title: Centurion

text: A centurion (; , . ; , or ) was a position in the Roman army during classical antiquity, nominally the commander of a century (), a military unit of around 80 legionaries. In a Roman legion, centuries were grouped into cohorts and commanded by their senior-most centurion. The prestigious first cohort was led by the "primus pilus", the most senior centurion in the legion and its fourth-in-command who was next in line for promotion to Praefectus Castrorum, and the primi ordines who were the centurions of the first cohort.


title: Centurion

text: A centurion's symbol of office was the vine staff, with which they disciplined even Roman citizens, who were otherwise legally protected from corporal punishment by the Porcian Laws. Centurions also served in the Roman navy. After the 107 BC Marian reforms of Gaius Marius, centurions were professional officers. In Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, the Byzantine army's centurions were also known by the name kentarch (Kentarches).


title: Centurion

text: In the Roman infantry, the centurions commanded a "centuria" or "century". During the Mid-Republic these centuries were grouped in pairs to make up a maniple, each century consisting of 30–60 men. After the Marian reforms a century typically composed of around 80 men, with six such centuries forming a legionary cohort. Later, generals and emperors further manipulated these numbers with double and half-strength units. Julius Caesar, for instance, made the first cohort of five double strength centuries.


title: Centurion

text: Centurions received a much higher rate of pay than the average legionary. Veteran legionaries often worked as tenants of their former centurions.


title: Centurion

text: During the Imperial era, centurions gradually rose in seniority in their cohort, commanding centuries with higher precedence, until commanding the senior century and therefore the whole cohort. The best centurions were then promoted to the first cohort and known as the "Primi Ordines", commanding one of the cohort's five centuries and also taking on a staff role. The most senior centurion of the legion was the "Primus Pilus" who commanded the first century of the first cohort. All centurions, however senior, had their own allocated century. There was little difference between the ranks of centurions except for the "Primus Pilus", who also participated in war councils. The "Primus Pilus" was so called because his own century was the "first file" of the first (rightmost) cohort. Only eight officers in a fully officered legion outranked the "Primus Pilus": the legate ("legatus legionis"), commanding the legion; the senior tribune ("tribunus laticlavius"), second-in-command of the legion; the Camp Prefect ("praefectus castrorum"); and the five other tribunes ("tribuni angusticlavii") who served as senior staff officers to the legate.


title: Centurion

text: Centurions could be elected, appointed by the Senate, or promoted from the ranks for a variety of reasons. Julius Caesar is said to have promoted his centurions for displays of valour. Historians cite examples of them being the first over the enemy's wall or through the breach. The various centurion grades may be loosely compared to modern junior and middle officer grades. Below the centurions were the "optiones", seconds-in-command of centuries.


title: Centurion

text: Centurions were held personally responsible for the training and discipline of the legionaries under their command, and they had a reputation for dealing out harsh punishment. Tacitus tells a story in "The Annals" of a centurion known as "Cedo Alteram", which roughly translates to "Fetch Me Another". "The mutinous soldiers thrust out the tribunes and the camp-prefect; they plundered the baggage of the fugitives, and then killed a centurion, Lucilius, to whom, with soldier's humour, they had given the nickname 'Cedo Alteram', because when he had broken one vine-stick across a soldier's back, he would call in a loud voice for another… and another...and another!" The vine-stick ("vitis") was a symbol of the centurion's authority and the implement with which he meted out punishment.


title: Centurion

text: Unlike legionaries, centurions carried their swords on their left side as a sign of distinction and carried the pugio (dagger) on the right, as the sidearm.


title: Centurion

text: Centurions wore transverse crests on their helmets that would distinguish them from other legionaries.


title: Centurion

text: Centurions often had important social status and held powerful positions in society. They seem to have received their status according to their rank. On retirement, they could be eligible for employment as lictors.


title: Centurion

text: Each century had a precedence within the cohort. Centurions' seniority within the cohort and legion depended on the position within the legion of the century they were in charge of, which often took their name from their centurion. Centurions began by leading junior centuries before being promoted to leading a more senior one. Promotion usually came with experience, or at least length of service, but many still never made it as far as leading a 1st cohort. Yet for centurions who showed, say, particularly conspicuous bravery during battle, there was the opportunity to be promoted several grades at once. For example, Julius Caesar's reward for a centurion who had greatly pleased him was to advance him eight grades.


title: Centurion

text: The precedence during the times of the Republican manipular legion had each centurio command a centuria of sixty men within a manipulus (maniple) of two centuriae which was commanded by the senior centurio. Their order in decreasing seniority but opposite battle order;


title: Centurion

text: For the Imperial and late Republican legion (post 107 BC) the first centuria of every cohors was its senior, with the first cohors following suit for the entire legion. There were five centuriae in the first cohors as opposed to the normal number of six, with each centuria having twice the number of legionaries of a normal centuria.


title: Centurion

text: The titles of the centuriae and thus their respective centuriones are remnants from the manipular system of the Republic. In order of decreasing seniority;


title: Centurion

text: Note that the Primi Ordines of the first cohors were senior to every centurio except for their Primus Pilus and the Pili Priori of the other first centuries.


title: Centurion

text: Centurions had to be literate (to be able to read written orders), have connections (letters of recommendation), be at least 30 years of age, and have already served a few years in the military.


title: Centurion

text: Matthew's Gospel and Luke's Gospel relate an incident in which a servant of a centurion based in Capernaum was ill. In the Gospel of Luke, the centurion concerned had a good relationship with the elders of the local Jewish population and had funded the development of the synagogue in Capernaum, and when he heard that Jesus was in the locality, he asked the Jewish elders to request healing for his servant. In the Gospel of Matthew, the centurion makes direct contact with Jesus. The stories report that Jesus marveled at his faith and restored his servant to health. In both the Gospels of Mark and Matthew, the centurion who is present at the Crucifixion, said that Jesus was "God's Son". Accordingly, this centurion is considered by many to be the first Christian. In Luke's Gospel the centurion at the cross said that Jesus was "innocent".


title: Centurion

text: The Book of Acts tells of a centurion named Cornelius whose righteous and generous acts find favor with God. The apostle Simon Peter is told in a vision to visit Cornelius, a Gentile, with whom association was not permitted under Jewish law. The encounter leads Simon Peter to understand that God accepts non-Jews who believe in God and repent. After this revelation, the message of Jesus was evangelized to the Gentiles.


title: Novi Sad

text: Novi Sad (, ; , ; ; see below for other names) is the second largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It is located in the southern portion of the Pannonian Plain on the border of the Bačka and Syrmia geographical regions. Lying on the banks of the Danube river, the city faces the northern slopes of Fruška Gora.


title: Novi Sad

text: , Novi Sad proper has a population of 231,798 while its urban area (including the adjacent settlements of Petrovaradin and Sremska Kamenica) comprises 277,522 inhabitants. The population of the administrative area of the city totals 341,625 people.


title: Novi Sad

text: Novi Sad was founded in 1694 when Serb merchants formed a colony across the Danube from the Petrovaradin Fortress, a strategic Habsburg military post. In subsequent centuries, it became an important trading, manufacturing and cultural centre, and has historically been dubbed "the Serbian Athens". The city was heavily devastated in the 1848 Revolution, but was subsequently rebuilt and restored. Today, along with the Serbian capital city of Belgrade, Novi Sad is an industrial and financial center important to the Serbian economy.


title: Novi Sad

text: Novi Sad is the European Capital of Culture for the year 2022 and was the European Youth Capital in 2019.


title: Novi Sad

text: The name "Novi Sad" means "new plantation" in Serbian. Its Latin name, stemming from the establishment of Habsburg city rights, is "Neoplanta". The official names of Novi Sad in local administration are:


title: Novi Sad

text: In both Croatian and Romanian, which are official in provincial administration, the city is called "Novi Sad". Historically, it was also called "Neusatz" and "Neusatz an der Donau" in German.


title: Novi Sad

text: In its wider meaning, the name "Grad Novi Sad" refers to the "City of Novi Sad", one of the city-level administrative units of Serbia, which includes Novi Sad proper on the left bank of the Danube, the towns of Sremska Kamenica and Petrovaradin on the right bank and the extensive suburbs of the left bank. "Novi Sad" can also refer strictly to only the urban areas of the city (Novi Sad proper and the towns of Sremska Kamenica and Petrovaradin), or only to the historical core on the left bank, i.e. Novi Sad proper excluding Sremska Kamenica and Petrovaradin.


title: Novi Sad

text: Human habitation in the territory of present-day Novi Sad has been traced as far back as the Stone Age. Several settlements and necropolises dating to 5000 BC were unearthed during the construction of a new boulevard in Avijatičarsko Naselje. A settlement was also identified on the right bank of the river Danube in present-day Petrovaradin.


title: Novi Sad

text: In antiquity, the region was inhabited by Celtic tribes, most notably the Scordisci. Celts were present in the area since the 4th century BC and founded the first fortress on the right bank of the Danube. Later, in the 1st century BC, the region was conquered by the Romans. During Roman rule, a larger fortress was built in the 1st century, with the name "Cusum", and was included in the Roman province of Pannonia.


title: Novi Sad

text: In the 5th century, Cusum was devastated by Hunnic invasions. By the end of the same century, the Byzantines had reconstructed the town and called it by the names "Petrikon" or "Petrikov" () after Saint Peter. Slavic tribes such as the Severians, the Obotrites and the Serbs (including the subtribes of the Braničevci and the Timočani) settled today's region around Novi Sad mainly in the 6th and 7th centuries. The Serbs absorbed the aforementioned Slavic groups as well as the Paleo-Balkanic peoples of the region.


title: Novi Sad

text: In the Middle Ages, the area was subsequently controlled by the Ostrogoths, Gepids, Avars, Franks, West Slavic groups, again by the Byzantines, and finally by the Hungarians. It became a part of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary between the 11th and 12th centuries. Hungarians began to settle in the area, which before that time was mostly populated by Slavs, and the place was first mentioned under the Hungarian variant "Peturwarad" or "Pétervárad" (Serbian: "Petrovaradin"/Петроварадин), which derived from the Byzantine variant, found in documents from 1237. That same year, several other settlements were mentioned as existing in the territory of modern-day urban Novi Sad.


