against Panathinaikos in the 2010 Greek Cup final, 30,000 Aris fans descended to Athens to what has been described as "the biggest football fans move in Greece".The club's anthem ("Aris Victorious") was written in 1926.A company of young Thessalonians inspired the name of the club by Ares, the ancient Olympian "God of War", after the successful military operations of the Kingdom of Greece during the Balkan Wars, and the liberation of Thessaloniki in 1912 from the Ottoman empire. The emblem of the team is a resting Ares (Greek: Άρης), as depicted in the Ludovisi Ares sculpture. This emblem was chosen in the late 1970s to replace an older and simpler logo which was used since 1914. Also, during the 2000s, a scheme of meander was added to the crest.The colors of the team are yellow or gold of glory, dominant colour in the culture of Macedonia, and black. Alternative colours also used include white or even dark red uniforms. During the 2000s, the club introduced also a shade of lime.FirstAlternativeThe following table shows in detail Aris kit manufacturers and shirt sponsors by year:The stadium of Aris Thessaloniki is named "Kleanthis Vikelides" after the club's legendary player. It is located at 69 Alkminis, Charilaou; 54249 Thessaloniki, and was built in 1951. In 1972, it got a new roof, in 1975 a new north stand, and in 2004, it was fully renovated. Its current total capacity is 22,800 spectators.Since the late 1970s, Aris Thessaloniki has created its own training grounds in Neo Rysio (Dasigenio Sports Center), just outside Thessaloniki near the International Airport covering three hectares and including football fields, hosting area with gym, pool and sauna, press room, offices, restaurant and locker rooms. The facilities were rebuilt in September 2010 after a demand placed by manager Héctor Cúper. The facilities were renovated again in 2018 and the grass was ultimately changed in 2019.Super League GreeceSecond Division GreeceThird Division GreeceGreek Football CupBest position in bold.Key: 3R = Third Round, 4R = Fourth Round, 5R = Fifth Round, GS = Group Stage, QF = Quarter-finals, SF = Semi-finals, RU = Runner-up.Official websitesNews sitesMedia
|
[
"Alan Pardew",
"Germán Burgos",
"Michael Oenning",
"Savvas Pantelidis",
"Nikos Anastopoulos",
"Apostolos Mantzios"
] |
|
Who was the head coach of the team Aris Thessaloniki F.C. in Dec, 2018?
|
December 04, 2018
|
{
"text": [
"Savvas Pantelidis"
]
}
|
L2_Q219926_P286_2
|
Michael Oenning is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Oct, 2019 to Sep, 2020.
Paco Herrera is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Jan, 2018 to Nov, 2018.
Nikos Anastopoulos is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Jan, 2015 to Jan, 2017.
Germán Burgos is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Feb, 2022 to Aug, 2022.
Apostolos Mantzios is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Sep, 2020 to Feb, 2022.
Savvas Pantelidis is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Nov, 2018 to Sep, 2019.
Alan Pardew is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Sep, 2022 to Dec, 2022.
|
Aris Thessaloniki F.C.Aris Thessaloniki Football Club () or simply Aris FC or AFC is a Greek professional football club based in the city of Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece. Created in 1914 as "Aris Thessaloniki Football Club", the club was a founding member of the Macedonian Football Clubs Association, as well as the Hellenic Football Federation. The colours of the club are golden/yellow, a dominant colour in the culture of Macedonia and reminiscent of the Byzantine heritage of Thessaloniki, and black. It is named after Ares, the ancient Olympian "God of War," associated also with courage and masculinity, whose image is portrayed on the club's logo as depicted in the Ludovisi Ares sculpture.Aris was also one of the strongest and most popular teams in Greece during the interwar period. They have won the Greek championship three times (1928, 1932, 1946), the Greek Cup once (1970), and they had an undefeated home record in European competitions for 28 matches from 1968 to 2020, when they lost to Kolos. The team's home ground is the Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium.The club was established as a football club ("Podosferikos Syllogos Aris Thessalonikis") by a group of 22 young friends in a coffee bar in Votsi area on 25 March 1914 and given the name Aris from Ares, the ancient god of war. Its nickname was inspired by the two Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, when Greece fought against the Ottoman Empire before engaging in a war with Bulgaria. In Greek mythology, Aris was a deity who was in conflict with Heracles, the mythological character after which Aris's rival football team, Iraklis, was named. Aris holds a fierce rivalry with PAOK. At first, the club was based on a near the Arch and Tomb of Galerius, but after the accession of two minor football clubs in 1919 and 1921 the club's base was moved near to Flemming Street of eastern Thessaloniki. The first stadium was built on the site where Mars Field Park currently lies on Stratou Avenue. Quickly the club became very popular and soon new teams apart from football were established.During this early stage of football in Greece no professional league was established. Instead, three minor leagues [in Macedonia (E.P.S.M.), Athens (E.P.S.A.) and Piraeus (E.P.S.P.)] were created, with the champions of each league competing in a postseason mini tournament to claim the title of the national champion. The first official game was held in 1923 against Megas Alexandros Thessaloniki (Alexander the Great), another Thessalonician team. That year marked the first title, when Aris was named regional champion of Macedonia, something that was repeated next year.In 1926 the club was renamed "Athletic Club Aris Thessaloniki" to include also other sports than football.Aris' first major success was between 1927 and 1928 when they won the first Greek Championship, beating finalists Atromitos and Ethnikos Piraeus exploiting the abstention from the championship teams of RECs. In the first race on 24 May, the team of Thessaloniki prevailed 3–1 Atromitos, while three days after losing to Ethnikos Piraeus 3–2. In iterative matches played in June in Thessaloniki, Aris won both of his opponents by 3–1 and thus crowned the first champion of Greece. Coach of the team was the German Thomas Kessler, and prominent players of Aris were, among others, Kostas Vikelidis, Savvas Vogiatzis that emerged and top scorer with six goals, Nikos Aggelakis, scorer of the finals with four goals and Dionysis Caltech.The following year, it was held the final stage of national championships although Aris won the championship title in Thessaloniki, playing two matches barrage against PAOK. The first took place on 12 May 1929 and ended 1–1, while the second was held on 2 June with Aris to beats 4–3, having Nikos Aggelakis scoring a hat-trick.On 20 April 1929, the first friendly match took place between Aris and Panathinaikos, the "yellows" to defeat 5–4.The second championship came four years later in 1932, only this time his opponents were Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, AEK, Ethnikos, PAOK and Iraklis. Aris managed to collect 22 points in this mini tournament, four more than the second, Panathinaikos, scoring large wins like 7–0 against Panathinaikos, 7–3 against Iraklis and 3–0 versus AEK and Olympiacos in Athens, also new star players emerged, Kitsios, Aggelakis, Bogdanos, Gigopoulos, while Belgian manager De Valer guided effectively the club.Four years after winning the first Panhellenic title, the "yellows" won the championship. Aris became champion amassing a total of 22 points, four more than second Panathinaikos and scoring big wins like 7–0 against Panathinaikos with four goals Maywood, 6–1 on Apollon Athens with six goals in the Aggelakis' first home appearance with the first group of Kleanthis Vikelidis, 7–3 vs Iraklis with four goals Kitsos and away 0–3 over Olympiacos, PAOK and AEK. Leading scorer of the league emerged Nikos Kitsos with 15 goals and Nikos Aggelakis to 14.Big stars of that team were Kitsos, Aggelakis, Caltech, and Vogdanou Gkikopoulos while coach De Valera.That same year, the EPO instituted for the first time the Greek Cup, Mars crashing Panathinaikos 7–2 in the quarterfinal. This was followed by victory over Apollon Athens, to reach the final where they lost 5–3 from AEK Athens, losing the chance to win the first doubles.Aris won their third title in 1946, playing against two teams, AEK from Athens and Olympiacos from Piraeus, champions of the other two minor domestic leagues. Aris beat Olympiacos twice, scoring two goals and conceding none; came to a draw with AEK in Athens and defeated them in PAOK's stadium in Thessaloniki (score 4–1). Aris has not won a championship since the establishment of the First Division (1959).Up to 1959, when the united First Division was created, Aris managed to finish first 14 times in the Macedonian division.Aris' status remained high during this period, which was marked by the construction of the club's homeground, the Kleanthis Vikelides Stadium, named after the legendary homonymous player. Before World War II, Aris' homeground was located in the center of the city, near the Thessaloniki International Fair, but was abandoned in 1936 in order for the "Pedion tou Areos" park ("Mars Field") to be created. The club managed to buy some land during 1951 in a quarter of the city named Charilaou, where the new Stadium was slowly built.Also in 1959, the tripartite minor league system was abandoned and a new, unified Championship was created.The club's accomplishments during these years were significant. It was one of the first teams in Greece to qualify for European tournaments. Under the leadership of Alexandros Alexiades, Giorgos Pantziaras and Takis Loukanidis.Aris earned high placings in the League during the 1960s and 1970s, with apex the 1970 Hellenic Cup Title against the club's fierce rival, PAOK, in Kaftanzoglio Stadium.In the 1970s, Aris was reorganized and a vast number of young players from Thessaloniki, including Kouis, Foiros, Drambis, Zindros and Papafloratos led the club. Its most important achievements during that period included a successful 1980 UEFA campaign when Aris eliminated Benfica and Perugia. Aris was also the first Greek club to score a victory both in Italy and Portugal. At home, the team shared first place with Olympiacos at the end of the 1980 campaign, though it lost the title 2–0 in a tie-breaker against the Piraeus club in Volos National Stadium.After the mid-1980s and the retirement of the club's honored old guard, Aris entered in a slow decline, rarely reaching European league qualification or notable Greek League position, which—in combination with appreciable financial troubles that left the club near bankruptcy—led to the club's relegation to the Second Division in 1997 and 2005. Both times though Aris managed to resume its place in the first division.In recent years, specially after the creation of an Aris Members' Society that controls the club's fortunes, Aris has qualified several times for the UEFA Europa League, finished fourth in the Super League three times, and has reached in the Greek Cup Final four times, losing in 2003, 2005, 2008 and 2010, when 25,000 Aris fans went to Athens in the biggest ever move of fans in Greece. In 2008 and 2010 Aris made it through to the UEFA Europa League group stage after eliminating Real Zaragoza and Austria Wien respectively during the Cup's play-off rounds. During the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League they managed to play for the first time in club's history in Europe after Christmas, after a very good appearance in the group stage where they won 1–0 at home and 2–3 away and eliminated the title holders Atlético Madrid. Recent developments include the interest from the club's board to construct a new, modern stadium in eastern Thessaloniki Metropolitan Area to replace the obsolete Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium and the modernization and expansion of the club's training facilities in Neo Rysio, Thessaloniki.Also, in a unique move for Greek standards, the board decided in December 2009 to establish a radio station, "Aris FM 92.8" in order to promote the communication between Aris fans around the country and the coverage of the clubs activities. In 2014, due to financial problems Aris was relegated to the third tier of Greek football.After their relegation many were wondering who was going to take care of the team. American business man Alex Kalas emerged the first season with him in charge of the football department while they failed to gain promotion to the Football League. In summer 2015 where the next elections for the role of head of football department Kalas won again and promised to put more money into the club. Kalas also made a number of signings, Honduran legend Carlos Costly, Sierra Leone international John Kamara, Spaniard Guillermo Pérez Moreno, Portuguese footballer Fábio Ruben Moreira Tavares, defender Paschalis Melissas and defender Stavros Petavrakis. Due to Aris failing to get into the second division Kalas was sacked despite only being there for a month. Aris would have to play another year in Gamma Ethniki.While in the Gamma Ethniki, the team demanded that the Hellenic Football Federation allow them to be promoted to a higher level of Greek football. The federation declined to do this and several appeals against the decision were rejected. As a result, 10,000 fans took to the streets on the 26 and 31 August 2015 in Thessaloniki to protest the decision. These protests caused clashes between the police and the fans that led to arrests and Aris didn't manage to get promoted to the professional divisions.Although after the Aris election Arvanitidis became leader of the football department, Theodoros Karypidis was named the head of football department the day afterwards. He signed many players in a few days including former Greek footballer of the club Andreas Tatos, former Real Madrid defender Raul Bravo club legend Sergio Koke, as well as many Super League quality players like Kostas Kaznaferis, Vasilios Rovas, Nikos Tsoumanis, Giannis Siderakis as well as many others. Theodoros Karipidis appointed Nikos Anastopoulos as the manager. During the 2015–16 season Aris managed to be promoted to the second division of Greece with a 21-point difference from the second club. Finally, Irene Karypidis became the major shareholder with overwhelming proportion over 89%.Aris' fan base is spread across all the economic classes in the city of Thessaloniki and all over Greece. Their rivalry is against clubs such as arch-rival PAOK, but also against the biggest clubs of Athens Olympiacos, Panathinaikos and AEK Athens. Matches against PAOK are local derbies and an event that splits Thessaloniki and Northern Greece in two. Aris' main fan club is called "Super 3" and has symbol a bulldog. It exist since 1988 with 50 more Super 3 clubs spread all over Greece and Europe. There are over 12,000 Super 3 members. In the rest of Europe there are also some organized Aris' fan clubs in countries such as Germany, Italy and Sweden. According to some polls Aris is the 5th most popular team in Greece with around 300.000 fans, an amount quite big considering the lack of titles for many decades.Against Panathinaikos in the 2010 Greek Cup final, 30,000 Aris fans descended to Athens to what has been described as "the biggest football fans move in Greece".The club's anthem ("Aris Victorious") was written in 1926.A company of young Thessalonians inspired the name of the club by Ares, the ancient Olympian "God of War", after the successful military operations of the Kingdom of Greece during the Balkan Wars, and the liberation of Thessaloniki in 1912 from the Ottoman empire. The emblem of the team is a resting Ares (Greek: Άρης), as depicted in the Ludovisi Ares sculpture. This emblem was chosen in the late 1970s to replace an older and simpler logo which was used since 1914. Also, during the 2000s, a scheme of meander was added to the crest.The colors of the team are yellow or gold of glory, dominant colour in the culture of Macedonia, and black. Alternative colours also used include white or even dark red uniforms. During the 2000s, the club introduced also a shade of lime.FirstAlternativeThe following table shows in detail Aris kit manufacturers and shirt sponsors by year:The stadium of Aris Thessaloniki is named "Kleanthis Vikelides" after the club's legendary player. It is located at 69 Alkminis, Charilaou; 54249 Thessaloniki, and was built in 1951. In 1972, it got a new roof, in 1975 a new north stand, and in 2004, it was fully renovated. Its current total capacity is 22,800 spectators.Since the late 1970s, Aris Thessaloniki has created its own training grounds in Neo Rysio (Dasigenio Sports Center), just outside Thessaloniki near the International Airport covering three hectares and including football fields, hosting area with gym, pool and sauna, press room, offices, restaurant and locker rooms. The facilities were rebuilt in September 2010 after a demand placed by manager Héctor Cúper. The facilities were renovated again in 2018 and the grass was ultimately changed in 2019.Super League GreeceSecond Division GreeceThird Division GreeceGreek Football CupBest position in bold.Key: 3R = Third Round, 4R = Fourth Round, 5R = Fifth Round, GS = Group Stage, QF = Quarter-finals, SF = Semi-finals, RU = Runner-up.Official websitesNews sitesMedia
|
[
"Alan Pardew",
"Germán Burgos",
"Michael Oenning",
"Nikos Anastopoulos",
"Apostolos Mantzios",
"Paco Herrera"
] |
|
Who was the head coach of the team Aris Thessaloniki F.C. in Mar, 2020?
|
March 29, 2020
|
{
"text": [
"Michael Oenning"
]
}
|
L2_Q219926_P286_3
|
Savvas Pantelidis is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Nov, 2018 to Sep, 2019.
Apostolos Mantzios is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Sep, 2020 to Feb, 2022.
Michael Oenning is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Oct, 2019 to Sep, 2020.
Paco Herrera is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Jan, 2018 to Nov, 2018.
Germán Burgos is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Feb, 2022 to Aug, 2022.
Alan Pardew is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Sep, 2022 to Dec, 2022.
Nikos Anastopoulos is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Jan, 2015 to Jan, 2017.
|
Aris Thessaloniki F.C.Aris Thessaloniki Football Club () or simply Aris FC or AFC is a Greek professional football club based in the city of Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece. Created in 1914 as "Aris Thessaloniki Football Club", the club was a founding member of the Macedonian Football Clubs Association, as well as the Hellenic Football Federation. The colours of the club are golden/yellow, a dominant colour in the culture of Macedonia and reminiscent of the Byzantine heritage of Thessaloniki, and black. It is named after Ares, the ancient Olympian "God of War," associated also with courage and masculinity, whose image is portrayed on the club's logo as depicted in the Ludovisi Ares sculpture.Aris was also one of the strongest and most popular teams in Greece during the interwar period. They have won the Greek championship three times (1928, 1932, 1946), the Greek Cup once (1970), and they had an undefeated home record in European competitions for 28 matches from 1968 to 2020, when they lost to Kolos. The team's home ground is the Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium.The club was established as a football club ("Podosferikos Syllogos Aris Thessalonikis") by a group of 22 young friends in a coffee bar in Votsi area on 25 March 1914 and given the name Aris from Ares, the ancient god of war. Its nickname was inspired by the two Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, when Greece fought against the Ottoman Empire before engaging in a war with Bulgaria. In Greek mythology, Aris was a deity who was in conflict with Heracles, the mythological character after which Aris's rival football team, Iraklis, was named. Aris holds a fierce rivalry with PAOK. At first, the club was based on a near the Arch and Tomb of Galerius, but after the accession of two minor football clubs in 1919 and 1921 the club's base was moved near to Flemming Street of eastern Thessaloniki. The first stadium was built on the site where Mars Field Park currently lies on Stratou Avenue. Quickly the club became very popular and soon new teams apart from football were established.During this early stage of football in Greece no professional league was established. Instead, three minor leagues [in Macedonia (E.P.S.M.), Athens (E.P.S.A.) and Piraeus (E.P.S.P.)] were created, with the champions of each league competing in a postseason mini tournament to claim the title of the national champion. The first official game was held in 1923 against Megas Alexandros Thessaloniki (Alexander the Great), another Thessalonician team. That year marked the first title, when Aris was named regional champion of Macedonia, something that was repeated next year.In 1926 the club was renamed "Athletic Club Aris Thessaloniki" to include also other sports than football.Aris' first major success was between 1927 and 1928 when they won the first Greek Championship, beating finalists Atromitos and Ethnikos Piraeus exploiting the abstention from the championship teams of RECs. In the first race on 24 May, the team of Thessaloniki prevailed 3–1 Atromitos, while three days after losing to Ethnikos Piraeus 3–2. In iterative matches played in June in Thessaloniki, Aris won both of his opponents by 3–1 and thus crowned the first champion of Greece. Coach of the team was the German Thomas Kessler, and prominent players of Aris were, among others, Kostas Vikelidis, Savvas Vogiatzis that emerged and top scorer with six goals, Nikos Aggelakis, scorer of the finals with four goals and Dionysis Caltech.The following year, it was held the final stage of national championships although Aris won the championship title in Thessaloniki, playing two matches barrage against PAOK. The first took place on 12 May 1929 and ended 1–1, while the second was held on 2 June with Aris to beats 4–3, having Nikos Aggelakis scoring a hat-trick.On 20 April 1929, the first friendly match took place between Aris and Panathinaikos, the "yellows" to defeat 5–4.The second championship came four years later in 1932, only this time his opponents were Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, AEK, Ethnikos, PAOK and Iraklis. Aris managed to collect 22 points in this mini tournament, four more than the second, Panathinaikos, scoring large wins like 7–0 against Panathinaikos, 7–3 against Iraklis and 3–0 versus AEK and Olympiacos in Athens, also new star players emerged, Kitsios, Aggelakis, Bogdanos, Gigopoulos, while Belgian manager De Valer guided effectively the club.Four years after winning the first Panhellenic title, the "yellows" won the championship. Aris became champion amassing a total of 22 points, four more than second Panathinaikos and scoring big wins like 7–0 against Panathinaikos with four goals Maywood, 6–1 on Apollon Athens with six goals in the Aggelakis' first home appearance with the first group of Kleanthis Vikelidis, 7–3 vs Iraklis with four goals Kitsos and away 0–3 over Olympiacos, PAOK and AEK. Leading scorer of the league emerged Nikos Kitsos with 15 goals and Nikos Aggelakis to 14.Big stars of that team were Kitsos, Aggelakis, Caltech, and Vogdanou Gkikopoulos while coach De Valera.That same year, the EPO instituted for the first time the Greek Cup, Mars crashing Panathinaikos 7–2 in the quarterfinal. This was followed by victory over Apollon Athens, to reach the final where they lost 5–3 from AEK Athens, losing the chance to win the first doubles.Aris won their third title in 1946, playing against two teams, AEK from Athens and Olympiacos from Piraeus, champions of the other two minor domestic leagues. Aris beat Olympiacos twice, scoring two goals and conceding none; came to a draw with AEK in Athens and defeated them in PAOK's stadium in Thessaloniki (score 4–1). Aris has not won a championship since the establishment of the First Division (1959).Up to 1959, when the united First Division was created, Aris managed to finish first 14 times in the Macedonian division.Aris' status remained high during this period, which was marked by the construction of the club's homeground, the Kleanthis Vikelides Stadium, named after the legendary homonymous player. Before World War II, Aris' homeground was located in the center of the city, near the Thessaloniki International Fair, but was abandoned in 1936 in order for the "Pedion tou Areos" park ("Mars Field") to be created. The club managed to buy some land during 1951 in a quarter of the city named Charilaou, where the new Stadium was slowly built.Also in 1959, the tripartite minor league system was abandoned and a new, unified Championship was created.The club's accomplishments during these years were significant. It was one of the first teams in Greece to qualify for European tournaments. Under the leadership of Alexandros Alexiades, Giorgos Pantziaras and Takis Loukanidis.Aris earned high placings in the League during the 1960s and 1970s, with apex the 1970 Hellenic Cup Title against the club's fierce rival, PAOK, in Kaftanzoglio Stadium.In the 1970s, Aris was reorganized and a vast number of young players from Thessaloniki, including Kouis, Foiros, Drambis, Zindros and Papafloratos led the club. Its most important achievements during that period included a successful 1980 UEFA campaign when Aris eliminated Benfica and Perugia. Aris was also the first Greek club to score a victory both in Italy and Portugal. At home, the team shared first place with Olympiacos at the end of the 1980 campaign, though it lost the title 2–0 in a tie-breaker against the Piraeus club in Volos National Stadium.After the mid-1980s and the retirement of the club's honored old guard, Aris entered in a slow decline, rarely reaching European league qualification or notable Greek League position, which—in combination with appreciable financial troubles that left the club near bankruptcy—led to the club's relegation to the Second Division in 1997 and 2005. Both times though Aris managed to resume its place in the first division.In recent years, specially after the creation of an Aris Members' Society that controls the club's fortunes, Aris has qualified several times for the UEFA Europa League, finished fourth in the Super League three times, and has reached in the Greek Cup Final four times, losing in 2003, 2005, 2008 and 2010, when 25,000 Aris fans went to Athens in the biggest ever move of fans in Greece. In 2008 and 2010 Aris made it through to the UEFA Europa League group stage after eliminating Real Zaragoza and Austria Wien respectively during the Cup's play-off rounds. During the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League they managed to play for the first time in club's history in Europe after Christmas, after a very good appearance in the group stage where they won 1–0 at home and 2–3 away and eliminated the title holders Atlético Madrid. Recent developments include the interest from the club's board to construct a new, modern stadium in eastern Thessaloniki Metropolitan Area to replace the obsolete Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium and the modernization and expansion of the club's training facilities in Neo Rysio, Thessaloniki.Also, in a unique move for Greek standards, the board decided in December 2009 to establish a radio station, "Aris FM 92.8" in order to promote the communication between Aris fans around the country and the coverage of the clubs activities. In 2014, due to financial problems Aris was relegated to the third tier of Greek football.After their relegation many were wondering who was going to take care of the team. American business man Alex Kalas emerged the first season with him in charge of the football department while they failed to gain promotion to the Football League. In summer 2015 where the next elections for the role of head of football department Kalas won again and promised to put more money into the club. Kalas also made a number of signings, Honduran legend Carlos Costly, Sierra Leone international John Kamara, Spaniard Guillermo Pérez Moreno, Portuguese footballer Fábio Ruben Moreira Tavares, defender Paschalis Melissas and defender Stavros Petavrakis. Due to Aris failing to get into the second division Kalas was sacked despite only being there for a month. Aris would have to play another year in Gamma Ethniki.While in the Gamma Ethniki, the team demanded that the Hellenic Football Federation allow them to be promoted to a higher level of Greek football. The federation declined to do this and several appeals against the decision were rejected. As a result, 10,000 fans took to the streets on the 26 and 31 August 2015 in Thessaloniki to protest the decision. These protests caused clashes between the police and the fans that led to arrests and Aris didn't manage to get promoted to the professional divisions.Although after the Aris election Arvanitidis became leader of the football department, Theodoros Karypidis was named the head of football department the day afterwards. He signed many players in a few days including former Greek footballer of the club Andreas Tatos, former Real Madrid defender Raul Bravo club legend Sergio Koke, as well as many Super League quality players like Kostas Kaznaferis, Vasilios Rovas, Nikos Tsoumanis, Giannis Siderakis as well as many others. Theodoros Karipidis appointed Nikos Anastopoulos as the manager. During the 2015–16 season Aris managed to be promoted to the second division of Greece with a 21-point difference from the second club. Finally, Irene Karypidis became the major shareholder with overwhelming proportion over 89%.Aris' fan base is spread across all the economic classes in the city of Thessaloniki and all over Greece. Their rivalry is against clubs such as arch-rival PAOK, but also against the biggest clubs of Athens Olympiacos, Panathinaikos and AEK Athens. Matches against PAOK are local derbies and an event that splits Thessaloniki and Northern Greece in two. Aris' main fan club is called "Super 3" and has symbol a bulldog. It exist since 1988 with 50 more Super 3 clubs spread all over Greece and Europe. There are over 12,000 Super 3 members. In the rest of Europe there are also some organized Aris' fan clubs in countries such as Germany, Italy and Sweden. According to some polls Aris is the 5th most popular team in Greece with around 300.000 fans, an amount quite big considering the lack of titles for many decades.Against Panathinaikos in the 2010 Greek Cup final, 30,000 Aris fans descended to Athens to what has been described as "the biggest football fans move in Greece".The club's anthem ("Aris Victorious") was written in 1926.A company of young Thessalonians inspired the name of the club by Ares, the ancient Olympian "God of War", after the successful military operations of the Kingdom of Greece during the Balkan Wars, and the liberation of Thessaloniki in 1912 from the Ottoman empire. The emblem of the team is a resting Ares (Greek: Άρης), as depicted in the Ludovisi Ares sculpture. This emblem was chosen in the late 1970s to replace an older and simpler logo which was used since 1914. Also, during the 2000s, a scheme of meander was added to the crest.The colors of the team are yellow or gold of glory, dominant colour in the culture of Macedonia, and black. Alternative colours also used include white or even dark red uniforms. During the 2000s, the club introduced also a shade of lime.FirstAlternativeThe following table shows in detail Aris kit manufacturers and shirt sponsors by year:The stadium of Aris Thessaloniki is named "Kleanthis Vikelides" after the club's legendary player. It is located at 69 Alkminis, Charilaou; 54249 Thessaloniki, and was built in 1951. In 1972, it got a new roof, in 1975 a new north stand, and in 2004, it was fully renovated. Its current total capacity is 22,800 spectators.Since the late 1970s, Aris Thessaloniki has created its own training grounds in Neo Rysio (Dasigenio Sports Center), just outside Thessaloniki near the International Airport covering three hectares and including football fields, hosting area with gym, pool and sauna, press room, offices, restaurant and locker rooms. The facilities were rebuilt in September 2010 after a demand placed by manager Héctor Cúper. The facilities were renovated again in 2018 and the grass was ultimately changed in 2019.Super League GreeceSecond Division GreeceThird Division GreeceGreek Football CupBest position in bold.Key: 3R = Third Round, 4R = Fourth Round, 5R = Fifth Round, GS = Group Stage, QF = Quarter-finals, SF = Semi-finals, RU = Runner-up.Official websitesNews sitesMedia
|
[
"Alan Pardew",
"Germán Burgos",
"Savvas Pantelidis",
"Nikos Anastopoulos",
"Apostolos Mantzios",
"Paco Herrera"
] |
|
Who was the head coach of the team Aris Thessaloniki F.C. in Dec, 2021?
|
December 10, 2021
|
{
"text": [
"Apostolos Mantzios"
]
}
|
L2_Q219926_P286_4
|
Nikos Anastopoulos is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Jan, 2015 to Jan, 2017.
