title: Namco

text: Namco produced several multi-million-selling game franchises, such as "Pac-Man", "Galaxian", "Tekken", "Tales", "Ridge Racer", and "Ace Combat". It operated video arcades and amusement parks globally, and also produced films, toys, and arcade cabinets and operated a chain of restaurants. Namco is remembered in retrospect for its unique corporate model, its importance to the industry, and its advancements in technology. Its successor, Bandai Namco Entertainment, and its subsidiaries continue to use the Namco brand for their video arcades and other entertainment products.


title: Namco

text: On June 1, 1955, Japanese businessman Masaya Nakamura founded Nakamura Seisakusho Co., Ltd. in Ikegami, Tokyo. The son of a shotgun repair business owner, Nakamura proved unable to find work in his chosen profession of ship building in the struggling post-World War II economy. Nakamura established his own company after his father's business saw success with producing pop cork guns. Beginning with only ¥300,000 (US$12,000), Nakamura spent the money on two hand-cranked rocking horses that he installed on the roof garden of a Matsuya department store in Yokohama.


title: Namco

text: The horses were loved by children and turned a decent profit for Nakamura, who began expanding his business to cover other smaller locations. A 1959 business reorganization renamed the company Nakamura Seisakusho Company, Ltd. The Mitsukoshi department store chain noticed his success in 1963, and approached him with the idea of constructing a rooftop amusement space for its store in Nihonbashi, Tokyo. It consisted of horse rides, a picture viewing machine, and a goldfish scooping pond, with the centerpiece being a moving train named "Roadaway Race". The space was a hit and lead to Mitsukoshi requesting rooftop amusement parks for all of its stores.


title: Namco

text: Along with Taito, Rosen Enterprises, and Nihon Goraku Bussan, Nakamura Seisakusho became one of Japan's leading amusement companies. As the business grew in size, it used its clout to purchase amusement machines in bulk from other manufacturers at a discount, and then sell them to smaller outlets at full price. While its machines sold well, Nakamura Seisakusho lacked the manufacturing lines and distribution networks of its competitors, which made the production of them longer and more expensive.


title: Namco

text: The company was unable to place its machines inside stores because other manufacturers already had exclusive rights to these locations. In response, Nakamura Seisakusho opened a production plant in February 1966, moving its corporate office to a four-story building in Ōta, Tokyo. The company secured a deal with Walt Disney Productions to produce children's rides in the likenesses of its characters, in addition to those using popular anime characters like Q-Taro; this move allowed the business to further expand its operations and become a driving force in the Japanese coin-op market.


title: Namco

text: Though the manufacturing facility was largely reserved for its Disney and anime rides, Nakamura also used it to construct larger, more elaborate electro-mechanical games. The first of these was "Torpedo Launcher" (1965), a submarine warfare shooting gallery later titled "Periscope". Its other products included "Ultraman"-themed gun games and pinball-like games branded with "Osomatsu-kun" characters.


title: Namco

text: The name Namco was introduced in 1971 as a brand for several of its machines. The company grew to having ten employees, which included Nakamura himself. It saw continued success with its arcade games, which had become commonplace in bowling alleys and grocery stores. The company also established a robotics division to produce robots for entertainment centers and festivals, such as those that distributed pamphlets, ribbon making machines, and a robot named Putan that solved pre-built mazes.


title: Namco

text: In August 1973, American game company Atari began establishing a series of divisions in Asia, one of which was named Atari Japan. Its president, Kenichi Takumi, approached Nakamura in early 1974 to have his business become the distributor of Atari games across Japan. Nakamura, already planning global expansion following his company's success, agreed to the deal. In part due to employee theft, Atari Japan was a financial disaster and nearly collapsed in its first few years of operation.


title: Namco

text: When Takumi stopped showing up to work, the company was handed to Hideyuki Nakajima, a former employee of the Japan Art Paper Company. Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, whose company was already struggling in America, chose to sell the Japanese division. His fixer, Ron Gordon, was given the task of finding the buyer for Atari Japan. After being turned down by Sega and Taito, Gordon's offer was accepted by Nakamura for 296 million ($1.18M), though Nakamura informed Bushnell his company was unable to pay the money by the deadline. With no other takers for Atari Japan, Bushnell ultimately allowed Nakamura to only pay $550,000 and then $250,000 a year for three years. The acquisition allowed Nakamura Seisakusho to distribute Atari games across Japan, and would make it one of the country's largest arcade game companies.


title: Namco

text: The Atari Japan purchase was not an immediate success, in part due to the medal game fad of the 1970s. While Nakamura Seisakusho saw some success with imports such as Kee Games's "Tank", the Japanese video game industry's decrease in popularity did not make them as profitable as hoped. The market became more viable once restrictions on medal games were imposed by the Japanese government in 1976, as Nakamura Seisakusho began returning higher profits; its import of Atari's "Breakout" was so successful that it led to rampant piracy in the industry. By the end of the year, Nakamura Seisakusho was one of Japan's leading video game companies.


title: Namco

text: Nakamura Seisakusho changed its corporate name to Namco in June 1977. It opened a division in Hong Kong named Namco Enterprises Asia, which maintained video arcades and amusement centers. As Namco's presence in Japan was steadily rising, Nakajima suggested to Nakamura that he open a division in the United States to increase worldwide brand awareness. Nakamura agreed to the proposal, and on September 1, 1978, established Namco America in Sunnyvale, California. With Nakajima as its president and Satashi Bhutani as vice president, Namco America's aim was to import games and license them to companies such as Atari and Bally Manufacturing. Namco America would release a few non-video arcade games itself, such as "Shoot Away" (1977).


title: Namco

text: As the video game industry prospered in Japan during the 1970s with the release of Taito's "Space Invaders", Namco turned its attention towards making its own video games. While its licensed Atari games were still profitable, sales were decreasing and the quality of the hardware used began deteriorating. Per the recommendation of company engineer Shigekazu Ishimura, the company retrofitted its Ōta manufacturing facility into a small game division and purchased old stock computers from NEC for employees to study.


title: Namco

text: Namco released "Gee Bee", its first original game, in October 1978. Designed by new hire Toru Iwatani, it is a video pinball game that incorporates elements from "Breakout" and similar "block breaker" clones. Though "Gee Bee" fell short of the company's sales expectations and was unable to compete with games such as "Space Invaders", it allowed Namco to gain a stronger foothold in the video game market.


title: Namco

text: In 1979, Namco published its first major hit "Galaxian", one of the first video games to incorporate RGB color graphics, score bonuses, and a tilemap hardware model. "Galaxian" is considered historically important for these innovations, and for its mechanics building off those in "Space Invaders". It was released in North America by Midway Manufacturing, the video game division of Bally, where it became one of its best-selling titles and formed a relationship between Midway and Namco.


title: Namco

text: The space shooter genre became ubiquitous by the end of the decade, with games such as "Galaxian" and "Space Invaders" becoming commonplace in Japanese amusement centers. As video games often depicted the killing of enemies and shooting of targets, the industry possessed a predominately male playerbase. Toru Iwatani began work on a maze video game that was targeted primarily towards women, with simplistic gameplay and recognizable characters. Alongside a small team, he created a game named "Puck Man", where players controlled a character that had to eat dots in an enclosed maze while avoiding four ghosts that pursued them.


title: Namco

text: Iwatani based the gameplay off eating and designed its characters with soft colors and simplistic facial features. "Puck Man" was test-marketed in Japan on May 22, 1980 and given a wide-scale in July. It was only a modest success; players were more accustom to the shooting gameplay of "Galaxian" as opposed to "Puck Man"s visually distinctive characters and gameplay style. In North America, it was released as "Pac-Man" in November 1980. "Pac-Man"s simplicity and abstract characters made it a fixture in popular culture, spawning a multi-million-selling media franchise.


title: Namco

text: Namco regularly released several successful games throughout the early 1980s. It published "Galaga", the follow-up to "Galaxian", in 1981 to critical acclaim, usurping its predecessor in popularity with its fast-paced action and power-ups. 1982 saw the release of "Pole Position", a racing game that is the first to use a real racetrack (the Fuji Speedway) and helped laydown the foundations for the racing genre. It released "Dig Dug" the same year, a maze chaser that allowed players to create their own mazes.


title: Namco

text: Namco's biggest post-"Pac-Man" success was the vertical-scrolling shooter "Xevious" in 1983, designed by new-hire Masanobu Endō. "Xevious"s early usage of pre-rendered visuals, boss fights, and a cohesive world made it an astounding success in Japan, recording record-breaking sales figures that hadn't been seen since "Space Invaders". The game's success led to merchandise, tournament play, and the first video game soundtrack album. The same year, Namco released "Mappy", an early side-scrolling platformer, and the "Pole Position" sequel "Pole Position II".


title: Namco

text: Endō went on to design "The Tower of Druaga" a year later, a maze game that helped establish the concept for the action role-playing game. "Druaga"s design influenced games such as Nintendo's "The Legend of Zelda". 1984 also saw the release of "Pac-Land", a "Pac-Man"-themed platform game that paved the way for similar games such as "Super Mario Bros.", and "Gaplus", a moderately successful update to "Galaga". The success of Namco's arcade games prompted it to launch its own print publication, "Namco Community Magazine NG", to allow its fans to connect with developers.


title: Namco

text: In July 1983, Nintendo released the Family Computer, a video game console that utilized interchangeable cartridges to play games. The console's launch came with ports of some of Nintendo's popular arcade games, like "Donkey Kong", which at the time were considered high quality. Though Namco recognized the system's potential to allow consumers to play accurate versions of its games, the company chose to hold off on the idea after its ports for platforms such as the Sord M5 flopped. Nakamura suggested that his son-in-law, Shigeichi Ishimura, work with a team to reverse-engineer and study the Famicom's hardware in the meantime.