title: Novi Sad

text: From the 13th century to the 16th century, the following settlements existed within the territory of the urban areas of modern-day Novi Sad:


title: Novi Sad

text: An etymology of settlement names reveals that some designations are of Slavic origin, which indicates that the areas were initially inhabited by Slavs, particularly the West Slavs. For example, Bivalo (Bivaljoš) was a large Slavic settlement dating from the 5th–6th centuries. Other names are of Hungarian origin (for example Bélakút, Kűszentmárton, Vásárosvárad, Rév), indicating that the settlements were inhabited by Hungarians before the Ottoman invasion in the 16th century. Some settlement names are of uncertain origin.


title: Novi Sad

text: Tax records from 1522 show a mix of Hungarian and Slavic names among the inhabitants of these villages, including Slavic names like Bozso (Božo), Radovan, Radonya (Radonja), Ivo, etc. Following the Ottoman invasion in the 16th–17th centuries, some of these settlements were destroyed. Most of the surviving Hungarian inhabitants retreated from the area. Some of the settlements persisted during the Ottoman rule and were populated by ethnic Serbs.


title: Novi Sad

text: Between 1526 and 1687, the region was under Ottoman rule. In the year 1590, the population of all villages that existed in the territory of present-day Novi Sad numbered at 105 houses, inhabited exclusively by Serbs. Ottoman records mention only those inhabitants who paid taxes, so the number of Serbs who lived in the area (for example, those that served in the Ottoman army) was likely larger than was recorded.


title: Novi Sad

text: Habsburg rule was aligned with the Roman Catholic doctrine and, as it took over this area near the end of the 17th century, the government prohibited people of Orthodox faith from residing in Petrovaradin. Unable to build homes there, the Serbs of the area founded a new settlement in 1694 on the left bank of the Danube. They initially called it the 'Serb city' (). Another name used for the settlement was Petrovaradinski Šanac. In 1718, the inhabitants of the village of Almaš were resettled to Petrovaradinski Šanac, where they founded Almaški Kraj ('the Almaš quarter').


title: Novi Sad

text: According to 1720 data, the population of Ratzen Stadt was composed of 112 Serbian, 14 German, and 5 Hungarian houses. The settlement officially gained the present names "Novi Sad" and "Újvidék" ("Neoplanta" in Latin) in 1748 when it became a 'free royal city', in German language it was called Neusatz.


title: Novi Sad

text: In the 18th century, the Habsburg monarchy recruited Germans from the southern principalities of the Holy Roman Empire to relocate to the Danube valley. They wanted both to increase the population and to redevelop the river valley for agriculture, which had declined markedly under the Ottomans. To encourage such settlement, the government ensured that the German communities could practice their religion (mostly Catholicism) and use their original German dialect.


title: Novi Sad

text: For much of the 18th and 19th centuries, Novi Sad remained the largest city inhabited by Serbs. The reformer of the Serbian language, Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, wrote in 1817 that Novi Sad was the 'largest Serb municipality in the world'. It was a cultural and political centre for Serbs (see also Serbian Revival), who did not have their own national state at the time. Due to its cultural and political influence, the city became known as the 'Serbian Athens' ("Srpska Atina" in Serbian). According to 1843 data, Novi Sad had 17,332 inhabitants, of whom 9,675 were Orthodox Christians, 5,724 Catholics, 1,032 Protestants, 727 Jews, and 30 adherents of the Armenian church. The largest ethnic group in the city were Serbs, and the second largest were Germans.


title: Novi Sad

text: During the Revolution of 1848–49, Novi Sad was part of Serbian Vojvodina, a Serbian autonomous region within the Austrian Empire. In 1849, the Hungarian garrison, located at the Petrovaradin Fortress, bombarded and devastated the city, which lost much of its population. According to the 1850 census, there were only 7,182 citizens left in the city, compared to 17,332 in 1843. Marija Trandafil and her husband paid for some of the rebuilding including two churches. Between 1849 and 1860, Novi Sad was part of a separate Austrian crownland known as the Voivodeship of Serbia and Banat of Temeschwar. After the abolishment of this province, the city was included into the Batsch-Bodrog County. The post office was opened in 1853.


title: Novi Sad

text: Following the compromise of 1867, Novi Sad was located within the Kingdom of Hungary, the "Transleithania", which comprised half of the new Austro-Hungarian Empire. During this time, the Magyarization policy of the Hungarian government drastically altered the demographic structure of the city as the formerly predominantly Serbian population became one with a more mixed character. In 1880, 41.2% of the city's inhabitants used the Serbian language most frequently and 25.9% employed Hungarian. In the following decades, the percentage of Serbian-speakers decreased, while the number of Hungarian-speakers increased. According to the 1910 census, the city had 33,590 residents, of whom 13,343 (39.72%) spoke Hungarian, 11,594 (34.52%) Serbian, 5,918 (17.62%) German and 1,453 (4.33%) Slovak. It is not certain whether Hungarians or Serbs were the larger ethnic group in the city in 1910, since the various ethnic groups (Bunjevci, Romani, Jews, other South Slavic people, etc.) were classified in census results only according to the language they spoke.


title: Novi Sad

text: Similar demographic changes can be seen in the religious structure: in 1870, the population of Novi Sad included 8,134 Orthodox Christians, 6,684 Catholics, 1,725 Calvinists, 1,343 Lutherans, and others. In 1910, the population included 13,383 Roman Catholics and 11,553 Orthodox Christians, while 3,089 declared themselves as Lutheran, 2,751 as Calvinist, and 2,326 as Jewish.


title: Novi Sad

text: On 25 November 1918, the Assembly of Serbs, Bunjevci and other Slavs of Vojvodina in Novi Sad proclaimed the union of the region of Vojvodina with the Kingdom of Serbia. From 1 December 1918, Novi Sad was part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes; and in 1929, it became the capital of the Danube Banovina, a province of the newly named Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In 1921, the population of Novi Sad numbered 39,122 inhabitants, 16,293 of whom spoke the Serbian language, 12,991 Hungarian, 6,373 German, 1,117 Slovak, etc.


title: Novi Sad

text: In 1941, Yugoslavia was invaded and partitioned by the Axis powers, and its northern parts, including Novi Sad, were annexed by Hungary. During World War II, about 5,000 citizens were murdered and many others were resettled. During the three days of the Novi Sad raid (21–23 January 1942) alone, Hungarian police killed 1,246 citizens, among them more than 800 Jews, and threw their corpses into the icy waters of the Danube.


title: Novi Sad

text: The total death toll of the raid was around 2,500. Citizens of all nationalities—Serbs, Hungarians, Slovaks, and others—fought together against the Axis authorities. In 1975 the whole city was awarded the title People's Hero of Yugoslavia.


title: Novi Sad

text: The Yugoslav Partisans of Syrmia and Bačka entered the city on 23 October 1944. During the military administration of Banat, Bačka and Baranja (17 October 1944 – 27 January 1945), the Partisans killed tens of thousands, mostly Serbs, Germans, and Hungarians, who were perceived as opponents to the new regime.


title: Novi Sad

text: Novi Sad became part of the new Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Since 1945, Novi Sad has been the capital of Vojvodina, a province of the Republic of Serbia. The city went through rapid industrialization and its population more than doubled in the period between World War II and the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.


title: Novi Sad

text: After 1992, Novi Sad became a part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Devastated by NATO bombardment during the Kosovo War of 1999, Novi Sad was left without any of its three Danube bridges (Žeželj Bridge, Varadin Bridge and Liberty Bridge), communications, water, and electricity. Residential areas were cluster-bombed several times while the oil refinery was bombarded daily, causing severe pollution and widespread ecological damage. In 2003, FR Yugoslavia was transformed into the state union of Serbia and Montenegro. These two states separated in June 2006 (following the May 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum), leaving Novi Sad part of the Republic of Serbia.


title: Novi Sad

text: The city lies on the meander of the river Danube, which is only 350 meters wide beneath the marking stones of Petrovaradin. A section of the Danube-Tisza-Danube Canal marks the northern edge of the wider city centre. The main part of the city lies on the left bank of the Danube in the region of Bačka, while the smaller settlements of Petrovaradin and Sremska Kamenica lie on the right bank, in the region of Srem (Syrmia). The section situated on the left bank of the river lies on one of the southernmost and lowest parts of the Pannonian Plain, while Fruška Gora on the right bank is a horst mountain. Alluvial plains along the Danube are well-formed, especially on the left bank, and in some parts from the river. A large part of Novi Sad lies on a fluvial terrace with an elevation between . The northern part of Fruška Gora is composed of massive landslide zones, although they are largely inactive with the exception of the Ribnjak neighbourhood between Sremska Kamenica and Petrovaradin Fortress.


title: Novi Sad

text: Novi Sad has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification: "Cfa") closely bordering on humid continental climate ("Dfa") with a January mean of . The city experiences four distinct seasons. Autumn is drier than spring, with long sunny and warm periods. Winter is not so severe, with an average of 22 days of complete sub-zero temperature, and averages 22 days of snowfall. January is the coldest month, with an average low of . Spring is usually short and rainy, while summer arrives abruptly. The coldest temperature ever recorded in Novi Sad was on 24 January 1963, and the hottest temperature ever recorded was on 24 July 2007.


title: Novi Sad

text: The east-southeasterly wind, known as Košava, blows from the Carpathians and brings clear and dry weather. It mostly blows in autumn and winter, in 2 to 3-day intervals. The average speed of Košava is , but certain strokes can reach up to . In wintertime, accompanied by snow storms, the winds can cause large snow-drifts.


title: Novi Sad

text: Novi Sad is a typical Central European town in terms of its architecture. The Town Hall and the Court House were built by Emmerich Kitzweger (1868–1917). The city was almost completely destroyed during the 1848/1849 revolution, so architecture from the 19th century dominates the city centre. Small, older houses used to surround the centre of town, but they are now being replaced by modern, multi-story buildings.


title: Novi Sad

text: During the socialist period, new city blocks with wide streets and multi-story buildings were constructed around the city core. However, not many communist-style high-rise buildings were erected. The total number of apartment buildings, with ten or more floors, remained at about 50, the rest having mostly three to six floors. From 1962 to 1964, a new boulevard, today called "Bulevar oslobođenja", was cut through the older neighbourhoods, establishing major communication lines. Several more boulevards were subsequently built in a similar manner, creating an orthogonal network which replaced the primarily radial structure of the old town. These interventions paved the way for a relatively unhampered growth of the city, which has almost tripled in population since the 1950s. Despite a huge increase in car ownership, traffic congestion is still relatively mild, apart from a few major arteries.