Michael Oenning is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Oct, 2019 to Sep, 2020.
Alan Pardew is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Sep, 2022 to Dec, 2022.
Apostolos Mantzios is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Sep, 2020 to Feb, 2022.
Savvas Pantelidis is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Nov, 2018 to Sep, 2019.
Paco Herrera is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Jan, 2018 to Nov, 2018.
Germán Burgos is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Feb, 2022 to Aug, 2022.
|
Aris Thessaloniki F.C.Aris Thessaloniki Football Club () or simply Aris FC or AFC is a Greek professional football club based in the city of Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece. Created in 1914 as "Aris Thessaloniki Football Club", the club was a founding member of the Macedonian Football Clubs Association, as well as the Hellenic Football Federation. The colours of the club are golden/yellow, a dominant colour in the culture of Macedonia and reminiscent of the Byzantine heritage of Thessaloniki, and black. It is named after Ares, the ancient Olympian "God of War," associated also with courage and masculinity, whose image is portrayed on the club's logo as depicted in the Ludovisi Ares sculpture.Aris was also one of the strongest and most popular teams in Greece during the interwar period. They have won the Greek championship three times (1928, 1932, 1946), the Greek Cup once (1970), and they had an undefeated home record in European competitions for 28 matches from 1968 to 2020, when they lost to Kolos. The team's home ground is the Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium.The club was established as a football club ("Podosferikos Syllogos Aris Thessalonikis") by a group of 22 young friends in a coffee bar in Votsi area on 25 March 1914 and given the name Aris from Ares, the ancient god of war. Its nickname was inspired by the two Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, when Greece fought against the Ottoman Empire before engaging in a war with Bulgaria. In Greek mythology, Aris was a deity who was in conflict with Heracles, the mythological character after which Aris's rival football team, Iraklis, was named. Aris holds a fierce rivalry with PAOK. At first, the club was based on a near the Arch and Tomb of Galerius, but after the accession of two minor football clubs in 1919 and 1921 the club's base was moved near to Flemming Street of eastern Thessaloniki. The first stadium was built on the site where Mars Field Park currently lies on Stratou Avenue. Quickly the club became very popular and soon new teams apart from football were established.During this early stage of football in Greece no professional league was established. Instead, three minor leagues [in Macedonia (E.P.S.M.), Athens (E.P.S.A.) and Piraeus (E.P.S.P.)] were created, with the champions of each league competing in a postseason mini tournament to claim the title of the national champion. The first official game was held in 1923 against Megas Alexandros Thessaloniki (Alexander the Great), another Thessalonician team. That year marked the first title, when Aris was named regional champion of Macedonia, something that was repeated next year.In 1926 the club was renamed "Athletic Club Aris Thessaloniki" to include also other sports than football.Aris' first major success was between 1927 and 1928 when they won the first Greek Championship, beating finalists Atromitos and Ethnikos Piraeus exploiting the abstention from the championship teams of RECs. In the first race on 24 May, the team of Thessaloniki prevailed 3–1 Atromitos, while three days after losing to Ethnikos Piraeus 3–2. In iterative matches played in June in Thessaloniki, Aris won both of his opponents by 3–1 and thus crowned the first champion of Greece. Coach of the team was the German Thomas Kessler, and prominent players of Aris were, among others, Kostas Vikelidis, Savvas Vogiatzis that emerged and top scorer with six goals, Nikos Aggelakis, scorer of the finals with four goals and Dionysis Caltech.The following year, it was held the final stage of national championships although Aris won the championship title in Thessaloniki, playing two matches barrage against PAOK. The first took place on 12 May 1929 and ended 1–1, while the second was held on 2 June with Aris to beats 4–3, having Nikos Aggelakis scoring a hat-trick.On 20 April 1929, the first friendly match took place between Aris and Panathinaikos, the "yellows" to defeat 5–4.The second championship came four years later in 1932, only this time his opponents were Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, AEK, Ethnikos, PAOK and Iraklis. Aris managed to collect 22 points in this mini tournament, four more than the second, Panathinaikos, scoring large wins like 7–0 against Panathinaikos, 7–3 against Iraklis and 3–0 versus AEK and Olympiacos in Athens, also new star players emerged, Kitsios, Aggelakis, Bogdanos, Gigopoulos, while Belgian manager De Valer guided effectively the club.Four years after winning the first Panhellenic title, the "yellows" won the championship. Aris became champion amassing a total of 22 points, four more than second Panathinaikos and scoring big wins like 7–0 against Panathinaikos with four goals Maywood, 6–1 on Apollon Athens with six goals in the Aggelakis' first home appearance with the first group of Kleanthis Vikelidis, 7–3 vs Iraklis with four goals Kitsos and away 0–3 over Olympiacos, PAOK and AEK. Leading scorer of the league emerged Nikos Kitsos with 15 goals and Nikos Aggelakis to 14.Big stars of that team were Kitsos, Aggelakis, Caltech, and Vogdanou Gkikopoulos while coach De Valera.That same year, the EPO instituted for the first time the Greek Cup, Mars crashing Panathinaikos 7–2 in the quarterfinal. This was followed by victory over Apollon Athens, to reach the final where they lost 5–3 from AEK Athens, losing the chance to win the first doubles.Aris won their third title in 1946, playing against two teams, AEK from Athens and Olympiacos from Piraeus, champions of the other two minor domestic leagues. Aris beat Olympiacos twice, scoring two goals and conceding none; came to a draw with AEK in Athens and defeated them in PAOK's stadium in Thessaloniki (score 4–1). Aris has not won a championship since the establishment of the First Division (1959).Up to 1959, when the united First Division was created, Aris managed to finish first 14 times in the Macedonian division.Aris' status remained high during this period, which was marked by the construction of the club's homeground, the Kleanthis Vikelides Stadium, named after the legendary homonymous player. Before World War II, Aris' homeground was located in the center of the city, near the Thessaloniki International Fair, but was abandoned in 1936 in order for the "Pedion tou Areos" park ("Mars Field") to be created. The club managed to buy some land during 1951 in a quarter of the city named Charilaou, where the new Stadium was slowly built.Also in 1959, the tripartite minor league system was abandoned and a new, unified Championship was created.The club's accomplishments during these years were significant. It was one of the first teams in Greece to qualify for European tournaments. Under the leadership of Alexandros Alexiades, Giorgos Pantziaras and Takis Loukanidis.Aris earned high placings in the League during the 1960s and 1970s, with apex the 1970 Hellenic Cup Title against the club's fierce rival, PAOK, in Kaftanzoglio Stadium.In the 1970s, Aris was reorganized and a vast number of young players from Thessaloniki, including Kouis, Foiros, Drambis, Zindros and Papafloratos led the club. Its most important achievements during that period included a successful 1980 UEFA campaign when Aris eliminated Benfica and Perugia. Aris was also the first Greek club to score a victory both in Italy and Portugal. At home, the team shared first place with Olympiacos at the end of the 1980 campaign, though it lost the title 2–0 in a tie-breaker against the Piraeus club in Volos National Stadium.After the mid-1980s and the retirement of the club's honored old guard, Aris entered in a slow decline, rarely reaching European league qualification or notable Greek League position, which—in combination with appreciable financial troubles that left the club near bankruptcy—led to the club's relegation to the Second Division in 1997 and 2005. Both times though Aris managed to resume its place in the first division.In recent years, specially after the creation of an Aris Members' Society that controls the club's fortunes, Aris has qualified several times for the UEFA Europa League, finished fourth in the Super League three times, and has reached in the Greek Cup Final four times, losing in 2003, 2005, 2008 and 2010, when 25,000 Aris fans went to Athens in the biggest ever move of fans in Greece. In 2008 and 2010 Aris made it through to the UEFA Europa League group stage after eliminating Real Zaragoza and Austria Wien respectively during the Cup's play-off rounds. During the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League they managed to play for the first time in club's history in Europe after Christmas, after a very good appearance in the group stage where they won 1–0 at home and 2–3 away and eliminated the title holders Atlético Madrid. Recent developments include the interest from the club's board to construct a new, modern stadium in eastern Thessaloniki Metropolitan Area to replace the obsolete Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium and the modernization and expansion of the club's training facilities in Neo Rysio, Thessaloniki.Also, in a unique move for Greek standards, the board decided in December 2009 to establish a radio station, "Aris FM 92.8" in order to promote the communication between Aris fans around the country and the coverage of the clubs activities. In 2014, due to financial problems Aris was relegated to the third tier of Greek football.After their relegation many were wondering who was going to take care of the team. American business man Alex Kalas emerged the first season with him in charge of the football department while they failed to gain promotion to the Football League. In summer 2015 where the next elections for the role of head of football department Kalas won again and promised to put more money into the club. Kalas also made a number of signings, Honduran legend Carlos Costly, Sierra Leone international John Kamara, Spaniard Guillermo Pérez Moreno, Portuguese footballer Fábio Ruben Moreira Tavares, defender Paschalis Melissas and defender Stavros Petavrakis. Due to Aris failing to get into the second division Kalas was sacked despite only being there for a month. Aris would have to play another year in Gamma Ethniki.While in the Gamma Ethniki, the team demanded that the Hellenic Football Federation allow them to be promoted to a higher level of Greek football. The federation declined to do this and several appeals against the decision were rejected. As a result, 10,000 fans took to the streets on the 26 and 31 August 2015 in Thessaloniki to protest the decision. These protests caused clashes between the police and the fans that led to arrests and Aris didn't manage to get promoted to the professional divisions.Although after the Aris election Arvanitidis became leader of the football department, Theodoros Karypidis was named the head of football department the day afterwards. He signed many players in a few days including former Greek footballer of the club Andreas Tatos, former Real Madrid defender Raul Bravo club legend Sergio Koke, as well as many Super League quality players like Kostas Kaznaferis, Vasilios Rovas, Nikos Tsoumanis, Giannis Siderakis as well as many others. Theodoros Karipidis appointed Nikos Anastopoulos as the manager. During the 2015–16 season Aris managed to be promoted to the second division of Greece with a 21-point difference from the second club. Finally, Irene Karypidis became the major shareholder with overwhelming proportion over 89%.Aris' fan base is spread across all the economic classes in the city of Thessaloniki and all over Greece. Their rivalry is against clubs such as arch-rival PAOK, but also against the biggest clubs of Athens Olympiacos, Panathinaikos and AEK Athens. Matches against PAOK are local derbies and an event that splits Thessaloniki and Northern Greece in two. Aris' main fan club is called "Super 3" and has symbol a bulldog. It exist since 1988 with 50 more Super 3 clubs spread all over Greece and Europe. There are over 12,000 Super 3 members. In the rest of Europe there are also some organized Aris' fan clubs in countries such as Germany, Italy and Sweden. According to some polls Aris is the 5th most popular team in Greece with around 300.000 fans, an amount quite big considering the lack of titles for many decades.Against Panathinaikos in the 2010 Greek Cup final, 30,000 Aris fans descended to Athens to what has been described as "the biggest football fans move in Greece".The club's anthem ("Aris Victorious") was written in 1926.A company of young Thessalonians inspired the name of the club by Ares, the ancient Olympian "God of War", after the successful military operations of the Kingdom of Greece during the Balkan Wars, and the liberation of Thessaloniki in 1912 from the Ottoman empire. The emblem of the team is a resting Ares (Greek: Άρης), as depicted in the Ludovisi Ares sculpture. This emblem was chosen in the late 1970s to replace an older and simpler logo which was used since 1914. Also, during the 2000s, a scheme of meander was added to the crest.The colors of the team are yellow or gold of glory, dominant colour in the culture of Macedonia, and black. Alternative colours also used include white or even dark red uniforms. During the 2000s, the club introduced also a shade of lime.FirstAlternativeThe following table shows in detail Aris kit manufacturers and shirt sponsors by year:The stadium of Aris Thessaloniki is named "Kleanthis Vikelides" after the club's legendary player. It is located at 69 Alkminis, Charilaou; 54249 Thessaloniki, and was built in 1951. In 1972, it got a new roof, in 1975 a new north stand, and in 2004, it was fully renovated. Its current total capacity is 22,800 spectators.Since the late 1970s, Aris Thessaloniki has created its own training grounds in Neo Rysio (Dasigenio Sports Center), just outside Thessaloniki near the International Airport covering three hectares and including football fields, hosting area with gym, pool and sauna, press room, offices, restaurant and locker rooms. The facilities were rebuilt in September 2010 after a demand placed by manager Héctor Cúper. The facilities were renovated again in 2018 and the grass was ultimately changed in 2019.Super League GreeceSecond Division GreeceThird Division GreeceGreek Football CupBest position in bold.Key: 3R = Third Round, 4R = Fourth Round, 5R = Fifth Round, GS = Group Stage, QF = Quarter-finals, SF = Semi-finals, RU = Runner-up.Official websitesNews sitesMedia
|
[
"Alan Pardew",
"Germán Burgos",
"Michael Oenning",
"Savvas Pantelidis",
"Nikos Anastopoulos",
"Paco Herrera"
] |
|
Who was the head coach of the team Aris Thessaloniki F.C. in Jun, 2022?
|
June 28, 2022
|
{
"text": [
"Germán Burgos"
]
}
|
L2_Q219926_P286_5
|
Alan Pardew is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Sep, 2022 to Dec, 2022.
Nikos Anastopoulos is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Jan, 2015 to Jan, 2017.
Savvas Pantelidis is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Nov, 2018 to Sep, 2019.
Apostolos Mantzios is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Sep, 2020 to Feb, 2022.
Paco Herrera is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Jan, 2018 to Nov, 2018.
Michael Oenning is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Oct, 2019 to Sep, 2020.
Germán Burgos is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Feb, 2022 to Aug, 2022.
|
Aris Thessaloniki F.C.Aris Thessaloniki Football Club () or simply Aris FC or AFC is a Greek professional football club based in the city of Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece. Created in 1914 as "Aris Thessaloniki Football Club", the club was a founding member of the Macedonian Football Clubs Association, as well as the Hellenic Football Federation. The colours of the club are golden/yellow, a dominant colour in the culture of Macedonia and reminiscent of the Byzantine heritage of Thessaloniki, and black. It is named after Ares, the ancient Olympian "God of War," associated also with courage and masculinity, whose image is portrayed on the club's logo as depicted in the Ludovisi Ares sculpture.Aris was also one of the strongest and most popular teams in Greece during the interwar period. They have won the Greek championship three times (1928, 1932, 1946), the Greek Cup once (1970), and they had an undefeated home record in European competitions for 28 matches from 1968 to 2020, when they lost to Kolos. The team's home ground is the Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium.The club was established as a football club ("Podosferikos Syllogos Aris Thessalonikis") by a group of 22 young friends in a coffee bar in Votsi area on 25 March 1914 and given the name Aris from Ares, the ancient god of war. Its nickname was inspired by the two Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, when Greece fought against the Ottoman Empire before engaging in a war with Bulgaria. In Greek mythology, Aris was a deity who was in conflict with Heracles, the mythological character after which Aris's rival football team, Iraklis, was named. Aris holds a fierce rivalry with PAOK. At first, the club was based on a near the Arch and Tomb of Galerius, but after the accession of two minor football clubs in 1919 and 1921 the club's base was moved near to Flemming Street of eastern Thessaloniki. The first stadium was built on the site where Mars Field Park currently lies on Stratou Avenue. Quickly the club became very popular and soon new teams apart from football were established.During this early stage of football in Greece no professional league was established. Instead, three minor leagues [in Macedonia (E.P.S.M.), Athens (E.P.S.A.) and Piraeus (E.P.S.P.)] were created, with the champions of each league competing in a postseason mini tournament to claim the title of the national champion. The first official game was held in 1923 against Megas Alexandros Thessaloniki (Alexander the Great), another Thessalonician team. That year marked the first title, when Aris was named regional champion of Macedonia, something that was repeated next year.In 1926 the club was renamed "Athletic Club Aris Thessaloniki" to include also other sports than football.Aris' first major success was between 1927 and 1928 when they won the first Greek Championship, beating finalists Atromitos and Ethnikos Piraeus exploiting the abstention from the championship teams of RECs. In the first race on 24 May, the team of Thessaloniki prevailed 3–1 Atromitos, while three days after losing to Ethnikos Piraeus 3–2. In iterative matches played in June in Thessaloniki, Aris won both of his opponents by 3–1 and thus crowned the first champion of Greece. Coach of the team was the German Thomas Kessler, and prominent players of Aris were, among others, Kostas Vikelidis, Savvas Vogiatzis that emerged and top scorer with six goals, Nikos Aggelakis, scorer of the finals with four goals and Dionysis Caltech.The following year, it was held the final stage of national championships although Aris won the championship title in Thessaloniki, playing two matches barrage against PAOK. The first took place on 12 May 1929 and ended 1–1, while the second was held on 2 June with Aris to beats 4–3, having Nikos Aggelakis scoring a hat-trick.On 20 April 1929, the first friendly match took place between Aris and Panathinaikos, the "yellows" to defeat 5–4.The second championship came four years later in 1932, only this time his opponents were Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, AEK, Ethnikos, PAOK and Iraklis. Aris managed to collect 22 points in this mini tournament, four more than the second, Panathinaikos, scoring large wins like 7–0 against Panathinaikos, 7–3 against Iraklis and 3–0 versus AEK and Olympiacos in Athens, also new star players emerged, Kitsios, Aggelakis, Bogdanos, Gigopoulos, while Belgian manager De Valer guided effectively the club.Four years after winning the first Panhellenic title, the "yellows" won the championship. Aris became champion amassing a total of 22 points, four more than second Panathinaikos and scoring big wins like 7–0 against Panathinaikos with four goals Maywood, 6–1 on Apollon Athens with six goals in the Aggelakis' first home appearance with the first group of Kleanthis Vikelidis, 7–3 vs Iraklis with four goals Kitsos and away 0–3 over Olympiacos, PAOK and AEK. Leading scorer of the league emerged Nikos Kitsos with 15 goals and Nikos Aggelakis to 14.Big stars of that team were Kitsos, Aggelakis, Caltech, and Vogdanou Gkikopoulos while coach De Valera.That same year, the EPO instituted for the first time the Greek Cup, Mars crashing Panathinaikos 7–2 in the quarterfinal. This was followed by victory over Apollon Athens, to reach the final where they lost 5–3 from AEK Athens, losing the chance to win the first doubles.Aris won their third title in 1946, playing against two teams, AEK from Athens and Olympiacos from Piraeus, champions of the other two minor domestic leagues. Aris beat Olympiacos twice, scoring two goals and conceding none; came to a draw with AEK in Athens and defeated them in PAOK's stadium in Thessaloniki (score 4–1). Aris has not won a championship since the establishment of the First Division (1959).Up to 1959, when the united First Division was created, Aris managed to finish first 14 times in the Macedonian division.Aris' status remained high during this period, which was marked by the construction of the club's homeground, the Kleanthis Vikelides Stadium, named after the legendary homonymous player. Before World War II, Aris' homeground was located in the center of the city, near the Thessaloniki International Fair, but was abandoned in 1936 in order for the "Pedion tou Areos" park ("Mars Field") to be created. The club managed to buy some land during 1951 in a quarter of the city named Charilaou, where the new Stadium was slowly built.Also in 1959, the tripartite minor league system was abandoned and a new, unified Championship was created.The club's accomplishments during these years were significant. It was one of the first teams in Greece to qualify for European tournaments. Under the leadership of Alexandros Alexiades, Giorgos Pantziaras and Takis Loukanidis.Aris earned high placings in the League during the 1960s and 1970s, with apex the 1970 Hellenic Cup Title against the club's fierce rival, PAOK, in Kaftanzoglio Stadium.In the 1970s, Aris was reorganized and a vast number of young players from Thessaloniki, including Kouis, Foiros, Drambis, Zindros and Papafloratos led the club. Its most important achievements during that period included a successful 1980 UEFA campaign when Aris eliminated Benfica and Perugia. Aris was also the first Greek club to score a victory both in Italy and Portugal. At home, the team shared first place with Olympiacos at the end of the 1980 campaign, though it lost the title 2–0 in a tie-breaker against the Piraeus club in Volos National Stadium.After the mid-1980s and the retirement of the club's honored old guard, Aris entered in a slow decline, rarely reaching European league qualification or notable Greek League position, which—in combination with appreciable financial troubles that left the club near bankruptcy—led to the club's relegation to the Second Division in 1997 and 2005. Both times though Aris managed to resume its place in the first division.In recent years, specially after the creation of an Aris Members' Society that controls the club's fortunes, Aris has qualified several times for the UEFA Europa League, finished fourth in the Super League three times, and has reached in the Greek Cup Final four times, losing in 2003, 2005, 2008 and 2010, when 25,000 Aris fans went to Athens in the biggest ever move of fans in Greece. In 2008 and 2010 Aris made it through to the UEFA Europa League group stage after eliminating Real Zaragoza and Austria Wien respectively during the Cup's play-off rounds. During the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League they managed to play for the first time in club's history in Europe after Christmas, after a very good appearance in the group stage where they won 1–0 at home and 2–3 away and eliminated the title holders Atlético Madrid. Recent developments include the interest from the club's board to construct a new, modern stadium in eastern Thessaloniki Metropolitan Area to replace the obsolete Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium and the modernization and expansion of the club's training facilities in Neo Rysio, Thessaloniki.Also, in a unique move for Greek standards, the board decided in December 2009 to establish a radio station, "Aris FM 92.8" in order to promote the communication between Aris fans around the country and the coverage of the clubs activities. In 2014, due to financial problems Aris was relegated to the third tier of Greek football.After their relegation many were wondering who was going to take care of the team. American business man Alex Kalas emerged the first season with him in charge of the football department while they failed to gain promotion to the Football League. In summer 2015 where the next elections for the role of head of football department Kalas won again and promised to put more money into the club. Kalas also made a number of signings, Honduran legend Carlos Costly, Sierra Leone international John Kamara, Spaniard Guillermo Pérez Moreno, Portuguese footballer Fábio Ruben Moreira Tavares, defender Paschalis Melissas and defender Stavros Petavrakis. Due to Aris failing to get into the second division Kalas was sacked despite only being there for a month. Aris would have to play another year in Gamma Ethniki.While in the Gamma Ethniki, the team demanded that the Hellenic Football Federation allow them to be promoted to a higher level of Greek football. The federation declined to do this and several appeals against the decision were rejected. As a result, 10,000 fans took to the streets on the 26 and 31 August 2015 in Thessaloniki to protest the decision. These protests caused clashes between the police and the fans that led to arrests and Aris didn't manage to get promoted to the professional divisions.Although after the Aris election Arvanitidis became leader of the football department, Theodoros Karypidis was named the head of football department the day afterwards. He signed many players in a few days including former Greek footballer of the club Andreas Tatos, former Real Madrid defender Raul Bravo club legend Sergio Koke, as well as many Super League quality players like Kostas Kaznaferis, Vasilios Rovas, Nikos Tsoumanis, Giannis Siderakis as well as many others. Theodoros Karipidis appointed Nikos Anastopoulos as the manager. During the 2015–16 season Aris managed to be promoted to the second division of Greece with a 21-point difference from the second club. Finally, Irene Karypidis became the major shareholder with overwhelming proportion over 89%.Aris' fan base is spread across all the economic classes in the city of Thessaloniki and all over Greece. Their rivalry is against clubs such as arch-rival PAOK, but also against the biggest clubs of Athens Olympiacos, Panathinaikos and AEK Athens. Matches against PAOK are local derbies and an event that splits Thessaloniki and Northern Greece in two. Aris' main fan club is called "Super 3" and has symbol a bulldog. It exist since 1988 with 50 more Super 3 clubs spread all over Greece and Europe. There are over 12,000 Super 3 members. In the rest of Europe there are also some organized Aris' fan clubs in countries such as Germany, Italy and Sweden. According to some polls Aris is the 5th most popular team in Greece with around 300.000 fans, an amount quite big considering the lack of titles for many decades.Against Panathinaikos in the 2010 Greek Cup final, 30,000 Aris fans descended to Athens to what has been described as "the biggest football fans move in Greece".The club's anthem ("Aris Victorious") was written in 1926.A company of young Thessalonians inspired the name of the club by Ares, the ancient Olympian "God of War", after the successful military operations of the Kingdom of Greece during the Balkan Wars, and the liberation of Thessaloniki in 1912 from the Ottoman empire. The emblem of the team is a resting Ares (Greek: Άρης), as depicted in the Ludovisi Ares sculpture. This emblem was chosen in the late 1970s to replace an older and simpler logo which was used since 1914. Also, during the 2000s, a scheme of meander was added to the crest.The colors of the team are yellow or gold of glory, dominant colour in the culture of Macedonia, and black. Alternative colours also used include white or even dark red uniforms. During the 2000s, the club introduced also a shade of lime.FirstAlternativeThe following table shows in detail Aris kit manufacturers and shirt sponsors by year:The stadium of Aris Thessaloniki is named "Kleanthis Vikelides" after the club's legendary player. It is located at 69 Alkminis, Charilaou; 54249 Thessaloniki, and was built in 1951. In 1972, it got a new roof, in 1975 a new north stand, and in 2004, it was fully renovated. Its current total capacity is 22,800 spectators.Since the late 1970s, Aris Thessaloniki has created its own training grounds in Neo Rysio (Dasigenio Sports Center), just outside Thessaloniki near the International Airport covering three hectares and including football fields, hosting area with gym, pool and sauna, press room, offices, restaurant and locker rooms. The facilities were rebuilt in September 2010 after a demand placed by manager Héctor Cúper. The facilities were renovated again in 2018 and the grass was ultimately changed in 2019.Super League GreeceSecond Division GreeceThird Division GreeceGreek Football CupBest position in bold.Key: 3R = Third Round, 4R = Fourth Round, 5R = Fifth Round, GS = Group Stage, QF = Quarter-finals, SF = Semi-finals, RU = Runner-up.Official websitesNews sitesMedia
|
[
"Alan Pardew",
"Michael Oenning",
"Savvas Pantelidis",
"Nikos Anastopoulos",
"Apostolos Mantzios",
"Paco Herrera"
] |
|
Who was the head coach of the team Aris Thessaloniki F.C. in Dec, 2022?
|
December 01, 2022
|
{
"text": [
"Alan Pardew"
]
}
|
L2_Q219926_P286_6
|
Apostolos Mantzios is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Sep, 2020 to Feb, 2022.