title: Namco

text: His team created a conversion of "Galaxian" with their newfound knowledge of the console's capabilities, which exceeded the quality of previous home releases. The port was presented to Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi alongside notification that Namco intended to release it with or without Nintendo's approval. Namco's demonstration was the impetus for Nintendo's decision to create a licensing program for the console. Namco signed a five-year royalties contract that included several preferential terms, such as the ability to produce its own cartridges.


title: Namco

text: A subsidiary named was established in 1984 to act as Namco's console game division. It released its first four titles in September: "Galaxian", "Pac-Man", "Xevious", and "Mappy". "Xevious" sold over 1.5 million copies and became the Famicom's first "killer app". Namcot also began releasing games for the MSX, a popular Japanese computer. Namco's arcade game ports were considered high-quality and helped increase sales of the console.


title: Namco

text: Namcot was financially successful and became an important pillar within the company; when Namco moved its headquarters to Ōta, Tokyo in 1985, it used the profits generated from the Famicom conversion of "Xevious" to fund its construction (the building was nicknamed "Xevious" as a result). The Talking Aid, a speech impairment device, was part of the company's attempts in venturing into other markets.


title: Namco

text: By the time the Video game crash of 1983 concluded in 1985 with the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Atari had effectively collapsed. After enduring numerous financial difficulties and losing its control in the industry, parent Warner Communications sold the company's personal computer and home console divisions to Commodore International founder Jack Tramiel, who renamed his company Tramel Technology to Atari Corporation. Warner was left with Atari's arcade game and computer software divisions, which it renamed Atari Games. Namco America purchased a 60% stake in Atari Games on February 4, 1985 through its AT Games subsidiary, with Warner holding the remaining 40%. The acquisition gave Namco the exclusive rights to distribute Atari games in Japan.


title: Namco

text: Nakamura began losing interest and patience in Atari Games not long after the acquisition. As he started viewing Atari as a competitor to Namco, he was hesitant to pour additional funds and resources into the company. Nakamura also disliked having to share ownership with Warner Communications. Nakajima grew frustrated with Nakamura's attempts at marketing Atari video games in Japan, and had constant disagreements with him over which direction to take the company. Viewing the majority-acquisition as a failure, in 1987 Namco America sold 33% of its ownership stake to a group of Atari Games employees led by Nakajima.


title: Namco

text: This prompted Nakajima to resign from Namco America and become president of Atari Games. He established Tengen, a publisher that challenged Nintendo's licensing restrictions for the NES by selling several unlicensed games, which included ports of Namco arcade games. Though its selloff made Atari Games an independent entity, Namco still held a minority stake in the company and Nakamura retained his position as its board chairman until the middle of 1988.


title: Namco

text: In Japan, Namco continued to see expeditious growth. It published "" for the Famicom, which was critically acclaimed and sold over 2.5 million copies. Its sequel, "Pro Baseball: Family Stadium '87", sold an additional two million. In 1986, Namco entered the restaurant industry by acquiring the Italian Tomato café chain. It also released "Sweet Land", a popular candy-themed prize machine.


title: Namco

text: One of Namco's biggest hits from the era was the racing game "Final Lap" from 1987. It is credited as the first arcade game to allow multiple machines to be connected—or "linked"—together to allow for additional players. "Final Lap" was one of the most-profitable coin-operated games of the era in Japan, remaining towards the top of sales charts for the rest of the decade.


title: Namco

text: Namco's continued success in arcades provided its arcade division with the revenue and resources needed to fund its research and development (R&D) departments. Among their first creations was the helicopter shooter "Metal Hawk" in 1988, fitted in a motion simulator arcade cabinet. Its high development costs prevented it from being massed-produced. While most of its efforts were commercially unsuccessful, Namco grew interested in motion-based arcade games and began designing those at a larger scale. In 1988, Namco became involved in film production when it distributed the film "Mirai Ninja" in theaters, with a tie-in video game coinciding with its release.


title: Namco

text: Namco also developed the beat 'em up "Splatterhouse", which attracted attention for its fixture on gore and dismemberment, and "Gator Panic", a derivative of "Whack-a-Mole" that became a mainstay in Japanese arcades and entertainment centers. In early 1989, Namco unveiled its System 21 arcade system, one of the earliest arcade boards to utilize true 3D polygonal graphics. Nicknamed "Polygonizer", the company demonstrated its power through the Formula One racer "Winning Run".


title: Namco

text: With an arcade cabinet that shook and swayed the player as they drove, the game was seen as "a breakthrough product in term of programming technique" and garnered significant attention from the press. "Winning Run" was commercially successful, convincing Namco to continue researching 3D video game hardware. Video arcades under the Namco banner continued opening up in Japan and overseas, such as the family-friendly Play City Carrot chain.


title: Namco

text: Namco saw continued success in the consumer game market as a result of the "Famicom boom" in the late 1980s. By 1989, sales of games for the Famicom and NES accounted for 40% of its annual revenue. During the same time frame, the company's licensing contract with Nintendo expired; when Namco attempted to renew its license, Nintendo chose to revoke many of the preferential terms it originally possessed. Hiroshi Yamauchi insisted that all companies, including Namco, had to follow the same guidelines.


title: Namco

text: The revocation of Namco's terms enraged Nakamura, who announced the company would abandon Nintendo hardware and focus on production of games for competing systems such as the PC Engine. Executives resisted the idea, fearing it would severely impact the company financially. Against Nakamura's protest, Namco signed Nintendo's new licensee contract anyway. While it continued to produce games for Nintendo hardware, most of Namco's quality releases came from the PC Engine and Mega Drive.


title: Namco

text: In 1989, it was reported that Namco was underway with developing its own video game console to compete against companies such as Nintendo and NEC. "Electronic Gaming Monthly" claimed that the system, which was nearing completion, featured hardware comparable to the then-upcoming Nintendo Super Famicom. According to company engineer Yutaka Isokawa, it was produced to compete against the Mega Drive, a 16-bit console by Namco's arcade rival Sega. With the console industry being crowded by other competing systems, publications were unsure how well it would perform in the market. While the console was never released, it allowed Namco to familiarize itself with designing home video game hardware.


title: Namco

text: Tadashi Manabe replaced Nakamura as president of Namco on May 2, 1990. Manabe, who had been the company's representative director since 1981, was tasked with strengthening relationships and teamwork ethics of management. Two months later, the company dissolved its remaining connections with Atari Games when Time Warner reacquired Namco America's remaining 40% stake in Atari Games. In return, Namco America was given Atari's video arcade management division, Atari Operations, allowing the company to operate video arcades across the United States. Namco began distributing games in North America directly from its US office, rather than through Atari.


title: Namco

text: Namco Hometek was established as the home console game division of Namco America; the latter's relations with Atari Games and Tengen made the company ineligible to become a Nintendo third-party licensee, instead relying on publishers such as Bandai to release its games in North America. In Japan, Namco developed two theme park attractions, which were demonstrated at the 1990 International Garden and Greenery Exposition (Expo '90): "", a 3D rail shooter that supported 28 players, and a dark ride based on "The Tower of Druaga".


title: Namco

text: As part of the company's idea of "hyperentertainment" video games, Namco engineers had drafted ideas for a possible theme park based on Namco's experience with designing and operating indoor play areas and entertainment complexes. Both attractions were commercially successful and among the most popular of Expo 90's exhibitions. In arcades, Namco released "Starblade", a 3D rail shooter noteworthy for its cinematic presentation. This led to Namco dominating the Japanese dedicated arcade cabinet charts by October 1991, holding the top six positions that month with "Starblade" at the top.


title: Namco

text: In February 1992, Namco opened its own theme park, Wonder Eggs, in the Futakotamagawa Time Spark area in Setagaya, Tokyo. Described as an "urban amusement center", Wonder Eggs was the first amusement park operated by a video game company. In addition to "Galaxian3" and "The Tower of Druaga", the park featured carnival games, carousals, motion simulators, and "Fighter Camp", the first flight simulator available to the public. The park saw regularly high attendance numbers; 500,000 visitors attended in its first few months of operation and over one million by the end of the year.


title: Namco

text: Namco created the park out of its interest in designing a Disneyland-inspired theme park that featured the same kind of stories and characters present in its games. Wonder Eggs contributed to Namco's 34% increase in revenue by December 1992. Namco also designed smaller, indoor theme parks for its larger entertainment complexes across the country, such as Plabo Sennichimae Tenpo in Osaka.


title: Namco

text: Manabe resigned as president on May 1, 1992 due to a serious anxiety disorder, and Nakamura once again assumed the role. Manabe instead served as the company's vice chairman until his death in 1994. The company's arcade division, in the meantime, began work on a new 3D arcade board named System 22, capable of displaying polygonal 3D models with fully-textured graphics. Namco enlisted the help of Evans & Sutherland, a designer of combat flight simulators for The Pentagon, to assist in the board's development.


title: Namco

text: The System 22 powered "Ridge Racer", a racing game, in 1993. "Ridge Racer"s usage of 3D textured polygons and drifting made it a popular title in arcades and one of Namco's most-successful releases, and is labeled a milestone in 3D computer graphics. The company followed its success with "Tekken", a 3D fighting game, a year later. Designed by Seiichi Ishii, the co-creator of Sega's landmark fighting game "Virtua Fighter", "Tekken"s wide array of playable characters and consistent framerate helped it outperform Sega's game in popularity, and launched a multi-million-selling franchise as a result.


title: Namco

text: The company continued expanding its operations overseas, such as the acquisition of the Aladdin's Castle chain from Bally Manufacturing. In December, Namco acquired Nikkatsu, Japan's oldest-surviving film studio that at the time was undergoing bankruptcy procedures. The purchase allowed Nikkatsu to utilize Namco's computer graphics hardware for its films, while Namco was able to gain a foothold in the Japanese film industry.