title: Novi Sad

text: Some of the oldest neighbourhoods in the city are Stari Grad (Old Town), Rotkvarija, Podbara, and Salajka. The areas of Sremska Kamenica and Petrovaradin, located on the right bank of the Danube, were separate towns in the past, but today belong to the urban area of Novi Sad. Liman, as well as Novo Naselje, are neighbourhoods built during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, with contemporary style buildings and wide boulevards (Liman was divided into four sections, numbered I–IV).


title: Novi Sad

text: New neighbourhoods, like Liman, Detelinara and Novo Naselje, emerged from the fields and forests surrounding the city. Following World War II, tall residential buildings were constructed to house the huge influx of people leaving the country side. Many old houses in the city centre, from the Rotkvarija and Bulevar neighbourhoods, were torn down in the 1950s and 1960s, to be replaced by multi-story buildings. Since the city has experienced a major construction boom in the last 10 years, some neighbourhoods like Grbavica have completely been transformed.


title: Novi Sad

text: Neighbourhoods with single family homes are mostly located away from the city centre. Telep, situated in the southwest, and Klisa, in the north, are the oldest such districts. Adice and Veternik, both located west of the downtown area, have significantly expanded during the last 15 years, partly due to an influx of Serb refugees fleeing the Yugoslav wars.


title: Novi Sad

text: While Novi Sad's urban municipalities, which include Petrovaradin, Sremska Kamenica and Novi Sad proper, have a combined population of about 277,000, its suburban areas have approximately 65,000 inhabitants. Some 23.7% of the administrative city's total population resides in the suburbs, which consist of 12 settlements and 1 town. The largest numbers live in Futog (pop. 20,000) and in Veternik (pop. 17,000) to the west. Both places have grown bigger over the years, especially during the 1990s, and have physically merged with the city.


title: Novi Sad

text: Suburbs like Futog are officially classified as an '"urban settlement'" (town), while other suburbs are mostly considered to be '"rural"' (village). Ledinci, Stari Ledinci and Bukovac are all villages located on Fruška Gora’s slopes, with the last two having only one paved road. Stari Ledinci is the most isolated and least populated village belonging to Novi Sad's suburban areas.


title: Novi Sad

text: Towns and villages in the adjacent municipalities of Sremski Karlovci, Temerin and Beočin share the same public transportation system and are economically tied to Novi Sad.


title: Novi Sad

text: Novi Sad is the second largest city in Serbia (after Belgrade), and the largest city in Vojvodina. Since its founding, the population of the city has been constantly increasing. According to the 1991 census, 56.2% of the people who came to Novi Sad from 1961 to 1991 were from Vojvodina, while 15.3% came from Bosnia and Herzegovina and 11.7% from rest of Serbia.


title: Novi Sad

text: In the 1990s and 2000s, the city experienced significant population growth. According to the 2011 census, the city's population is 231,798, while in its urban area (including adjacent settlements of Petrovaradin and Sremska Kamenica) there are 277,522 inhabitants. Novi Sad's administrative city limits hold 341,625 inhabitants.


title: Novi Sad

text: All of the inhabited places in the municipalities have an ethnic Serb majority, while the village of Kisač has an ethnic Slovak majority.


title: Novi Sad

text: According to the 2011 census, the population of the administrative area of Novi Sad (comprising both municipalities) included 270,831 Orthodox Christians, 21,530 Catholics, 8,499 Protestants, 4,760 Muslims, 84 Jews, and others. The city is the seat of the Serbian Orthodox Eparchy of Bačka, the seat of the Bishop of the Slovak Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Serbia and of the Muftiship of Novi Sad of the Islamic Community in Serbia.


title: Novi Sad

text: In the 19th and early 20th century, Novi Sad was the capital of Serbian culture, earning it the nickname "Serbian Athens". During that time, almost every Serbian novelist, poet, jurist, and publisher had lived or worked in Novi Sad at some point in their career. Some of these cultural workers included Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, Mika Antić, Đura Jakšić and Jovan Jovanović Zmaj , among others. Matica srpska, the oldest cultural-scientific institution in Serbia, was moved from Budapest to Novi Sad in 1864, and now contains the second-largest library in the country, the Library of Matica srpska, with over 3.5 million volumes. The Serbian National Theatre, the oldest professional theatre among the South Slavs, was founded in Novi Sad in 1861.


title: Novi Sad

text: Today, Novi Sad is the second largest cultural centre in Serbia, after Belgrade. Municipal officials have made the city more attractive with numerous cultural events and music concerts. Since 2000, Novi Sad is home to the EXIT festival, one of the biggest music summer festivals in Europe. Other important cultural events include the Sterijino pozorje theatre festival, Zmaj Children Games, International Novi Sad Literature Festival, Novi Sad Jazz Festival, and many others. Novi Sad also hosts a fashion show twice a year, attracting local and international designers. Called Serbia Fashion Week, the event also features the works of applied artists, musicians, interior decorators, multimedia experts and architects.


title: Novi Sad

text: In addition to the Serbian National Theatre, other prominent playhouses consist of the Novi Sad Theatre, Youth Theatre, and the Cultural Centre of Novi Sad. The Novi Sad Synagogue also houses many cultural events. Other cultural institutions include the Detachment of the Serbian Academy of Science and Art, Library of Matica Srpska, Novi Sad City Library and Azbukum. The city is also home to the Archive of Vojvodina, which has collected numerous documents from the Vojvodina region dating back to 1565.


title: Novi Sad

text: Novi Sad has several folk song societies, which are known as "kulturno-umetničko društvo" or KUD. The best known societies in the city are: KUD Svetozar Marković, AKUD Sonja Marinković, SKUD Željezničar, FA Vila and the oldest SZPD Neven, established in 1892.


title: Novi Sad

text: National minorities express their own traditions, folklore and songs through various societies such as the Hungarian MKUD Petőfi Sándor, Slovak SKUD Pavel Jozef Šafárik, and Ruthenian RKC Novi Sad.


title: Novi Sad

text: Novi Sad was chosen to be the European Capital of Culture for 2021, however its mandate was moved to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Novi Sad

text: Typical Serbian food can be found in Novi Sad, including traditional dishes like ćevapi, burek, kajmak, kiseli kupus, kiflice and pasulj, as well as fish dishes, local cheeses and charcuterie. Restaurants and farmsteads offer fresh produce from local farmers and also regional vintages from Fruska Gora's wineries. Modern alternatives are available at some of the city's top restaurants, which prepare traditional fare with an updated twist. Pastry shops serve local specialties such as layered cakes made from ground nuts and cream, referred to as 'torta' in Serbian. Desserts also often include raspberries, one of the region's largest exports, and historic Dunavska Street is home to many ice cream parlors.


title: Novi Sad

text: The city has several museums and galleries, both public and privately owned. The best known institution in the city is the Museum of Vojvodina, founded in 1847, which houses a permanent collection of Serbian culture and life in Vojvodina since ancient times. The Museum of Novi Sad, located in the Petrovaradin Fortress, has a permanent collection featuring the history of the old fortress.


title: Novi Sad

text: The Gallery of Matica Srpska is the largest and most respected exhibition space in the city, with two galleries in the city centre. Other museums include The Gallery of Fine Arts – Gift Collection of Rajko Mamuzić and The Pavle Beljanski Memorial Collection, featuring one of the most extensive collections of Serbian art from the 1900s until the 1970s.


title: Novi Sad

text: Since 2000, the number of tourists visiting Novi Sad each year has steadily risen. During the annual EXIT music festival in July, the city is full of young people from all over Europe. In 2017, over 200,000 visitors from 60 countries came to the festival, attending about 35 concerts. Other events include shows and congresses organized by Novi Sad Fair, a local management company, bringing in many businesspersons and entrepreneurs to the city. Every May, Novi Sad is home to the largest agricultural show in the region, having attracted 600,000 attendees in 2005. The tourist port, near Varadin Bridge in the city centre, welcomes cruise boats from across Europe that travel the Danube river.


title: Novi Sad

text: The most recognized structure in Novi Sad is the Petrovaradin Fortress, which dominates the skyline and also offers scenic views of the city. The nearby historic neighbourhood of Stari Grad has many monuments, museums, cafes, restaurants and shops. Also in the vicinity, is the Fruška Gora National Park, approximately from the city centre.


title: Novi Sad

text: Novi Sad is the economic centre of Vojvodina, the most fertile agricultural region in Serbia. The city also represents one of the largest economic and cultural hubs in Serbia.


title: Novi Sad

text: Novi Sad had always been a developed city within the former Yugoslavia. In 1981, its GDP per capita was 172% of the Yugoslav average. During the 1990s, the city, like the rest of Serbia, was severely affected by an internationally imposed trade embargo and hyperinflation of the Yugoslav dinar. The embargo, along with economic mismanagement, led to a decay or demise of once important industrial combines, such as "Novkabel" (electric cable industry), "Pobeda" (metal industry), "Jugoalat" (tools), "Albus" and "HINS" (chemical industry). Practically the only viable large facilities remaining today are the oil refinery, located northeast of the town, and the thermal power plant.


title: Novi Sad

text: The economy of Novi Sad has mostly recovered from that period and grown strongly since 2001, shifting from an industry-driven economy to the tertiary sector. The processes involved in privatizing state and society-owned enterprises, as well as strong private incentives, have increased the share of privately owned companies to over 95% in the district, with small and medium-size enterprises dominating the city's economic development.


title: Novi Sad

text: The significance of Novi Sad as a financial centre is already proven, by being home to the national headquarters of numerous banks, such as Erste Bank, Vojvođanska banka, and Crédit Agricole; as well as the third largest insurance company in Serbia, DDOR Novi Sad. Furthermore, the city is home to major energy companies like Naftna Industrija Srbije oil company and Srbijagas gas company. It is also the seat of the wheat market.


title: Novi Sad

text: Novi Sad is also a growing information technology centre within Serbia, second only to Belgrade. As of September 2017, Novi Sad has one of 14 free economic zones established in Serbia.


title: Novi Sad

text: The following table gives a preview of total number of registered people employed in legal entities per their core activity (as of 2018):


title: Novi Sad

text: Novi Sad is the administrative centre of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, and as such, home to Vojvodina's Government and Provincial Assembly.