Nikos Anastopoulos is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Jan, 2015 to Jan, 2017.
Savvas Pantelidis is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Nov, 2018 to Sep, 2019.
Michael Oenning is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Oct, 2019 to Sep, 2020.
Alan Pardew is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Sep, 2022 to Dec, 2022.
Germán Burgos is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Feb, 2022 to Aug, 2022.
Paco Herrera is the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Jan, 2018 to Nov, 2018.
|
Aris Thessaloniki F.C.Aris Thessaloniki Football Club () or simply Aris FC or AFC is a Greek professional football club based in the city of Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece. Created in 1914 as "Aris Thessaloniki Football Club", the club was a founding member of the Macedonian Football Clubs Association, as well as the Hellenic Football Federation. The colours of the club are golden/yellow, a dominant colour in the culture of Macedonia and reminiscent of the Byzantine heritage of Thessaloniki, and black. It is named after Ares, the ancient Olympian "God of War," associated also with courage and masculinity, whose image is portrayed on the club's logo as depicted in the Ludovisi Ares sculpture.Aris was also one of the strongest and most popular teams in Greece during the interwar period. They have won the Greek championship three times (1928, 1932, 1946), the Greek Cup once (1970), and they had an undefeated home record in European competitions for 28 matches from 1968 to 2020, when they lost to Kolos. The team's home ground is the Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium.The club was established as a football club ("Podosferikos Syllogos Aris Thessalonikis") by a group of 22 young friends in a coffee bar in Votsi area on 25 March 1914 and given the name Aris from Ares, the ancient god of war. Its nickname was inspired by the two Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, when Greece fought against the Ottoman Empire before engaging in a war with Bulgaria. In Greek mythology, Aris was a deity who was in conflict with Heracles, the mythological character after which Aris's rival football team, Iraklis, was named. Aris holds a fierce rivalry with PAOK. At first, the club was based on a near the Arch and Tomb of Galerius, but after the accession of two minor football clubs in 1919 and 1921 the club's base was moved near to Flemming Street of eastern Thessaloniki. The first stadium was built on the site where Mars Field Park currently lies on Stratou Avenue. Quickly the club became very popular and soon new teams apart from football were established.During this early stage of football in Greece no professional league was established. Instead, three minor leagues [in Macedonia (E.P.S.M.), Athens (E.P.S.A.) and Piraeus (E.P.S.P.)] were created, with the champions of each league competing in a postseason mini tournament to claim the title of the national champion. The first official game was held in 1923 against Megas Alexandros Thessaloniki (Alexander the Great), another Thessalonician team. That year marked the first title, when Aris was named regional champion of Macedonia, something that was repeated next year.In 1926 the club was renamed "Athletic Club Aris Thessaloniki" to include also other sports than football.Aris' first major success was between 1927 and 1928 when they won the first Greek Championship, beating finalists Atromitos and Ethnikos Piraeus exploiting the abstention from the championship teams of RECs. In the first race on 24 May, the team of Thessaloniki prevailed 3–1 Atromitos, while three days after losing to Ethnikos Piraeus 3–2. In iterative matches played in June in Thessaloniki, Aris won both of his opponents by 3–1 and thus crowned the first champion of Greece. Coach of the team was the German Thomas Kessler, and prominent players of Aris were, among others, Kostas Vikelidis, Savvas Vogiatzis that emerged and top scorer with six goals, Nikos Aggelakis, scorer of the finals with four goals and Dionysis Caltech.The following year, it was held the final stage of national championships although Aris won the championship title in Thessaloniki, playing two matches barrage against PAOK. The first took place on 12 May 1929 and ended 1–1, while the second was held on 2 June with Aris to beats 4–3, having Nikos Aggelakis scoring a hat-trick.On 20 April 1929, the first friendly match took place between Aris and Panathinaikos, the "yellows" to defeat 5–4.The second championship came four years later in 1932, only this time his opponents were Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, AEK, Ethnikos, PAOK and Iraklis. Aris managed to collect 22 points in this mini tournament, four more than the second, Panathinaikos, scoring large wins like 7–0 against Panathinaikos, 7–3 against Iraklis and 3–0 versus AEK and Olympiacos in Athens, also new star players emerged, Kitsios, Aggelakis, Bogdanos, Gigopoulos, while Belgian manager De Valer guided effectively the club.Four years after winning the first Panhellenic title, the "yellows" won the championship. Aris became champion amassing a total of 22 points, four more than second Panathinaikos and scoring big wins like 7–0 against Panathinaikos with four goals Maywood, 6–1 on Apollon Athens with six goals in the Aggelakis' first home appearance with the first group of Kleanthis Vikelidis, 7–3 vs Iraklis with four goals Kitsos and away 0–3 over Olympiacos, PAOK and AEK. Leading scorer of the league emerged Nikos Kitsos with 15 goals and Nikos Aggelakis to 14.Big stars of that team were Kitsos, Aggelakis, Caltech, and Vogdanou Gkikopoulos while coach De Valera.That same year, the EPO instituted for the first time the Greek Cup, Mars crashing Panathinaikos 7–2 in the quarterfinal. This was followed by victory over Apollon Athens, to reach the final where they lost 5–3 from AEK Athens, losing the chance to win the first doubles.Aris won their third title in 1946, playing against two teams, AEK from Athens and Olympiacos from Piraeus, champions of the other two minor domestic leagues. Aris beat Olympiacos twice, scoring two goals and conceding none; came to a draw with AEK in Athens and defeated them in PAOK's stadium in Thessaloniki (score 4–1). Aris has not won a championship since the establishment of the First Division (1959).Up to 1959, when the united First Division was created, Aris managed to finish first 14 times in the Macedonian division.Aris' status remained high during this period, which was marked by the construction of the club's homeground, the Kleanthis Vikelides Stadium, named after the legendary homonymous player. Before World War II, Aris' homeground was located in the center of the city, near the Thessaloniki International Fair, but was abandoned in 1936 in order for the "Pedion tou Areos" park ("Mars Field") to be created. The club managed to buy some land during 1951 in a quarter of the city named Charilaou, where the new Stadium was slowly built.Also in 1959, the tripartite minor league system was abandoned and a new, unified Championship was created.The club's accomplishments during these years were significant. It was one of the first teams in Greece to qualify for European tournaments. Under the leadership of Alexandros Alexiades, Giorgos Pantziaras and Takis Loukanidis.Aris earned high placings in the League during the 1960s and 1970s, with apex the 1970 Hellenic Cup Title against the club's fierce rival, PAOK, in Kaftanzoglio Stadium.In the 1970s, Aris was reorganized and a vast number of young players from Thessaloniki, including Kouis, Foiros, Drambis, Zindros and Papafloratos led the club. Its most important achievements during that period included a successful 1980 UEFA campaign when Aris eliminated Benfica and Perugia. Aris was also the first Greek club to score a victory both in Italy and Portugal. At home, the team shared first place with Olympiacos at the end of the 1980 campaign, though it lost the title 2–0 in a tie-breaker against the Piraeus club in Volos National Stadium.After the mid-1980s and the retirement of the club's honored old guard, Aris entered in a slow decline, rarely reaching European league qualification or notable Greek League position, which—in combination with appreciable financial troubles that left the club near bankruptcy—led to the club's relegation to the Second Division in 1997 and 2005. Both times though Aris managed to resume its place in the first division.In recent years, specially after the creation of an Aris Members' Society that controls the club's fortunes, Aris has qualified several times for the UEFA Europa League, finished fourth in the Super League three times, and has reached in the Greek Cup Final four times, losing in 2003, 2005, 2008 and 2010, when 25,000 Aris fans went to Athens in the biggest ever move of fans in Greece. In 2008 and 2010 Aris made it through to the UEFA Europa League group stage after eliminating Real Zaragoza and Austria Wien respectively during the Cup's play-off rounds. During the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League they managed to play for the first time in club's history in Europe after Christmas, after a very good appearance in the group stage where they won 1–0 at home and 2–3 away and eliminated the title holders Atlético Madrid. Recent developments include the interest from the club's board to construct a new, modern stadium in eastern Thessaloniki Metropolitan Area to replace the obsolete Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium and the modernization and expansion of the club's training facilities in Neo Rysio, Thessaloniki.Also, in a unique move for Greek standards, the board decided in December 2009 to establish a radio station, "Aris FM 92.8" in order to promote the communication between Aris fans around the country and the coverage of the clubs activities. In 2014, due to financial problems Aris was relegated to the third tier of Greek football.After their relegation many were wondering who was going to take care of the team. American business man Alex Kalas emerged the first season with him in charge of the football department while they failed to gain promotion to the Football League. In summer 2015 where the next elections for the role of head of football department Kalas won again and promised to put more money into the club. Kalas also made a number of signings, Honduran legend Carlos Costly, Sierra Leone international John Kamara, Spaniard Guillermo Pérez Moreno, Portuguese footballer Fábio Ruben Moreira Tavares, defender Paschalis Melissas and defender Stavros Petavrakis. Due to Aris failing to get into the second division Kalas was sacked despite only being there for a month. Aris would have to play another year in Gamma Ethniki.While in the Gamma Ethniki, the team demanded that the Hellenic Football Federation allow them to be promoted to a higher level of Greek football. The federation declined to do this and several appeals against the decision were rejected. As a result, 10,000 fans took to the streets on the 26 and 31 August 2015 in Thessaloniki to protest the decision. These protests caused clashes between the police and the fans that led to arrests and Aris didn't manage to get promoted to the professional divisions.Although after the Aris election Arvanitidis became leader of the football department, Theodoros Karypidis was named the head of football department the day afterwards. He signed many players in a few days including former Greek footballer of the club Andreas Tatos, former Real Madrid defender Raul Bravo club legend Sergio Koke, as well as many Super League quality players like Kostas Kaznaferis, Vasilios Rovas, Nikos Tsoumanis, Giannis Siderakis as well as many others. Theodoros Karipidis appointed Nikos Anastopoulos as the manager. During the 2015–16 season Aris managed to be promoted to the second division of Greece with a 21-point difference from the second club. Finally, Irene Karypidis became the major shareholder with overwhelming proportion over 89%.Aris' fan base is spread across all the economic classes in the city of Thessaloniki and all over Greece. Their rivalry is against clubs such as arch-rival PAOK, but also against the biggest clubs of Athens Olympiacos, Panathinaikos and AEK Athens. Matches against PAOK are local derbies and an event that splits Thessaloniki and Northern Greece in two. Aris' main fan club is called "Super 3" and has symbol a bulldog. It exist since 1988 with 50 more Super 3 clubs spread all over Greece and Europe. There are over 12,000 Super 3 members. In the rest of Europe there are also some organized Aris' fan clubs in countries such as Germany, Italy and Sweden. According to some polls Aris is the 5th most popular team in Greece with around 300.000 fans, an amount quite big considering the lack of titles for many decades.Against Panathinaikos in the 2010 Greek Cup final, 30,000 Aris fans descended to Athens to what has been described as "the biggest football fans move in Greece".The club's anthem ("Aris Victorious") was written in 1926.A company of young Thessalonians inspired the name of the club by Ares, the ancient Olympian "God of War", after the successful military operations of the Kingdom of Greece during the Balkan Wars, and the liberation of Thessaloniki in 1912 from the Ottoman empire. The emblem of the team is a resting Ares (Greek: Άρης), as depicted in the Ludovisi Ares sculpture. This emblem was chosen in the late 1970s to replace an older and simpler logo which was used since 1914. Also, during the 2000s, a scheme of meander was added to the crest.The colors of the team are yellow or gold of glory, dominant colour in the culture of Macedonia, and black. Alternative colours also used include white or even dark red uniforms. During the 2000s, the club introduced also a shade of lime.FirstAlternativeThe following table shows in detail Aris kit manufacturers and shirt sponsors by year:The stadium of Aris Thessaloniki is named "Kleanthis Vikelides" after the club's legendary player. It is located at 69 Alkminis, Charilaou; 54249 Thessaloniki, and was built in 1951. In 1972, it got a new roof, in 1975 a new north stand, and in 2004, it was fully renovated. Its current total capacity is 22,800 spectators.Since the late 1970s, Aris Thessaloniki has created its own training grounds in Neo Rysio (Dasigenio Sports Center), just outside Thessaloniki near the International Airport covering three hectares and including football fields, hosting area with gym, pool and sauna, press room, offices, restaurant and locker rooms. The facilities were rebuilt in September 2010 after a demand placed by manager Héctor Cúper. The facilities were renovated again in 2018 and the grass was ultimately changed in 2019.Super League GreeceSecond Division GreeceThird Division GreeceGreek Football CupBest position in bold.Key: 3R = Third Round, 4R = Fourth Round, 5R = Fifth Round, GS = Group Stage, QF = Quarter-finals, SF = Semi-finals, RU = Runner-up.Official websitesNews sitesMedia
|
[
"Germán Burgos",
"Michael Oenning",
"Savvas Pantelidis",
"Nikos Anastopoulos",
"Apostolos Mantzios",
"Paco Herrera"
] |
|
Which team did Ronan McCormack play for in May, 2001?
|
May 19, 2001
|
{
"text": [
"Connacht Rugby"
]
}
|
L2_Q3441608_P54_0
|
Ronan McCormack plays for Leinster Rugby from Jan, 2005 to Dec, 2022.
Ronan McCormack plays for Connacht Rugby from Jan, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Ronan McCormack plays for Ulster Rugby from Jan, 2004 to Jan, 2005.
|
Ronan McCormackRonan (Ronnie) McCormack (born 27 April 1977) was a professional rugby union player from Ireland. He recently played provincial rugby for Leinster and club rugby for University College Dublin RFC.McCormack began his rugby career at St. Mary's College in Rathmines in Dublin, winning both Leinster Junior and Senior cup medals. He spent two years playing with Connacht and Ulster before returning to Leinster and UCD RFC.He is a regular member of the UCD AIL Division One starting fifteen.McCormack was called up to the senior Ireland squad for the 2005 Six Nations Championship.McCormack announced his retirement in November 2010 due to a neck injury.
|
[
"Ulster Rugby",
"Leinster Rugby"
] |
|
Which team did Ronan McCormack play for in Feb, 2004?
|
February 28, 2004
|
{
"text": [
"Ulster Rugby"
]
}
|
L2_Q3441608_P54_1
|
Ronan McCormack plays for Connacht Rugby from Jan, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Ronan McCormack plays for Leinster Rugby from Jan, 2005 to Dec, 2022.
Ronan McCormack plays for Ulster Rugby from Jan, 2004 to Jan, 2005.
|
Ronan McCormackRonan (Ronnie) McCormack (born 27 April 1977) was a professional rugby union player from Ireland. He recently played provincial rugby for Leinster and club rugby for University College Dublin RFC.McCormack began his rugby career at St. Mary's College in Rathmines in Dublin, winning both Leinster Junior and Senior cup medals. He spent two years playing with Connacht and Ulster before returning to Leinster and UCD RFC.He is a regular member of the UCD AIL Division One starting fifteen.McCormack was called up to the senior Ireland squad for the 2005 Six Nations Championship.McCormack announced his retirement in November 2010 due to a neck injury.
|
[
"Leinster Rugby",
"Connacht Rugby"
] |
|
Which team did Ronan McCormack play for in Sep, 2007?
|
September 14, 2007
|
{
"text": [
"Leinster Rugby"
]
}
|
L2_Q3441608_P54_2
|
Ronan McCormack plays for Connacht Rugby from Jan, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Ronan McCormack plays for Leinster Rugby from Jan, 2005 to Dec, 2022.
Ronan McCormack plays for Ulster Rugby from Jan, 2004 to Jan, 2005.
|
Ronan McCormackRonan (Ronnie) McCormack (born 27 April 1977) was a professional rugby union player from Ireland. He recently played provincial rugby for Leinster and club rugby for University College Dublin RFC.McCormack began his rugby career at St. Mary's College in Rathmines in Dublin, winning both Leinster Junior and Senior cup medals. He spent two years playing with Connacht and Ulster before returning to Leinster and UCD RFC.He is a regular member of the UCD AIL Division One starting fifteen.McCormack was called up to the senior Ireland squad for the 2005 Six Nations Championship.McCormack announced his retirement in November 2010 due to a neck injury.
|
[
"Ulster Rugby",
"Connacht Rugby"
] |
|
Which position did Claudio Martini hold in Oct, 1989?
|
October 15, 1989
|
{
"text": [
"mayor of Prato"
]
}
|
L2_Q2978542_P39_0
|
Claudio Martini holds the position of president of Tuscany from May, 2000 to Apr, 2010.
Claudio Martini holds the position of member of the Italian Senate from Mar, 2013 to Mar, 2018.
Claudio Martini holds the position of mayor of Prato from Jun, 1989 to Apr, 1995.
|
Claudio MartiniClaudio Martini (born 10 January 1951) is an Italian politician who is the former president of Tuscany.Born in Le Bardo, Tunisia, from two parents from Livorno, Martini began his career in the Prato section of the Italian Communist Youth Federation.In 1985 Martini was elected local secretary of the Italian Communist Party in Prato, and in 1989 he was appointed Mayor, carrying out several important projects for the Tuscan city, including the creation of the Province of Prato in 1992.At the 1995 regional election, Martini was elected Regional councilor, supporting the candidate of centre-left coalition Vannino Chiti, and was appointed Regional Assessor for Healthcare.At the 2000 regional election, Martini was the candidate of centre-left coalition as President of Tuscany, and managed to get elected, defeating former Minister and House of Freedom candidate Altero Matteoli. He later manages to seek re-election at the 2005 regional election, holding his seat as governor until 2010.At the 2013 general election, Martini was elected Senator for the Democratic Party. He is not candidated at the 2018 general election.
|
[
"member of the Italian Senate",
"president of Tuscany"
] |
|
Which position did Claudio Martini hold in Apr, 2010?
|
April 10, 2010
|
{
"text": [
"president of Tuscany"
]
}
|
L2_Q2978542_P39_1
|
Claudio Martini holds the position of member of the Italian Senate from Mar, 2013 to Mar, 2018.
Claudio Martini holds the position of mayor of Prato from Jun, 1989 to Apr, 1995.
Claudio Martini holds the position of president of Tuscany from May, 2000 to Apr, 2010.
|
Claudio MartiniClaudio Martini (born 10 January 1951) is an Italian politician who is the former president of Tuscany.Born in Le Bardo, Tunisia, from two parents from Livorno, Martini began his career in the Prato section of the Italian Communist Youth Federation.In 1985 Martini was elected local secretary of the Italian Communist Party in Prato, and in 1989 he was appointed Mayor, carrying out several important projects for the Tuscan city, including the creation of the Province of Prato in 1992.At the 1995 regional election, Martini was elected Regional councilor, supporting the candidate of centre-left coalition Vannino Chiti, and was appointed Regional Assessor for Healthcare.At the 2000 regional election, Martini was the candidate of centre-left coalition as President of Tuscany, and managed to get elected, defeating former Minister and House of Freedom candidate Altero Matteoli. He later manages to seek re-election at the 2005 regional election, holding his seat as governor until 2010.At the 2013 general election, Martini was elected Senator for the Democratic Party. He is not candidated at the 2018 general election.
|
[
"mayor of Prato",
"member of the Italian Senate"
] |
|
Which position did Claudio Martini hold in Mar, 2018?
|
March 20, 2018
|
{
"text": [
"member of the Italian Senate"
]
}
|
L2_Q2978542_P39_2
|
Claudio Martini holds the position of president of Tuscany from May, 2000 to Apr, 2010.
Claudio Martini holds the position of member of the Italian Senate from Mar, 2013 to Mar, 2018.
Claudio Martini holds the position of mayor of Prato from Jun, 1989 to Apr, 1995.
|
Claudio MartiniClaudio Martini (born 10 January 1951) is an Italian politician who is the former president of Tuscany.Born in Le Bardo, Tunisia, from two parents from Livorno, Martini began his career in the Prato section of the Italian Communist Youth Federation.In 1985 Martini was elected local secretary of the Italian Communist Party in Prato, and in 1989 he was appointed Mayor, carrying out several important projects for the Tuscan city, including the creation of the Province of Prato in 1992.At the 1995 regional election, Martini was elected Regional councilor, supporting the candidate of centre-left coalition Vannino Chiti, and was appointed Regional Assessor for Healthcare.At the 2000 regional election, Martini was the candidate of centre-left coalition as President of Tuscany, and managed to get elected, defeating former Minister and House of Freedom candidate Altero Matteoli. He later manages to seek re-election at the 2005 regional election, holding his seat as governor until 2010.At the 2013 general election, Martini was elected Senator for the Democratic Party. He is not candidated at the 2018 general election.
|
[
"mayor of Prato",
"president of Tuscany"
] |
|
Which employer did Clive Ballard work for in Jun, 1993?
|
June 05, 1993
|
{
"text": [
"University of Birmingham"
]
}
|
L2_Q40279915_P108_0
|
Clive Ballard works for Alzheimer's Society from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2013.
Clive Ballard works for University of Exeter from Jan, 2016 to Dec, 2022.
Clive Ballard works for University of Birmingham from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1995.
Clive Ballard works for Newcastle University from Jan, 1995 to Jan, 2003.
Clive Ballard works for King's College London from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2016.
|
Clive BallardClive Ballard (born August 1964) is a British, world-leading expert in dementia. He is currently Professor of Age-Related Diseases at the University of Exeter and Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean of the University of Exeter Medical School.Clive specialises in treatment of dementia with Lewy Bodies and Parkinson's disease, the harms of antipsychotic medications in people with dementia, the benefits of non-pharmacological treatments for the management of agitation in people with dementia and the prevention of dementia, including the development of the PROTECT programme of online interventions as a tool for maintaining cognitive health in later life. He has published more than 600 scientific papers and has an H index over 115, with more than 55,000 citations for his work.Clive Ballard was born in August 1964 in Wales, before studying Medicine at the University of Leicester in 1987. He then studied psychiatry at the University of Birmingham in 1991 MD in neuropsychiatric symptoms in people with dementia, then moving on to specialise in the psychiatry of older adults. He moved to Newcastle in 1995 as an MRC Clinical Fellow and Senior Lecturer, joining the dementia with Lewy Bodies research group.In 2003, Ballard moved to the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London as Professor of Age-Related Diseases. Here, he directed the National Institute for Health Research and Biomedical Research Unit for Dementia, and co-directed the Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases.From 2003 until 2013, Clive was also Director of Research at Alzheimer's Society, and played a key role in the successful campaign to overturn a decision made by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, making anti-dementia drugs available for people with dementia.During this time, Clive published more than 200 research papers. These included key clinical trial focusing on the treatment of dementia with Lewy Bodies, dementia in people with Down's syndrome, vascular dementia, and neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia.In November 2016, Clive joined the University of Exeter Medical School as Pro-Vice Chancellor and Executive Dean of the Medical School.In 2006, Ballard was involved in the development of a non-pharmacological training investigation to improve person-centred care for people with dementia in nursing homes. The investigation led to a 50% reduction in antipsychotic use, without worsening neuropsychiatric symptoms. In partnership with the Alzheimer's Society, this was developed into an intervention manual and has been implemented in 500 care homes across the UK.Ballard, working with The Lancet, was involved in the identification of the most important targets for dementia prevention interventions. This group also developed an online platform to enable the conduct of large randomized controlled trials of potential prevention interventions. With the MRC, Alzheimer's Society and BBC, Ballard conducted parallel trials in the UK to promote cognitive health in adults over the age of 50.He was also heavily involved in the development of the PROTECT platform in the UK, an online cohort study, adopted as part of Dementia Platform UK. The platform conducts nested clinical trials and offers evidence based training to all participants. PROTECT has more than 25,000 UK participants, and has now been launched in the USA.
|
[
"King's College London",
"Newcastle University",
"University of Exeter",
"Alzheimer's Society"
] |
|
Which employer did Clive Ballard work for in Sep, 2002?
|
September 01, 2002
|
{
"text": [
"Newcastle University"
]
}
|
L2_Q40279915_P108_1
|
Clive Ballard works for University of Birmingham from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1995.