title: Namco

text: In early 1994, Sony announced that it was developing its own video game console, the 32-bit PlayStation. The console began as a collaboration between Nintendo and Sony to create a CD-based peripheral for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1988. Fearing that Sony would assume control of the entire project, Nintendo silently scrapped the add-on. Sony chose to refocus its efforts in designing the PlayStation in-house as its own console.


title: Namco

text: As it lacked the resources to produce its own games, Sony called for the support of third-party companies to develop PlayStation software. Namco, frustrated with Nintendo and Sega's licensing conditions for its consoles, agreed to support the PlayStation and became its first third-party developer. The company began work on a conversion of "Ridge Racer", its most-popular arcade game at the time.


title: Namco

text: The PlayStation was released in Japan on December 3, 1994, with "Ridge Racer" as one of its first titles. Sony moved 100,000 units on launch day alone; publications attributed "Ridge Racer" to the PlayStation's early success, giving it an edge over its competitor, the Sega Saturn. For a time, it was the best-selling PlayStation game in Japan.


title: Namco

text: Namcot was consolidated into Namco in 1995; its final game was a PlayStation port of "Tekken", published in March in Japan and in November worldwide. "Tekken" was designed for Namco's System 11 arcade system board, which was based on raw PlayStation hardware; this allowed the home version to be a near-perfect rendition of its arcade counterpart. "Tekken" became the first PlayStation game to sell one million copies and played a vital role in the console's mainstream success.


title: Namco

text: Sony recognized Namco's commitment to the console, leading to Namco receiving special treatment from Sony and early promotional material adopting the tagline "PlayStation: Powered by Namco". Namco was also given the rights to produce controllers, such as the NeGcon, which it designed with the knowledge it gained through developing its cancelled console. Though it had signed contracts to produce games for systems such as the Sega Saturn and 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, Namco concentrated its consumer software efforts on PlayStation for the remainder of the decade.


title: Namco

text: As a means to draw players into its video arcades, Namco's arcade game division began releasing titles that featured unique and novel control styles and gameplay. In 1995, the company released "Alpine Racer", an alpine skiing game that was awarded "Best New Equipment" during the year's Amusement and Music Operators Association (AMOA) exposition. "Time Crisis", a lightgun shooter noteworthy for its pedal ducking mechanic, helped set the standard for the genre as a whole, while "Prop Cycle" gained notoriety for its usage of a bicycle controller the player pedaled.


title: Namco

text: The photo booth machine "Star Audition", which offered players the chance of becoming a star in the show business, became a media sensation in Japan. Namco Operations, which was renamed Namco Cybertainment in 1996, acquired the Edison Brothers Stores arcade chain in April. Namco also introduced the Postpaid System, a centralized card payment system, as a means to combat the piracy of IC Cards in Japanese arcades.


title: Namco

text: In September 1997, Namco announced it would begin development of games for the Nintendo 64, a console struggling to receive support from third-party developers. Namco signed a contract with Nintendo that allowed the company to produce two games for the console: "Famista 64", a version of its "Family Stadium" series, and an untitled RPG for the 64DD peripheral. The RPG was never released while the 64DD went on to become a commercial failure. In October 1998, which one publication described as being "the most stunning alliance this industry has seen in a long while", Namco announced a partnership deal with long-time rival Sega to bring some of its titles to the newly unveiled Dreamcast.


title: Namco

text: As Namco primarily developed games for Sony hardware, and were among the biggest third-party developers for the PlayStation, the announcement surprised news outlets. For its PlayStation-based System 12 arcade board, Namco released the weapon-based fighting game "Soulcalibur" in 1998. Its 1999 Dreamcast port, which features multiple graphical enhancements and new gamemodes, is an early instance of a console game being better than its arcade version. "Soulcalibur" sold over one million units, won multiple awards, and contributed to the early success of the Dreamcast.


title: Namco

text: Namco began experiencing decline in its consumer software sales by 1998 as a result of the Japanese recession, which affected the demand for video games as consumers had less time to play them. The company's arcade division had similar struggles, having slumped by 21% at the end of its fiscal year ending March 1998. Namco Cybertainment filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in August, being forced to closed several hundreds of its under-performing arcades in North America as its parent underwent reorganization. In its 1998 annual report, Namco reported a 26.3% drop in net sales, which it partly blamed on low consumer spending.


title: Namco

text: A further 55% drop was reported in November 1999 when its home console game output decreased. As a means to diversify itself from its arcade and consumer game markets, Namco entered the mobile phone game market with the Namco Station, a marketplace for i-Mode cellular devices that featured ports of its arcade games like "Pac-Man" and "Galaxian". The company also majority-acquired Monolith Soft, an action role-playing game developer best known for creating the "Xenosaga" series. It continued introducing novel concepts for arcades to help attract players, such as the Cyber Lead II, an arcade cabinet that features PlayStation and Dreamcast VMU memory card slots.


title: Namco

text: Namco's financial losses worsened in the 2000s. In October 2000, the Japanese newspaper "Nihon Keizai Shinbun" reported that the company projected a loss of 2.1 billion ($19.3M) for the fiscal year ending March 2001. Namco had previously hinted at this during an event with industry analysists, blaming its struggles on the depressed Japanese economy and dwindling arcade game market. The company closed its Wonder Eggs park on December 31, 2000, which by that point saw an attendance number of six million visitors, in addition to shuttering many of its video arcades that returned substandard profits.


title: Namco

text: In February 2001, Namco updated its projections and reported it now expected a 6.5 billion ($56.3M) net loss and a drop in revenue by 95% for the fiscal year ending March 2001, which severely impacted the company's release schedule and corporate structure. The company's earnings forecasts were lowered to accommodate its losses, its development strategy was reorganized to focus largely on established franchises, and 250 of its employees were laid off in what it described as "early retirement". Namco underwent restructuring to increase its income, which included the shuffling of its management and the announcement of production of games for Nintendo's GameCube and Microsoft's Xbox.


title: Namco

text: Following its financial struggles, Namco's arcade division underwent mass reorganization. This division achieved strong success with "Taiko no Tatsujin", a popular drum-based rhythm game where players hit a taiko drum controller to the beat of a song. "Taiko no Tatsujin" became a best-seller and created one of the company's most popular and prolific franchises. Namco's North American divisions, in the meantime, underwent reorganization and restructuring as a result of decreasing profits.


title: Namco

text: Namco Hometek was stripped of its research and development divisions following Namco's disappointment in the quality of its releases. Its continuing expansion into other non-video game divisions, including rehabilitation electronics and travel agency websites, prompted the creation of the Namco Incubation Center, which would control these businesses. The Incubation Center also hosted the Namco Digital Hollywood Game Laboratory game school, which designed the sleeper hit "Katamari Damacy" (2004).


title: Namco

text: Nakamura resigned as company president later in the year, being replaced with Kyushiro Takagi. Anxious about the company's continuing financial struggles, Nakamura suggested that Namco begin looking into the possibility of merging with another company. Namco first looked to "Final Fantasy" developer Square and "Dragon Quest" publisher Enix, offering to combine the three companies into one. Yoichi Wada, the president of Square, disliked Namco's financial showing and declined the offer. Square instead agreed to a business alliance with Namco. Following this, Namco then approached Sega, a company struggling to stay afloat after the commercial failure of the Dreamcast.


title: Namco

text: Sega's development teams and extensive catalog of properties caught Namco's interest, and believed a merge could allow the two to increase their competitiveness. Sega was already discussing a merge with pachinko manufacturer Sammy Corporation; executives at Sammy were infuriated at Sega's consideration of Namco's offer. A failed attempt to overturn the merge led Namco to withdraw its offer the same day Sega announced it turned down Sammy's. While Namco stated it was willing to negotiate with Sega on a future deal, Sega turned down the idea.


title: Namco

text: Shigeichi Ishimura, the son in-law of Nakamura, succeeded Takagi as Namco president on April 1, 2005; Nakamura retained his role as the company's executive chairman. This was part of Namco's continuing efforts at reorganizing itself to be in line with changing markets. On July 26, as part of its 50th anniversary event, Namco published "NamCollection"—a compilation of several of its PlayStation games—for the PlayStation 2 in Japan.


title: Namco

text: Namco also opened the Riraku no Mori, a companion to its Namja Town park that held massage parlors for visitors; Namco believed it would help make relaxation a source of entertainment. "The Idolmaster", a rhythm game that incorporated elements of life simulations, was widely successful in Japan and resulted in the creation of a multi-million-grossing franchise.


title: Namco

text: In early 2005, Namco began merger talks with Bandai, a toy and anime company. The two discussed a year prior about a possible business alliance after Namco collaborated with Bandai subsidiary Banpresto to create an arcade game based on "Mobile Suit Gundam". Bandai showed interest in Namco's game development skills and believed combining this with its wide library of profitable characters and franchises, such as "Sailor Moon" and "Tamagotchi", could increase their competitiveness in the industry.


title: Namco

text: Nakamura and Namco's content development division advisors pushed against the idea, as they felt Bandai's corporate model wouldn't blend well with Namco's more agricultural work environment. Namco's advisors were also critical of Bandai for focusing on promotion and marketing over quality. As Namco's financial state continued to deteriorate, Ishimura pressured Nakamura into supporting the merger. Bandai's offer was accepted on May 2, with both companies stating in a joint statement their financial difficulties were the reason for the merger.


title: Namco

text: The business takeover, where Bandai acquired Namco for 175.3 billion ($1.7B), was finalized on September 29. An entertainment conglomerate named Namco Bandai Holdings was established the same day; while their executive departments merged, Bandai and Namco became independently-operating subsidiaries of the new umbrella holding company. Kyushiro Takagi, Namco's vice chairman, was appointed chairman and director of Namco Bandai Holdings. The combined revenues of the new company were estimated to be 458 billion ($4.34B), making Namco Bandai the third-largest Japanese game company after Nintendo and Sega Sammy Holdings.