title: Novi Sad

text: The city's administrative bodies include the city assembly as the representative body, as well as the mayor and city government defining the executive bodies. The mayor and city assembly members are chosen through direct elections. The city assembly has 78 seats, while the city government consists of 11 members. The mayor and members of the city's assembly are elected to four-year terms. The city government is elected by the city assembly at the proposal of the mayor.


title: Novi Sad

text: As of 2022, the mayor of Novi Sad is Milan Đurić of the Serbian Progressive Party. While his party holds the majority of seats in the city assembly, the Socialist Party of Serbia, the Democratic Party of Serbia, as well as other parties and groups, are also represented.


title: Novi Sad

text: The city of Novi Sad is divided into 47 local communities within two city municipalities, Novi Sad and Petrovaradin, which are separated by the Danube river.


title: Novi Sad

text: The design consists of three white towers placed in the centre, set against a blue sky. A white dove holding an olive branch flies above the larger middle tower. All three structures have rooftops with crenallations, as well as opened windows and closed gates. Below the towers lies a green background, with a wavy white line depicting the Danube River.


title: Novi Sad

text: Novi Sad is one of the most important centres of higher education and research in Serbia, with four universities overall and numerous professional, technical, and private colleges and research institutes, including a law school with its own publication. The largest educational institution in the city is the University of Novi Sad, a public school established in 1960. , it has 14 faculties, 9 of which are located on the main university campus. It is attended by more than 50,000 students and has total staff of nearly 5,000.


title: Novi Sad

text: Business Academy University and Educons University are private schools also located in the city. Other educational institutions include Novi Sad Open University, offering professional courses in adult education, and the Protestant Theological Seminary.


title: Novi Sad

text: Regarding primary and secondary education, there are 36 elementary schools (33 regular and 3 special) with about 26,000 students. The secondary school system consists of 11 vocational schools and 4 gymnasiums with almost 18,000 students.


title: Novi Sad

text: Novi Sad has one major daily newspaper, "Dnevnik", and among the periodicals, the monthly magazine "Vojvodjanski magazin" stands out. The city also houses the headquarters of regional public broadcaster, "Radio Television of Vojvodina (RTV)", and municipal public broadcaster, "Novosadska televizija", as well as a few commercial TV stations such as "Kanal 9", "Panonija" and "RTV Most". Major local commercial radio stations include "Radio AS FM" and "Radio 021".


title: Novi Sad

text: Novi Sad is also known for being a publishing centre. The most important publishing houses are "Matica srpska", "Stilos" and "Prometej". Well-known journals, in literature and art, include "Letopis Matice srpske", the oldest Serbian Journal, "Polja", which is issued by the Cultural centre of Novi Sad, and "Zlatna greda", published by the Association of Writers of Vojvodina.


title: Novi Sad

text: Founded in 1790, the "'City Marksmen Association"' became the first sporting organization in Novi Sad. A more widespread interest in competitive sports developed after the "Municipal Association of Physical Culture" was created in 1959 and when the Spens Sports centre was built in 1981. Today, about 220 sports organizations are active in Novi Sad.


title: Novi Sad

text: Professional sports in Novi Sad mostly revolve around the Vojvodina multi-sport association. Having won two championships in 1966 and 1989, the FK Vojvodina football club represents the 3rd all-time best team in Serbia, right behind its two Belgrade rivals, Red Star and Partizan. With 13 championship titles, OK Vojvodina is the top volleyball team in the country. As for handball, RK Vojvodina has won the national championship on multiple occasions.


title: Novi Sad

text: Athletes from Novi Sad had the honour of participating in the first Olympic Games in Athens. The largest number of Novi Sad competitors, to participate in the Olympics, was at the Atlanta Games. Eleven athletes won 6 medals there. Three also competed at the 1980 Moscow Games, while two participated in the 1976 Montreal Games and the 1956 Melbourne Games.


title: Novi Sad

text: Many national and international competitions are held in the city. Novi Sad played host to the European and World Championships in table tennis in 1981 and the 29th Chess Olympiad in 1990. It also welcomed the European and World Championships in sambo, the Balkan and European Championships in judo, the 1987 final match of the Saporta Cup in European basketball, and the final tournament of the European volleyball cup. Furthermore, Novi Sad co-hosted the 2005 European Basketball Championship, as well as hosting the 2017 Volleyball World League matches. The year 2018 saw the city welcome the Senior European Fencing Championships and the European Senior Karate Championships.


title: Novi Sad

text: The city also holds traditional sporting events such as the Novi Sad marathon, international swimming competitions and many other events. The very first 'MTB Petrovaradin Fortress Cup' took place in 2018, allowing national and regional cyclists to compete. It is also the first mountain bike competition to be held in Serbia.


title: Novi Sad

text: Novi Sad's inhabitants engage in a wide range of recreational and leisure activities. With regards to team sports, football and basketball have the highest numbers of participants. Cycling is also popular due to the city's flat terrain and the extensive off-road network, found in nearby mountainous Fruška Gora. Hundreds of commuters cycle the roads, bike lanes and bike paths daily.


title: Novi Sad

text: Proximity to the Fruška Gora National Park attracts many city dwellers on the weekends. They enjoy the numerous hiking trails, restaurants and monasteries located in and around the mountain area. Occurring on the first weekend of every May, the "Fruška Gora Marathon" lets hikers, runners and cyclists take advantage of the many hiking trails. During the summer months, citizens from Novi Sad visit Lake Ledinci in Fruška Gora, as well as the numerous beaches situated along the Danube, the largest being Štrand in the Liman neighbourhood. There are also several recreational marinas bordering the river.


title: Novi Sad

text: Novi Sad currently does not have its own civil airport. The city is about a one-hour drive from Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport, which connects it with capitals across Europe. Small Čenej Airport north of the city is used for sport and agricultural purposes. There are plans to upgrade it to serve for cargo and small-scale public transport, but the future of this initiative is uncertain.


title: Novi Sad

text: The main public transportation system in Novi Sad consists of bus lines, operated by public company JGSP Novi Sad. There are twenty-one urban lines and twenty-nine suburban lines, with main bus station at the northern end of the Liberation Boulevard, next to the Novi Sad railway station. In addition, there are numerous taxi companies serving the city.


title: Novi Sad

text: Novi Sad lies on the branch B of the Pan-European Corridor X. The A1 motorway connects the city with Subotica to the north and the capital city of Belgrade to the south. It is concurrent with Budapest–Belgrade railroad, which connects it to major European cities. Starting from 18.3.2022. year there is a high-speed line between Novi Sad and Belgrade with 18 departures every day. The maximum speed is 200 km/h (train called "SOKO") and the distance from Belgrade to Novi Sad is covered in 36 minutes (75 kilometers). Novi Sad is connected with Zrenjanin and Timișoara on the northeast and Ruma on south with a regional highway; there are long-term plans to upgrade it to a motorway or an expressway, with a tunnel under the Fruška Gora shortcutting the "Iriški Venac" mountain pass.


title: Novi Sad

text: Three bridges cross the Danube in Novi Sad (as of 2020): Liberty Bridge (Most Slobode) connects Sremska Kamenica with the city proper. Varadin Bridge (Varadinski most) and Žeželj Bridge (Žeželjev most), connects Petrovaradin with city centre, and used for railway and heavy truck traffic. The bridges span the Danube-Tisa-Danube canal, running north of the city centre.


title: Novi Sad

text: The Port of Novi Sad is located on the outskirts of the city, on Danube river. Since may 2019. year it is owned by DP WORLD from UAE. With over million tonnes of load turnover, it is the largest cargo port in Serbia.


title: Novi Sad

text: Novi Sad has relationships with several twin towns. One of the main streets in its city centre is named after Modena in Italy; and likewise Modena has named a park in its town centre Parco di Piazza d'Armi Novi Sad. The Novi Sad Friendship Bridge in Norwich, United Kingdom, by Buro Happold, was also named in honour of Novi Sad. Besides twin cities, Novi Sad has many signed agreements on joint cooperation with other European cities ("see also: Politics of Novi Sad").


title: Freikorps

text: In the aftermath of World War I and during the German Revolution of 1918–19, consisting largely of World War I veterans were raised as paramilitary militias. They were ostensibly mustered to fight on behalf of the government against the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic backed German communists attempting to overthrow the Weimar Republic. However, many also largely despised the Republic and were involved in assassinations of its supporters.


title: Freikorps

text: The first were recruited by Frederick the Great during the Seven Years' War. On 15 July 1759, Frederick ordered the creation of a squadron of volunteer hussars to be attached to the 1st Hussar Regiment (von Kleist's Own). He entrusted the creation and command of this new unit to Colonel Friedrich Wilhelm von Kleist. This first squadron (80 men) was raised in Dresden and consisted mainly of Hungarian deserters. This squadron was placed under the command of Lieutenant Johann Michael von Kovacs. At the end of 1759, the first four squadrons of dragoons (also called horse grenadiers) of the were organised. They initially consisted of Prussian volunteers from Berlin, Magdeburg, Mecklenburg and Leipzig, but later recruited deserters. The were regarded as unreliable by regular armies, so they were used mainly as sentries and for minor duties.


title: Freikorps

text: These early appeared during the War of the Austrian Succession and especially the Seven Years' War, when France, Prussia, and the Habsburg monarchy embarked on an escalation of petty warfare while conserving their regular regiments. Even during the last Kabinettskrieg, the War of the Bavarian Succession, formations were formed in 1778. Germans, Hungarians, Poles, Lithuanians, and South Slavs, as well as Turks, Tatars and Cossacks, were believed by all warring parties to be inherently good fighters. The nationality of many soldiers can no longer be ascertained as the ethnic origin was often described imprecisely in the regimental lists. Slavs (Croats, Serbs) were often referred to as "Hungarians" or just "Croats", and Muslim recruits (Albanians, Bosnians, Tatars) as "Turks".