Clive Ballard works for Newcastle University from Jan, 1995 to Jan, 2003.
Clive Ballard works for Alzheimer's Society from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2013.
Clive Ballard works for University of Exeter from Jan, 2016 to Dec, 2022.
Clive Ballard works for King's College London from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2016.
|
Clive BallardClive Ballard (born August 1964) is a British, world-leading expert in dementia. He is currently Professor of Age-Related Diseases at the University of Exeter and Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean of the University of Exeter Medical School.Clive specialises in treatment of dementia with Lewy Bodies and Parkinson's disease, the harms of antipsychotic medications in people with dementia, the benefits of non-pharmacological treatments for the management of agitation in people with dementia and the prevention of dementia, including the development of the PROTECT programme of online interventions as a tool for maintaining cognitive health in later life. He has published more than 600 scientific papers and has an H index over 115, with more than 55,000 citations for his work.Clive Ballard was born in August 1964 in Wales, before studying Medicine at the University of Leicester in 1987. He then studied psychiatry at the University of Birmingham in 1991 MD in neuropsychiatric symptoms in people with dementia, then moving on to specialise in the psychiatry of older adults. He moved to Newcastle in 1995 as an MRC Clinical Fellow and Senior Lecturer, joining the dementia with Lewy Bodies research group.In 2003, Ballard moved to the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London as Professor of Age-Related Diseases. Here, he directed the National Institute for Health Research and Biomedical Research Unit for Dementia, and co-directed the Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases.From 2003 until 2013, Clive was also Director of Research at Alzheimer's Society, and played a key role in the successful campaign to overturn a decision made by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, making anti-dementia drugs available for people with dementia.During this time, Clive published more than 200 research papers. These included key clinical trial focusing on the treatment of dementia with Lewy Bodies, dementia in people with Down's syndrome, vascular dementia, and neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia.In November 2016, Clive joined the University of Exeter Medical School as Pro-Vice Chancellor and Executive Dean of the Medical School.In 2006, Ballard was involved in the development of a non-pharmacological training investigation to improve person-centred care for people with dementia in nursing homes. The investigation led to a 50% reduction in antipsychotic use, without worsening neuropsychiatric symptoms. In partnership with the Alzheimer's Society, this was developed into an intervention manual and has been implemented in 500 care homes across the UK.Ballard, working with The Lancet, was involved in the identification of the most important targets for dementia prevention interventions. This group also developed an online platform to enable the conduct of large randomized controlled trials of potential prevention interventions. With the MRC, Alzheimer's Society and BBC, Ballard conducted parallel trials in the UK to promote cognitive health in adults over the age of 50.He was also heavily involved in the development of the PROTECT platform in the UK, an online cohort study, adopted as part of Dementia Platform UK. The platform conducts nested clinical trials and offers evidence based training to all participants. PROTECT has more than 25,000 UK participants, and has now been launched in the USA.
|
[
"King's College London",
"University of Birmingham",
"University of Exeter",
"Alzheimer's Society"
] |
|
Which employer did Clive Ballard work for in May, 2006?
|
May 13, 2006
|
{
"text": [
"Alzheimer's Society",
"King's College London"
]
}
|
L2_Q40279915_P108_2
|
Clive Ballard works for King's College London from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2016.
Clive Ballard works for University of Birmingham from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1995.
Clive Ballard works for University of Exeter from Jan, 2016 to Dec, 2022.
Clive Ballard works for Newcastle University from Jan, 1995 to Jan, 2003.
Clive Ballard works for Alzheimer's Society from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2013.
|
Clive BallardClive Ballard (born August 1964) is a British, world-leading expert in dementia. He is currently Professor of Age-Related Diseases at the University of Exeter and Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean of the University of Exeter Medical School.Clive specialises in treatment of dementia with Lewy Bodies and Parkinson's disease, the harms of antipsychotic medications in people with dementia, the benefits of non-pharmacological treatments for the management of agitation in people with dementia and the prevention of dementia, including the development of the PROTECT programme of online interventions as a tool for maintaining cognitive health in later life. He has published more than 600 scientific papers and has an H index over 115, with more than 55,000 citations for his work.Clive Ballard was born in August 1964 in Wales, before studying Medicine at the University of Leicester in 1987. He then studied psychiatry at the University of Birmingham in 1991 MD in neuropsychiatric symptoms in people with dementia, then moving on to specialise in the psychiatry of older adults. He moved to Newcastle in 1995 as an MRC Clinical Fellow and Senior Lecturer, joining the dementia with Lewy Bodies research group.In 2003, Ballard moved to the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London as Professor of Age-Related Diseases. Here, he directed the National Institute for Health Research and Biomedical Research Unit for Dementia, and co-directed the Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases.From 2003 until 2013, Clive was also Director of Research at Alzheimer's Society, and played a key role in the successful campaign to overturn a decision made by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, making anti-dementia drugs available for people with dementia.During this time, Clive published more than 200 research papers. These included key clinical trial focusing on the treatment of dementia with Lewy Bodies, dementia in people with Down's syndrome, vascular dementia, and neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia.In November 2016, Clive joined the University of Exeter Medical School as Pro-Vice Chancellor and Executive Dean of the Medical School.In 2006, Ballard was involved in the development of a non-pharmacological training investigation to improve person-centred care for people with dementia in nursing homes. The investigation led to a 50% reduction in antipsychotic use, without worsening neuropsychiatric symptoms. In partnership with the Alzheimer's Society, this was developed into an intervention manual and has been implemented in 500 care homes across the UK.Ballard, working with The Lancet, was involved in the identification of the most important targets for dementia prevention interventions. This group also developed an online platform to enable the conduct of large randomized controlled trials of potential prevention interventions. With the MRC, Alzheimer's Society and BBC, Ballard conducted parallel trials in the UK to promote cognitive health in adults over the age of 50.He was also heavily involved in the development of the PROTECT platform in the UK, an online cohort study, adopted as part of Dementia Platform UK. The platform conducts nested clinical trials and offers evidence based training to all participants. PROTECT has more than 25,000 UK participants, and has now been launched in the USA.
|
[
"Newcastle University",
"University of Birmingham",
"University of Exeter"
] |
|
Which employer did Clive Ballard work for in Aug, 2009?
|
August 16, 2009
|
{
"text": [
"Alzheimer's Society",
"King's College London"
]
}
|
L2_Q40279915_P108_3
|
Clive Ballard works for King's College London from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2016.
Clive Ballard works for Newcastle University from Jan, 1995 to Jan, 2003.
Clive Ballard works for University of Birmingham from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1995.
Clive Ballard works for Alzheimer's Society from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2013.
Clive Ballard works for University of Exeter from Jan, 2016 to Dec, 2022.
|
Clive BallardClive Ballard (born August 1964) is a British, world-leading expert in dementia. He is currently Professor of Age-Related Diseases at the University of Exeter and Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean of the University of Exeter Medical School.Clive specialises in treatment of dementia with Lewy Bodies and Parkinson's disease, the harms of antipsychotic medications in people with dementia, the benefits of non-pharmacological treatments for the management of agitation in people with dementia and the prevention of dementia, including the development of the PROTECT programme of online interventions as a tool for maintaining cognitive health in later life. He has published more than 600 scientific papers and has an H index over 115, with more than 55,000 citations for his work.Clive Ballard was born in August 1964 in Wales, before studying Medicine at the University of Leicester in 1987. He then studied psychiatry at the University of Birmingham in 1991 MD in neuropsychiatric symptoms in people with dementia, then moving on to specialise in the psychiatry of older adults. He moved to Newcastle in 1995 as an MRC Clinical Fellow and Senior Lecturer, joining the dementia with Lewy Bodies research group.In 2003, Ballard moved to the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London as Professor of Age-Related Diseases. Here, he directed the National Institute for Health Research and Biomedical Research Unit for Dementia, and co-directed the Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases.From 2003 until 2013, Clive was also Director of Research at Alzheimer's Society, and played a key role in the successful campaign to overturn a decision made by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, making anti-dementia drugs available for people with dementia.During this time, Clive published more than 200 research papers. These included key clinical trial focusing on the treatment of dementia with Lewy Bodies, dementia in people with Down's syndrome, vascular dementia, and neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia.In November 2016, Clive joined the University of Exeter Medical School as Pro-Vice Chancellor and Executive Dean of the Medical School.In 2006, Ballard was involved in the development of a non-pharmacological training investigation to improve person-centred care for people with dementia in nursing homes. The investigation led to a 50% reduction in antipsychotic use, without worsening neuropsychiatric symptoms. In partnership with the Alzheimer's Society, this was developed into an intervention manual and has been implemented in 500 care homes across the UK.Ballard, working with The Lancet, was involved in the identification of the most important targets for dementia prevention interventions. This group also developed an online platform to enable the conduct of large randomized controlled trials of potential prevention interventions. With the MRC, Alzheimer's Society and BBC, Ballard conducted parallel trials in the UK to promote cognitive health in adults over the age of 50.He was also heavily involved in the development of the PROTECT platform in the UK, an online cohort study, adopted as part of Dementia Platform UK. The platform conducts nested clinical trials and offers evidence based training to all participants. PROTECT has more than 25,000 UK participants, and has now been launched in the USA.
|
[
"Newcastle University",
"University of Birmingham",
"University of Exeter"
] |
|
Which employer did Clive Ballard work for in Jul, 2019?
|
July 05, 2019
|
{
"text": [
"University of Exeter"
]
}
|
L2_Q40279915_P108_4
|
Clive Ballard works for Newcastle University from Jan, 1995 to Jan, 2003.
Clive Ballard works for University of Birmingham from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1995.
Clive Ballard works for King's College London from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2016.
Clive Ballard works for University of Exeter from Jan, 2016 to Dec, 2022.
Clive Ballard works for Alzheimer's Society from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2013.
|
Clive BallardClive Ballard (born August 1964) is a British, world-leading expert in dementia. He is currently Professor of Age-Related Diseases at the University of Exeter and Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean of the University of Exeter Medical School.Clive specialises in treatment of dementia with Lewy Bodies and Parkinson's disease, the harms of antipsychotic medications in people with dementia, the benefits of non-pharmacological treatments for the management of agitation in people with dementia and the prevention of dementia, including the development of the PROTECT programme of online interventions as a tool for maintaining cognitive health in later life. He has published more than 600 scientific papers and has an H index over 115, with more than 55,000 citations for his work.Clive Ballard was born in August 1964 in Wales, before studying Medicine at the University of Leicester in 1987. He then studied psychiatry at the University of Birmingham in 1991 MD in neuropsychiatric symptoms in people with dementia, then moving on to specialise in the psychiatry of older adults. He moved to Newcastle in 1995 as an MRC Clinical Fellow and Senior Lecturer, joining the dementia with Lewy Bodies research group.In 2003, Ballard moved to the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London as Professor of Age-Related Diseases. Here, he directed the National Institute for Health Research and Biomedical Research Unit for Dementia, and co-directed the Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases.From 2003 until 2013, Clive was also Director of Research at Alzheimer's Society, and played a key role in the successful campaign to overturn a decision made by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, making anti-dementia drugs available for people with dementia.During this time, Clive published more than 200 research papers. These included key clinical trial focusing on the treatment of dementia with Lewy Bodies, dementia in people with Down's syndrome, vascular dementia, and neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia.In November 2016, Clive joined the University of Exeter Medical School as Pro-Vice Chancellor and Executive Dean of the Medical School.In 2006, Ballard was involved in the development of a non-pharmacological training investigation to improve person-centred care for people with dementia in nursing homes. The investigation led to a 50% reduction in antipsychotic use, without worsening neuropsychiatric symptoms. In partnership with the Alzheimer's Society, this was developed into an intervention manual and has been implemented in 500 care homes across the UK.Ballard, working with The Lancet, was involved in the identification of the most important targets for dementia prevention interventions. This group also developed an online platform to enable the conduct of large randomized controlled trials of potential prevention interventions. With the MRC, Alzheimer's Society and BBC, Ballard conducted parallel trials in the UK to promote cognitive health in adults over the age of 50.He was also heavily involved in the development of the PROTECT platform in the UK, an online cohort study, adopted as part of Dementia Platform UK. The platform conducts nested clinical trials and offers evidence based training to all participants. PROTECT has more than 25,000 UK participants, and has now been launched in the USA.
|
[
"King's College London",
"Newcastle University",
"University of Birmingham",
"Alzheimer's Society"
] |
|
Which team did Steve Butler play for in Jan, 1983?
|
January 30, 1983
|
{
"text": [
"Windsor & Eton F.C."
]
}
|
L2_Q7612121_P54_0
|
Steve Butler plays for AFC Bournemouth from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1992.
Steve Butler plays for Windsor & Eton F.C. from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Steve Butler plays for Brentford F.C. from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1986.
Steve Butler plays for Gillingham F.C. from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2000.
Steve Butler plays for Cambridge United F.C. from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1995.
Steve Butler plays for Maidstone United F.C. from Jan, 1986 to Jan, 1991.
Steve Butler plays for Peterborough United F.C. from Jan, 1998 to Jan, 1999.
Steve Butler plays for Watford F.C. from Jan, 1991 to Jan, 1992.
Steve Butler plays for Stevenage F.C. from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
|
Steve Butler (footballer)Stephen Butler (born 27 January 1962 in Birmingham) is an English former footballer. During his professional career he played over 400 matches and scored over 150 goals for Brentford, Maidstone United, Watford, Bournemouth, Cambridge United, Gillingham and Peterborough United, including eight goals in two consecutive games that were only two days apart.In 2000, at the age of 38, Butler scored his last professional goal for Gillingham in the Football League Second Division play-off final at Wembley Stadium as the Kent club secured its first ever promotion to the second tier of English football.
|
[
"Maidstone United F.C.",
"Brentford F.C.",
"Gillingham F.C.",
"Stevenage F.C.",
"Cambridge United F.C.",
"AFC Bournemouth",
"Watford F.C.",
"Peterborough United F.C."
] |
|
Which team did Steve Butler play for in Jan, 1985?
|
January 25, 1985
|
{
"text": [
"Brentford F.C."
]
}
|
L2_Q7612121_P54_1
|
Steve Butler plays for Gillingham F.C. from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2000.
Steve Butler plays for Stevenage F.C. from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Steve Butler plays for Brentford F.C. from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1986.
Steve Butler plays for Peterborough United F.C. from Jan, 1998 to Jan, 1999.
Steve Butler plays for Maidstone United F.C. from Jan, 1986 to Jan, 1991.
Steve Butler plays for Windsor & Eton F.C. from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Steve Butler plays for AFC Bournemouth from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1992.
Steve Butler plays for Watford F.C. from Jan, 1991 to Jan, 1992.
Steve Butler plays for Cambridge United F.C. from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1995.
|
Steve Butler (footballer)Stephen Butler (born 27 January 1962 in Birmingham) is an English former footballer. During his professional career he played over 400 matches and scored over 150 goals for Brentford, Maidstone United, Watford, Bournemouth, Cambridge United, Gillingham and Peterborough United, including eight goals in two consecutive games that were only two days apart.In 2000, at the age of 38, Butler scored his last professional goal for Gillingham in the Football League Second Division play-off final at Wembley Stadium as the Kent club secured its first ever promotion to the second tier of English football.
|
[
"Maidstone United F.C.",
"Gillingham F.C.",
"Stevenage F.C.",
"Cambridge United F.C.",
"AFC Bournemouth",
"Windsor & Eton F.C.",
"Watford F.C.",
"Peterborough United F.C."
] |
|
Which team did Steve Butler play for in Sep, 1990?
|
September 13, 1990
|
{
"text": [
"Maidstone United F.C."
]
}
|
L2_Q7612121_P54_2
|
Steve Butler plays for Gillingham F.C. from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2000.
Steve Butler plays for Watford F.C. from Jan, 1991 to Jan, 1992.
Steve Butler plays for Maidstone United F.C. from Jan, 1986 to Jan, 1991.
Steve Butler plays for Peterborough United F.C. from Jan, 1998 to Jan, 1999.
Steve Butler plays for Stevenage F.C. from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Steve Butler plays for Brentford F.C. from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1986.
Steve Butler plays for Windsor & Eton F.C. from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Steve Butler plays for Cambridge United F.C. from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1995.
Steve Butler plays for AFC Bournemouth from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1992.
|
Steve Butler (footballer)Stephen Butler (born 27 January 1962 in Birmingham) is an English former footballer. During his professional career he played over 400 matches and scored over 150 goals for Brentford, Maidstone United, Watford, Bournemouth, Cambridge United, Gillingham and Peterborough United, including eight goals in two consecutive games that were only two days apart.In 2000, at the age of 38, Butler scored his last professional goal for Gillingham in the Football League Second Division play-off final at Wembley Stadium as the Kent club secured its first ever promotion to the second tier of English football.
|
[
"Brentford F.C.",
"Gillingham F.C.",
"Stevenage F.C.",
"Cambridge United F.C.",
"AFC Bournemouth",
"Windsor & Eton F.C.",
"Watford F.C.",
"Peterborough United F.C."
] |
|
Which team did Steve Butler play for in Apr, 1991?
|
April 27, 1991
|
{
"text": [
"Watford F.C."
]
}
|
L2_Q7612121_P54_3
|
Steve Butler plays for Cambridge United F.C. from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1995.
Steve Butler plays for Maidstone United F.C. from Jan, 1986 to Jan, 1991.
Steve Butler plays for Brentford F.C. from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1986.
Steve Butler plays for Stevenage F.C. from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Steve Butler plays for Watford F.C. from Jan, 1991 to Jan, 1992.
Steve Butler plays for Gillingham F.C. from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2000.
Steve Butler plays for AFC Bournemouth from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1992.
Steve Butler plays for Windsor & Eton F.C. from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Steve Butler plays for Peterborough United F.C. from Jan, 1998 to Jan, 1999.
|
Steve Butler (footballer)Stephen Butler (born 27 January 1962 in Birmingham) is an English former footballer. During his professional career he played over 400 matches and scored over 150 goals for Brentford, Maidstone United, Watford, Bournemouth, Cambridge United, Gillingham and Peterborough United, including eight goals in two consecutive games that were only two days apart.In 2000, at the age of 38, Butler scored his last professional goal for Gillingham in the Football League Second Division play-off final at Wembley Stadium as the Kent club secured its first ever promotion to the second tier of English football.
|
[
"Maidstone United F.C.",
"Brentford F.C.",
"Gillingham F.C.",
"Stevenage F.C.",
"Cambridge United F.C.",
"AFC Bournemouth",
"Windsor & Eton F.C.",
"Peterborough United F.C."
] |
|
Which team did Steve Butler play for in Jan, 1992?
|
January 01, 1992
|
{
"text": [
"Cambridge United F.C.",
"Watford F.C.",
"AFC Bournemouth"
]
}
|
L2_Q7612121_P54_4
|
Steve Butler plays for Peterborough United F.C. from Jan, 1998 to Jan, 1999.
Steve Butler plays for Cambridge United F.C. from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1995.
Steve Butler plays for Windsor & Eton F.C. from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Steve Butler plays for Brentford F.C. from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1986.
Steve Butler plays for Stevenage F.C. from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Steve Butler plays for Maidstone United F.C. from Jan, 1986 to Jan, 1991.
Steve Butler plays for Gillingham F.C. from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2000.
Steve Butler plays for AFC Bournemouth from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1992.
Steve Butler plays for Watford F.C. from Jan, 1991 to Jan, 1992.
|
Steve Butler (footballer)Stephen Butler (born 27 January 1962 in Birmingham) is an English former footballer. During his professional career he played over 400 matches and scored over 150 goals for Brentford, Maidstone United, Watford, Bournemouth, Cambridge United, Gillingham and Peterborough United, including eight goals in two consecutive games that were only two days apart.In 2000, at the age of 38, Butler scored his last professional goal for Gillingham in the Football League Second Division play-off final at Wembley Stadium as the Kent club secured its first ever promotion to the second tier of English football.
|
[
"Maidstone United F.C.",
"Brentford F.C.",
"Gillingham F.C.",
"Stevenage F.C.",
"Windsor & Eton F.C.",
"Peterborough United F.C.",
"Maidstone United F.C.",
"Brentford F.C.",
"Gillingham F.C.",
"Stevenage F.C.",
"Windsor & Eton F.C.",
"Peterborough United F.C.",
"Maidstone United F.C.",
"Brentford F.C.",
"Gillingham F.C.",
"Stevenage F.C.",
"Windsor & Eton F.C.",
"Peterborough United F.C."
] |
|
Which team did Steve Butler play for in Sep, 1992?
|
September 02, 1992
|
{
"text": [
"Cambridge United F.C."
]
}
|
L2_Q7612121_P54_5
|
Steve Butler plays for Cambridge United F.C. from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1995.
Steve Butler plays for Windsor & Eton F.C. from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Steve Butler plays for Maidstone United F.C. from Jan, 1986 to Jan, 1991.
Steve Butler plays for Gillingham F.C. from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2000.
Steve Butler plays for Brentford F.C. from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1986.
Steve Butler plays for Stevenage F.C. from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Steve Butler plays for Peterborough United F.C. from Jan, 1998 to Jan, 1999.
Steve Butler plays for Watford F.C. from Jan, 1991 to Jan, 1992.
Steve Butler plays for AFC Bournemouth from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1992.
|
Steve Butler (footballer)Stephen Butler (born 27 January 1962 in Birmingham) is an English former footballer. During his professional career he played over 400 matches and scored over 150 goals for Brentford, Maidstone United, Watford, Bournemouth, Cambridge United, Gillingham and Peterborough United, including eight goals in two consecutive games that were only two days apart.In 2000, at the age of 38, Butler scored his last professional goal for Gillingham in the Football League Second Division play-off final at Wembley Stadium as the Kent club secured its first ever promotion to the second tier of English football.
|
[
"Maidstone United F.C.",
"Brentford F.C.",
"Gillingham F.C.",
"Stevenage F.C.",
"AFC Bournemouth",
"Windsor & Eton F.C.",
"Watford F.C.",
"Peterborough United F.C."
] |
|
Which team did Steve Butler play for in Mar, 1998?
|
March 06, 1998
|
{
"text": [
"Peterborough United F.C."
]
}
|
L2_Q7612121_P54_6
|
Steve Butler plays for Windsor & Eton F.C. from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Steve Butler plays for Gillingham F.C. from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2000.
Steve Butler plays for Stevenage F.C. from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Steve Butler plays for Brentford F.C. from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1986.
Steve Butler plays for Maidstone United F.C. from Jan, 1986 to Jan, 1991.
Steve Butler plays for Cambridge United F.C. from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1995.
Steve Butler plays for Watford F.C. from Jan, 1991 to Jan, 1992.
Steve Butler plays for AFC Bournemouth from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1992.
Steve Butler plays for Peterborough United F.C. from Jan, 1998 to Jan, 1999.
|
Steve Butler (footballer)Stephen Butler (born 27 January 1962 in Birmingham) is an English former footballer. During his professional career he played over 400 matches and scored over 150 goals for Brentford, Maidstone United, Watford, Bournemouth, Cambridge United, Gillingham and Peterborough United, including eight goals in two consecutive games that were only two days apart.In 2000, at the age of 38, Butler scored his last professional goal for Gillingham in the Football League Second Division play-off final at Wembley Stadium as the Kent club secured its first ever promotion to the second tier of English football.
|
[
"Maidstone United F.C.",
"Brentford F.C.",
"Gillingham F.C.",
"Stevenage F.C.",
"Cambridge United F.C.",
"AFC Bournemouth",
"Windsor & Eton F.C.",
"Watford F.C."
] |
|
Which team did Steve Butler play for in Jan, 1999?
|
January 01, 1999
|
{
"text": [
"Gillingham F.C.",
"Stevenage F.C.",
"Peterborough United F.C."
]
}
|
L2_Q7612121_P54_7
|
Steve Butler plays for Brentford F.C. from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1986.
Steve Butler plays for Gillingham F.C. from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2000.
Steve Butler plays for Cambridge United F.C. from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1995.
Steve Butler plays for Stevenage F.C. from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Steve Butler plays for Watford F.C. from Jan, 1991 to Jan, 1992.
Steve Butler plays for AFC Bournemouth from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1992.
Steve Butler plays for Maidstone United F.C. from Jan, 1986 to Jan, 1991.
Steve Butler plays for Windsor & Eton F.C. from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Steve Butler plays for Peterborough United F.C. from Jan, 1998 to Jan, 1999.
|
Steve Butler (footballer)Stephen Butler (born 27 January 1962 in Birmingham) is an English former footballer. During his professional career he played over 400 matches and scored over 150 goals for Brentford, Maidstone United, Watford, Bournemouth, Cambridge United, Gillingham and Peterborough United, including eight goals in two consecutive games that were only two days apart.In 2000, at the age of 38, Butler scored his last professional goal for Gillingham in the Football League Second Division play-off final at Wembley Stadium as the Kent club secured its first ever promotion to the second tier of English football.
|
[
"Maidstone United F.C.",
"Brentford F.C.",
"Cambridge United F.C.",
"AFC Bournemouth",
"Windsor & Eton F.C.",
"Watford F.C.",
"Maidstone United F.C.",
"Brentford F.C.",
"Cambridge United F.C.",
"AFC Bournemouth",
"Windsor & Eton F.C.",
"Watford F.C.",
"Maidstone United F.C.",
"Brentford F.C.",
"Cambridge United F.C.",
"AFC Bournemouth",
"Windsor & Eton F.C.",
"Watford F.C."