title: Namco

text: As its parent company was preparing for a full business integration, Namco continued its normal operations, such as releasing "Ridge Racer 6" as a launch title for the newly-unveiled Xbox 360 in October and collaborating with Nintendo to produce the arcade game "Mario Kart Arcade GP". The company honored the 25th anniversary of its "Pac-Man" series with "Pac-Pix", a puzzle game for the Nintendo DS, and entered the massively multiplayer online game market with "Tales of Eternia Online", an action role-playing game based on its "Tales" franchise.


title: Namco

text: On January 4, 2006, Namco Hometek was merged with Bandai Games—Bandai America's consumer game division—to create Namco Bandai Games America, absorbing Namco America's subsidiaries and completing Namco and Bandai's merge in North America. Namco's console game, business program, mobile phone, and research facility divisions were merged with Bandai's console division to create a new company, Namco Bandai Games, on March 31, as Namco was effectively dissolved.


title: Namco

text: The Namco name was repurposed for a new Namco Bandai subsidiary the same day, which absorbed its predecessor's amusement facility and theme park operations. Namco's European division was folded into Namco Bandai Networks Europe on January 1, 2007, as it was reorganized into the company's mobile game and website division. Until April 2014, Namco Bandai Games used the Namco logo on its games to represent the brand's legacy.


title: Namco

text: The Namco Cybertainment division was renamed Namco Entertainment in January 2012, and to Namco USA in 2015. A division of Bandai Namco Holdings USA, Namco USA worked with chains such as AMC Theatres to host its video arcades in their respective locations. The second Namco company was renamed Bandai Namco Amusement on April 1, 2018 following a corporate restructuring by its parent. Amusement took over the arcade game development branch of Namco Bandai Games, which renamed itself to Bandai Namco Entertainment in 2015.


title: Namco

text: Namco USA was absorbed into Bandai Namco Amusement's North American branch in 2021 following its parent company's decision to exit the arcade management industry in the United States. This makes Namco Enterprises Asia and Namco Funscape―Bandai Namco's arcade division in Europe―the last companies to use the original Namco trademark in their names. Bandai Namco Holdings and its subsidiaries continue to use the Namco name for a variety of products, including mobile phone applications, streaming programs, and eSports-focused arcade centers in Japan.


title: Namco

text: Namco was one of the world's largest producers of video arcade games, having published over 300 titles since 1978. Many of its games are considered some of the greatest of all time, including "Pac-Man", "Galaga", "Xevious", "Ridge Racer", "Tekken 3", and "Katamari Damacy".


title: Namco

text: "Pac-Man" is considered one of the most important video games ever made, having helped encourage originality and creative thinking within the industry. Namco was recognized for the game's worldwide success in 2005 by Guinness World Records; by that timeframe, "Pac-Man" sold over 300,000 arcade units and grossed over $1 billion in quarters globally. In an obituary for Masaya Nakamura in 2017, "Nintendo Life"s Damien McFerran wrote: "without Namco and "Pac-Man", the video game arena would be very different today."


title: Namco

text: Namco's corporate philosophy and innovation have received recognition from publications. In a 1994 retrospective on the company, a writer for "Edge" described Namco as being "among the true pioneers of the coin-op business", a developer with a catalog of well-received and historically significant titles. The writer believed that Namco's success lay in its forward-thinking and firmness on quality, which they argued made it stand out from other developers. A staff member of "Edge"s sister publication, "Next Generation", wrote in 1998: "In a world where today's stars almost always become tomorrow's has-beens, Namco has produced consistently excellent games throughout most of its history." The writer credited the company's connections with its players and its influential releases, namely "Pac-Man", "Xevious", and "Winning Run", as the keys to its success in a rapidly changing industry.


title: Namco

text: Publications and industry journalists have identified Namco's importance to the industry. Hirokazu Hamamura, chief editor of "Famitsu", credited the company's quality releases to the rise in popularity of video game consoles, and, in turn, the entirety of Japan's video game industry. Writers for "Ultimate Future Games" and "Official UK PlayStation Magazine" have credited the company and its games to the early success of the PlayStation, one of the most iconic entertainment brands worldwide. In addition, "Official UK PlayStation Magazine" wrote that Namco serves as "the godfather of game developers", and one of the most important video game developers in history.


title: Namco

text: Staff for "IGN" in 1997 claimed that Namco represents the industry as a whole, with titles like "Pac-Man" and "Galaga" being associated with and representing video games. They wrote: "Tracing the history of Namco is like tracing the history of the industry itself. From its humble beginnings on the roof of a Yokohama department store, to the impending release of "Tekken 3" for the PlayStation, Namco has always stayed ahead of the pack." In 2012, "IGN" listed Namco among the greatest video game companies of all time, writing that many of its games—including "Galaga", "Pac-Man", "Dig Dug", and "Ridge Racer"—were of consistent quality and helped define the industry as a whole.


title: AHS Krab

text: The AHS Krab (Polish for crab) is a 155 mm NATO-compatible self-propelled tracked gun-howitzer designed in Poland by Huta Stalowa Wola (HSW), by combining the South Korean K9 Thunder chassis with a British BAE Systems AS-90M Braveheart turret with French Nexter Systems 52-calibre long gun and Polish WB Electronics' Topaz artillery fire control system. "AHS" is not a part of the name, but Polish abbreviation of "armatohaubica samobieżna" - gun-howitzer, self-propelled.


title: AHS Krab

text: The 2011 version used a Nexter Systems barrel and Polish UPG-NG chassis. The 2016 production batch utilized the Hanwha Defense K9 chassis with KMW+Nexter Defense Systems long gun, Rheinmetall barrel and STX Engine-MTU Friedrichshafen engine. full-rate production of 120 Krabs for the Polish Army has started with deliveries to be completed by 2024. , Huta Stalowa Wola started using barrels of their own manufacture in successive production batches.


title: AHS Krab

text: The cannon was developed within the "Regina" research framework. The program's goal was to create a calibre long-range artillery piece for the Polish Army that would serve as a division-level asset. It was decided, that instead of buying a licence for a complete vehicle, only a licence for a modern L/52 gun and turret would be bought, and they would be mounted on domestically developed chassis.


title: AHS Krab

text: In 1997 a competition for an artillery component, a complete turret with a gun, was announced. The British AS-90M won the competition, the other contestant was the PzH-2000. In 1999 its technology was transferred to Huta Stalowa Wola factory. The UPG-NG chassis was developed in Poland by OBRUM in Gliwice, from an SPG-1M chassis, itself developed from a Soviet MT-S tractor, using parts combined with the PT-91 Twardy tank. The first prototype was completed in 2001, the second the following year.


title: AHS Krab

text: The first two prototypes of the howitzer are fitted with turret systems supplied by BAE Systems. It was planned to complete the first squadron in 2008, but the program was delayed due to financial reasons, and not until 2008 did the Polish Army order the introductory batch of the squadron module, completed in 2012. It covers eight guns (six new-built and two upgraded prototype vehicles), command vehicles (on a much modernized MTLB chassis), as well as ammunition and repair vehicles for the ordnance and electronics.


title: AHS Krab

text: In the introductory and series products, Nexter guns replaced the original British pieces. The trial firing of another gun supplied by the manufacturer continued every month through the end of the year, the third gun was tested on 10 August under the supervision of representatives of the Armament Inspectorate and the Head Office of the Missile and Artillery Force of the Air Forces, at the Dynamic Trial Center of the WITU, the Military Technical Institute of Armament, in Stalowa Wola.


title: AHS Krab

text: The first firing of the third complete Krab, which also received new elements of onboard electronics developed by WB Electronics, occurred in July 2011. The concentration of fire was among the requirements tested. As of 2012, two prototypes and eight initial units, two artillery batteries each with four guns, had been built by Huta Stalowa Wola. In 2012–2013 eight new examples were used for tests conducted by the Polish Army as a part of a "Regina" battery command module.


title: AHS Krab

text: In December 2014, the Polish Ministry of Defence announced the deal worth US$320M with Korean Samsung Techwin (now Hanwha Techwin) to purchase 120 K9 Thunder chassis, with the first 24 to be delivered in 2017 and 96 to be built under licence in Poland in 2018–2022. Poland also evaluated the Turkish-built T-155 Firtina chassis of the same origin. The original Polish OBRUM's UPG-NG chassis built by BUMAR equipped with an S-12U engine and other elements (like road wheels) from the PT-91 Twardy used in eight initial production howitzers was abandoned due to structural cracks and ceased production of S-12U engines.


title: AHS Krab

text: The first K9 chassis was shipped to Poland for testing and integration in June 2015. The prototype was rolled out in August 2015. It went through type acceptance testing in October 2015. The test ended successfully in April 2016, allowing series production. In April 2016, the Ministry of National Defence and the manufacturer concluded the research and development phase. In April 2016, during the Polish prime minister's visit to Stalowa Wola, the first two serial examples were handed over to Polish Army.


title: AHS Krab

text: They joined eight initial production examples at the Artillery Training Center in Toruń, and were used to develop operational standards for combat units. During the handover ceremony in November 2016, nine Krabs were accepted in the presence of the Polish Minister of National Defence, while seven more were in the acceptance testing phase. Eight original turrets on UPG chassis are scheduled to be upgraded to the K9 chassis after the first batch of 16 guns is delivered by the end of 2016. The deal for the next 96 units was signed in December 2016, raising total order to 120 Krabs for five regiments.


title: AHS Krab

text: Each of the planned five regiments of Krabs will be equipped with 24 howitzers. The first unit to receive 24 Krabs by 2017 will be 11th Masurian Artillery Regiment in Węgorzewo. The development program of advanced, smart 155 mm ammunition was expected to conclude in 2017.