title: Freikorps

text: For Prussia, the Pandurs, who were made up of Croats and Serbs, were a clear model for the organization of such "free" troops. Frederick the Great created 14 "free infantry" () units, mainly between 1756 and 1758, which were intended to be attractive to those soldiers who wanted military "adventure", but did not want to have to do military drill. A distinction should be made between the formed up to 1759 for the final years of the war, which operated independently and disrupted the enemy with surprise attacks, and the free infantry which consisted of various military branches (such as infantry, hussars, dragoons, "jäger") and were used in combination. They were often used to ward off Maria Theresa's Pandurs. In the era of linear tactics, light troops had been seen necessary for outpost, reinforcement and reconnaissance duties. During the war, eight such volunteer corps were set up:


title: Freikorps

text: Because, with some exceptions, they were seen as undisciplined and less battleworthy, they were used for less onerous guard and garrison duties. In the so-called "petty wars", the interdicted enemy supply lines with guerrilla warfare. In the case of capture, their members were at risk of being executed as irregular fighters. In Prussia the , which Frederick the Great had despised as "vermin", were disbanded. Their soldiers were given no entitlement to pensions or invalidity payments.


title: Freikorps

text: In France, many corps continued to exist until 1776. They were attached to regular dragoon regiments as "jäger" squadrons. During the Napoleonic Wars, Austria recruited various of Slavic origin. The Slavonic Wurmser fought in Alsace. The combat effectiveness of the six Viennese (37,000 infantrymen and cavalrymen), however, was low. An exception were the border regiments of Croats and Serbs who served permanently on the Austro-Ottoman border.


title: Freikorps

text: in the modern sense emerged in Germany during the course of the Napoleonic Wars. They fought not so much for money but for patriotic reasons, seeking to shake off the French Confederation of the Rhine. After the French under Emperor Napoleon had either conquered the German states or forced them to collaborate, remnants of the defeated armies continued to fight on in this fashion. Famous formations included the King's German Legion, who had fought for Britain in French-occupied Spain and mainly were recruited from Hanoverians, the Lützow Free Corps and the Black Brunswickers.


title: Freikorps

text: The attracted many nationally disposed citizens and students. commanders such as Ferdinand von Schill, Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm von Lützow or Frederick William, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, known as the "Black Duke", led their own attacks on Napoleonic occupation forces in Germany. Those led by Schill were decimated in the Battle of Stralsund (1809); many were killed in battle or executed at Napoleon's command in the aftermath. The were very popular during the period of the German War of Liberation (1813–15), during which von Lützow, a survivor of Schill's , formed his Lützow Free Corps. The anti-Napoleonic often operated behind French lines as a kind of commando or guerrilla force.


title: Freikorps

text: Throughout the 19th century, these anti-Napoleonic were greatly praised and glorified by German nationalists, and a heroic myth built up around their exploits. This myth was invoked, in considerably different circumstances, in the aftermath of Germany's defeat in World War I.


title: Freikorps

text: In 1864 in Mexico, the French formed the so-called "Contreguerrillas" under former Prussian hussar officer, Milson. In Italy, Garibaldi formed his famous "Freischars", notably the "Thousand of Marsala", which landed in Sicily in 1860.


title: Freikorps

text: Even before the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, were developed in France that were known as franc-tireurs.


title: Freikorps

text: After World War I, the meaning of the word Freikorps changed compared to its past iterations. After 1918, the term referred to various —yet, still, loosely affiliated — paramilitary organizations that sprang up across Germany following the country's defeat in World War I. Of the numerous Weimar paramilitary groups active during that time, the Freikorps were, and remain, the most notable. While exact numbers are difficult to determine, historians agree that some 500,000 men were formal Freikorps members with another 1.5 million men participating informally.


title: Freikorps

text: Amongst the social, political, and economic upheavals that marked the early years of the Weimar Republic, the tenuous German government under Friedrich Ebert, leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (, SPD), utilized the Freikorps to quell socialist and communist uprisings. Minister of Defence and SPD member Gustav Noske also relied on the Freikorps to suppress the German Revolution of 1918-19 as well as the Marxist Spartacist League, culminating in the summary execution of revolutionary communist leaders Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg on 15 January 1919.


title: Freikorps

text: The Bavarian Soviet Republic was a short-lived and unrecognized socialist-communist state from 12 April 1919 - 3 May 1919 in Bavaria during the German Revolution of 1918-19. Following a series of political revolts and takeovers from German socialists and then Russian-backed Bolsheviks, Noske responded from Berlin by sending various Freikorps brigades to Bavaria in late April totalling some 30,000 men. The brigades included Hermann Ehrhardt's second Marine Brigade Freikorps, the Gorlitz Freikorps under Lieutenant Colonel Faupel, and two Swabian divisions from Württemberg under General Haas and Major Hirl as well as the largest Freikorps in Bavaria commanded by Colonel Franz Ritter von Epp.


title: Freikorps

text: While they were met with little Communist resistance, the Freikorps nonetheless acted with particular brutality and violence under Noske's blessing and at the behest of Major Schulz, adjutant of the Lützow Freikorps, who reminded his men that it "[was] a lot better to kill a few innocent people than to let one guilty person escape" and that there was no place in his ranks for those whose conscience bothered them. On 5 May 1919, Lieutenant Georg Pölzing, one of Schulz's officers, travelled to the town of Perlach outside of Munich. There, Pölzing chose a dozen alleged communist workers — none of whom were actually communists, but members of the Social Democratic Party — and shot them on the spot. The following day, a Freikorps patrol led by Captain Alt-Sutterheim interrupted the meeting of a local Catholic club, the St Joseph Society, and chose twenty of the thirty members present to be shot, beaten, and bayoneted to death. A memorial on Pfanzeltplatz in Munich commemorates the incident. Historian Nigel Jones notes that as a result of the Freikorps' violence, Munich's undertakers were overwhelmed, resulting in bodies lying in the streets and decaying until mass graves were completed.


title: Freikorps

text: The Freikorps also fought against communists and Bolsheviks in Eastern Europe, most notably East Prussia, Latvia, Silesia, and Poland. The Freikorps demonstrated fervent anti-Slavic racism and viewed Slavs and Bolsheviks as "sub-human" hordes of "ravening wolves". To justify their campaign in the East, the Freikorps launched a campaign of propaganda that falsely positioned themselves as protectors of Germany's territorial hegemony over Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia as a result of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and as defenders against Slavic and Bolshevik hordes that "raped women and butchered children" in their wake. Historian Nigel Jones highlights the Freikorps'"usual excesses" of violence and murder in Latvia which were all the more unrestrained since they were fighting in a foreign land versus their own country. Hundreds were murdered in the Freikorps' Eastern campaigns, such as the massacre of 500 Latvian civilians suspected of harbouring bolshevik sympathies or the capture of Riga which saw the Freikorps slaughter some 3,000 people. Summary executions via firing squads were most common, but several Freikorps members recorded the brutal and deadly beatings of suspected communists and particularly communist women.


title: Freikorps

text: Freikorps ranks were composed primarily of former World War I soldiers who, upon demobilization, were unable to reintegrate into civilian society having been brutalized by the violence of the war physically and mentally. Combined with the government's poor support of veterans, who were dismissed as being hysterical when suffering from post-traumatic disorder, many German veterans found comfort and a sense of belonging in the Freikorps. Jason Crouthamel notes how the Freikorps' military structure was a familiar continuation of the frontlines, emulating the "Kampfgemeinschaft" (battle community) and "Kameradschaft" (camaraderie), thus preserving "the heroic spirit of comradeship in the trenches". Others, angry at Germany's sudden, seemingly inexplicable defeat, joined the Freikorps in an effort to fight against communism and socialism in Germany or to exact some form of revenge on those they considered responsible. To a lesser extent, German youth who were not old enough to have served in World War I enlisted in the Freikorps in hopes of proving themselves as patriots and as men.


title: Freikorps

text: Regardless of reasons for joining, modern German historians agree that men of the Freikorps consistently embodied post-Enlightenment masculine ideals that are characterized by "physical, emotional, and moral 'hardness'". Described as "children of the trenches, spawned by war" and its process of brutalization, historians argue that Freikorps men idealized a militarized masculinity of aggression, physical domination, the absence of emotion (hardness). They were to be as "swift as greyhounds, tough as leather, [and] hard as Krupp steel" so as to defend what remained of German conservatism in times of social chaos, confusion, and revolution that came to define the immediate interwar era. Although World War I ended in Germany's surrender, many men in the Freikorps nonetheless viewed themselves as soldiers still engaged in active warfare with enemies of the traditional German empire such as communists and Bolsheviks, Jews, socialists, and pacifists. Prominent Freikorps member Ernst von Solomon described his troops as "full of wild demand for revenge and action and adventure…a band of fighter…full of lust, exultant in anger." Expanding upon this, in Klaus Theweleit's two-volume study of Freikorps masculinity and identity, "Male Fantasies", Theweleit argues that men in the Freikorps radicalized Western and German norms of male self-control, as well as about cold, tough, and hard masculinity, into a perpetual war against their very antithesis, women and femininity — most notably femininely-coded desires for domesticity, tenderness, and compassion within men. Historians Nigel Jones and Thomas Kühne agree with Theweleit's gendered framework of understanding masculinity within the Freikorps, noting that their displays of violence, terror, and male aggression and solidarity established the beginnings of the fascist New Man that the Nazis built upon.


title: Freikorps

text: The extent of the Freikorps' involvement and actions in Eastern Europe, where they demonstrated full autonomy and rejected orders from the Reichswehr and German government, left a negative impression with the state. By this time, the Freikorps had served Ebert's purpose of suppressing revolts and communist uprisings. After the failed Kapp-Lütwitz Putsch in March 1920 that the Freikorps participated in, the Freikorps' autonomy and strength steadily declined as Hans von Seeckt, commander of the Reichswehr, removed all Freikorps members from the army and restricted the movements' access to future funding and equipment from the government. Von Seeckt was successful, and by 1921 only a small yet devoted core remained, effectively drawing an end to the Freikorps until their resurgence as far-right thugs and street brawlers for the Nazis beginning in 1923.


title: Freikorps

text: The rise of the Nazi Party led to a resurgence of Freikorps activity, as many members or ex-members were drawn to the party's marrying of military and political life and extreme nationalism by joining the "Sturmabteilung" (SA) and "Schutzstaffel" (SS). Unlike in the German Revolution of 1918-19 or their involvement in Eastern Europe, the Freikorps now had almost no military value and were instead utilized by the Nazis as thugs to engage in street brawls with communists and to break up communist and socialist meetings alongside the SA to gain a political edge. Moreover, the Nazis elevated the Freikorps as a symbol of pure German nationalism, anti-communism, and militarized masculinity to co-opt the lingering social and political support of the movement.