] |
|
Which team did Steve Butler play for in Oct, 1999?
|
October 08, 1999
|
{
"text": [
"Gillingham F.C."
]
}
|
L2_Q7612121_P54_8
|
Steve Butler plays for Stevenage F.C. from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Steve Butler plays for Peterborough United F.C. from Jan, 1998 to Jan, 1999.
Steve Butler plays for Cambridge United F.C. from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1995.
Steve Butler plays for Brentford F.C. from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1986.
Steve Butler plays for Windsor & Eton F.C. from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Steve Butler plays for Maidstone United F.C. from Jan, 1986 to Jan, 1991.
Steve Butler plays for AFC Bournemouth from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1992.
Steve Butler plays for Gillingham F.C. from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2000.
Steve Butler plays for Watford F.C. from Jan, 1991 to Jan, 1992.
|
Steve Butler (footballer)Stephen Butler (born 27 January 1962 in Birmingham) is an English former footballer. During his professional career he played over 400 matches and scored over 150 goals for Brentford, Maidstone United, Watford, Bournemouth, Cambridge United, Gillingham and Peterborough United, including eight goals in two consecutive games that were only two days apart.In 2000, at the age of 38, Butler scored his last professional goal for Gillingham in the Football League Second Division play-off final at Wembley Stadium as the Kent club secured its first ever promotion to the second tier of English football.
|
[
"Maidstone United F.C.",
"Brentford F.C.",
"Stevenage F.C.",
"Cambridge United F.C.",
"AFC Bournemouth",
"Windsor & Eton F.C.",
"Watford F.C.",
"Peterborough United F.C."
] |
|
Which employer did Herman Goldstine work for in Jul, 1938?
|
July 23, 1938
|
{
"text": [
"University of Chicago"
]
}
|
L2_Q93005_P108_0
|
Herman Goldstine works for University of Michigan from Jan, 1939 to Jan, 1941.
Herman Goldstine works for IBM from Jan, 1958 to Jan, 1973.
Herman Goldstine works for University of Chicago from Jan, 1936 to Jan, 1939.
Herman Goldstine works for Institute for Advanced Study from Jan, 1973 to Jan, 1984.
Herman Goldstine works for United States Army from Jan, 1941 to Jan, 1946.
|
Herman GoldstineHerman Heine Goldstine (September 13, 1913 – June 16, 2004) was a mathematician and computer scientist, who worked as the director of the IAS machine at Princeton University's Institute for Advanced Study, and helped to develop ENIAC, the first of the modern electronic digital computers. He subsequently worked for many years at IBM as an IBM Fellow, the company's most prestigious technical position.Herman Heine Goldstine was born in Chicago in 1913 to Jewish parents. He attended the University of Chicago, where he joined the Phi Beta Kappa fraternity, and graduated with a degree in Mathematics in 1933, a master's degree in 1934, and a PhD in 1936. For three years he was a research assistant under Gilbert Ames Bliss, an authority on the mathematical theory of external ballistics. In 1939 Goldstine began a teaching career at the University of Michigan, until the United States' entry into World War II, when he joined the U. S. Army. In 1941 he married Adele Katz, who was an ENIAC programmer and who wrote the technical description for ENIAC. He had a daughter and a son with Adele, who died in 1964. Two years later he married secondly Ellen Watson.In retirement Goldstine became executive director of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia between 1985 and 1997, in which capacity he was able to attract many prestigious visitors and speakers.Goldstine died on June 16, 2004, at his home in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, after a long struggle with Parkinson's disease. His death was announced by the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York, where a post-doctoral fellowship was renamed in his honor.As a result of the United States' entering World War II, Goldstine left the University of Michigan where he was a professor in July, 1942 to enlist in the Army. He was commissioned a lieutenant and worked as an ordnance mathematician calculating firing tables at the Ballistic Research Laboratory (BRL) at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. The firing tables were used in battle to find the appropriate elevation and azimuth for aiming artillery, which had a range of several miles.The firing table calculations were accomplished by about one hundred women operating mechanical desk calculators. Each combination of gun, round and geographical region required a unique set of firing tables. It took about 750 calculations to compute a single trajectory and each table had about 3,000 trajectories. It took a human computer at least 7 hours to calculate one trajectory. To increase production, BRL enlisted the computing facilities of the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania and Goldstine was the liaison between BRL and the university.While making some adjustments to the Moore School's mechanical differential analyzer, engineer Joseph Chapline suggested Goldstine visit John Mauchly, a physics instructor at the Moore School, who had distributed a memorandum proposing that the calculations could be done thousands of times faster with an electronic computer using vacuum tubes. Mauchly wrote a proposal and in June 1943 he and Goldstine secured funding from the Army for the project. The ENIAC was built in 30 months with 200,000 man hours. The ENIAC was huge, measuring 30 by 60 feet and weighing 30 tons with 18,000 vacuum tubes. The device could only store 20 numbers and took days to program. It was completed in late 1945 as World War II was coming to an end.In spite of disappointment that ENIAC had not contributed to the war effort, interest remained strong in the Army to develop an electronic computer. Prior even to the ENIAC's completion, the Army procured a second contract from the Moore School to build a successor machine known as the EDVAC. Goldstine, Mauchly, J. Presper Eckert and Arthur Burks began to study the development of the new machine in the hopes of correcting the deficiencies of the ENIAC.In the summer of 1944 Goldstine had a chance encounter with the prominent mathematician John von Neumann on a railway platform in Aberdeen, Maryland, and Goldstine described his project at the University of Pennsylvania. Unknown to Goldstine, von Neumann was then working on the Manhattan Project, which was aiming to build the first atomic bomb. The calculations needed for this project were also daunting.As a result of his conversations with Goldstine, von Neumann joined the study group and wrote a memo called "First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC". Von Neumann intended this to be a memo to the study group, but Goldstine typed it up into a 101-page document that named von Neumann as the sole author. On June 25, 1946, Goldstine forwarded 24 copies of the document to those intimately involved in the EDVAC project; dozens or perhaps hundreds of mimeographs of the report were forwarded to von Neumann's colleagues at universities in the United States and in Great Britain in the weeks that followed. While incomplete, the paper was very well received and became a blueprint for building electronic digital computers. Due to von Neumann's prominence as a major American mathematician, the EDVAC architecture became known as the von Neumann architecture.One of the key ideas in the "first draft" was that the programmer could store a program in the computer's electronic memory, rather than program the computer using mechanical switches and patch cables. This and other ideas in the paper had been discussed in the EDVAC study group before von Neumann joined the group. The fact that Eckert and Mauchly, the actual inventors and designers of the ENIAC, were not named as co-authors created resentment that led to the group's dissolution at the end of the war.Eckert and Mauchly went on to form the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, a company that in part survives today as the Unisys Corporation, while von Neumann, Goldstine and Burks moved on into academic life at the Institute for Advanced Study. In Summer 1946, all of them were reunited to give presentations at the first computer course, which has come to be known as the Moore School Lectures; Goldstine's presentations, given without notes, covered deeply and rigorously numerical mathematical methods useful in programs for digital computers.After World War II Goldstine joined von Neumann and Burks at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, where they built a computer referred to as the IAS machine. Goldstine was appointed as assistant director of the project and was later its director, after 1954.The IAS machine influenced the design of IBM's early computers through von Neumann, who was a consultant to IBM. When von Neumann died in 1957, the IAS computer project was terminated. Goldstine went on to become the founding director of the Mathematical Sciences Department at IBM's Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York.At IBM one of Goldstine's most significant roles was in fostering relations between IBM researchers and the academic community. In 1969 he was appointed an IBM Fellow, the company's most prestigious technical honor, and a consultant to the director of research. As a fellow Goldstine developed an interest in the history of computing and mathematical sciences. He wrote three books on the topic; "The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann", "History of Numerical Analysis from the 16th Through the 19th Century" and "History of the Calculus of Variations from the Seventeenth Through the Nineteenth Century". As the title implies, in "The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann", Goldstine leaves little doubt that in his opinion von Neumann played a critical role in developing modern theories of computing.
|
[
"IBM",
"United States Army",
"University of Michigan",
"Institute for Advanced Study"
] |
|
Which employer did Herman Goldstine work for in Sep, 1940?
|
September 18, 1940
|
{
"text": [
"University of Michigan"
]
}
|
L2_Q93005_P108_1
|
Herman Goldstine works for IBM from Jan, 1958 to Jan, 1973.
Herman Goldstine works for University of Chicago from Jan, 1936 to Jan, 1939.
Herman Goldstine works for United States Army from Jan, 1941 to Jan, 1946.
Herman Goldstine works for Institute for Advanced Study from Jan, 1973 to Jan, 1984.
Herman Goldstine works for University of Michigan from Jan, 1939 to Jan, 1941.
|
Herman GoldstineHerman Heine Goldstine (September 13, 1913 – June 16, 2004) was a mathematician and computer scientist, who worked as the director of the IAS machine at Princeton University's Institute for Advanced Study, and helped to develop ENIAC, the first of the modern electronic digital computers. He subsequently worked for many years at IBM as an IBM Fellow, the company's most prestigious technical position.Herman Heine Goldstine was born in Chicago in 1913 to Jewish parents. He attended the University of Chicago, where he joined the Phi Beta Kappa fraternity, and graduated with a degree in Mathematics in 1933, a master's degree in 1934, and a PhD in 1936. For three years he was a research assistant under Gilbert Ames Bliss, an authority on the mathematical theory of external ballistics. In 1939 Goldstine began a teaching career at the University of Michigan, until the United States' entry into World War II, when he joined the U. S. Army. In 1941 he married Adele Katz, who was an ENIAC programmer and who wrote the technical description for ENIAC. He had a daughter and a son with Adele, who died in 1964. Two years later he married secondly Ellen Watson.In retirement Goldstine became executive director of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia between 1985 and 1997, in which capacity he was able to attract many prestigious visitors and speakers.Goldstine died on June 16, 2004, at his home in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, after a long struggle with Parkinson's disease. His death was announced by the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York, where a post-doctoral fellowship was renamed in his honor.As a result of the United States' entering World War II, Goldstine left the University of Michigan where he was a professor in July, 1942 to enlist in the Army. He was commissioned a lieutenant and worked as an ordnance mathematician calculating firing tables at the Ballistic Research Laboratory (BRL) at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. The firing tables were used in battle to find the appropriate elevation and azimuth for aiming artillery, which had a range of several miles.The firing table calculations were accomplished by about one hundred women operating mechanical desk calculators. Each combination of gun, round and geographical region required a unique set of firing tables. It took about 750 calculations to compute a single trajectory and each table had about 3,000 trajectories. It took a human computer at least 7 hours to calculate one trajectory. To increase production, BRL enlisted the computing facilities of the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania and Goldstine was the liaison between BRL and the university.While making some adjustments to the Moore School's mechanical differential analyzer, engineer Joseph Chapline suggested Goldstine visit John Mauchly, a physics instructor at the Moore School, who had distributed a memorandum proposing that the calculations could be done thousands of times faster with an electronic computer using vacuum tubes. Mauchly wrote a proposal and in June 1943 he and Goldstine secured funding from the Army for the project. The ENIAC was built in 30 months with 200,000 man hours. The ENIAC was huge, measuring 30 by 60 feet and weighing 30 tons with 18,000 vacuum tubes. The device could only store 20 numbers and took days to program. It was completed in late 1945 as World War II was coming to an end.In spite of disappointment that ENIAC had not contributed to the war effort, interest remained strong in the Army to develop an electronic computer. Prior even to the ENIAC's completion, the Army procured a second contract from the Moore School to build a successor machine known as the EDVAC. Goldstine, Mauchly, J. Presper Eckert and Arthur Burks began to study the development of the new machine in the hopes of correcting the deficiencies of the ENIAC.In the summer of 1944 Goldstine had a chance encounter with the prominent mathematician John von Neumann on a railway platform in Aberdeen, Maryland, and Goldstine described his project at the University of Pennsylvania. Unknown to Goldstine, von Neumann was then working on the Manhattan Project, which was aiming to build the first atomic bomb. The calculations needed for this project were also daunting.As a result of his conversations with Goldstine, von Neumann joined the study group and wrote a memo called "First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC". Von Neumann intended this to be a memo to the study group, but Goldstine typed it up into a 101-page document that named von Neumann as the sole author. On June 25, 1946, Goldstine forwarded 24 copies of the document to those intimately involved in the EDVAC project; dozens or perhaps hundreds of mimeographs of the report were forwarded to von Neumann's colleagues at universities in the United States and in Great Britain in the weeks that followed. While incomplete, the paper was very well received and became a blueprint for building electronic digital computers. Due to von Neumann's prominence as a major American mathematician, the EDVAC architecture became known as the von Neumann architecture.One of the key ideas in the "first draft" was that the programmer could store a program in the computer's electronic memory, rather than program the computer using mechanical switches and patch cables. This and other ideas in the paper had been discussed in the EDVAC study group before von Neumann joined the group. The fact that Eckert and Mauchly, the actual inventors and designers of the ENIAC, were not named as co-authors created resentment that led to the group's dissolution at the end of the war.Eckert and Mauchly went on to form the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, a company that in part survives today as the Unisys Corporation, while von Neumann, Goldstine and Burks moved on into academic life at the Institute for Advanced Study. In Summer 1946, all of them were reunited to give presentations at the first computer course, which has come to be known as the Moore School Lectures; Goldstine's presentations, given without notes, covered deeply and rigorously numerical mathematical methods useful in programs for digital computers.After World War II Goldstine joined von Neumann and Burks at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, where they built a computer referred to as the IAS machine. Goldstine was appointed as assistant director of the project and was later its director, after 1954.The IAS machine influenced the design of IBM's early computers through von Neumann, who was a consultant to IBM. When von Neumann died in 1957, the IAS computer project was terminated. Goldstine went on to become the founding director of the Mathematical Sciences Department at IBM's Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York.At IBM one of Goldstine's most significant roles was in fostering relations between IBM researchers and the academic community. In 1969 he was appointed an IBM Fellow, the company's most prestigious technical honor, and a consultant to the director of research. As a fellow Goldstine developed an interest in the history of computing and mathematical sciences. He wrote three books on the topic; "The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann", "History of Numerical Analysis from the 16th Through the 19th Century" and "History of the Calculus of Variations from the Seventeenth Through the Nineteenth Century". As the title implies, in "The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann", Goldstine leaves little doubt that in his opinion von Neumann played a critical role in developing modern theories of computing.
|
[
"IBM",
"United States Army",
"Institute for Advanced Study",
"University of Chicago"
] |
|
Which employer did Herman Goldstine work for in Sep, 1944?
|
September 15, 1944
|
{
"text": [
"United States Army"
]
}
|
L2_Q93005_P108_2
|
Herman Goldstine works for IBM from Jan, 1958 to Jan, 1973.
Herman Goldstine works for University of Michigan from Jan, 1939 to Jan, 1941.
Herman Goldstine works for United States Army from Jan, 1941 to Jan, 1946.
Herman Goldstine works for University of Chicago from Jan, 1936 to Jan, 1939.
Herman Goldstine works for Institute for Advanced Study from Jan, 1973 to Jan, 1984.
|
Herman GoldstineHerman Heine Goldstine (September 13, 1913 – June 16, 2004) was a mathematician and computer scientist, who worked as the director of the IAS machine at Princeton University's Institute for Advanced Study, and helped to develop ENIAC, the first of the modern electronic digital computers. He subsequently worked for many years at IBM as an IBM Fellow, the company's most prestigious technical position.Herman Heine Goldstine was born in Chicago in 1913 to Jewish parents. He attended the University of Chicago, where he joined the Phi Beta Kappa fraternity, and graduated with a degree in Mathematics in 1933, a master's degree in 1934, and a PhD in 1936. For three years he was a research assistant under Gilbert Ames Bliss, an authority on the mathematical theory of external ballistics. In 1939 Goldstine began a teaching career at the University of Michigan, until the United States' entry into World War II, when he joined the U. S. Army. In 1941 he married Adele Katz, who was an ENIAC programmer and who wrote the technical description for ENIAC. He had a daughter and a son with Adele, who died in 1964. Two years later he married secondly Ellen Watson.In retirement Goldstine became executive director of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia between 1985 and 1997, in which capacity he was able to attract many prestigious visitors and speakers.Goldstine died on June 16, 2004, at his home in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, after a long struggle with Parkinson's disease. His death was announced by the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York, where a post-doctoral fellowship was renamed in his honor.As a result of the United States' entering World War II, Goldstine left the University of Michigan where he was a professor in July, 1942 to enlist in the Army. He was commissioned a lieutenant and worked as an ordnance mathematician calculating firing tables at the Ballistic Research Laboratory (BRL) at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. The firing tables were used in battle to find the appropriate elevation and azimuth for aiming artillery, which had a range of several miles.The firing table calculations were accomplished by about one hundred women operating mechanical desk calculators. Each combination of gun, round and geographical region required a unique set of firing tables. It took about 750 calculations to compute a single trajectory and each table had about 3,000 trajectories. It took a human computer at least 7 hours to calculate one trajectory. To increase production, BRL enlisted the computing facilities of the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania and Goldstine was the liaison between BRL and the university.While making some adjustments to the Moore School's mechanical differential analyzer, engineer Joseph Chapline suggested Goldstine visit John Mauchly, a physics instructor at the Moore School, who had distributed a memorandum proposing that the calculations could be done thousands of times faster with an electronic computer using vacuum tubes. Mauchly wrote a proposal and in June 1943 he and Goldstine secured funding from the Army for the project. The ENIAC was built in 30 months with 200,000 man hours. The ENIAC was huge, measuring 30 by 60 feet and weighing 30 tons with 18,000 vacuum tubes. The device could only store 20 numbers and took days to program. It was completed in late 1945 as World War II was coming to an end.In spite of disappointment that ENIAC had not contributed to the war effort, interest remained strong in the Army to develop an electronic computer. Prior even to the ENIAC's completion, the Army procured a second contract from the Moore School to build a successor machine known as the EDVAC. Goldstine, Mauchly, J. Presper Eckert and Arthur Burks began to study the development of the new machine in the hopes of correcting the deficiencies of the ENIAC.In the summer of 1944 Goldstine had a chance encounter with the prominent mathematician John von Neumann on a railway platform in Aberdeen, Maryland, and Goldstine described his project at the University of Pennsylvania. Unknown to Goldstine, von Neumann was then working on the Manhattan Project, which was aiming to build the first atomic bomb. The calculations needed for this project were also daunting.As a result of his conversations with Goldstine, von Neumann joined the study group and wrote a memo called "First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC". Von Neumann intended this to be a memo to the study group, but Goldstine typed it up into a 101-page document that named von Neumann as the sole author. On June 25, 1946, Goldstine forwarded 24 copies of the document to those intimately involved in the EDVAC project; dozens or perhaps hundreds of mimeographs of the report were forwarded to von Neumann's colleagues at universities in the United States and in Great Britain in the weeks that followed. While incomplete, the paper was very well received and became a blueprint for building electronic digital computers. Due to von Neumann's prominence as a major American mathematician, the EDVAC architecture became known as the von Neumann architecture.One of the key ideas in the "first draft" was that the programmer could store a program in the computer's electronic memory, rather than program the computer using mechanical switches and patch cables. This and other ideas in the paper had been discussed in the EDVAC study group before von Neumann joined the group. The fact that Eckert and Mauchly, the actual inventors and designers of the ENIAC, were not named as co-authors created resentment that led to the group's dissolution at the end of the war.Eckert and Mauchly went on to form the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, a company that in part survives today as the Unisys Corporation, while von Neumann, Goldstine and Burks moved on into academic life at the Institute for Advanced Study. In Summer 1946, all of them were reunited to give presentations at the first computer course, which has come to be known as the Moore School Lectures; Goldstine's presentations, given without notes, covered deeply and rigorously numerical mathematical methods useful in programs for digital computers.After World War II Goldstine joined von Neumann and Burks at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, where they built a computer referred to as the IAS machine. Goldstine was appointed as assistant director of the project and was later its director, after 1954.The IAS machine influenced the design of IBM's early computers through von Neumann, who was a consultant to IBM. When von Neumann died in 1957, the IAS computer project was terminated. Goldstine went on to become the founding director of the Mathematical Sciences Department at IBM's Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York.At IBM one of Goldstine's most significant roles was in fostering relations between IBM researchers and the academic community. In 1969 he was appointed an IBM Fellow, the company's most prestigious technical honor, and a consultant to the director of research. As a fellow Goldstine developed an interest in the history of computing and mathematical sciences. He wrote three books on the topic; "The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann", "History of Numerical Analysis from the 16th Through the 19th Century" and "History of the Calculus of Variations from the Seventeenth Through the Nineteenth Century". As the title implies, in "The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann", Goldstine leaves little doubt that in his opinion von Neumann played a critical role in developing modern theories of computing.
|
[
"IBM",
"University of Michigan",
"University of Chicago",
"Institute for Advanced Study"
] |
|
Which employer did Herman Goldstine work for in Mar, 1968?
|
March 17, 1968
|
{
"text": [
"IBM"
]
}
|
L2_Q93005_P108_3
|
Herman Goldstine works for University of Michigan from Jan, 1939 to Jan, 1941.
Herman Goldstine works for University of Chicago from Jan, 1936 to Jan, 1939.
Herman Goldstine works for IBM from Jan, 1958 to Jan, 1973.
Herman Goldstine works for United States Army from Jan, 1941 to Jan, 1946.
Herman Goldstine works for Institute for Advanced Study from Jan, 1973 to Jan, 1984.
|
Herman GoldstineHerman Heine Goldstine (September 13, 1913 – June 16, 2004) was a mathematician and computer scientist, who worked as the director of the IAS machine at Princeton University's Institute for Advanced Study, and helped to develop ENIAC, the first of the modern electronic digital computers. He subsequently worked for many years at IBM as an IBM Fellow, the company's most prestigious technical position.Herman Heine Goldstine was born in Chicago in 1913 to Jewish parents. He attended the University of Chicago, where he joined the Phi Beta Kappa fraternity, and graduated with a degree in Mathematics in 1933, a master's degree in 1934, and a PhD in 1936. For three years he was a research assistant under Gilbert Ames Bliss, an authority on the mathematical theory of external ballistics. In 1939 Goldstine began a teaching career at the University of Michigan, until the United States' entry into World War II, when he joined the U. S. Army. In 1941 he married Adele Katz, who was an ENIAC programmer and who wrote the technical description for ENIAC. He had a daughter and a son with Adele, who died in 1964. Two years later he married secondly Ellen Watson.In retirement Goldstine became executive director of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia between 1985 and 1997, in which capacity he was able to attract many prestigious visitors and speakers.Goldstine died on June 16, 2004, at his home in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, after a long struggle with Parkinson's disease. His death was announced by the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York, where a post-doctoral fellowship was renamed in his honor.As a result of the United States' entering World War II, Goldstine left the University of Michigan where he was a professor in July, 1942 to enlist in the Army. He was commissioned a lieutenant and worked as an ordnance mathematician calculating firing tables at the Ballistic Research Laboratory (BRL) at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. The firing tables were used in battle to find the appropriate elevation and azimuth for aiming artillery, which had a range of several miles.The firing table calculations were accomplished by about one hundred women operating mechanical desk calculators. Each combination of gun, round and geographical region required a unique set of firing tables. It took about 750 calculations to compute a single trajectory and each table had about 3,000 trajectories. It took a human computer at least 7 hours to calculate one trajectory. To increase production, BRL enlisted the computing facilities of the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania and Goldstine was the liaison between BRL and the university.While making some adjustments to the Moore School's mechanical differential analyzer, engineer Joseph Chapline suggested Goldstine visit John Mauchly, a physics instructor at the Moore School, who had distributed a memorandum proposing that the calculations could be done thousands of times faster with an electronic computer using vacuum tubes. Mauchly wrote a proposal and in June 1943 he and Goldstine secured funding from the Army for the project. The ENIAC was built in 30 months with 200,000 man hours. The ENIAC was huge, measuring 30 by 60 feet and weighing 30 tons with 18,000 vacuum tubes. The device could only store 20 numbers and took days to program. It was completed in late 1945 as World War II was coming to an end.In spite of disappointment that ENIAC had not contributed to the war effort, interest remained strong in the Army to develop an electronic computer. Prior even to the ENIAC's completion, the Army procured a second contract from the Moore School to build a successor machine known as the EDVAC. Goldstine, Mauchly, J. Presper Eckert and Arthur Burks began to study the development of the new machine in the hopes of correcting the deficiencies of the ENIAC.In the summer of 1944 Goldstine had a chance encounter with the prominent mathematician John von Neumann on a railway platform in Aberdeen, Maryland, and Goldstine described his project at the University of Pennsylvania. Unknown to Goldstine, von Neumann was then working on the Manhattan Project, which was aiming to build the first atomic bomb. The calculations needed for this project were also daunting.As a result of his conversations with Goldstine, von Neumann joined the study group and wrote a memo called "First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC". Von Neumann intended this to be a memo to the study group, but Goldstine typed it up into a 101-page document that named von Neumann as the sole author. On June 25, 1946, Goldstine forwarded 24 copies of the document to those intimately involved in the EDVAC project; dozens or perhaps hundreds of mimeographs of the report were forwarded to von Neumann's colleagues at universities in the United States and in Great Britain in the weeks that followed. While incomplete, the paper was very well received and became a blueprint for building electronic digital computers. Due to von Neumann's prominence as a major American mathematician, the EDVAC architecture became known as the von Neumann architecture.One of the key ideas in the "first draft" was that the programmer could store a program in the computer's electronic memory, rather than program the computer using mechanical switches and patch cables. This and other ideas in the paper had been discussed in the EDVAC study group before von Neumann joined the group. The fact that Eckert and Mauchly, the actual inventors and designers of the ENIAC, were not named as co-authors created resentment that led to the group's dissolution at the end of the war.Eckert and Mauchly went on to form the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, a company that in part survives today as the Unisys Corporation, while von Neumann, Goldstine and Burks moved on into academic life at the Institute for Advanced Study. In Summer 1946, all of them were reunited to give presentations at the first computer course, which has come to be known as the Moore School Lectures; Goldstine's presentations, given without notes, covered deeply and rigorously numerical mathematical methods useful in programs for digital computers.After World War II Goldstine joined von Neumann and Burks at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, where they built a computer referred to as the IAS machine. Goldstine was appointed as assistant director of the project and was later its director, after 1954.The IAS machine influenced the design of IBM's early computers through von Neumann, who was a consultant to IBM. When von Neumann died in 1957, the IAS computer project was terminated. Goldstine went on to become the founding director of the Mathematical Sciences Department at IBM's Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York.At IBM one of Goldstine's most significant roles was in fostering relations between IBM researchers and the academic community. In 1969 he was appointed an IBM Fellow, the company's most prestigious technical honor, and a consultant to the director of research. As a fellow Goldstine developed an interest in the history of computing and mathematical sciences. He wrote three books on the topic; "The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann", "History of Numerical Analysis from the 16th Through the 19th Century" and "History of the Calculus of Variations from the Seventeenth Through the Nineteenth Century". As the title implies, in "The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann", Goldstine leaves little doubt that in his opinion von Neumann played a critical role in developing modern theories of computing.
|
[
"United States Army",
"University of Michigan",
"University of Chicago",
"Institute for Advanced Study"
] |
|
Which employer did Herman Goldstine work for in Jun, 1977?
|
June 16, 1977
|
{
"text": [
"Institute for Advanced Study"
]
}
|
L2_Q93005_P108_4
|
Herman Goldstine works for University of Chicago from Jan, 1936 to Jan, 1939.