title: AHS Krab

text: In late May 2022, the Polish government donated 18 Krabs to Ukraine to help the Ukrainian military defend the nation against the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The two governments signed a contract under which Poland will sell Ukraine an additional 60 Krabs, in a deal worth 3 billion złotys (US$700 million). With the deal, Ukraine became the first export customer for Polish Krabs. The agreement was the largest defence contract that Poland had made in the previous 20 years. In October 2022, Ukraine's Ministry of Defence Oleksii Reznikov revealed, that Poland had already donated three battalions of Krabs (eg. 54 pieces with support vehicles), and another three were ordered.


title: AHS Krab

text: In Autumn 2022 it was revealed, that Ukraine used the Krab with Excalibur precision ammunition, obtaining range above 50 km.


title: Ray Walston

text: Herman Raymond Walston (November 2, 1914 – January 1, 2001) was an American actor and comedian, well known as the title character on "My Favorite Martian". His other major film, television, and stage roles included Luther Billis ("South Pacific"), Mr. Applegate ("Damn Yankees"), Orville J. Spooner ("Kiss Me, Stupid"), J. J. Singleton ("The Sting"), Poopdeck Pappy ("Popeye"), Mr. Hand ("Fast Times at Ridgemont High"), Candy ("Of Mice and Men"), Glen Bateman ("The Stand"), and Judge Henry Bone ("Picket Fences"). He also played one of the miners in "Paint Your Wagon" (1969) with Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood.


title: Ray Walston

text: Walston was born on November 2, 1914, in Laurel, Mississippi, the second son and youngest of three children born to lumberjack Harry Norman Walston and Mittie (née Kimball) Walston. He had an older sister, Carrie, and an older brother, Earl. His family moved from Mississippi to New Orleans, Louisiana, around 1925.


title: Ray Walston

text: He started acting at an early age, beginning his tenure as a spear carrier rounding out productions at many New Orleans theaters. He mostly played small roles with stock companies, where he not only starred in traveling shows, but also worked at a movie theater, selling tickets and cleaning the stage floors. His family moved to Dallas, Texas, where he joined a repertory theater company under Margo Jones in 1938. He stayed at the Houston Civic Theater six years, "averaging 12 roles a year."


title: Ray Walston

text: Walston was popular with Margo Jones' team of actors before he traveled to Cleveland, Ohio, where he spent three years with the Cleveland Play House. He then traveled to New York City, where he made his Broadway debut in a 1945 production of Maurice Evans's "The G.I. Hamlet". Three years later, Walston became one of the first members admitted to the newly formed Actors Studio.


title: Ray Walston

text: In 1949, he appeared in the short-lived play "Mrs. Gibbons' Boys", directed by George Abbott, who later cast him as Satan (who bore the name "Mr. Applegate") in the 1955 musical "Damn Yankees" opposite Gwen Verdon as his sexy aide Lola. The chemistry between the two was such that they both garnered critical success and won awards for their roles. After a decade in New York theater, he won a Tony Award.


title: Ray Walston

text: He starred as Luther Billis in the 1951 London production of "South Pacific". He reprised that role in the 1958 film adaptation. He and Juanita Hall (as Bloody Mary) were the only cast members to appear in both the stage and movie versions. Additional Broadway credits included "The Front Page", "Summer and Smoke", "King Richard III", "Wish You Were Here", and "House of Flowers". In 1957, actress and producer Katharine Cornell placed him in a role on Broadway in Robert E. Sherwood's Pulitzer Prize winning play about the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, "There Shall Be No Night". The play was adapted for television for a "Hallmark Hall of Fame" production. He had a prominent role in the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical "Me and Juliet", portraying the stage manager of the musical-within-the-musical, but his character did not participate in any of the musical numbers.


title: Ray Walston

text: Walston reprised his role in the 1958 film version of "Damn Yankees". His other films included "Kiss Them for Me"; "South Pacific"; "Say One for Me"; "Tall Story"; "Portrait in Black"; "The Apartment"; "Convicts 4"; "Wives and Lovers"; "Who's Minding the Store?"; "Kiss Me, Stupid"; "Caprice"; "Paint Your Wagon"; "The Sting"; "Silver Streak"; and "Get a Clue". Walston landed one of the three leading roles in Billy Wilder's comic farce "Kiss Me, Stupid" opposite Dean Martin and Kim Novak because, after six weeks of filming, Peter Sellers had to withdraw from the cast due to a heart attack.


title: Ray Walston

text: He narrated many United States Department of Defense and Atomic Energy Commission (now United States Department of Energy) films about nuclear experiments, including the Operation Hardtack I nuclear test film series of 1958. He guest starred on numerous television programs, including "The Shirley Temple Show", "The Americans", and a television version of "Going My Way".


title: Ray Walston

text: Walston achieved his greatest success as the title character (Uncle Martin) on "My Favorite Martian" from 1963 to 1966, alongside co-star Bill Bixby. The two immediately became close friends. The show was a top ten hit in its first season,still in the top 30 in its second, dropping to 45th in its third and final season. The success of "My Favorite Martian" typecast Walston and he had difficulty finding serious roles after the show's cancellation. He returned to character actor status in the 1970s and 1980s, and guest starred in such series as "Custer", "The Wild Wild West", "Love, American Style", "The Rookies", "", "Ellery Queen", "The Six Million Dollar Man", "Little House on the Prairie", and "The Incredible Hulk", again with Bixby, in which Walston played Jasper the Magician in an episode called "My Favorite Magician".


title: Ray Walston

text: From 1980 to 1992, Walston starred in 14 films, including "Galaxy of Terror" and "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" (as well as the 1986 television adaptation) as Mr. Hand. In a 1999 interview, Walston said that he was happy and relieved that when he walked down the street, young fans shouted at him "Mr. Hand" because he had finally torn away from his "Martian" role. In 1984, Walston played a judge on an episode of "Night Court". Six years later, he made a guest appearance on an episode of "L.A. Law". He later was hired for the role of Judge Henry Bone on "Picket Fences"; the character was originally a recurring role, but Walston proved to be so popular the character was later upgraded to a starring role.


title: Ray Walston

text: In 1985, Walston made a brief appearance in the opening credits of Steven Spielberg's series "Amazing Stories", as a caveman acting out a story for his tribe.


title: Ray Walston

text: He appeared in "" as Boothby, head groundskeeper at Starfleet Academy in San Francisco, and reprised the role twice on "".


title: Ray Walston

text: In 1988, he guest starred in an episode of the popular horror-fantasy show "", as a bitter, elderly comic-book artist who uses a demonically cursed comic book to transform himself into a killer robot and murder his erstwhile enemies. In 1992, Walston played the role of Candy in the big-screen remake of John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" with Gary Sinise and John Malkovich. He would work alongside Sinise again two years later in the miniseries adaptation of Stephen King's "The Stand".


title: Ray Walston

text: Walston received three Emmy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his work on "Picket Fences", winning twice, in 1995 and 1996. CBS cancelled the show after four seasons in 1996. Walston made a guest appearance in an episode of "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" entitled "Remember Me", in which he portrayed the father of Jake Slicker, who was stricken with Alzheimer's disease.


title: Ray Walston

text: In 1994, Walston was diagnosed with lupus and as a result, his career began winding down. He appeared in an AT&T long distance TV commercial in 1995, in which his dialogue implied he was Uncle Martin from Mars, looking for good rates to talk to fellow Martians living in the United States.


title: Ray Walston

text: Walston played Grandfather Walter Addams in "Addams Family Reunion" (1998). The next year, he appeared in the film remake of his hit series, "My Favorite Martian" (1999) in the role of Armitan. He appeared in the "Touched by an Angel" episode, "The Face on the Barroom Floor", which aired on October 15, 2000.


title: Ray Walston

text: Walston made a cameo in the "7th Heaven" episode, "One Hundred", which aired on January 29, 2001, four weeks after his death. His final film role was in the independent film "Early Bird Special", which was released later that year.


title: Adansonia

text: Adansonia is a genus made up of eight species of medium-to-large deciduous trees known as baobabs ( or ). They are placed in the Malvaceae family, subfamily Bombacoideae. They are native to Madagascar, mainland Africa, and Australia. The trees have also been introduced to other regions such as Asia. The generic name honours Michel Adanson, the French naturalist and explorer who described "Adansonia digitata". The baobab is also known as the "upside down tree", a name that originates from several myths. They are among the most long-lived of vascular plants and have large flowers that are reproductive for a maximum of 15 hours. The flowers open around dusk, opening so quickly that movement can be detected by the naked eye, and are faded by the next morning. The fruits are large, oval to round and berry-like and hold kidney-shaped seeds in a dry, pulpy matrix.


title: Adansonia

text: In the early 21st century, baobabs in southern Africa began to die off rapidly from a cause yet to be determined. It is unlikely that disease or pests would be able to kill many trees so rapidly, and some have speculated that the die-off is a result of dehydration.


title: Adansonia

text: Baobabs are long-lived deciduous, small to large trees from 5 to 30 m tall with broad trunks and compact crowns. Young trees usually have slender, tapering trunks, often with a swollen base. Mature trees have massive trunks that are bottle-shaped or cylindrical and tapered from bottom to top. The trunk is made of fibrous wood arranged in concentric rings, although rings are not always formed annually and so cannot be used to determine the age of individual trees. Tree diameter fluctuates with rainfall so it is thought that water may be stored in the trunk. Baobab trees have two types of shoots—long, green vegetative ones, and stout, woody reproductive ones. Branches can be massive and spread out horizontal from the trunk or are ascending. "Adansonia rubrostipa" is the only baobab that sometimes has spines. "Adansonia gregorii" is generally the smallest of the baobabs, rarely getting to over tall and often with multiple trunks. Both "A. rubrostipa" and "A. madagascariensis" are small to large trees, from tall. The other baobabs grow from tall, with diameter trunks. "A. digitata", however, often has massive single or multiple trunks of up to diameter.