title: Freikorps

text: Eventually, Adolf Hitler came to view the Freikorps as a nuisance and possible threat to his consolidation of power. During the Night of the Long Knives in 1934, an internal purge of Hitler's enemies within the Nazi Party, numerous Freikorps members and leaders were targeted for killing or arrest, including Freikorps commander Hermann Ehrhardt and SA leader Ernst Röhm. In Hitler's Reichstag speech following the purge, Hitler denounced the Freikorps as lawless "moral degenerates…aimed at the destruction of all existing institutions" and as "pathological enemies of the state…[and] enemies of all authority," despite his previous public adoration of the movement.


title: Freikorps

text: Numerous future members and leader of the Nazi Party served in the Freikorps. Martin Bormann, eventual head of the Nazi party Chancellery and Private Secretary to Hitler joined the Gerhard Roßbach's Freikorps in Mecklenburg as a Section leader and quartermaster. Reich Farmers' Leader and Minister of Food and Agriculture Richard Walther Darré was part of the Berlin Freikorps. Reinhard Heydrich, future chief of the Reich Security Main Office (including the Gestapo, Kripo, and SD) and initiator of the Final Solution, was in the Georg Ludwig Rudolf Maercker's Freikorps as a teenager. Leader of the SS Heinrich Himmler enlisted in the Freikorps and carried a flag in the 1923 Beerhall Putsch. Rudolf Höss joined the East Prussian Volunteer Freikorps in 1919 and eventually became commander of the Auschwitz extermination camp. Ernst Röhm, eventual leader of the SA, supported various Bavarian Freikorps groups, funnelling them arms and cash.


title: Freikorps

text: During World War II, there existed certain armed groups loyal to Germany that went under the name "Freikorps". These include:


title: Freikorps

text: In France, a similar group (but unrelated to the Freikorps) were the "Corps Franc". Starting in October 1939, the French Army raised a number of Corps Franc units with the mission of carrying out ambush, raid, and harassing operations forward of the Maginot Line during the period known as the Phoney War (Drôle de Guerre). They were tasked with attacking German troops guarding the Siegfried Line. Future Vichy collaborationist, Anti-Bolshevik and SS Major Joseph Darnand was one of the more famous participants in these commando actions.


title: Freikorps

text: In May 1940, the experience of the Phoney War-era Corps Franc was an influence in creating the Groupes Francs Motorisé de Cavalerie (GFC) who played a storied role in the delaying operations and last stands of the Battle of France, notably in the defenses of the Seine and the Loire. Between April – September 1944, the Corps Franc de la Montagne Noire unit operated as part of the French Resistance.


title: Freikorps

text: On 25 November 1942, in the immediate aftermath of the Allied Invasion of Vichy French North Africa the Corps Francs d'Afrique (CFA) (African Corps Franc) was raised in French Morocco within the Free French Forces by General Giraud. Giraud drew the members of the all-volunteer unit from residents of Northern Africa of diverse religious backgrounds (Christian, Jew, and Muslim) and gave them the title of "Vélite", a name inspired by the elite light infantry of Napoleon's Imperial Guard, who were named after the Roman Velites. Much of the Corps was drawn from Henri d'Astier de la Vigerie and José Aboulker's Géo Gras French Resistance Group which had been responsible for the Algiers Insurrection where the Resistance seized control of Algiers on the night of 8 November 1942 in coordination with the Allied landings happening that same night. In taking over Algiers, they managed to capture both Admiral Darlan and General Juin, which led to the Darlan Deal wherein Vichy French forces came over to the Allied side. Darlan was later assassinated by Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle, an early member of the Corps Francs d'Afrique. They functioned as the Free French equivalent to the British Commandos. The Corps also included many Spanish and International old combatants of the Spanish Republican Army, which had sought refuge in Northern Africa in 1939.


title: Freikorps

text: The Corps Francs d'Afrique, under command of Joseph de Goislard de Monsabert, went on to fight Rommel's Afrikakorps in Tunisia with the U.S. 5th Army. They fought alongside the British 139th Brigade at Kassarine and Sidi Nasr, where they famously conducted a heroic bayonet charge, facing two to one odds, against the Italian 34th Battalion of the 10th Bersaglieri near the mountain of Kef Zilia on the road to Bizerte, taking 380 prisoners, killing the Italian battalion commander, and capturing the plans for Operation Ausladung. They participated in the capture of Bizerte in May 1943.


title: Freikorps

text: The CFA formally was dissolved on 9 July 1943, with its members and equipment forming the corps of the newly created African Commando Group (GCA) on 13 July 1943 in Dupleix, Algeria, today seen as a forebear to the postwar Parachutist Shock Battalions and the modern day 13th RDP. The GCA went on to fight at Pianosa, Elba, Salerno, Provence, Belfort, Giromagny, Alsace, Cernay, Guebwiller, Buhl, and the Invasion of Germany.


title: Of Monsters and Men

text: Of Monsters and Men is an Icelandic indie folk/rock band formed in Reykjavík in 2010. The members are lead singer and guitarist Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir, singer and guitarist Ragnar "Raggi" Þórhallsson, lead guitarist Brynjar Leifsson, drummer Arnar Rósenkranz Hilmarsson and bassist Kristján Páll Kristjánsson. The band won the Músíktilraunir in 2010, an annual battle of the bands competition in Iceland. In 2011, Of Monsters and Men released an EP titled "Into the Woods". The band's 2011 debut album "My Head Is an Animal", reached the No.1 position in Australia, Iceland, Ireland and the US Rock and Alternative charts, while peaking at No. 6 on the US "Billboard" 200 album chart, No. 3 in the UK, and Top 20 of most European charts and Canada. Its lead single "Little Talks" was an international success, reaching the Top 10 in most music charts in Europe, including No. 1 in Ireland and Iceland, and No. 1 on US Alternative Songs.


title: Of Monsters and Men

text: The band's origins began in 2009 when Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir decided to add additional members to her previously solo project, Songbird. Of Monsters and Men entered 2010's Músíktilraunir, an annual music competition held in Iceland, as a quartet with members Nanna (lead vocals, acoustic guitar), Brynjar (electric guitar), Raggi (backing vocals, melodica, glockenspiel), and Arnar (backing vocals, melodica, glockenspiel, tambourine). Raggi came up with the band name, Of Monsters and Men, and everyone else liked it, so it stuck.


title: Of Monsters and Men

text: Following Músiktilraunir, the quartet added two more members, Árni (accordion/keys, backing vocals) and Kristján (bass, backing vocals), and continued to tour venues in Iceland and work on new songs. They were invited to perform at the 2010 Iceland Airwaves festival, and it is there that the Seattle-based radio station KEXP recorded the band performing "Little Talks" from a living room session.


title: Of Monsters and Men

text: The band signed with Record Records in February 2011 for the release of their debut album in Iceland. In March 2011, they went to Studio Sýrland in Reykjavík to record and produce their debut album. In August 2011, Philadelphia's Radio 104.5 began playing "Little Talks" and propelled the band to nationwide popularity. Their debut album "My Head Is an Animal" was released in Iceland in September 2011 with both it and "Little Talks" hitting No. 1.


title: Of Monsters and Men

text: With success in Iceland and growing popularity in the United States, the band signed with Universal for a worldwide release of their debut album. The band released its "Into the Woods" EP on 20 December 2011, which features four songs from their debut album, and later released "My Head Is an Animal" in the United States on 3 April 2012.


title: Of Monsters and Men

text: The band performed at the Newport Folk Festival in Newport, Rhode Island, on 29 July 2012, Osheaga Festival in Montreal on 3 August 2012, and then at Lollapalooza in Chicago on 5 August 2012. They have toured in several European countries including Ireland, Germany, Italy, and Sweden. Of Monsters and Men also appeared 5 October 2012, on the new PBS music show "Sound Tracks: Music Without Borders", performing "Mountain Sound". Later Árni Guðjónsson left the band to go back to school.


title: Of Monsters and Men

text: Trumpeter Ragnhildur Gunnarsdóttir joined in the 2012 tour as a session player. The band has not commented on interest to eventually bring her into the band.


title: Of Monsters and Men

text: The band performed "Little Talks" and "Mountain Sound" on "Saturday Night Live" on 4 May 2013, and performed in the 1st Annual Boston Calling Music Festival on 26 May 2013. The band also played T in the Park in July 2013, the biggest music festival in Scotland. They performed on both Lollapalooza Brazil and Chile. They also performed at Coachella, on 12 and 19 April 2013. On 26 January 2013, "Little Talks" was voted into the Triple J Hottest 100 of 2012 at number two, a prestigious musical honour in Australia. They appeared at Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, in June 2013 and played at The Other Stage at Glastonbury Festival in that same month. On 14 July 2013, the band performed in Optimus Alive! festival, in Lisbon, Portugal, one of the most popular festivals in Europe.


title: Of Monsters and Men

text: Their song "Dirty Paws", from which the title of the album originated, was featured in a trailer for the 2013 film "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" and the iPhone 5 introduction video released in September 2012. They contributed the track "Silhouettes" to "" soundtrack. Their song "Sinking Man" is featured on "".


title: Of Monsters and Men

text: The band began working on a new album in August 2013. In an interview published on 6 May 2014, Nanna stated that the album was forthcoming, but that the band had not decided on a release date yet. They officially began recording on 3 November 2014. At a listening session in February 2015, the band announced that their yet to be named second studio album would release later in the year. The band posted a teaser video on their site for the album's first single, "Crystals". It was released on 16 March 2015 along with the track list and other details about their upcoming album "Beneath the Skin", set to be released on 8 June. The album and single artwork was created by artist Leif Podhajsky.


title: Of Monsters and Men

text: In May 2015, the band released dates for a tour to promote the upcoming album. The North American leg of the tour ran from 5 August 2015 to 17 October 2015. The track "Thousand Eyes" was featured heavily in the preseason advertising for "Jessica Jones". The band appeared in a cameo on the episodes "The Door" and "Blood of My Blood" of "Game of Thrones" as stage musicians.


title: Of Monsters and Men

text: The band was included on Coachella's 2016 line-up. In November 2016, their cover of "Eleanor Rigby" was the feature of episode 21b of Beat Bugs. On 21 May 2017, Of Monsters and Men posted a picture on their Instagram account with the caption "Album 3. Let's do this!!!" In October 2017, it was announced that the band had hit one billion streams on Spotify, becoming the first Icelandic band to do so.