Herman Goldstine works for United States Army from Jan, 1941 to Jan, 1946.
Herman Goldstine works for IBM from Jan, 1958 to Jan, 1973.
Herman Goldstine works for University of Michigan from Jan, 1939 to Jan, 1941.
Herman Goldstine works for Institute for Advanced Study from Jan, 1973 to Jan, 1984.
|
Herman GoldstineHerman Heine Goldstine (September 13, 1913 – June 16, 2004) was a mathematician and computer scientist, who worked as the director of the IAS machine at Princeton University's Institute for Advanced Study, and helped to develop ENIAC, the first of the modern electronic digital computers. He subsequently worked for many years at IBM as an IBM Fellow, the company's most prestigious technical position.Herman Heine Goldstine was born in Chicago in 1913 to Jewish parents. He attended the University of Chicago, where he joined the Phi Beta Kappa fraternity, and graduated with a degree in Mathematics in 1933, a master's degree in 1934, and a PhD in 1936. For three years he was a research assistant under Gilbert Ames Bliss, an authority on the mathematical theory of external ballistics. In 1939 Goldstine began a teaching career at the University of Michigan, until the United States' entry into World War II, when he joined the U. S. Army. In 1941 he married Adele Katz, who was an ENIAC programmer and who wrote the technical description for ENIAC. He had a daughter and a son with Adele, who died in 1964. Two years later he married secondly Ellen Watson.In retirement Goldstine became executive director of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia between 1985 and 1997, in which capacity he was able to attract many prestigious visitors and speakers.Goldstine died on June 16, 2004, at his home in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, after a long struggle with Parkinson's disease. His death was announced by the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York, where a post-doctoral fellowship was renamed in his honor.As a result of the United States' entering World War II, Goldstine left the University of Michigan where he was a professor in July, 1942 to enlist in the Army. He was commissioned a lieutenant and worked as an ordnance mathematician calculating firing tables at the Ballistic Research Laboratory (BRL) at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. The firing tables were used in battle to find the appropriate elevation and azimuth for aiming artillery, which had a range of several miles.The firing table calculations were accomplished by about one hundred women operating mechanical desk calculators. Each combination of gun, round and geographical region required a unique set of firing tables. It took about 750 calculations to compute a single trajectory and each table had about 3,000 trajectories. It took a human computer at least 7 hours to calculate one trajectory. To increase production, BRL enlisted the computing facilities of the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania and Goldstine was the liaison between BRL and the university.While making some adjustments to the Moore School's mechanical differential analyzer, engineer Joseph Chapline suggested Goldstine visit John Mauchly, a physics instructor at the Moore School, who had distributed a memorandum proposing that the calculations could be done thousands of times faster with an electronic computer using vacuum tubes. Mauchly wrote a proposal and in June 1943 he and Goldstine secured funding from the Army for the project. The ENIAC was built in 30 months with 200,000 man hours. The ENIAC was huge, measuring 30 by 60 feet and weighing 30 tons with 18,000 vacuum tubes. The device could only store 20 numbers and took days to program. It was completed in late 1945 as World War II was coming to an end.In spite of disappointment that ENIAC had not contributed to the war effort, interest remained strong in the Army to develop an electronic computer. Prior even to the ENIAC's completion, the Army procured a second contract from the Moore School to build a successor machine known as the EDVAC. Goldstine, Mauchly, J. Presper Eckert and Arthur Burks began to study the development of the new machine in the hopes of correcting the deficiencies of the ENIAC.In the summer of 1944 Goldstine had a chance encounter with the prominent mathematician John von Neumann on a railway platform in Aberdeen, Maryland, and Goldstine described his project at the University of Pennsylvania. Unknown to Goldstine, von Neumann was then working on the Manhattan Project, which was aiming to build the first atomic bomb. The calculations needed for this project were also daunting.As a result of his conversations with Goldstine, von Neumann joined the study group and wrote a memo called "First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC". Von Neumann intended this to be a memo to the study group, but Goldstine typed it up into a 101-page document that named von Neumann as the sole author. On June 25, 1946, Goldstine forwarded 24 copies of the document to those intimately involved in the EDVAC project; dozens or perhaps hundreds of mimeographs of the report were forwarded to von Neumann's colleagues at universities in the United States and in Great Britain in the weeks that followed. While incomplete, the paper was very well received and became a blueprint for building electronic digital computers. Due to von Neumann's prominence as a major American mathematician, the EDVAC architecture became known as the von Neumann architecture.One of the key ideas in the "first draft" was that the programmer could store a program in the computer's electronic memory, rather than program the computer using mechanical switches and patch cables. This and other ideas in the paper had been discussed in the EDVAC study group before von Neumann joined the group. The fact that Eckert and Mauchly, the actual inventors and designers of the ENIAC, were not named as co-authors created resentment that led to the group's dissolution at the end of the war.Eckert and Mauchly went on to form the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, a company that in part survives today as the Unisys Corporation, while von Neumann, Goldstine and Burks moved on into academic life at the Institute for Advanced Study. In Summer 1946, all of them were reunited to give presentations at the first computer course, which has come to be known as the Moore School Lectures; Goldstine's presentations, given without notes, covered deeply and rigorously numerical mathematical methods useful in programs for digital computers.After World War II Goldstine joined von Neumann and Burks at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, where they built a computer referred to as the IAS machine. Goldstine was appointed as assistant director of the project and was later its director, after 1954.The IAS machine influenced the design of IBM's early computers through von Neumann, who was a consultant to IBM. When von Neumann died in 1957, the IAS computer project was terminated. Goldstine went on to become the founding director of the Mathematical Sciences Department at IBM's Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York.At IBM one of Goldstine's most significant roles was in fostering relations between IBM researchers and the academic community. In 1969 he was appointed an IBM Fellow, the company's most prestigious technical honor, and a consultant to the director of research. As a fellow Goldstine developed an interest in the history of computing and mathematical sciences. He wrote three books on the topic; "The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann", "History of Numerical Analysis from the 16th Through the 19th Century" and "History of the Calculus of Variations from the Seventeenth Through the Nineteenth Century". As the title implies, in "The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann", Goldstine leaves little doubt that in his opinion von Neumann played a critical role in developing modern theories of computing.
|
[
"IBM",
"United States Army",
"University of Michigan",
"University of Chicago"
] |
|
Which team did Malemngamba Meetei play for in Jan, 2009?
|
January 01, 2009
|
{
"text": [
"North Imphal Sporting Association"
]
}
|
L2_Q6743074_P54_0
|
Malemngamba Meetei plays for Bengaluru FC from Jan, 2013 to Jan, 2015.
Malemngamba Meetei plays for North Imphal Sporting Association from Jan, 2009 to Jan, 2009.
Malemngamba Meetei plays for Salgaocar F.C. from Jan, 2012 to Jan, 2013.
Malemngamba Meetei plays for Mumbai F.C. from Jan, 2015 to Dec, 2022.
Malemngamba Meetei plays for Hindustan Aeronautics Limited S.C. from Jan, 2010 to Jan, 2012.
|
Malemngamba MeiteiKshetrimayum Malemnganba Meitei (born 5 January 1992) is an Indian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Gokulam Kerala in the I-League .Born in Yairipok, Manipur, Meetei started playing football from the age of seven years after watching the Brazil national team during the 1998 FIFA World Cup. After having participated in many camps and development programs, Meetei began playing for NEROCA FC in 2007. While with NEROCA Meetei played in the Manipur State League, which was the top tier league for football in Manipur. He then signed for the North Imphal Sporting Association (NISA) in 2009 who were the reigning Manipur league winners and participants in the I-League 2nd Division.After playing the final rounds of the 2nd Division in Bangalore, Meetei was signed by newly promoted HAL SC for the new I-League season. Two seasons later, after the club were relegated, Meetei signed for former I-League champions, Salgaocar, for the 2012–13 season.After spending one season at Salgaocar, he played for [Bengaluru FC] for two years from 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 season. During his two year tenure at the club, Bangaluru Fc won I-League in the debut season and Federation cup in the 2nd season. He made his debut for the side in the club's first ever I-League match against Mohun Bagan A.C. in which he started and played 80 minutes before being replaced by Robin Singh as Bengaluru drew the match 1–1. After the 2014–15 season, Meetei was released by the club. After his release, Meitei was listed as being eligible to be picked in the 2015 ISL Domestic Draft.After playing for two years at Bangaluru FC, Meetei signed for Mumbai and played for them in the Mumbai Football League and subsequently 2015–16 I-League.He recently played for NEROCA FC of Manipur (2016-2017) which became the first club from Manipur to be crowned winner of 2nd Division I-League after defeating Lonestar Kashmir FC (4-1) with a game in hand against Southern Samity FC.He is currently playing for NorthEast United in the Indian Super League for season 2017-18. He was picked by NorthEast United in the ISL Domestic Draft at a price cap of ₹16 lakhs.
|
[
"Bengaluru FC",
"Mumbai F.C.",
"Salgaocar F.C.",
"Hindustan Aeronautics Limited S.C."
] |
|
Which team did Malemngamba Meetei play for in Jan, 2010?
|
January 21, 2010
|
{
"text": [
"Hindustan Aeronautics Limited S.C."
]
}
|
L2_Q6743074_P54_1
|
Malemngamba Meetei plays for Salgaocar F.C. from Jan, 2012 to Jan, 2013.
Malemngamba Meetei plays for Bengaluru FC from Jan, 2013 to Jan, 2015.
Malemngamba Meetei plays for Mumbai F.C. from Jan, 2015 to Dec, 2022.
Malemngamba Meetei plays for Hindustan Aeronautics Limited S.C. from Jan, 2010 to Jan, 2012.
Malemngamba Meetei plays for North Imphal Sporting Association from Jan, 2009 to Jan, 2009.
|
Malemngamba MeiteiKshetrimayum Malemnganba Meitei (born 5 January 1992) is an Indian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Gokulam Kerala in the I-League .Born in Yairipok, Manipur, Meetei started playing football from the age of seven years after watching the Brazil national team during the 1998 FIFA World Cup. After having participated in many camps and development programs, Meetei began playing for NEROCA FC in 2007. While with NEROCA Meetei played in the Manipur State League, which was the top tier league for football in Manipur. He then signed for the North Imphal Sporting Association (NISA) in 2009 who were the reigning Manipur league winners and participants in the I-League 2nd Division.After playing the final rounds of the 2nd Division in Bangalore, Meetei was signed by newly promoted HAL SC for the new I-League season. Two seasons later, after the club were relegated, Meetei signed for former I-League champions, Salgaocar, for the 2012–13 season.After spending one season at Salgaocar, he played for [Bengaluru FC] for two years from 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 season. During his two year tenure at the club, Bangaluru Fc won I-League in the debut season and Federation cup in the 2nd season. He made his debut for the side in the club's first ever I-League match against Mohun Bagan A.C. in which he started and played 80 minutes before being replaced by Robin Singh as Bengaluru drew the match 1–1. After the 2014–15 season, Meetei was released by the club. After his release, Meitei was listed as being eligible to be picked in the 2015 ISL Domestic Draft.After playing for two years at Bangaluru FC, Meetei signed for Mumbai and played for them in the Mumbai Football League and subsequently 2015–16 I-League.He recently played for NEROCA FC of Manipur (2016-2017) which became the first club from Manipur to be crowned winner of 2nd Division I-League after defeating Lonestar Kashmir FC (4-1) with a game in hand against Southern Samity FC.He is currently playing for NorthEast United in the Indian Super League for season 2017-18. He was picked by NorthEast United in the ISL Domestic Draft at a price cap of ₹16 lakhs.
|
[
"Bengaluru FC",
"Mumbai F.C.",
"North Imphal Sporting Association",
"Salgaocar F.C."
] |
|
Which team did Malemngamba Meetei play for in Dec, 2012?
|
December 10, 2012
|
{
"text": [
"Salgaocar F.C."
]
}
|
L2_Q6743074_P54_2
|
Malemngamba Meetei plays for North Imphal Sporting Association from Jan, 2009 to Jan, 2009.
Malemngamba Meetei plays for Mumbai F.C. from Jan, 2015 to Dec, 2022.
Malemngamba Meetei plays for Salgaocar F.C. from Jan, 2012 to Jan, 2013.
Malemngamba Meetei plays for Bengaluru FC from Jan, 2013 to Jan, 2015.
Malemngamba Meetei plays for Hindustan Aeronautics Limited S.C. from Jan, 2010 to Jan, 2012.
|
Malemngamba MeiteiKshetrimayum Malemnganba Meitei (born 5 January 1992) is an Indian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Gokulam Kerala in the I-League .Born in Yairipok, Manipur, Meetei started playing football from the age of seven years after watching the Brazil national team during the 1998 FIFA World Cup. After having participated in many camps and development programs, Meetei began playing for NEROCA FC in 2007. While with NEROCA Meetei played in the Manipur State League, which was the top tier league for football in Manipur. He then signed for the North Imphal Sporting Association (NISA) in 2009 who were the reigning Manipur league winners and participants in the I-League 2nd Division.After playing the final rounds of the 2nd Division in Bangalore, Meetei was signed by newly promoted HAL SC for the new I-League season. Two seasons later, after the club were relegated, Meetei signed for former I-League champions, Salgaocar, for the 2012–13 season.After spending one season at Salgaocar, he played for [Bengaluru FC] for two years from 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 season. During his two year tenure at the club, Bangaluru Fc won I-League in the debut season and Federation cup in the 2nd season. He made his debut for the side in the club's first ever I-League match against Mohun Bagan A.C. in which he started and played 80 minutes before being replaced by Robin Singh as Bengaluru drew the match 1–1. After the 2014–15 season, Meetei was released by the club. After his release, Meitei was listed as being eligible to be picked in the 2015 ISL Domestic Draft.After playing for two years at Bangaluru FC, Meetei signed for Mumbai and played for them in the Mumbai Football League and subsequently 2015–16 I-League.He recently played for NEROCA FC of Manipur (2016-2017) which became the first club from Manipur to be crowned winner of 2nd Division I-League after defeating Lonestar Kashmir FC (4-1) with a game in hand against Southern Samity FC.He is currently playing for NorthEast United in the Indian Super League for season 2017-18. He was picked by NorthEast United in the ISL Domestic Draft at a price cap of ₹16 lakhs.
|
[
"Bengaluru FC",
"Mumbai F.C.",
"North Imphal Sporting Association",
"Hindustan Aeronautics Limited S.C."
] |
|
Which team did Malemngamba Meetei play for in Oct, 2014?
|
October 24, 2014
|
{
"text": [
"Bengaluru FC"
]
}
|
L2_Q6743074_P54_3
|
Malemngamba Meetei plays for Mumbai F.C. from Jan, 2015 to Dec, 2022.
Malemngamba Meetei plays for Bengaluru FC from Jan, 2013 to Jan, 2015.
Malemngamba Meetei plays for Salgaocar F.C. from Jan, 2012 to Jan, 2013.
Malemngamba Meetei plays for North Imphal Sporting Association from Jan, 2009 to Jan, 2009.
Malemngamba Meetei plays for Hindustan Aeronautics Limited S.C. from Jan, 2010 to Jan, 2012.
|
Malemngamba MeiteiKshetrimayum Malemnganba Meitei (born 5 January 1992) is an Indian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Gokulam Kerala in the I-League .Born in Yairipok, Manipur, Meetei started playing football from the age of seven years after watching the Brazil national team during the 1998 FIFA World Cup. After having participated in many camps and development programs, Meetei began playing for NEROCA FC in 2007. While with NEROCA Meetei played in the Manipur State League, which was the top tier league for football in Manipur. He then signed for the North Imphal Sporting Association (NISA) in 2009 who were the reigning Manipur league winners and participants in the I-League 2nd Division.After playing the final rounds of the 2nd Division in Bangalore, Meetei was signed by newly promoted HAL SC for the new I-League season. Two seasons later, after the club were relegated, Meetei signed for former I-League champions, Salgaocar, for the 2012–13 season.After spending one season at Salgaocar, he played for [Bengaluru FC] for two years from 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 season. During his two year tenure at the club, Bangaluru Fc won I-League in the debut season and Federation cup in the 2nd season. He made his debut for the side in the club's first ever I-League match against Mohun Bagan A.C. in which he started and played 80 minutes before being replaced by Robin Singh as Bengaluru drew the match 1–1. After the 2014–15 season, Meetei was released by the club. After his release, Meitei was listed as being eligible to be picked in the 2015 ISL Domestic Draft.After playing for two years at Bangaluru FC, Meetei signed for Mumbai and played for them in the Mumbai Football League and subsequently 2015–16 I-League.He recently played for NEROCA FC of Manipur (2016-2017) which became the first club from Manipur to be crowned winner of 2nd Division I-League after defeating Lonestar Kashmir FC (4-1) with a game in hand against Southern Samity FC.He is currently playing for NorthEast United in the Indian Super League for season 2017-18. He was picked by NorthEast United in the ISL Domestic Draft at a price cap of ₹16 lakhs.
|
[
"Mumbai F.C.",
"North Imphal Sporting Association",
"Hindustan Aeronautics Limited S.C.",
"Salgaocar F.C."
] |
|
Which team did Malemngamba Meetei play for in Mar, 2021?
|
March 09, 2021
|
{
"text": [
"Mumbai F.C."
]
}
|
L2_Q6743074_P54_4
|
Malemngamba Meetei plays for Bengaluru FC from Jan, 2013 to Jan, 2015.
Malemngamba Meetei plays for Mumbai F.C. from Jan, 2015 to Dec, 2022.
Malemngamba Meetei plays for Hindustan Aeronautics Limited S.C. from Jan, 2010 to Jan, 2012.
Malemngamba Meetei plays for Salgaocar F.C. from Jan, 2012 to Jan, 2013.
Malemngamba Meetei plays for North Imphal Sporting Association from Jan, 2009 to Jan, 2009.
|
Malemngamba MeiteiKshetrimayum Malemnganba Meitei (born 5 January 1992) is an Indian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Gokulam Kerala in the I-League .Born in Yairipok, Manipur, Meetei started playing football from the age of seven years after watching the Brazil national team during the 1998 FIFA World Cup. After having participated in many camps and development programs, Meetei began playing for NEROCA FC in 2007. While with NEROCA Meetei played in the Manipur State League, which was the top tier league for football in Manipur. He then signed for the North Imphal Sporting Association (NISA) in 2009 who were the reigning Manipur league winners and participants in the I-League 2nd Division.After playing the final rounds of the 2nd Division in Bangalore, Meetei was signed by newly promoted HAL SC for the new I-League season. Two seasons later, after the club were relegated, Meetei signed for former I-League champions, Salgaocar, for the 2012–13 season.After spending one season at Salgaocar, he played for [Bengaluru FC] for two years from 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 season. During his two year tenure at the club, Bangaluru Fc won I-League in the debut season and Federation cup in the 2nd season. He made his debut for the side in the club's first ever I-League match against Mohun Bagan A.C. in which he started and played 80 minutes before being replaced by Robin Singh as Bengaluru drew the match 1–1. After the 2014–15 season, Meetei was released by the club. After his release, Meitei was listed as being eligible to be picked in the 2015 ISL Domestic Draft.After playing for two years at Bangaluru FC, Meetei signed for Mumbai and played for them in the Mumbai Football League and subsequently 2015–16 I-League.He recently played for NEROCA FC of Manipur (2016-2017) which became the first club from Manipur to be crowned winner of 2nd Division I-League after defeating Lonestar Kashmir FC (4-1) with a game in hand against Southern Samity FC.He is currently playing for NorthEast United in the Indian Super League for season 2017-18. He was picked by NorthEast United in the ISL Domestic Draft at a price cap of ₹16 lakhs.
|
[
"Bengaluru FC",
"North Imphal Sporting Association",
"Hindustan Aeronautics Limited S.C.",
"Salgaocar F.C."
] |
|
Who was the head of Hon-Hergies in May, 1872?
|
May 30, 1872
|
{
"text": [
"Henri Joseph François"
]
}
|
L2_Q1115329_P6_0
|
Edgard Pature is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1919 to Jan, 2000.
Léopold Auquier is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1896 to Jan, 1919.
Léopold Boez is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1882 to Jan, 1884.
Achille Désiré Hongne is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1876 to Jan, 1882.
Henri Joseph François is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1871 to Jan, 1876.
Polycarpe Augustin Joseph Joly is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1884 to Jan, 1896.
Muriel Rzeszutek is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Mar, 2001 to Mar, 2014.
Luc Bertaux is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Mar, 2014 to Dec, 2022.
|
Hon-HergiesHon-Hergies () is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.The village of Hon existed in the 9th century and then became famous for the adulterous loves of Lothaire II, king of Lorraine, nephew of Charles-le-Chauve. In 862, Lothaire II, great-grandson of Charlemagne and king of Lotharingia, donated the stronghold of Canteraine to the abbey of Lobbes.In 1678, by the Treaty of Nijmegen, Louis XIV obtained that all the villages of the provost of Bavay, until then included in the Spanish Netherlands, be attached to his kingdom.In 1790, Hon and Hergies merged to become Hon-Hergies.These arms are also those of the municipalities of Taisnières-sur-Hon and Moustier-en-Fagne. These three communes were possessions of the abbey of Lobbes from which they inherited the arms.There are 7 Petit Granit quarries, 5 marble quarries, 5 lime kilns, 3 wheat mills, 1 oil mill, a marble sawmill and 3 breweries in Hon Hergies.
|
[
"Edgard Pature",
"Léopold Boez",
"Léopold Auquier",
"Luc Bertaux",
"Achille Désiré Hongne",
"Polycarpe Augustin Joseph Joly",
"Muriel Rzeszutek"
] |
|
Who was the head of Hon-Hergies in Apr, 1879?
|
April 26, 1879
|
{
"text": [
"Achille Désiré Hongne"
]
}
|
L2_Q1115329_P6_1
|
Léopold Auquier is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1896 to Jan, 1919.
Luc Bertaux is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Mar, 2014 to Dec, 2022.
Muriel Rzeszutek is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Mar, 2001 to Mar, 2014.
Polycarpe Augustin Joseph Joly is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1884 to Jan, 1896.
Edgard Pature is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1919 to Jan, 2000.
Achille Désiré Hongne is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1876 to Jan, 1882.
Henri Joseph François is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1871 to Jan, 1876.
Léopold Boez is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1882 to Jan, 1884.
|
Hon-HergiesHon-Hergies () is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.The village of Hon existed in the 9th century and then became famous for the adulterous loves of Lothaire II, king of Lorraine, nephew of Charles-le-Chauve. In 862, Lothaire II, great-grandson of Charlemagne and king of Lotharingia, donated the stronghold of Canteraine to the abbey of Lobbes.In 1678, by the Treaty of Nijmegen, Louis XIV obtained that all the villages of the provost of Bavay, until then included in the Spanish Netherlands, be attached to his kingdom.In 1790, Hon and Hergies merged to become Hon-Hergies.These arms are also those of the municipalities of Taisnières-sur-Hon and Moustier-en-Fagne. These three communes were possessions of the abbey of Lobbes from which they inherited the arms.There are 7 Petit Granit quarries, 5 marble quarries, 5 lime kilns, 3 wheat mills, 1 oil mill, a marble sawmill and 3 breweries in Hon Hergies.
|
[
"Edgard Pature",
"Henri Joseph François",
"Léopold Boez",
"Léopold Auquier",
"Luc Bertaux",
"Polycarpe Augustin Joseph Joly",
"Muriel Rzeszutek"
] |
|
Who was the head of Hon-Hergies in Dec, 1882?
|
December 12, 1882
|
{
"text": [
"Léopold Boez"
]
}
|
L2_Q1115329_P6_2
|
Achille Désiré Hongne is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1876 to Jan, 1882.
Muriel Rzeszutek is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Mar, 2001 to Mar, 2014.
Henri Joseph François is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1871 to Jan, 1876.
Edgard Pature is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1919 to Jan, 2000.
Léopold Auquier is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1896 to Jan, 1919.
Léopold Boez is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1882 to Jan, 1884.
Luc Bertaux is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Mar, 2014 to Dec, 2022.