title: Adansonia

text: Leaves are palmately compound in mature trees, but seedlings and regenerating shoots may have simple leaves. The transition to compound leaves comes with age and may be gradual. Leaves have 5-11 leaflets, with the largest ones in the middle and may be stalkless or with short petioles. Leaflets may have toothed or smooth edges, and may be hairless or have simple-to-clumped hairs. Baobabs have stipules at the base of the leaves, but the stipules are soon shed in most species. Baobabs are deciduous, shedding leaves during the dry season.


title: Adansonia

text: In most "Adansonia" species, the flowers are born on short erect or spreading stalks in the axils of the leaves near the tips of reproductive shoots. Only "A. digitata" has flowers and fruits set on long, hanging stalks. There is usually only a single flower in an axil, but sometimes flowers occur in pairs. They are large, showy and strongly scented. They only open near dusk. Opening is rapid and movement of the flower parts is fast enough to be visible. Most "Adansonia" species are pollinated by bats. Flowers may remain attached to the trees for several days, but the reproductive phase is very short, with pollen shed during the first night and stigmas shriveled by the morning. The flower is made up of an outer 5-lobed calyx, and an inner ring of petals set around a fused tube of stamens. The outer lobes of the calyx are usually green (brown in "A. grandidieri") and in bud are joined almost to the tip. As the flower opens, the calyx lobes split apart and become coiled or bent back (reflexed) at the base of the flower. The inner surface of the lobes are silky-hairy and cream, pink, or red. Sometimes the lobes do not separate cleanly, distorting the shape of the flower as they bend back. The calyx lobes remain fused at the base, leaving a feature (calyx tube) that has nectar-producing tissue and that is cup-shaped, flat or tubular; the form of the calyx tube varies with species. The flowers have a central tube (staminal tube) made up of fused stalks of stamens (filaments), with unfused filaments above. A densely hairy ovary is enclosed in the staminal tube, and a long style tipped with a stigma emerges from the filaments. Petals are set near the base of the staminal tube and are variable in shape and colour. The flowers, when fresh, may be white, cream, bright yellow or dark red, but fade quickly, often turning reddish when dried.


title: Adansonia

text: The fruit of the baobabs is one of their distinguishing features. It is large, oval-to-round, and berry-like in most species (usually less than long in "A. madagascariensis".). It has a dry, hard outer shell of variable thickness. In most species, the shell is indehiscent (does not break open easily). "A. gibbosa" is the only species with fruits that crack while still on the tree, which then tend to break open upon landing on the ground. Inside the outer shell, kidney-shaped seeds 10-15(-20) mm long are set in a dry pulp.


title: Adansonia

text: The earliest written reports of baobab are from a 14th-century travelogue by the Arab traveler Ibn Batuta. The first botanical description was by Alpino (1592), looking at fruits that he observed in Egypt from an unknown source. They were called "Bahobab", possibly from the Arabic "bu hibab", meaning "many-seeded fruit". The French explorer and botanist Michel Adanson (1727–1806) observed a baobab tree in 1749 on the island of Sor in Senegal, and wrote the first detailed botanical description of the full tree, accompanied with illustrations. Recognizing the connection to the fruit described by Alpino he called the genus Baobab. Linnaeus later renamed the genus "Adansonia", to honour Adason, but use of baobab as one of the common names has persisted.


title: Adansonia

text: The genus "Adansonia" is in the subfamily Bombacoideae, within the family Malvaceae in the order Malvales. The subfamily Bombacoideae was previously treated as the Bombacaceae family but it is no longer recognized at the rank of family by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group I 1998, II 2003 or the Kubitzki system 2003. There are eight accepted species of "Adansonia". A new species ("Adansonia kilima" Pettigrew, et al.), was described in 2012, found in high-elevation sites in eastern and southern Africa. This, however, is no longer recognized as a distinct species but considered a synonym of "A. digitata". Some high-elevation trees in Tanzania show different genetics and morphology, but further study is needed to determine if recognition of them as a separate species is warranted. The genus "Adansonia" is further divided into three sections. Section Adansonia includes only "A. digitata". This species has hanging flowers and fruit, set on long flowering stalks. This is the type species for the genus "Adansonia". All species of "Adansonia" except "A. digitata" are diploid; "A. digitata" is tetraploid. Section Brevitubae includes "A. grandidieri" and "A. suarexensis". These are species with flower buds that set on short pedicles and that are approximately twice as long as wide. The other species are all classified within the section Longitubae. They also have flowers/fruits set on short pedicels, but the flower buds are five or more times as long as wide.


title: Adansonia

text: , there are eight recognized species of Adansonia, with six endemic to Madagascar, one native to mainland Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, and one native to Australia. The mainland African species ("Adansonia digitata") also occurs on Madagascar, but it is not a native of that island. Baobabs were introduced in ancient times to south Asia and during the colonial era to the Caribbean. They are also present in the island nation of Cape Verde. A ninth species was described in 2012 ("Adansonia kilima" ) but is no longer recognized as a distinct species. The African and Australian baobabs are similar in appearance, and the oldest splits within "Adansonia" are likely no older than 15 million years; thus, the Australian species represents a long-distance trans-oceanic dispersal event from Africa. The lineage leading to "Adansonia" was found to have diverged from its closest relatives in Bombacoideae like "Ceiba" /"Chorisia" at the end of the Eocene, during a time of abrupt global climate cooling and drying, while a divergence of this "Adansonia"+"Ceiba" /"Chorisia" clade from "Pachira" was found to be more ancient, dating to the middle Eocene.


title: Adansonia

text: The Malagasy species are important components of the Madagascar dry deciduous forests. Within that biome, "Adansonia madagascariensis" and "A. rubrostipa" occur specifically in the Anjajavy Forest, sometimes growing out of the tsingy limestone itself. "A. digitata" has been called "a defining icon of African bushland". The tree also grows wild in Sudan in the regions of Darfur and the state of Kordofan. The locals call it "Gongolaze" and use its fruits as food and medicine and use the tree trunks as reservoirs to save water.


title: Adansonia

text: Baobabs store water in the trunk (up to ) to endure harsh drought conditions. All occur in seasonally arid areas, and are deciduous, shedding their leaves during the dry season. Across Africa, the oldest and largest baobabs began to die in the early 21st century, likely from a combination of drought and rising temperatures. The trees appear to become parched, then become dehydrated and unable to support their massive trunks.


title: Adansonia

text: Baobabs are important as nest sites for birds, in particular the mottled spinetail and four species of weaver.


title: Adansonia

text: Radiocarbon dating has provided data on a few individuals of "A. digitata". The Panke baobab in Zimbabwe was some 2,450 years old when it died in 2011, making it the oldest angiosperm ever documented, and two other trees—"Dorslandboom" in Namibia and "Glencoe" in South Africa—were estimated to be approximately 2,000 years old. Another specimen known as "Grootboom" was dated and found to be at least 1,275 years old. The Glencoe baobab, a specimen of "A. digitata" in Limpopo Province, South Africa, was considered to be the largest living individual, with a maximum circumference of and a diameter of about . The tree has since split into two parts, so the widest individual trunk may now be that of the Sunland baobab, or Platland tree, also in South Africa. The diameter of this tree at ground level is and its circumference at breast height is .


title: Adansonia

text: Two large baobabs growing in Tsimanampetsotse National Park were also studied using radiocarbon dating. One called "Grandmother" is made up of three fused trunks of different ages, with the oldest part of the tree an estimated 1,600 years old. The second, "polygamous baobab", has six fused stems, and is an estimated 1,000 years old.


title: Adansonia

text: Some baobab species are sources of fiber, dye, and fuel. Indigenous Australians used the native species "A. gregorii" for several products, making string from the root fibers and decorative crafts from the fruits. Baobab oil from the seed is also used in cosmetics, particularly in moisturizers.


title: Szczecin

text: Szczecin (, , ; ; Latin: "Sedinum" or "Stetinum") is the capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the German border, it is a major seaport and Poland's seventh-largest city. As of December 2021, the population was 395,513.


title: Szczecin

text: Szczecin is located on the river Oder, south of the Szczecin Lagoon and the Bay of Pomerania. The city is situated along the southwestern shore of Dąbie Lake, on both sides of the Oder and on several large islands between the western and eastern branches of the river. Szczecin is adjacent to the town of Police and is the urban centre of the Szczecin agglomeration, an extended metropolitan area that includes communities in the German states of Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.


title: Szczecin

text: Szczecin is the administrative and industrial centre of West Pomeranian Voivodeship and is the site of the University of Szczecin, Pomeranian Medical University, Maritime University, West Pomeranian University of Technology, Szczecin Art Academy, and the see of the Szczecin-Kamień Catholic Archdiocese. The city's historical landmarks include the Szczecin Cathedral, the Pomeranian Dukes' Castle and the National Museum. From 1999 onwards, Szczecin has served as the site of the headquarters of NATO's Multinational Corps Northeast. The city was a candidate for the European Capital of Culture in 2016.


title: Szczecin

text: "Szczecin" and "Stettin" are the Polish and German equivalents of the same name, which is of Proto-Slavic origin, though the exact etymology is the subject of ongoing research.


title: Szczecin

text: In "Etymological dictionary of geographical names of Poland", Maria Malec lists eleven theories regarding the origin of the name, including derivations from either: an Old Slavic word for hill peak, (), or the plant fuller's teasel (), or the personal name "Szczota".


title: Szczecin

text: Other medieval names for the town are "Burstaborg" (in the Knytlinga saga) and "Burstenburgh" (in the Annals of Waldemar). These names, which literally mean "brush burgh", are likely derived from the translation of the city's Slavic name (assuming derivation No. 2 for that).


title: Szczecin

text: The recorded history of Szczecin began in the eighth century, as Vikings and West Slavs settled Pomerania. The West Slavs, or Lechites, erected a new stronghold on the site of the modern castle.