title: Of Monsters and Men

text: On 2 May 2019, the band released "Alligator", the first single from their third album "Fever Dream", released on 26 July. On 11 July 2019, the band released the track "Wild Roses". On 26 July 2019, the band released the single, "Wars", as a lyric video on their YouTube channel along with their entire album.


title: Of Monsters and Men

text: On 9 September 2020, the band unveiled a single titled "Visitor", along with a music video. On 8 April 2021, the band released a single titled "Destroyer".


title: Of Monsters and Men

text: On 9 June 2022, the band released their premiere screening of Tíu at the 2022 Tribeca Film festival as a celebration of the 10 year anniversary of the band's release of 'My Head is an Animal'.


title: Of Monsters and Men

text: This was followed by special live acoustic performance of their new songs Visitor, This Happiness, and Lonely Weather by the band.


title: Fear

text: Fear is an intensely unpleasant emotion in response to perceiving or recognizing a danger or threat. Fear causes physiological changes that may produce behavioral reactions such as mounting an aggressive response or fleeing the threat. Fear in human beings may occur in response to a certain stimulus occurring in the present, or in anticipation or expectation of a future threat perceived as a risk to oneself. The fear response arises from the perception of danger leading to confrontation with or escape from/avoiding the threat (also known as the fight-or-flight response), which in extreme cases of fear (horror and terror) can be a freeze response or paralysis.


title: Fear

text: In humans and other animals, fear is modulated by the process of cognition and learning. Thus, fear is judged as rational or appropriate and irrational or inappropriate. An irrational fear is called a phobia.


title: Fear

text: Fear is closely related to the emotion anxiety, which occurs as the result of threats that are perceived to be uncontrollable or unavoidable. The fear response serves survival by engendering appropriate behavioral responses, so it has been preserved throughout evolution. Sociological and organizational research also suggests that individuals' fears are not solely dependent on their nature but are also shaped by their social relations and culture, which guide their understanding of when and how much fear to feel.


title: Fear

text: Fear is sometimes incorrectly considered the opposite of courage. Because courage is a willingness to face adversity, fear is an example of a condition that makes the exercise of courage possible.


title: Fear

text: Many physiological changes in the body are associated with fear, summarized as the fight-or-flight response. An innate response for coping with danger, it works by accelerating the breathing rate (hyperventilation), heart rate, vasoconstriction of the peripheral blood vessels leading to blood pooling, increasing muscle tension including the muscles attached to each hair follicle to contract and causing "goosebumps", or more clinically, piloerection (making a cold person warmer or a frightened animal look more impressive), sweating, increased blood glucose (hyperglycemia), increased serum calcium, increase in white blood cells called neutrophilic leukocytes, alertness leading to sleep disturbance and "butterflies in the stomach" (dyspepsia). This primitive mechanism may help an organism survive by either running away or fighting the danger. With the series of physiological changes, the consciousness realizes an emotion of fear.


title: Fear

text: An influential categorization of stimuli causing fear was proposed by Gray; namely, intensity, novelty, special evolutionary dangers, stimuli arising during social interaction, and conditioned stimuli. Another categorization was proposed by Archer, who, besides conditioned fear stimuli, categorized fear-evoking (as well as aggression-evoking) stimuli into three groups; namely, pain, novelty, and frustration, although he also described “looming,” which refers to an object rapidly moving towards the visual sensors of a subject, and can be categorized as “intensity.” Russell described a more functional categorization of fear-evoking stimuli, in which for instance novelty is a variable affecting more than one category: 1) Predator stimuli (including movement, suddenness, proximity, but also learned and innate predator stimuli); 2) Physical environmental dangers (including intensity and heights); 3) Stimuli associated with increased risk of predation and other dangers (including novelty, openness, illumination, and being alone); 4) Stimuli stemming from conspecifics (including novelty, movement, and spacing behavior); 5) Species-predictable fear stimuli and experience (special evolutionary dangers); and 6) Fear stimuli that are not species predictable (conditioned fear stimuli).


title: Fear

text: Although many fears are learned, the capacity to fear is part of human nature. Many studies have found that certain fears (e.g. animals, heights) are much more common than others (e.g. flowers, clouds). These fears are also easier to induce in the laboratory. This phenomenon is known as preparedness. Because early humans that were quick to fear dangerous situations were more likely to survive and reproduce; preparedness is theorized to be a genetic effect that is the result of natural selection.


title: Fear

text: From an evolutionary psychology perspective, different fears may be different adaptations that have been useful in our evolutionary past. They may have developed during different time periods. Some fears, such as fear of heights, may be common to all mammals and developed during the mesozoic period. Other fears, such as fear of snakes, may be common to all simians and developed during the cenozoic time period (the still-ongoing geological era encompassing the last 66 million of history). Still others, such as fear of mice and insects, may be unique to humans and developed during the paleolithic and neolithic time periods (when mice and insects become important carriers of infectious diseases and harmful for crops and stored foods).


title: Fear

text: Nonhuman animals and humans innovate specific fears as a result of learning. This has been studied in psychology as fear conditioning, beginning with John B. Watson's Little Albert experiment in 1920, which was inspired after observing a child with an irrational fear of dogs. In this study, an 11-month-old boy was conditioned to fear a white rat in the laboratory. The fear became generalized to include other white, furry objects, such as a rabbit, dog, and even a Santa Claus mask with white cotton balls in the beard.


title: Fear

text: Fear can be learned by experiencing or watching a frightening traumatic accident. For example, if a child falls into a well and struggles to get out, he or she may develop a fear of wells, heights (acrophobia), enclosed spaces (claustrophobia), or water (aquaphobia). There are studies looking at areas of the brain that are affected in relation to fear. When looking at these areas (such as the amygdala), it was proposed that a person learns to fear regardless of whether they themselves have experienced trauma, or if they have observed the fear in others. In a study completed by Andreas Olsson, Katherine I. Nearing and Elizabeth A. Phelps, the amygdala were affected both when subjects observed someone else being submitted to an aversive event, knowing that the same treatment awaited themselves, and when subjects were subsequently placed in a fear-provoking situation. This suggests that fear can develop in both conditions, not just simply from personal history.


title: Fear

text: Fear is affected by cultural and historical context. For example, in the early 20th century, many Americans feared polio, a disease that can lead to paralysis. There are consistent cross-cultural differences in how people respond to fear. Display rules affect how likely people are to express the facial expression of fear and other emotions.


title: Fear

text: According to surveys, some of the most common fears are of demons and ghosts, the existence of evil powers, cockroaches, spiders, snakes, heights, water, enclosed spaces, tunnels, bridges, needles, social rejection, failure, examinations, and public speaking.


title: Fear

text: Fear of the unknown or irrational fear is caused by negative thinking (worry) which arises from anxiety accompanied by a subjective sense of apprehension or dread. Irrational fear shares a common neural pathway with other fears, a pathway that engages the nervous system to mobilize bodily resources in the face of danger or threat. Many people are scared of the "unknown". The irrational fear can branch out to many areas such as the hereafter, the next ten years or even tomorrow. Chronic irrational fear has deleterious effects since the elicitor stimulus is commonly absent or perceived from delusions. Such fear can create comorbidity with the anxiety disorder umbrella. Being scared may cause people to experience anticipatory fear of what may lie ahead rather than planning and evaluating for the same. For example, "continuation of scholarly education" is perceived by many educators as a risk that may cause them fear and stress, and they would rather teach things they've been taught than go and do research.


title: Fear

text: The ambiguity of situations that tend to be uncertain and unpredictable can cause anxiety in addition to other psychological and physical problems in some populations; especially those who engage it constantly, for example, in war-ridden places or in places of conflict, terrorism, abuse, etc. Poor parenting that instills fear can also debilitate a child's psyche development or personality. For example, parents tell their children not to talk to strangers in order to protect them. In school, they would be motivated to not show fear in talking with strangers, but to be assertive and also aware of the risks and the environment in which it takes place. Ambiguous and mixed messages like this can affect their self-esteem and self-confidence. Researchers say talking to strangers isn't something to be thwarted but allowed in a parent's presence if required. Developing a sense of equanimity to handle various situations is often advocated as an antidote to irrational fear and as an essential skill by a number of ancient philosophies.


title: Fear

text: Fear of the unknown (FOTU) "may be a, or possibly the, fundamental fear" from early times when there were many threats to life.


title: Fear

text: In a 2005 Gallup Poll (U.S.), a national sample of about 1000 adolescents (aged 13 to 17) were asked what they feared the most as an open-ended question. The American adolescents reported perceiving their top ten fears as follows: terrorist attacks, spiders, death, failure, war, criminal or gang violence, being alone, the future, and nuclear war.


title: Fear

text: In an estimate of what Americans fear the most, book author Bill Tancer analyzed the most frequent online queries that involved the phrase, "fear of..." following the assumption that people tend to seek information on the issues that concern them the most. His top ten list of fears published 2008 consisted of flying, heights, clowns, intimacy, death, rejection, people, snakes, failure, and driving.


title: Fear

text: Although fear behavior varies from species to species, it is often divided into two main categories; namely, avoidance/flight and immobility. To these, different researchers have added different categories, such as threat display and attack, protective responses (including startle and looming responses), defensive burying, and social responses (including alarm vocalizations and submission). Finally, immobility is often divided into freezing and tonic immobility.


title: Fear

text: The decision as to which particular fear behavior to perform is determined by the level of fear as well as the specific context, such as environmental characteristics (escape route present, distance to refuge), the presence of a discrete and localized threat, the distance between threat and subject, threat characteristics (speed, size, directness of approach), the characteristics of the subject under threat (size, physical condition, speed, degree of crypsis, protective morphological structures), social conditions (group size), and the amount of experience with the type of the threat.


title: Fear

text: Often laboratory studies with rats are conducted to examine the acquisition and extinction of conditioned fear responses. In 2004, researchers conditioned rats ("Rattus norvegicus") to fear a certain stimulus, through electric shock. The researchers were able to then cause an extinction of this conditioned fear, to a point that no medications or drugs were able to further aid in the extinction process. The rats showed signs of avoidance learning, not fear, but simply avoiding the area that brought pain to the test rats. The avoidance learning of rats is seen as a conditioned response, and therefore the behavior can be unconditioned, as supported by the earlier research.