Polycarpe Augustin Joseph Joly is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1884 to Jan, 1896.
|
Hon-HergiesHon-Hergies () is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.The village of Hon existed in the 9th century and then became famous for the adulterous loves of Lothaire II, king of Lorraine, nephew of Charles-le-Chauve. In 862, Lothaire II, great-grandson of Charlemagne and king of Lotharingia, donated the stronghold of Canteraine to the abbey of Lobbes.In 1678, by the Treaty of Nijmegen, Louis XIV obtained that all the villages of the provost of Bavay, until then included in the Spanish Netherlands, be attached to his kingdom.In 1790, Hon and Hergies merged to become Hon-Hergies.These arms are also those of the municipalities of Taisnières-sur-Hon and Moustier-en-Fagne. These three communes were possessions of the abbey of Lobbes from which they inherited the arms.There are 7 Petit Granit quarries, 5 marble quarries, 5 lime kilns, 3 wheat mills, 1 oil mill, a marble sawmill and 3 breweries in Hon Hergies.
|
[
"Edgard Pature",
"Henri Joseph François",
"Léopold Auquier",
"Luc Bertaux",
"Achille Désiré Hongne",
"Polycarpe Augustin Joseph Joly",
"Muriel Rzeszutek"
] |
|
Who was the head of Hon-Hergies in Apr, 1887?
|
April 07, 1887
|
{
"text": [
"Polycarpe Augustin Joseph Joly"
]
}
|
L2_Q1115329_P6_3
|
Henri Joseph François is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1871 to Jan, 1876.
Edgard Pature is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1919 to Jan, 2000.
Achille Désiré Hongne is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1876 to Jan, 1882.
Polycarpe Augustin Joseph Joly is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1884 to Jan, 1896.
Luc Bertaux is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Mar, 2014 to Dec, 2022.
Léopold Auquier is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1896 to Jan, 1919.
Muriel Rzeszutek is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Mar, 2001 to Mar, 2014.
Léopold Boez is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1882 to Jan, 1884.
|
Hon-HergiesHon-Hergies () is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.The village of Hon existed in the 9th century and then became famous for the adulterous loves of Lothaire II, king of Lorraine, nephew of Charles-le-Chauve. In 862, Lothaire II, great-grandson of Charlemagne and king of Lotharingia, donated the stronghold of Canteraine to the abbey of Lobbes.In 1678, by the Treaty of Nijmegen, Louis XIV obtained that all the villages of the provost of Bavay, until then included in the Spanish Netherlands, be attached to his kingdom.In 1790, Hon and Hergies merged to become Hon-Hergies.These arms are also those of the municipalities of Taisnières-sur-Hon and Moustier-en-Fagne. These three communes were possessions of the abbey of Lobbes from which they inherited the arms.There are 7 Petit Granit quarries, 5 marble quarries, 5 lime kilns, 3 wheat mills, 1 oil mill, a marble sawmill and 3 breweries in Hon Hergies.
|
[
"Edgard Pature",
"Henri Joseph François",
"Léopold Boez",
"Léopold Auquier",
"Luc Bertaux",
"Achille Désiré Hongne",
"Muriel Rzeszutek"
] |
|
Who was the head of Hon-Hergies in Apr, 1913?
|
April 23, 1913
|
{
"text": [
"Léopold Auquier"
]
}
|
L2_Q1115329_P6_4
|
Edgard Pature is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1919 to Jan, 2000.
Léopold Auquier is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1896 to Jan, 1919.
Achille Désiré Hongne is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1876 to Jan, 1882.
Henri Joseph François is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1871 to Jan, 1876.
Muriel Rzeszutek is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Mar, 2001 to Mar, 2014.
Polycarpe Augustin Joseph Joly is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1884 to Jan, 1896.
Léopold Boez is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1882 to Jan, 1884.
Luc Bertaux is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Mar, 2014 to Dec, 2022.
|
Hon-HergiesHon-Hergies () is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.The village of Hon existed in the 9th century and then became famous for the adulterous loves of Lothaire II, king of Lorraine, nephew of Charles-le-Chauve. In 862, Lothaire II, great-grandson of Charlemagne and king of Lotharingia, donated the stronghold of Canteraine to the abbey of Lobbes.In 1678, by the Treaty of Nijmegen, Louis XIV obtained that all the villages of the provost of Bavay, until then included in the Spanish Netherlands, be attached to his kingdom.In 1790, Hon and Hergies merged to become Hon-Hergies.These arms are also those of the municipalities of Taisnières-sur-Hon and Moustier-en-Fagne. These three communes were possessions of the abbey of Lobbes from which they inherited the arms.There are 7 Petit Granit quarries, 5 marble quarries, 5 lime kilns, 3 wheat mills, 1 oil mill, a marble sawmill and 3 breweries in Hon Hergies.
|
[
"Edgard Pature",
"Henri Joseph François",
"Léopold Boez",
"Luc Bertaux",
"Achille Désiré Hongne",
"Polycarpe Augustin Joseph Joly",
"Muriel Rzeszutek"
] |
|
Who was the head of Hon-Hergies in Nov, 1959?
|
November 19, 1959
|
{
"text": [
"Edgard Pature"
]
}
|
L2_Q1115329_P6_5
|
Achille Désiré Hongne is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1876 to Jan, 1882.
Muriel Rzeszutek is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Mar, 2001 to Mar, 2014.
Polycarpe Augustin Joseph Joly is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1884 to Jan, 1896.
Luc Bertaux is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Mar, 2014 to Dec, 2022.
Léopold Auquier is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1896 to Jan, 1919.
Léopold Boez is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1882 to Jan, 1884.
Edgard Pature is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1919 to Jan, 2000.
Henri Joseph François is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1871 to Jan, 1876.
|
Hon-HergiesHon-Hergies () is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.The village of Hon existed in the 9th century and then became famous for the adulterous loves of Lothaire II, king of Lorraine, nephew of Charles-le-Chauve. In 862, Lothaire II, great-grandson of Charlemagne and king of Lotharingia, donated the stronghold of Canteraine to the abbey of Lobbes.In 1678, by the Treaty of Nijmegen, Louis XIV obtained that all the villages of the provost of Bavay, until then included in the Spanish Netherlands, be attached to his kingdom.In 1790, Hon and Hergies merged to become Hon-Hergies.These arms are also those of the municipalities of Taisnières-sur-Hon and Moustier-en-Fagne. These three communes were possessions of the abbey of Lobbes from which they inherited the arms.There are 7 Petit Granit quarries, 5 marble quarries, 5 lime kilns, 3 wheat mills, 1 oil mill, a marble sawmill and 3 breweries in Hon Hergies.
|
[
"Henri Joseph François",
"Léopold Boez",
"Léopold Auquier",
"Luc Bertaux",
"Achille Désiré Hongne",
"Polycarpe Augustin Joseph Joly",
"Muriel Rzeszutek"
] |
|
Who was the head of Hon-Hergies in Aug, 2004?
|
August 09, 2004
|
{
"text": [
"Muriel Rzeszutek"
]
}
|
L2_Q1115329_P6_6
|
Edgard Pature is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1919 to Jan, 2000.
Muriel Rzeszutek is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Mar, 2001 to Mar, 2014.
Léopold Auquier is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1896 to Jan, 1919.
Polycarpe Augustin Joseph Joly is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1884 to Jan, 1896.
Léopold Boez is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1882 to Jan, 1884.
Henri Joseph François is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1871 to Jan, 1876.
Achille Désiré Hongne is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1876 to Jan, 1882.
Luc Bertaux is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Mar, 2014 to Dec, 2022.
|
Hon-HergiesHon-Hergies () is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.The village of Hon existed in the 9th century and then became famous for the adulterous loves of Lothaire II, king of Lorraine, nephew of Charles-le-Chauve. In 862, Lothaire II, great-grandson of Charlemagne and king of Lotharingia, donated the stronghold of Canteraine to the abbey of Lobbes.In 1678, by the Treaty of Nijmegen, Louis XIV obtained that all the villages of the provost of Bavay, until then included in the Spanish Netherlands, be attached to his kingdom.In 1790, Hon and Hergies merged to become Hon-Hergies.These arms are also those of the municipalities of Taisnières-sur-Hon and Moustier-en-Fagne. These three communes were possessions of the abbey of Lobbes from which they inherited the arms.There are 7 Petit Granit quarries, 5 marble quarries, 5 lime kilns, 3 wheat mills, 1 oil mill, a marble sawmill and 3 breweries in Hon Hergies.
|
[
"Edgard Pature",
"Henri Joseph François",
"Léopold Boez",
"Léopold Auquier",
"Luc Bertaux",
"Achille Désiré Hongne",
"Polycarpe Augustin Joseph Joly"
] |
|
Who was the head of Hon-Hergies in Apr, 2016?
|
April 14, 2016
|
{
"text": [
"Luc Bertaux"
]
}
|
L2_Q1115329_P6_7
|
Léopold Auquier is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1896 to Jan, 1919.
Achille Désiré Hongne is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1876 to Jan, 1882.
Muriel Rzeszutek is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Mar, 2001 to Mar, 2014.
Edgard Pature is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1919 to Jan, 2000.
Polycarpe Augustin Joseph Joly is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1884 to Jan, 1896.
Luc Bertaux is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Mar, 2014 to Dec, 2022.
Henri Joseph François is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1871 to Jan, 1876.
Léopold Boez is the head of the government of Hon-Hergies from Jan, 1882 to Jan, 1884.
|
Hon-HergiesHon-Hergies () is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.The village of Hon existed in the 9th century and then became famous for the adulterous loves of Lothaire II, king of Lorraine, nephew of Charles-le-Chauve. In 862, Lothaire II, great-grandson of Charlemagne and king of Lotharingia, donated the stronghold of Canteraine to the abbey of Lobbes.In 1678, by the Treaty of Nijmegen, Louis XIV obtained that all the villages of the provost of Bavay, until then included in the Spanish Netherlands, be attached to his kingdom.In 1790, Hon and Hergies merged to become Hon-Hergies.These arms are also those of the municipalities of Taisnières-sur-Hon and Moustier-en-Fagne. These three communes were possessions of the abbey of Lobbes from which they inherited the arms.There are 7 Petit Granit quarries, 5 marble quarries, 5 lime kilns, 3 wheat mills, 1 oil mill, a marble sawmill and 3 breweries in Hon Hergies.
|
[
"Edgard Pature",
"Henri Joseph François",
"Léopold Boez",
"Léopold Auquier",
"Achille Désiré Hongne",
"Polycarpe Augustin Joseph Joly",
"Muriel Rzeszutek"
] |
|
Who was the head coach of the team Stade Malherbe Caen in Sep, 2019?
|
September 20, 2019
|
{
"text": [
"Rui Almeida"
]
}
|
L2_Q193377_P286_0
|
Stéphane Moulin is the head coach of Stade Malherbe Caen from Jun, 2021 to Dec, 2022.
Pascal Dupraz is the head coach of Stade Malherbe Caen from Oct, 2019 to Mar, 2021.
Rui Almeida is the head coach of Stade Malherbe Caen from Jul, 2019 to Sep, 2019.
|
Stade Malherbe CaenStade Malherbe Caen (; commonly known as SM Caen, SMC, or simply Caen) is a French professional football team, based in the city of Caen in Normandy, that competes in the Ligue 2. The club was founded on 17 November 1913 by the merger of "Club Malherbe Caennais" and "Club Sportif Caennais". The team takes its name from François de Malherbe, a 17th century poet from Caen.For most of its history, SM Caen has been one of the main amateur clubs in France. The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the rise of Stade Malherbe in the French football hierarchy. In 1985, Stade Malherbe adopted professional status. Three seasons later, it was promoted for the first time to first division. In 1992, a few months after being narrowly saved from bankruptcy, the club finished fifth in Division 1 and qualified for UEFA Cup. But it was relegated three years later. Despite a second division title won in 1996, SM Caen fell back into the anonymity of the second division.Under the chairmanship of Jean-François Fortin, from 2002, and under the sporting direction of Patrick Rémy, Franck Dumas and then Patrice Garande, the Stade Malherbe has regained sporting success. The club was promoted in Ligue 1 several times, reached the Coupe de la Ligue final in 2005 and finished 7th in Ligue 1 in 2016. In 2018, as the club began its 5th consecutive season in Ligue 1, a conflict erupted within the management team: Jean-François Fortin left his place to Gilles Sergent, while Patrice Garande was replaced by Fabien Mercadal. Caen was relegated to Ligue 2 in 2019, after finishing 19th in the previous Ligue 1 season.SM Caen has been playing since 1993 at the Stade Michel d'Ornano. Before and since its foundation, the club played at Stade de Venoix, which is now used by the reserve team. It has essentially geographical rivalries with Le Havre AC (sometimes called ""Le derby normand"") and Stade Rennais, its closest neighbour in Ligue 1.Many football clubs were constituted in Caen at the end of the 19th century : the "Union sportive des étudiants de Caen", founded in 1892, the "Union Athlétique du Lycée Malherbe" (UALM), founded in 1892 or 1895 and the "Club Sportif Caennais", founded in November 1899. These clubs participated in the early editions of the football championship organised by the "Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques".In 1907, former members of UALM created the "Club Malherbe Caennais", soon the best club in Lower Normandy. In 1909 and 1911, several friendlies matches were organised between a selection of players from Caen and the English club of St Albans City F.C..The "Stade Malherbe Caennais" was officially founded on 17 November 1913 from the merger of "Club Sportif Caennais" and "Club Malherbe Caennais". It was a multi-sport athletic club, which adopted the "Malherbe" and the striped jersey of the CMC, and the red and blue colours of CSC. The club had its own facilities – the Stade de Venoix – inherited from the CMC.The football team of CMC, engaged in the league in Lower Normandy, changed its name just after the start of the season. By winning this competition, Stade Malherbe recorded their first title in its first year of existence. Having qualified for the finals of the 1914 USFSA Football Championship, Caen was eliminated in the 1/8 final by the Union sportive Servannaise : after a draw in the first game (3–3) it had to forfeit the second. World War I stopped the competitions. Thirty-nine members of the club were killed in the fighting, including former captain Eugène Lesomptier.In 1919, the USFSA championship was replaced by regional championships organised by the French Football Federation, called "Division d'Honneur". Stade Malherbe, reinforced by the move to Caen of the former French international Eugène Maës, won six times the championship of Lower Normandy between 1920 and 1928, but were unable to compete with the major Upper Normandy clubs, Le Havre AC and FC Rouen. Since 1919–20, Caen also participated in the Coupe de France but fell in round of 32 in 1921 and 1922. In 1929, the two "Division d'Honneur" leagues of Normandy were merged and Stade Malherbe was promoted the year after. Its best final standing was 5th in 1933.In 1934, one year after FC Rouen and Le Havre AC, Stade Malherbe acquired professional status and reached the French Division 2. The club finished 11th out of 16 for the first season, then 6th in 1936 and 8th in 1937. But its financial situation deteriorated and Stade Malherbe left D2 in 1938, after four professional seasons.The club then returned to "Division d'Honneur" of Normandy. It won the last edition before World War II in 1938–39, and the first two after WW2 in 1946 and 1947.In 1948, Stade Malherbe joined the newly founded "", the third level of French football. Soon considered as a "lord" in CFA, Caen was unable to win the championship, unlike their regional rival US Quevilly, despite successive calls to former French international players as coaches: Jules Vandooren, Jean Prouff, Andre Grillon, Jean Vincent and Oliver Celestin.Stade Malherbe made itself known essentially by repeated feats in Coupe de France in the 1950s : French champion Stade de Reims (2–1) and top teams Racing Club de France (3–2) and RC Lens were defeated in January 1953, 1956 and 1961. In 1958, Caen pushed FC Nantes to play five games to decide: the first three games resulting in 0–0 draws, the fourth was stopped, the fifth saw Nantes win 1–0. Through its success Caen won the "Challenge France-Football" rewarding the best amateur team in Coupe de France in 1956 and 1961. Undermined by the instability of its coaches and presidents and a precarious financial health, Stade Malherbe weakened gradually and was relegated twice (in 1962 and 1965) into Division d'Honneur, but regained its place in CFA.In 1970, the CFA was removed and the Division 2 was enlarged to 48 teams. During the 1970s, Caen evolved between D3 and D2, where it failed to stabilise. Jacques Mouilleron became coach in 1973. In 1975, the club won its first national title: the West group of Division 3. Stade Malherbe was named best amateur club by France-Football and Jean-Paul Bouffandeau and Jean-Paul Pottier were named French amateur players of the year in 1975 and 1976. 3 years later, Caen fell back to D3.Pierre Mankowski was hired as player-coach in 1983. He led Stade Malherbe from D3 to the top of D2 in a few seasons, and pushed it to adopt professional status in 1985.SM Caen has been a professional football club since 1985. The stated objective of Mankowski was to bring Caen into the first division. He helped the team improve, first in defence then in attack. Caen finished sixth in D2 in 1986 and second in 1987, with notable scorers Philippe Prieur and Éric Pécout. Caen made the stade de Venoix an unbeatable place but bowed out in front of AS Cannes in the playoffs. Caen succeeded in the playoffs following season, defeating Olympique Lyonnais and Chamois Niortais F.C., relegated from D1.In 1988 Stade Malherbe made Division 1. Despite many departures, including coach Mankowski (replaced by Robert Nouzaret) and six first losses, Caen stayed up, one point ahead of RC Strasbourg, with the advent of a promising striker Fabrice Divert. Stade Malherbe confirmed, not without difficulties, its performance the following season.With a new coach, Daniel Jeandupeux, the team was largely restructured. In 1990–91, Caen took its place in the first half of Division 1, thanks to the excellent results obtained in Venoix. However, the press revealed in late 1991 that the club was close to bankruptcy. Regional businesses and local government bailed out the club, which led to a brilliant 1991–92 season. Stade Malherbe finished fifth and qualified for the first (and so far only) time for the UEFA Cup. Stéphane Paille scored 15 goals during the season. For the first round of the 1992–93 UEFA Cup, Caen had to face up to Real Zaragoza. Caen won 3–2 in the 1st leg but lost 2–0 in Spain. Despite the goals of Xavier Gravelaine, SM Caen finished the season in a relatively disappointing eleventh rank.In the 2003–04 season, Caen finished 2nd in Ligue 2, gaining promotion to Ligue 1. They were relegated on the last day of the 2004–05 Ligue 1 season, finishing in 18th place despite some positive results, including a surprise 3–2 away win at Marseille. But the main highlight of their season was making it into the final of the Coupe de la Ligue for the first time in their history. Their chance at a major trophy eluded them however, as they lost 2–1 to Strasbourg in the final.On 25 May 2007, SM Caen obtained promotion to Ligue 1 after a victory in last game at Libourne (1–2). In the 2008–09 season, the team was once again relegated to Ligue 2 after losing 1–0 at home to Bordeaux, but won championship next season and thus came back to Ligue 1.In the 2010–11 season, Caen got off to a highly impressive start by defeating defending champions Marseille 2–1 away on the first day of the season, then following it up with a 3–2 home win over the previous season's Champions League semi-finalists Lyon.In the 2013–14 season, Caen were in Ligue 2, but won promotion to Ligue 1 for the 2014–15 season. As part of their promotion battle, they drew a crucial match with Nîmes in May 2014. This 1–1 result was also very favourable to Nîmes who were battling to avoid relegation. This result raised suspicions, and in November 2014, Caen chairman Fortin was arrested, amongst several others, on suspicion of match fixing. Finally, he was cleared in March 2015. For the 2016–17 and 2017–18 seasons, Caen avoided relegation to Ligue 2 on both occasions by securing a draw on the final day of the season against Paris Saint-Germain.In the 2018–19 season, Caen were relegated on the final day of the campaign after losing to Bordeaux 1–0. Caen needed to win the match and hope that results elsewhere would go in their favour. The relegation ended Caen's five-year stay in the top division."* denotes promotion without winning the championship."Club Malherbe Caennais wore a black and white vertical stripes jersey, while Club Sportif Caennais used blue and red horizontal stripes. Following the merger of two clubs in 1913, the officials decided to mix colours and symbols by adopting the CMC vertical stripes and CSC colours.Stade Malherbe used for almost fifty years the same diamond shaped logo, designed for the first professional period in 1934.In 1989, a new logo was designed, with a longship floating on the waves, a nod to the Viking origin of Normandy, and three arrows of the city of Caen. It was used in various versions for eighteen seasons, including within a shield in the 2006–07 season. In 2007, officials present a new logo.The new logo reflects the identity of the club, closely linked to the Norman period of William the Conqueror: the flag of Normandy, which is actually the historical Norman flag of the Two Lions, can be often seen in the Kop Normandy.In 2013, the official anthem of SM Caen "Normands, fiers et conquérants!" was made with a marked reference to the Norman identity:Stade de Venoix was the club's home from 1913, although the first stand was built only in 1925, until 1993. Venoix could hold over 15,000 spectators at its peak, and now has a capacity of 5,000.In 1993 a new 21,500-capacity stadium was built, named Stade Michel d'Ornano. The new stadium is around 500 meters away from the Stade de Venoix."As of 17 June 2021."Kennet AnderssonYoussef El-ArabiWilliam GallasRaphaël GuerreiroNgolo KantéThomas LemarAleksandr MostovoïGraham RixJérôme RothenEmiliano SalaYohan Mollo"For all SM Caen players with a Wikipedia article, see ."
|
[
"Stéphane Moulin",
"Pascal Dupraz"
] |
|
Who was the head coach of the team Stade Malherbe Caen in Dec, 2019?
|
December 08, 2019
|
{
"text": [
"Pascal Dupraz"
]
}
|
L2_Q193377_P286_1
|
Pascal Dupraz is the head coach of Stade Malherbe Caen from Oct, 2019 to Mar, 2021.
Stéphane Moulin is the head coach of Stade Malherbe Caen from Jun, 2021 to Dec, 2022.
Rui Almeida is the head coach of Stade Malherbe Caen from Jul, 2019 to Sep, 2019.