title: Szczecin

text: Since the 9th century, the stronghold was fortified and expanded toward the Oder bank. Mieszko I of Poland took control of Pomerania during the Early Middle Ages and the region became part of Poland in the 10th century. However, already Mieszko II Lambert (1025 ~ 1034) effectively lost control over the area and had to accept German suzerainty over the area of the Oder lagoon. Subsequent Polish rulers, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Liutician federation all aimed to control the territory.


title: Szczecin

text: After the decline of the neighbouring regional centre Wolin in the 12th century, the city became one of the more important and powerful seaports of the Baltic Sea.


title: Szczecin

text: In a campaign in the winter of 1121–1122, Bolesław III Wrymouth, the Duke of Poland, gained control of the region, including the city of Szczecin and its stronghold. The Polish ruler initiated Christianization, entrusting this task to Otto of Bamberg, and the inhabitants were Christianised by two missions of Otto in 1124 and 1128. At this time, the first Christian church of Ss Peter and Paul was erected. The Poles' minted coins were commonly used in trade in this period. The population of the city at that time is estimated to be at around 5,000–9,000 people.


title: Szczecin

text: Polish rule ended with Boleslaw's death in 1138. During the Wendish Crusade in 1147, a contingent led by the German margrave Albert the Bear, an enemy of Slavic presence in the region, papal legate, bishop Anselm of Havelberg and Konrad of Meissen besieged the town. There, a Polish contingent supplied by Mieszko III the Old joined the crusaders. However, the citizens had placed crosses around the fortifications, indicating they already had been Christianised. Duke Ratibor I of Pomerania, negotiated the disbanding of the crusading forces.


title: Szczecin

text: After the Battle of Verchen in 1164, Szczecin duke Bogusław I, Duke of Pomerania became a vassal of the Duchy of Saxony's Henry the Lion. In 1173, Szczecin castellan Wartislaw II, could not resist a Danish attack and became vassal of Denmark. In 1181, Bogusław became a vassal of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1185, Bogusław again became a Danish vassal. Despite falling under foreign suzerainty, local dukes maintained close ties with the fragmented Polish realm, and future Polish monarch Władysław III Spindleshanks stayed at the local court of Duke Bogusław I in 1186, on behalf of his father, Duke of Greater Poland Mieszko III the Old, who also periodically was the High Duke of Poland. Following a conflict between his heirs and Canute VI of Denmark, the settlement was destroyed in 1189, but the fortress was reconstructed and manned with a Danish force in 1190. While the empire restored its superiority over the Duchy of Pomerania in the Battle of Bornhöved in 1227, Szczecin was one of two bridgeheads remaining under Danish control (until 1235; Wolgast until 1241/43 or 1250).


title: Szczecin

text: In the second half of the 12th century, a group of German tradesmen ("multus populus Teutonicorum" from various parts of the Holy Roman Empire) settled in the city around St.Jacob's Church, which was donated in 1180 by Beringer, a trader from Bamberg, and consecrated in 1187. Hohenkrug (now in Szczecin Struga) was the first village in the Duchy of Pomerania that was clearly recorded as German ("villa teutonicorum") in 1173. Ostsiedlung accelerated in Pomerania during the 13th century. Duke Barnim I of Pomerania granted Szczecin a local government charter in 1237, separating the German settlement from the Slavic community settled around the St. Nicholas Church in the neighbourhood of Kessin (). In the charter, the Slavs were put under Germanic jurisdiction.


title: Szczecin

text: When Barnim granted Szczecin Magdeburg rights in 1243, part of the Slavic settlement was reconstructed. The duke had to promise to level the burgh in 1249. Most Slavic inhabitants were resettled to two new suburbs north and south of the town.


title: Szczecin

text: In 1249, Barnim I also granted Magdeburg town privileges to the town of Damm (also known as Altdamm) on the eastern bank of the Oder. Damm merged with neighbouring Szczecin on 15October 1939 and is now the Dąbie neighbourhood. This town had been built on the site of a former Pomeranian burg, "Vadam" or "Dambe", which Boleslaw had destroyed during his 1121 campaign.


title: Szczecin

text: On 2 December 1261, Barnim I allowed Jewish settlement in Szczecin in accordance with the Magdeburg law, in a privilege renewed in 1308 and 1371. The Jewish Jordan family was granted citizenship in 1325, but none of the 22 Jews allowed to settle in the duchy in 1481 lived in the city, and in 1492, all Jews in the duchy were ordered to convert to Christianity or leavethis order remained effective throughout the rest of the Griffin era.


title: Szczecin

text: In 1273, in Szczecin duke of Poznań and future King of Poland Przemysł II married princess Ludgarda, granddaughter of Barnim I, Duke of Pomerania, in order to strengthen the alliance between the two rulers.


title: Szczecin

text: Szczecin was part of the federation of Wendish towns, a predecessor of the Hanseatic League, in 1283. The city prospered due to its participation in the Baltic Sea trade, primarily with herring, grain, and timber; craftsmanship also prospered, and more than forty guilds were established in the city. The far-reaching autonomy granted by the House of Griffins was in part reduced when the dukes reclaimed Szczecin as their main residence in the late 15th century. The anti-Slavic policies of German merchants and craftsmen intensified in this period, resulting in measures such as bans on people of Slavic descent joining craft guilds, a doubling of customs tax for Slavic merchants, and bans against public usage of their native language. The more prosperous Slavic citizens were forcibly stripped of their possessions, which were then handed over to Germans. In 1514, the guild of tailors added a "Wendenparagraph" to its statutes, banning Slavs.


title: Szczecin

text: While not as heavily affected by medieval witchhunts as other regions of the empire, there are reports of the burning of three women and one man convicted of witchcraft in 1538.


title: Szczecin

text: In 1570, during the reign of John Frederick, Duke of Pomerania, a congress was held at Stettin ending the Northern Seven Years' War. During the war, Stettin had tended to side with Denmark, while Stralsund tended toward Swedenas a whole, however, the Duchy of Pomerania tried to maintain neutrality. Nevertheless, a Landtag that had met in Stettin in 1563 introduced a sixfold rise in real estate taxes to finance the raising of a mercenary army for the duchy's defence. Johann Friedrich also succeeded in elevating Stettin to one of only three places allowed to coin money in the Upper Saxon Circle of the Holy Roman Empire, the other two places being Leipzig and Berlin. Bogislaw XIV, who resided in Stettin beginning in 1620, became the sole ruler and Griffin duke when Philipp Julius, Duke of Pomerania died in 1625. Before the Thirty Years' War reached Pomerania, the city, as well as the entire duchy, declined economically due to the decrease in importance of the Hanseatic League and a conflict between Stettin and Frankfurt an der Oder.


title: Szczecin

text: Following the Treaty of Stettin of 1630, the town (along with most of Pomerania) was allied to and occupied by the Swedish Empire, which managed to keep the western parts of Pomerania after the death of BogislawXIV in 1637. From the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, Stettin became the Capital of Swedish Pomerania. Stettin was turned into a major Swedish fortress, which was repeatedly besieged in subsequent wars. The next Treaty of Stettin (1653) did not change this, but due to the downfall of the Swedish Empire after Charles XII, the city went to Prussia in 1720. Instead Stralsund became capital of the last remaining parts of Swedish Pomerania 1720–1815.


title: Szczecin

text: The city was on the path of Polish forces led by Hetman Stefan Czarniecki moving from Denmark during the Second Northern War. Czarniecki who led his forces to the city, is today mentioned in the Polish anthem, and numerous locations in the city honour his name.


title: Szczecin

text: Wars inhibited the city's economic prosperity, which had undergone a deep crisis during the devastation of the Thirty Years' War and was further impeded by the new Swedish-Brandenburg-Prussian frontier, cutting Stettin off from its traditional Farther Pomeranian hinterland. Due to a Plague during the Great Northern War, the city's population dropped from 6,000 people in 1709 to 4,000 in 1711. In 1720, after the Great Northern War, Sweden was forced to cede the city to King Frederick William I of Prussia. Stettin was made the capital city of the Prussian Pomeranian province, since 1815 reorganised as the Province of Pomerania. In 1816, the city had 26,000 inhabitants.


title: Szczecin

text: The Prussian administration deprived the city of its right to administrative autonomy, abolished guild privileges as well as its status as a staple town, and subsidised manufacturers. Also, colonists were settled in the city, primarily French Huguenots. The French established a prosperous community, greatly contributed to the city's economic revival, and were treated with reluctance by the German burghers and city authorities.


title: Szczecin

text: In October 1806, during the War of the Fourth Coalition, believing that he was facing a much larger force, and after receiving a threat of harsh treatment of the city, the Prussian commander Lieutenant General Friedrich von Romberg agreed to surrender the city to the French led by General Lasalle. In fact, Lasalle had only 800 men against vonRomberg's 5,300 men. In March 1809 Romberg was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for giving up Stettin without a fight. In 1809, also Polish troops were stationed in the city, while the French remained until 1813.


title: Szczecin

text: From 1683 to 1812, one Jew was permitted to reside in Stettin, and an additional Jew was allowed to spend a night in the city in case of "urgent business". These permissions were repeatedly withdrawn between 1691 and 1716, also between 1726 and 1730 although else the Swedish regulation was continued by the Prussian administration. Only after the Prussian Edict of Emancipation of 11March 1812, which granted Prussian citizenship to all Jews living in the kingdom, did a Jewish community emerge in Stettin, with the first Jews settling in the town in 1814. Construction of a synagogue started in 1834; the community also owned a religious and a secular school, an orphanage since 1855, and a retirement home since 1893. The Jewish community had between 1,000 and 1,200 members by 1873 and between 2,800 and 3,000 members by 192728. These numbers dropped to 2,701 in 1930 and to 2,322 in late 1934.