title: Fear

text: Species-specific defense reactions (SSDRs) or avoidance learning in nature is the specific tendency to avoid certain threats or stimuli, it is how animals survive in the wild. Humans and animals both share these species-specific defense reactions, such as the flight-or-fight, which also include pseudo-aggression, fake or intimidating aggression and freeze response to threats, which is controlled by the sympathetic nervous system. These SSDRs are learned very quickly through social interactions between others of the same species, other species, and interaction with the environment. These acquired sets of reactions or responses are not easily forgotten. The animal that survives is the animal that already knows what to fear and how to avoid this threat. An example in humans is the reaction to the sight of a snake, many jump backwards before cognitively realizing what they are jumping away from, and in some cases, it is a stick rather than a snake.


title: Fear

text: As with many functions of the brain, there are various regions of the brain involved in deciphering fear in humans and other nonhuman species. The amygdala communicates both directions between the prefrontal cortex, hypothalamus, the sensory cortex, the hippocampus, thalamus, septum, and the brainstem. The amygdala plays an important role in SSDR, such as the ventral amygdalofugal, which is essential for associative learning, and SSDRs are learned through interaction with the environment and others of the same species. An emotional response is created only after the signals have been relayed between the different regions of the brain, and activating the sympathetic nervous systems; which controls the flight, fight, freeze, fright, and faint response. Often a damaged amygdala can cause impairment in the recognition of fear (like the human case of patient S.M.). This impairment can cause different species to lack the sensation of fear, and often can become overly confident, confronting larger peers, or walking up to predatory creatures.


title: Fear

text: Robert C. Bolles (1970), a researcher at University of Washington, wanted to understand species-specific defense reactions and avoidance learning among animals, but found that the theories of avoidance learning and the tools that were used to measure this tendency were out of touch with the natural world. He theorized the species-specific defense reaction (SSDR). There are three forms of SSDRs: flight, fight (pseudo-aggression), or freeze. Even domesticated animals have SSDRs, and in those moments it is seen that animals revert to atavistic standards and become "wild" again. Dr. Bolles states that responses are often dependent on the reinforcement of a safety signal, and not the aversive conditioned stimuli. This safety signal can be a source of feedback or even stimulus change. Intrinsic feedback or information coming from within, muscle twitches, increased heart rate, are seen to be more important in SSDRs than extrinsic feedback, stimuli that comes from the external environment. Dr. Bolles found that most creatures have some intrinsic set of fears, to help assure survival of the species. Rats will run away from any shocking event, and pigeons will flap their wings harder when threatened. The wing flapping in pigeons and the scattered running of rats are considered species-specific defense reactions or behaviors. Bolles believed that SSDRs are conditioned through Pavlovian conditioning, and not operant conditioning; SSDRs arise from the association between the environmental stimuli and adverse events. Michael S. Fanselow conducted an experiment, to test some specific defense reactions, he observed that rats in two different shock situations responded differently, based on instinct or defensive topography, rather than contextual information.


title: Fear

text: Species-specific defense responses are created out of fear, and are essential for survival. Rats that lack the gene stathmin show no avoidance learning, or a lack of fear, and will often walk directly up to cats and be eaten. Animals use these SSDRs to continue living, to help increase their chance of fitness, by surviving long enough to procreate. Humans and animals alike have created fear to know what should be avoided, and this fear can be learned through association with others in the community, or learned through personal experience with a creature, species, or situations that should be avoided. SSDRs are an evolutionary adaptation that has been seen in many species throughout the world including rats, chimpanzees, prairie dogs, and even humans, an adaptation created to help individual creatures survive in a hostile world.


title: Fear

text: Fear learning changes across the lifetime due to natural developmental changes in the brain. This includes changes in the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala.


title: Fear

text: The visual exploration of an emotional face does not follow a fixed pattern but modulated by the emotional content of the face. Scheller et al. found that participants paid more attention to the eyes when recognising fearful or neutral faces, while the mouth was fixated on when happy faces are presented, irrespective of task demands and spatial locations of face stimuli. These findings were replicated when fearful eyes are presented and when canonical face configurations are distorted for fearful, neutral and happy expressions.


title: Fear

text: The brain structures that are the center of most neurobiological events associated with fear are the two amygdalae, located behind the pituitary gland. Each amygdala is part of a circuitry of fear learning. They are essential for proper adaptation to stress and specific modulation of emotional learning memory. In the presence of a threatening stimulus, the amygdalae generate the secretion of hormones that influence fear and aggression. Once a response to the stimulus in the form of fear or aggression commences, the amygdalae may elicit the release of hormones into the body to put the person into a state of alertness, in which they are ready to move, run, fight, etc. This defensive response is generally referred to in physiology as the fight-or-flight response regulated by the hypothalamus, part of the limbic system. Once the person is in safe mode, meaning that there are no longer any potential threats surrounding them, the amygdalae will send this information to the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) where it is stored for similar future situations, which is known as memory consolidation.


title: Fear

text: Some of the hormones involved during the state of fight-or-flight include epinephrine, which regulates heart rate and metabolism as well as dilating blood vessels and air passages, norepinephrine increasing heart rate, blood flow to skeletal muscles and the release of glucose from energy stores, and cortisol which increases blood sugar, increases circulating neutrophilic leukocytes, calcium amongst other things.


title: Fear

text: After a situation which incites fear occurs, the amygdalae and hippocampus record the event through synaptic plasticity. The stimulation to the hippocampus will cause the individual to remember many details surrounding the situation. Plasticity and memory formation in the amygdala are generated by activation of the neurons in the region. Experimental data supports the notion that synaptic plasticity of the neurons leading to the lateral amygdalae occurs with fear conditioning. In some cases, this forms permanent fear responses such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or a phobia. MRI and fMRI scans have shown that the amygdalae in individuals diagnosed with such disorders including bipolar or panic disorder are larger and wired for a higher level of fear.


title: Fear

text: Pathogens can suppress amygdala activity. Rats infected with the toxoplasmosis parasite become less fearful of cats, sometimes even seeking out their urine-marked areas. This behavior often leads to them being eaten by cats. The parasite then reproduces within the body of the cat. There is evidence that the parasite concentrates itself in the amygdala of infected rats. In a separate experiment, rats with lesions in the amygdala did not express fear or anxiety towards unwanted stimuli. These rats pulled on levers supplying food that sometimes sent out electrical shocks. While they learned to avoid pressing on them, they did not distance themselves from these shock-inducing levers.


title: Fear

text: Several brain structures other than the amygdalae have also been observed to be activated when individuals are presented with fearful vs. neutral faces, namely the occipitocerebellar regions including the fusiform gyrus and the inferior parietal / superior temporal gyri. Fearful eyes, brows and mouth seem to separately reproduce these brain responses. Scientists from Zurich studies show that the hormone oxytocin related to stress and sex reduces activity in your brain fear center.


title: Fear

text: In threatening situations, insects, aquatic organisms, birds, reptiles, and mammals emit odorant substances, initially called alarm substances, which are chemical signals now called alarm pheromones. This is to defend themselves and at the same time to inform members of the same species of danger and leads to observable behavior change like freezing, defensive behavior, or dispersion depending on circumstances and species. For example, stressed rats release odorant cues that cause other rats to move away from the source of the signal.


title: Fear

text: After the discovery of pheromones in 1959, alarm pheromones were first described in 1968 in ants and earthworms, and four years later also found in mammals, both mice and rats. Over the next two decades, identification and characterization of these pheromones proceeded in all manner of insects and sea animals, including fish, but it was not until 1990 that more insight into mammalian alarm pheromones was gleaned.


title: Fear

text: In 1985, a link between odors released by stressed rats and pain perception was discovered: unstressed rats exposed to these odors developed opioid-mediated analgesia. In 1997, researchers found that bees became less responsive to pain after they had been stimulated with isoamyl acetate, a chemical smelling of banana, and a component of bee alarm pheromone. The experiment also showed that the bees' fear-induced pain tolerance was mediated by an endorphine.


title: Fear

text: By using the forced swimming test in rats as a model of fear-induction, the first mammalian "alarm substance" was found. In 1991, this "alarm substance" was shown to fulfill criteria for pheromones: well-defined behavioral effect, species specificity, minimal influence of experience and control for nonspecific arousal. Rat activity testing with the alarm pheromone, and their preference/avoidance for odors from cylinders containing the pheromone, showed that the pheromone had very low volatility.


title: Fear

text: In 1993 a connection between alarm chemosignals in mice and their immune response was found. Pheromone production in mice was found to be associated with or mediated by the pituitary gland in 1994.


title: Fear

text: In 2004, it was demonstrated that rats' alarm pheromones had different effects on the "recipient" rat (the rat perceiving the pheromone) depending which body region they were released from: Pheromone production from the face modified behavior in the recipient rat, e.g. caused sniffing or movement, whereas pheromone secreted from the rat's anal area induced autonomic nervous system stress responses, like an increase in core body temperature. Further experiments showed that when a rat perceived alarm pheromones, it increased its defensive and risk assessment behavior, and its acoustic startle reflex was enhanced.


title: Fear

text: It was not until 2011 that a link between severe pain, neuroinflammation and alarm pheromones release in rats was found: real time RT-PCR analysis of rat brain tissues indicated that shocking the footpad of a rat increased its production of proinflammatory cytokines in deep brain structures, namely of IL-1β, heteronuclear Corticotropin-releasing hormone and c-fos mRNA expressions in both the paraventricular nucleus and the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, and it increased stress hormone levels in plasma (corticosterone).


title: Fear

text: The neurocircuit for how rats perceive alarm pheromones was shown to be related to the hypothalamus, brainstem, and amygdalae, all of which are evolutionary ancient structures deep inside or in the case of the brainstem underneath the brain away from the cortex, and involved in the fight-or-flight response, as is the case in humans.


title: Fear

text: Alarm pheromone-induced anxiety in rats has been used to evaluate the degree to which anxiolytics can alleviate anxiety in humans. For this, the change in the acoustic startle reflex of rats with alarm pheromone-induced anxiety (i.e. reduction of defensiveness) has been measured. Pretreatment of rats with one of five anxiolytics used in clinical medicine was able to reduce their anxiety: namely midazolam, phenelzine (a nonselective monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitor), propranolol, a nonselective beta blocker, clonidine, an alpha 2 adrenergic agonist or CP-154,526, a corticotropin-releasing hormone antagonist.