|
Stade Malherbe CaenStade Malherbe Caen (; commonly known as SM Caen, SMC, or simply Caen) is a French professional football team, based in the city of Caen in Normandy, that competes in the Ligue 2. The club was founded on 17 November 1913 by the merger of "Club Malherbe Caennais" and "Club Sportif Caennais". The team takes its name from François de Malherbe, a 17th century poet from Caen.For most of its history, SM Caen has been one of the main amateur clubs in France. The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the rise of Stade Malherbe in the French football hierarchy. In 1985, Stade Malherbe adopted professional status. Three seasons later, it was promoted for the first time to first division. In 1992, a few months after being narrowly saved from bankruptcy, the club finished fifth in Division 1 and qualified for UEFA Cup. But it was relegated three years later. Despite a second division title won in 1996, SM Caen fell back into the anonymity of the second division.Under the chairmanship of Jean-François Fortin, from 2002, and under the sporting direction of Patrick Rémy, Franck Dumas and then Patrice Garande, the Stade Malherbe has regained sporting success. The club was promoted in Ligue 1 several times, reached the Coupe de la Ligue final in 2005 and finished 7th in Ligue 1 in 2016. In 2018, as the club began its 5th consecutive season in Ligue 1, a conflict erupted within the management team: Jean-François Fortin left his place to Gilles Sergent, while Patrice Garande was replaced by Fabien Mercadal. Caen was relegated to Ligue 2 in 2019, after finishing 19th in the previous Ligue 1 season.SM Caen has been playing since 1993 at the Stade Michel d'Ornano. Before and since its foundation, the club played at Stade de Venoix, which is now used by the reserve team. It has essentially geographical rivalries with Le Havre AC (sometimes called ""Le derby normand"") and Stade Rennais, its closest neighbour in Ligue 1.Many football clubs were constituted in Caen at the end of the 19th century : the "Union sportive des étudiants de Caen", founded in 1892, the "Union Athlétique du Lycée Malherbe" (UALM), founded in 1892 or 1895 and the "Club Sportif Caennais", founded in November 1899. These clubs participated in the early editions of the football championship organised by the "Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques".In 1907, former members of UALM created the "Club Malherbe Caennais", soon the best club in Lower Normandy. In 1909 and 1911, several friendlies matches were organised between a selection of players from Caen and the English club of St Albans City F.C..The "Stade Malherbe Caennais" was officially founded on 17 November 1913 from the merger of "Club Sportif Caennais" and "Club Malherbe Caennais". It was a multi-sport athletic club, which adopted the "Malherbe" and the striped jersey of the CMC, and the red and blue colours of CSC. The club had its own facilities – the Stade de Venoix – inherited from the CMC.The football team of CMC, engaged in the league in Lower Normandy, changed its name just after the start of the season. By winning this competition, Stade Malherbe recorded their first title in its first year of existence. Having qualified for the finals of the 1914 USFSA Football Championship, Caen was eliminated in the 1/8 final by the Union sportive Servannaise : after a draw in the first game (3–3) it had to forfeit the second. World War I stopped the competitions. Thirty-nine members of the club were killed in the fighting, including former captain Eugène Lesomptier.In 1919, the USFSA championship was replaced by regional championships organised by the French Football Federation, called "Division d'Honneur". Stade Malherbe, reinforced by the move to Caen of the former French international Eugène Maës, won six times the championship of Lower Normandy between 1920 and 1928, but were unable to compete with the major Upper Normandy clubs, Le Havre AC and FC Rouen. Since 1919–20, Caen also participated in the Coupe de France but fell in round of 32 in 1921 and 1922. In 1929, the two "Division d'Honneur" leagues of Normandy were merged and Stade Malherbe was promoted the year after. Its best final standing was 5th in 1933.In 1934, one year after FC Rouen and Le Havre AC, Stade Malherbe acquired professional status and reached the French Division 2. The club finished 11th out of 16 for the first season, then 6th in 1936 and 8th in 1937. But its financial situation deteriorated and Stade Malherbe left D2 in 1938, after four professional seasons.The club then returned to "Division d'Honneur" of Normandy. It won the last edition before World War II in 1938–39, and the first two after WW2 in 1946 and 1947.In 1948, Stade Malherbe joined the newly founded "", the third level of French football. Soon considered as a "lord" in CFA, Caen was unable to win the championship, unlike their regional rival US Quevilly, despite successive calls to former French international players as coaches: Jules Vandooren, Jean Prouff, Andre Grillon, Jean Vincent and Oliver Celestin.Stade Malherbe made itself known essentially by repeated feats in Coupe de France in the 1950s : French champion Stade de Reims (2–1) and top teams Racing Club de France (3–2) and RC Lens were defeated in January 1953, 1956 and 1961. In 1958, Caen pushed FC Nantes to play five games to decide: the first three games resulting in 0–0 draws, the fourth was stopped, the fifth saw Nantes win 1–0. Through its success Caen won the "Challenge France-Football" rewarding the best amateur team in Coupe de France in 1956 and 1961. Undermined by the instability of its coaches and presidents and a precarious financial health, Stade Malherbe weakened gradually and was relegated twice (in 1962 and 1965) into Division d'Honneur, but regained its place in CFA.In 1970, the CFA was removed and the Division 2 was enlarged to 48 teams. During the 1970s, Caen evolved between D3 and D2, where it failed to stabilise. Jacques Mouilleron became coach in 1973. In 1975, the club won its first national title: the West group of Division 3. Stade Malherbe was named best amateur club by France-Football and Jean-Paul Bouffandeau and Jean-Paul Pottier were named French amateur players of the year in 1975 and 1976. 3 years later, Caen fell back to D3.Pierre Mankowski was hired as player-coach in 1983. He led Stade Malherbe from D3 to the top of D2 in a few seasons, and pushed it to adopt professional status in 1985.SM Caen has been a professional football club since 1985. The stated objective of Mankowski was to bring Caen into the first division. He helped the team improve, first in defence then in attack. Caen finished sixth in D2 in 1986 and second in 1987, with notable scorers Philippe Prieur and Éric Pécout. Caen made the stade de Venoix an unbeatable place but bowed out in front of AS Cannes in the playoffs. Caen succeeded in the playoffs following season, defeating Olympique Lyonnais and Chamois Niortais F.C., relegated from D1.In 1988 Stade Malherbe made Division 1. Despite many departures, including coach Mankowski (replaced by Robert Nouzaret) and six first losses, Caen stayed up, one point ahead of RC Strasbourg, with the advent of a promising striker Fabrice Divert. Stade Malherbe confirmed, not without difficulties, its performance the following season.With a new coach, Daniel Jeandupeux, the team was largely restructured. In 1990–91, Caen took its place in the first half of Division 1, thanks to the excellent results obtained in Venoix. However, the press revealed in late 1991 that the club was close to bankruptcy. Regional businesses and local government bailed out the club, which led to a brilliant 1991–92 season. Stade Malherbe finished fifth and qualified for the first (and so far only) time for the UEFA Cup. Stéphane Paille scored 15 goals during the season. For the first round of the 1992–93 UEFA Cup, Caen had to face up to Real Zaragoza. Caen won 3–2 in the 1st leg but lost 2–0 in Spain. Despite the goals of Xavier Gravelaine, SM Caen finished the season in a relatively disappointing eleventh rank.In the 2003–04 season, Caen finished 2nd in Ligue 2, gaining promotion to Ligue 1. They were relegated on the last day of the 2004–05 Ligue 1 season, finishing in 18th place despite some positive results, including a surprise 3–2 away win at Marseille. But the main highlight of their season was making it into the final of the Coupe de la Ligue for the first time in their history. Their chance at a major trophy eluded them however, as they lost 2–1 to Strasbourg in the final.On 25 May 2007, SM Caen obtained promotion to Ligue 1 after a victory in last game at Libourne (1–2). In the 2008–09 season, the team was once again relegated to Ligue 2 after losing 1–0 at home to Bordeaux, but won championship next season and thus came back to Ligue 1.In the 2010–11 season, Caen got off to a highly impressive start by defeating defending champions Marseille 2–1 away on the first day of the season, then following it up with a 3–2 home win over the previous season's Champions League semi-finalists Lyon.In the 2013–14 season, Caen were in Ligue 2, but won promotion to Ligue 1 for the 2014–15 season. As part of their promotion battle, they drew a crucial match with Nîmes in May 2014. This 1–1 result was also very favourable to Nîmes who were battling to avoid relegation. This result raised suspicions, and in November 2014, Caen chairman Fortin was arrested, amongst several others, on suspicion of match fixing. Finally, he was cleared in March 2015. For the 2016–17 and 2017–18 seasons, Caen avoided relegation to Ligue 2 on both occasions by securing a draw on the final day of the season against Paris Saint-Germain.In the 2018–19 season, Caen were relegated on the final day of the campaign after losing to Bordeaux 1–0. Caen needed to win the match and hope that results elsewhere would go in their favour. The relegation ended Caen's five-year stay in the top division."* denotes promotion without winning the championship."Club Malherbe Caennais wore a black and white vertical stripes jersey, while Club Sportif Caennais used blue and red horizontal stripes. Following the merger of two clubs in 1913, the officials decided to mix colours and symbols by adopting the CMC vertical stripes and CSC colours.Stade Malherbe used for almost fifty years the same diamond shaped logo, designed for the first professional period in 1934.In 1989, a new logo was designed, with a longship floating on the waves, a nod to the Viking origin of Normandy, and three arrows of the city of Caen. It was used in various versions for eighteen seasons, including within a shield in the 2006–07 season. In 2007, officials present a new logo.The new logo reflects the identity of the club, closely linked to the Norman period of William the Conqueror: the flag of Normandy, which is actually the historical Norman flag of the Two Lions, can be often seen in the Kop Normandy.In 2013, the official anthem of SM Caen "Normands, fiers et conquérants!" was made with a marked reference to the Norman identity:Stade de Venoix was the club's home from 1913, although the first stand was built only in 1925, until 1993. Venoix could hold over 15,000 spectators at its peak, and now has a capacity of 5,000.In 1993 a new 21,500-capacity stadium was built, named Stade Michel d'Ornano. The new stadium is around 500 meters away from the Stade de Venoix."As of 17 June 2021."Kennet AnderssonYoussef El-ArabiWilliam GallasRaphaël GuerreiroNgolo KantéThomas LemarAleksandr MostovoïGraham RixJérôme RothenEmiliano SalaYohan Mollo"For all SM Caen players with a Wikipedia article, see ."
|
[
"Stéphane Moulin",
"Rui Almeida"
] |
|
Who was the head coach of the team Stade Malherbe Caen in Jan, 2022?
|
January 13, 2022
|
{
"text": [
"Stéphane Moulin"
]
}
|
L2_Q193377_P286_2
|
Stéphane Moulin is the head coach of Stade Malherbe Caen from Jun, 2021 to Dec, 2022.
Pascal Dupraz is the head coach of Stade Malherbe Caen from Oct, 2019 to Mar, 2021.
Rui Almeida is the head coach of Stade Malherbe Caen from Jul, 2019 to Sep, 2019.
|
Stade Malherbe CaenStade Malherbe Caen (; commonly known as SM Caen, SMC, or simply Caen) is a French professional football team, based in the city of Caen in Normandy, that competes in the Ligue 2. The club was founded on 17 November 1913 by the merger of "Club Malherbe Caennais" and "Club Sportif Caennais". The team takes its name from François de Malherbe, a 17th century poet from Caen.For most of its history, SM Caen has been one of the main amateur clubs in France. The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the rise of Stade Malherbe in the French football hierarchy. In 1985, Stade Malherbe adopted professional status. Three seasons later, it was promoted for the first time to first division. In 1992, a few months after being narrowly saved from bankruptcy, the club finished fifth in Division 1 and qualified for UEFA Cup. But it was relegated three years later. Despite a second division title won in 1996, SM Caen fell back into the anonymity of the second division.Under the chairmanship of Jean-François Fortin, from 2002, and under the sporting direction of Patrick Rémy, Franck Dumas and then Patrice Garande, the Stade Malherbe has regained sporting success. The club was promoted in Ligue 1 several times, reached the Coupe de la Ligue final in 2005 and finished 7th in Ligue 1 in 2016. In 2018, as the club began its 5th consecutive season in Ligue 1, a conflict erupted within the management team: Jean-François Fortin left his place to Gilles Sergent, while Patrice Garande was replaced by Fabien Mercadal. Caen was relegated to Ligue 2 in 2019, after finishing 19th in the previous Ligue 1 season.SM Caen has been playing since 1993 at the Stade Michel d'Ornano. Before and since its foundation, the club played at Stade de Venoix, which is now used by the reserve team. It has essentially geographical rivalries with Le Havre AC (sometimes called ""Le derby normand"") and Stade Rennais, its closest neighbour in Ligue 1.Many football clubs were constituted in Caen at the end of the 19th century : the "Union sportive des étudiants de Caen", founded in 1892, the "Union Athlétique du Lycée Malherbe" (UALM), founded in 1892 or 1895 and the "Club Sportif Caennais", founded in November 1899. These clubs participated in the early editions of the football championship organised by the "Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques".In 1907, former members of UALM created the "Club Malherbe Caennais", soon the best club in Lower Normandy. In 1909 and 1911, several friendlies matches were organised between a selection of players from Caen and the English club of St Albans City F.C..The "Stade Malherbe Caennais" was officially founded on 17 November 1913 from the merger of "Club Sportif Caennais" and "Club Malherbe Caennais". It was a multi-sport athletic club, which adopted the "Malherbe" and the striped jersey of the CMC, and the red and blue colours of CSC. The club had its own facilities – the Stade de Venoix – inherited from the CMC.The football team of CMC, engaged in the league in Lower Normandy, changed its name just after the start of the season. By winning this competition, Stade Malherbe recorded their first title in its first year of existence. Having qualified for the finals of the 1914 USFSA Football Championship, Caen was eliminated in the 1/8 final by the Union sportive Servannaise : after a draw in the first game (3–3) it had to forfeit the second. World War I stopped the competitions. Thirty-nine members of the club were killed in the fighting, including former captain Eugène Lesomptier.In 1919, the USFSA championship was replaced by regional championships organised by the French Football Federation, called "Division d'Honneur". Stade Malherbe, reinforced by the move to Caen of the former French international Eugène Maës, won six times the championship of Lower Normandy between 1920 and 1928, but were unable to compete with the major Upper Normandy clubs, Le Havre AC and FC Rouen. Since 1919–20, Caen also participated in the Coupe de France but fell in round of 32 in 1921 and 1922. In 1929, the two "Division d'Honneur" leagues of Normandy were merged and Stade Malherbe was promoted the year after. Its best final standing was 5th in 1933.In 1934, one year after FC Rouen and Le Havre AC, Stade Malherbe acquired professional status and reached the French Division 2. The club finished 11th out of 16 for the first season, then 6th in 1936 and 8th in 1937. But its financial situation deteriorated and Stade Malherbe left D2 in 1938, after four professional seasons.The club then returned to "Division d'Honneur" of Normandy. It won the last edition before World War II in 1938–39, and the first two after WW2 in 1946 and 1947.In 1948, Stade Malherbe joined the newly founded "", the third level of French football. Soon considered as a "lord" in CFA, Caen was unable to win the championship, unlike their regional rival US Quevilly, despite successive calls to former French international players as coaches: Jules Vandooren, Jean Prouff, Andre Grillon, Jean Vincent and Oliver Celestin.Stade Malherbe made itself known essentially by repeated feats in Coupe de France in the 1950s : French champion Stade de Reims (2–1) and top teams Racing Club de France (3–2) and RC Lens were defeated in January 1953, 1956 and 1961. In 1958, Caen pushed FC Nantes to play five games to decide: the first three games resulting in 0–0 draws, the fourth was stopped, the fifth saw Nantes win 1–0. Through its success Caen won the "Challenge France-Football" rewarding the best amateur team in Coupe de France in 1956 and 1961. Undermined by the instability of its coaches and presidents and a precarious financial health, Stade Malherbe weakened gradually and was relegated twice (in 1962 and 1965) into Division d'Honneur, but regained its place in CFA.In 1970, the CFA was removed and the Division 2 was enlarged to 48 teams. During the 1970s, Caen evolved between D3 and D2, where it failed to stabilise. Jacques Mouilleron became coach in 1973. In 1975, the club won its first national title: the West group of Division 3. Stade Malherbe was named best amateur club by France-Football and Jean-Paul Bouffandeau and Jean-Paul Pottier were named French amateur players of the year in 1975 and 1976. 3 years later, Caen fell back to D3.Pierre Mankowski was hired as player-coach in 1983. He led Stade Malherbe from D3 to the top of D2 in a few seasons, and pushed it to adopt professional status in 1985.SM Caen has been a professional football club since 1985. The stated objective of Mankowski was to bring Caen into the first division. He helped the team improve, first in defence then in attack. Caen finished sixth in D2 in 1986 and second in 1987, with notable scorers Philippe Prieur and Éric Pécout. Caen made the stade de Venoix an unbeatable place but bowed out in front of AS Cannes in the playoffs. Caen succeeded in the playoffs following season, defeating Olympique Lyonnais and Chamois Niortais F.C., relegated from D1.In 1988 Stade Malherbe made Division 1. Despite many departures, including coach Mankowski (replaced by Robert Nouzaret) and six first losses, Caen stayed up, one point ahead of RC Strasbourg, with the advent of a promising striker Fabrice Divert. Stade Malherbe confirmed, not without difficulties, its performance the following season.With a new coach, Daniel Jeandupeux, the team was largely restructured. In 1990–91, Caen took its place in the first half of Division 1, thanks to the excellent results obtained in Venoix. However, the press revealed in late 1991 that the club was close to bankruptcy. Regional businesses and local government bailed out the club, which led to a brilliant 1991–92 season. Stade Malherbe finished fifth and qualified for the first (and so far only) time for the UEFA Cup. Stéphane Paille scored 15 goals during the season. For the first round of the 1992–93 UEFA Cup, Caen had to face up to Real Zaragoza. Caen won 3–2 in the 1st leg but lost 2–0 in Spain. Despite the goals of Xavier Gravelaine, SM Caen finished the season in a relatively disappointing eleventh rank.In the 2003–04 season, Caen finished 2nd in Ligue 2, gaining promotion to Ligue 1. They were relegated on the last day of the 2004–05 Ligue 1 season, finishing in 18th place despite some positive results, including a surprise 3–2 away win at Marseille. But the main highlight of their season was making it into the final of the Coupe de la Ligue for the first time in their history. Their chance at a major trophy eluded them however, as they lost 2–1 to Strasbourg in the final.On 25 May 2007, SM Caen obtained promotion to Ligue 1 after a victory in last game at Libourne (1–2). In the 2008–09 season, the team was once again relegated to Ligue 2 after losing 1–0 at home to Bordeaux, but won championship next season and thus came back to Ligue 1.In the 2010–11 season, Caen got off to a highly impressive start by defeating defending champions Marseille 2–1 away on the first day of the season, then following it up with a 3–2 home win over the previous season's Champions League semi-finalists Lyon.In the 2013–14 season, Caen were in Ligue 2, but won promotion to Ligue 1 for the 2014–15 season. As part of their promotion battle, they drew a crucial match with Nîmes in May 2014. This 1–1 result was also very favourable to Nîmes who were battling to avoid relegation. This result raised suspicions, and in November 2014, Caen chairman Fortin was arrested, amongst several others, on suspicion of match fixing. Finally, he was cleared in March 2015. For the 2016–17 and 2017–18 seasons, Caen avoided relegation to Ligue 2 on both occasions by securing a draw on the final day of the season against Paris Saint-Germain.In the 2018–19 season, Caen were relegated on the final day of the campaign after losing to Bordeaux 1–0. Caen needed to win the match and hope that results elsewhere would go in their favour. The relegation ended Caen's five-year stay in the top division."* denotes promotion without winning the championship."Club Malherbe Caennais wore a black and white vertical stripes jersey, while Club Sportif Caennais used blue and red horizontal stripes. Following the merger of two clubs in 1913, the officials decided to mix colours and symbols by adopting the CMC vertical stripes and CSC colours.Stade Malherbe used for almost fifty years the same diamond shaped logo, designed for the first professional period in 1934.In 1989, a new logo was designed, with a longship floating on the waves, a nod to the Viking origin of Normandy, and three arrows of the city of Caen. It was used in various versions for eighteen seasons, including within a shield in the 2006–07 season. In 2007, officials present a new logo.The new logo reflects the identity of the club, closely linked to the Norman period of William the Conqueror: the flag of Normandy, which is actually the historical Norman flag of the Two Lions, can be often seen in the Kop Normandy.In 2013, the official anthem of SM Caen "Normands, fiers et conquérants!" was made with a marked reference to the Norman identity:Stade de Venoix was the club's home from 1913, although the first stand was built only in 1925, until 1993. Venoix could hold over 15,000 spectators at its peak, and now has a capacity of 5,000.In 1993 a new 21,500-capacity stadium was built, named Stade Michel d'Ornano. The new stadium is around 500 meters away from the Stade de Venoix."As of 17 June 2021."Kennet AnderssonYoussef El-ArabiWilliam GallasRaphaël GuerreiroNgolo KantéThomas LemarAleksandr MostovoïGraham RixJérôme RothenEmiliano SalaYohan Mollo"For all SM Caen players with a Wikipedia article, see ."
|
[
"Rui Almeida",
"Pascal Dupraz"
] |
|
Who was the head of Budapest District XI in Jul, 2005?
|
July 24, 2005
|
{
"text": [
"Gyula Molnár"
]
}
|
L2_Q330026_P6_0
|
Tamás Hoffmann is the head of the government of Budapest District XI from Jan, 2010 to Oct, 2019.
Gyula Molnár is the head of the government of Budapest District XI from Jan, 2002 to Jan, 2010.
Imre László is the head of the government of Budapest District XI from Oct, 2019 to Dec, 2022.
|
ÚjbudaÚjbuda (lit. "New Buda") is the 11th district of Budapest (), Hungary. It is the most populous district of Budapest with 137,426 inhabitants (2008). Until the 1890s, Újbuda's present territory was a field south of the historical town of Buda. The construction of a new residential area started in the 1900s, the present district was formed in 1930. From 1880 to 1980, Újbuda's population increased from 1,180 to 178,960. There are boulevards, avenues with tram lines, and communist-era housing estates in the district. Line 4 of the Budapest metro passes through Újbuda.Traffic to Budapest from Western Hungary enters the city in this district; a main road, Budaörsi út is the direct continuation of motorways M1 and M7. Three bridges on the Danube are located in the district; the bridges Liberty, Petőfi and Rákóczi/Lágymányosi connect the district to the neighboring 5th and 9th districts on the Pest side.Kelenföld Railway Station, the fourth largest railway station of Budapest is in the district. Most of the trains heading to Western Hungary and Western Europe pass through the station (including commuter trains to the agglomeration). The district also has a smaller station, the Albertfalva station.Kelenföld Railway Station is also the terminus for Metro Line M4; the line, opened in 2014, is the first of the Budapest Metro to serve the district, where it has 5 of its 10 stations. It connects the district with Keleti Railway Station, the largest railway station in Hungary. Next to the Kelenföld Railway Station there is also a major bus station for local buses and another for buses serving the nearby towns.The district has 46 bus lines, 9 night bus lines and 11 tram lines (among them Lines 4 and 6, two of the most important tram lines of the city, both of which have their terminus in the district).There are no airports with scheduled flights within the district, however, it is home to Budaörs Airport, the pre-1950 main airport of Hungary. This was the second international airport in Budapest (after Mátyásföld Airfield), and the oldest still existing one, although today it serves general aviation only. During World War I one of the first military airfields, Albertfalva Military Airfield was located in the district, next to the first Hungarian airplane factory.Újbuda is twinned with:
|
[
"Tamás Hoffmann",
"Imre László"
] |
|
Who was the head of Budapest District XI in Nov, 2013?
|
November 18, 2013
|
{
"text": [
"Tamás Hoffmann"
]
}
|
L2_Q330026_P6_1
|
Gyula Molnár is the head of the government of Budapest District XI from Jan, 2002 to Jan, 2010.
Imre László is the head of the government of Budapest District XI from Oct, 2019 to Dec, 2022.
Tamás Hoffmann is the head of the government of Budapest District XI from Jan, 2010 to Oct, 2019.
|
ÚjbudaÚjbuda (lit. "New Buda") is the 11th district of Budapest (), Hungary. It is the most populous district of Budapest with 137,426 inhabitants (2008). Until the 1890s, Újbuda's present territory was a field south of the historical town of Buda. The construction of a new residential area started in the 1900s, the present district was formed in 1930. From 1880 to 1980, Újbuda's population increased from 1,180 to 178,960. There are boulevards, avenues with tram lines, and communist-era housing estates in the district. Line 4 of the Budapest metro passes through Újbuda.Traffic to Budapest from Western Hungary enters the city in this district; a main road, Budaörsi út is the direct continuation of motorways M1 and M7. Three bridges on the Danube are located in the district; the bridges Liberty, Petőfi and Rákóczi/Lágymányosi connect the district to the neighboring 5th and 9th districts on the Pest side.Kelenföld Railway Station, the fourth largest railway station of Budapest is in the district. Most of the trains heading to Western Hungary and Western Europe pass through the station (including commuter trains to the agglomeration). The district also has a smaller station, the Albertfalva station.Kelenföld Railway Station is also the terminus for Metro Line M4; the line, opened in 2014, is the first of the Budapest Metro to serve the district, where it has 5 of its 10 stations. It connects the district with Keleti Railway Station, the largest railway station in Hungary. Next to the Kelenföld Railway Station there is also a major bus station for local buses and another for buses serving the nearby towns.The district has 46 bus lines, 9 night bus lines and 11 tram lines (among them Lines 4 and 6, two of the most important tram lines of the city, both of which have their terminus in the district).There are no airports with scheduled flights within the district, however, it is home to Budaörs Airport, the pre-1950 main airport of Hungary. This was the second international airport in Budapest (after Mátyásföld Airfield), and the oldest still existing one, although today it serves general aviation only. During World War I one of the first military airfields, Albertfalva Military Airfield was located in the district, next to the first Hungarian airplane factory.Újbuda is twinned with:
|
[
"Gyula Molnár",
"Imre László"
] |
|
Who was the head of Budapest District XI in Sep, 2020?
|
September 28, 2020
|
{
"text": [
"Imre László"
]
}
|
L2_Q330026_P6_2
|
Tamás Hoffmann is the head of the government of Budapest District XI from Jan, 2010 to Oct, 2019.
Gyula Molnár is the head of the government of Budapest District XI from Jan, 2002 to Jan, 2010.
Imre László is the head of the government of Budapest District XI from Oct, 2019 to Dec, 2022.
|
ÚjbudaÚjbuda (lit. "New Buda") is the 11th district of Budapest (), Hungary. It is the most populous district of Budapest with 137,426 inhabitants (2008). Until the 1890s, Újbuda's present territory was a field south of the historical town of Buda. The construction of a new residential area started in the 1900s, the present district was formed in 1930. From 1880 to 1980, Újbuda's population increased from 1,180 to 178,960. There are boulevards, avenues with tram lines, and communist-era housing estates in the district. Line 4 of the Budapest metro passes through Újbuda.Traffic to Budapest from Western Hungary enters the city in this district; a main road, Budaörsi út is the direct continuation of motorways M1 and M7. Three bridges on the Danube are located in the district; the bridges Liberty, Petőfi and Rákóczi/Lágymányosi connect the district to the neighboring 5th and 9th districts on the Pest side.Kelenföld Railway Station, the fourth largest railway station of Budapest is in the district. Most of the trains heading to Western Hungary and Western Europe pass through the station (including commuter trains to the agglomeration). The district also has a smaller station, the Albertfalva station.Kelenföld Railway Station is also the terminus for Metro Line M4; the line, opened in 2014, is the first of the Budapest Metro to serve the district, where it has 5 of its 10 stations. It connects the district with Keleti Railway Station, the largest railway station in Hungary. Next to the Kelenföld Railway Station there is also a major bus station for local buses and another for buses serving the nearby towns.The district has 46 bus lines, 9 night bus lines and 11 tram lines (among them Lines 4 and 6, two of the most important tram lines of the city, both of which have their terminus in the district).There are no airports with scheduled flights within the district, however, it is home to Budaörs Airport, the pre-1950 main airport of Hungary. This was the second international airport in Budapest (after Mátyásföld Airfield), and the oldest still existing one, although today it serves general aviation only. During World War I one of the first military airfields, Albertfalva Military Airfield was located in the district, next to the first Hungarian airplane factory.Újbuda is twinned with:
|
[
"Gyula Molnár",
"Tamás Hoffmann"
] |
|
Which employer did Gaetano Scorza work for in Nov, 1898?
|
November 15, 1898
|
{
"text": [
"University of Pisa"
]
}
|
L2_Q774274_P108_0
|
Gaetano Scorza works for University of Cagliari from Jan, 1912 to Jan, 1913.
Gaetano Scorza works for Sapienza University of Rome from Jan, 1935 to Jan, 1939.
Gaetano Scorza works for University of Catania from Jan, 1916 to Jan, 1921.
Gaetano Scorza works for University of Pisa from Jan, 1898 to Jan, 1899.
Gaetano Scorza works for University of Turin from Jan, 1899 to Jan, 1900.
Gaetano Scorza works for University of Naples Federico II from Jan, 1921 to Jan, 1935.
Gaetano Scorza works for University of Parma from Jan, 1913 to Jan, 1916.
|
Gaetano ScorzaBernardino Gaetano Scorza (29 September 1876, in Morano Calabro – 6 August 1939, in Rome) was an Italian mathematician working in algebraic geometry, whose work inspired the theory of Scorza varieties.
|
[
"University of Turin",
"University of Cagliari",
"Sapienza University of Rome",
"University of Naples Federico II",
"University of Catania",
"University of Parma"
] |
|
Which employer did Gaetano Scorza work for in Feb, 1899?
|
February 04, 1899
|
{
"text": [
"University of Turin"
]
}
|
L2_Q774274_P108_1
|
Gaetano Scorza works for University of Cagliari from Jan, 1912 to Jan, 1913.
Gaetano Scorza works for University of Turin from Jan, 1899 to Jan, 1900.
Gaetano Scorza works for Sapienza University of Rome from Jan, 1935 to Jan, 1939.
Gaetano Scorza works for University of Pisa from Jan, 1898 to Jan, 1899.
Gaetano Scorza works for University of Naples Federico II from Jan, 1921 to Jan, 1935.
Gaetano Scorza works for University of Catania from Jan, 1916 to Jan, 1921.
Gaetano Scorza works for University of Parma from Jan, 1913 to Jan, 1916.
|
Gaetano ScorzaBernardino Gaetano Scorza (29 September 1876, in Morano Calabro – 6 August 1939, in Rome) was an Italian mathematician working in algebraic geometry, whose work inspired the theory of Scorza varieties.
|
[
"University of Pisa",
"University of Cagliari",
"Sapienza University of Rome",
"University of Naples Federico II",
"University of Catania",
"University of Parma"
] |
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