title: Szczecin

text: After the Franco Prussian war of 1870–1871, 1,700 French POWs were imprisoned there in deplorable conditions, resulting in the deaths of 600; after the Second World War monuments in their memory were built by the Polish authorities.


title: Szczecin

text: Until 1873, Stettin remained a fortress. When part of the defensive structures were levelled, a new neighbourhood, "Neustadt" ("New Town") as well as water pipes, sewerage and drainage, and gas works were built to meet the demands of the growing population.


title: Szczecin

text: Stettin developed into a major Prussian port and became part of the German Empire in 1871. While most of the province retained its agrarian character, Stettin was industrialised, and its population rose from 27,000 in 1813 to 210,000 in 1900 and 255,500 in 1925. Major industries that flourished in Stettin from 1840 were shipbuilding, chemical and food industries, and machinery construction. Starting in 1843, Stettin became connected to the major German and Pomeranian cities by railways, and the water connection to the Bay of Pomerania was enhanced by the construction of the Kaiserfahrt (now Piast) canal. The city was also a scientific centre; for example, it was home to the Entomological Society of Stettin.


title: Szczecin

text: On 20 October 1890, some of the city's Poles created the "Society of Polish-Catholic Workers" in the city, one of the first Polish organisations. In 1897, the city's ship works began the construction of the pre-dreadnought battleship "Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse". In 1914, before World WarI, the Polish community in the city numbered over 3,000 people, contributing about 2% of the population. These were primarily industrial workers and their families who came from the Poznań (Posen) area and a few local wealthy industrialists and merchants. Among them was Kazimierz Pruszak, director of the Gollnow industrial works and a Polish patriot, who predicted the eventual "return" of Szczecin to Poland.


title: Szczecin

text: During the interwar period, Stettin was Weimar Germany's largest port on the Baltic Sea, and her third-largest port after Hamburg and Bremen. Cars of the Stoewer automobile company were produced in Stettin from 1899 to 1945. By 1939, the Reichsautobahn BerlinStettin was completed.


title: Szczecin

text: Stettin played a major role as an entrepôt in the development of the Scottish herring trade with the Continent, peaking at an annual export of more than 400,000 barrels in 1885, 1894 and 1898. Trade flourished until the outbreak of the First World War and resumed on a reduced scale during the years between the wars.


title: Szczecin

text: In the March 1933 German elections to the Reichstag, the Nazis and German nationalists from the German National People's Party (or DNVP) won most of the votes in the city, together winning 98,626 of 165,331 votes (59.3%), with the NSDAP getting 79,729 (47.9%) and the DNVP 18,897 (11.4%).


title: Szczecin

text: In 1935, the Wehrmacht made Stettin the headquarters for WehrkreisII, which controlled the military units in all of Mecklenburg and Pomerania. It was also the area headquarters for units stationed at StettinI and II; Swinemünde (Świnoujście); Greifswald; and Stralsund.


title: Szczecin

text: In the interwar period, the Polish minority numbered 2,000 people, less than 1% of the cities population at that time. A number of Poles were members of the Union of Poles in Germany (ZPN), which was active in the city from 1924. A Polish consulate was located in the city between 1925 and 1939. On the initiative of the consulate and ZPN activist Maksymilian Golisz, a number of Polish institutions were established, e.g., a Polish Scout team and a Polish school. German historian Musekamp writes, "however, only very few Poles were active in these institutions, which for the most part were headed by employees of the [Polish] consulate." The withdrawal of the consulate from these institutions led to a general decline of these activities, which were in part upheld by Golisz and Aleksander Omieczyński. Intensified repressions by the Nazis, who exaggerated the Polish activities to propagate an infiltration, led to the closing of the school. In 1938, the head of Szczecin's Union of Poles unit, Stanisław Borkowski, was imprisoned in Oranienburg. In 1939, all Polish organisations in Stettin were disbanded by the German authorities. Golisz and Omieczyński were murdered during the war. After the defeat of Nazi Germany, a street was named after Golisz. According to German historian Jan Musekamp, the activities of the Polish pre-war organizations were exaggerated after World War II for propaganda purposes.


title: Szczecin

text: During World War II, Stettin was the base for the German 2nd Motorised Infantry Division, which cut across the Polish Corridor and was later used in 1940 as an embarkation point for Operation Weserübung, Germany's assault on Denmark and Norway.


title: Szczecin

text: On 15 October 1939, neighbouring municipalities were joined to Stettin, creating Groß-Stettin, with about 380,000 inhabitants, in 1940. The city had become the third-largest German city by area, after Berlin and Hamburg.


title: Szczecin

text: As the war started, the number of non-Germans in the city increased as slave workers were brought in. The first transports came in 1939 from Bydgoszcz, Toruń and Łódź. They were mainly used in a synthetic silk factory near Stettin. The next wave of slave workers was brought in 1940, in addition to PoWs who were used for work in the agricultural industry. According to German police reports from 1940, 15,000 Polish slave workers lived within the city.


title: Szczecin

text: During the war, 135 forced labour camps for slave workers were established in the city. Most of the 25,000 slave workers were Poles, but Czechs, Italians, Frenchmen and Belgians, as well as Dutch citizens, were also enslaved in the camps. A Nazi prison was also operated in the city, with forced labour subcamps in the region.


title: Szczecin

text: In February 1940, the Jews of Stettin were deported to the Lublin reservation. International press reports emerged, describing how the Nazis forced Jews, regardless of age, condition and gender, to sign away all property and loaded them onto trains headed to the camp, escorted by members of the SA and SS. Due to publicity given to the event, German institutions ordered such future actions to be made in a way unlikely to attract public notice. The action was the first deportation of Jews from prewar territory in Nazi Germany.


title: Szczecin

text: Allied air raids in 1944 and heavy fighting between the German and Soviet armies destroyed 65% of Stettin's buildings and almost all of the city centre, the seaport, and local industries. Polish Home Army intelligence assisted in pinpointing targets for Allied bombing in the area of Stettin. The city itself was covered by the Home Army's "Bałtyk" structure, and Polish resistance infiltrated Stettin's naval yards. Other activities of the resistance consisted of smuggling people to Sweden.


title: Szczecin

text: The Soviet Red Army captured the city on 26April 1945. While the majority of the almost 400,000 inhabitants had left the city, between 6,000 and 20,000 inhabitants remained in late April.


title: Szczecin

text: On 28 April 1945 Polish authorities tried to gain control, but in the following month, the Polish administration was twice forced to leave. Finally the permanent handover occurred on 5July 1945. In the meantime, part of the German population had returned, believing it might become part of the Soviet occupation zone of Germany. The Soviet authorities had already appointed the German Communists Erich Spiegel and Erich Wiesner as mayors. Stettin is located mostly west of the Oder river, which was expected to become Poland's new western border, placing Stettin in East Germany. This would have been in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement between the victorious Allied Powers, which envisaged the new border to be in "a line running from the Baltic Sea immediately west of Swinemünde, and thence along the Oder River[...]". Because of the returnees, the German population of the town swelled to 84,000. The mortality rate was at 20%, primarily due to starvation. However, Stettin and the mouth of the Oder River became Polish on 5July 1945, as had been decided in a treaty signed on 26July 1944 between the Soviet Union and the Soviet-controlled Polish Committee of National Liberation (PKWN) (also known as "the Lublin Poles", as contrasted with the London-based Polish government-in-exile). On 4October 1945, the decisive land border of Poland was established west of the 1945 line, and the city was renamed to its historic Polish name Szczecin, but the area excluded the Police area, the Oder river itself, and the port of Szczecin, which remained under Soviet administration. The Oder river was handed over to Polish administration in September 1946, followed by the port between February 1946 and May 1954.


title: Szczecin

text: While in 1945 the number of pre-war inhabitants dropped to 57,215 on 31 October 1945, the systematic expulsion of Germans started on 22 February 1946 and continued until late 1947, in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement. In December 1946 about 17,000 German inhabitants remained, while the number of Poles living in the city reached 100,000. To ease the tensions between settlers from different regions, and help overcome fear caused by the continued presence of the Soviet troops, a special event was organised in April 1946 with 50,000 visitors in the partly destroyed city centre. Settlers from Central Poland made up about 70% of Szczecin's new population. In addition to Poles, Ukrainians from Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union settled there. Also Poles repatriated from Harbin, China and Greeks, refugees of the Greek Civil War, settled in Szczecin in the following years. In 1945 and 1946, the city was the starting point of the northern route used by the Jewish underground organisation Brichah to channel Jewish displaced persons from Central and Eastern Europe to the American occupation zone.


title: Szczecin

text: Szczecin was rebuilt, and the city's industry was expanded. At the same time, Szczecin became a major Polish industrial centre and an important seaport (particularly for Silesian coal) for Poland, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany. Cultural expansion was accompanied by a campaign resulting in the "removal of all German traces". In 1946, Winston Churchill prominently mentioned the city in his Iron Curtain speech: "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent".


title: Szczecin

text: The city witnessed anti-communist revolts in 1970 and 1980. On August 30, 1980, first of the four "August Agreements", which led to the first legalisation of the trade union Solidarity, was signed in Szczecin. The introduction of martial law in December 1981 met with a strike by the dockworkers of Szczecin shipyard, joined by other factories and workplaces in a general strike. All these were suppressed by the authorities. Pope John Paul II visited the city on 11June 1987. Another wave of strikes in Szczecin broke out in 1988 and 1989, which eventually led to the Round Table Agreement and first semi-free elections in post-war Poland.


title: Szczecin

text: Szczecin has an oceanic climate (Köppen: "Cfb") with some humid continental ("Dfb") characteristics in normal not updated, typical of Western Pomerania. The winters are colder than on the immediate coast and the summers are warm, but still with some moderation, especially due to the Baltic Sea.


title: Szczecin

text: The average air temperature in Szczecin ranges from 8 to 8.4 °C. The hottest month is July with a temperature of 15.8 °C to 20.3 °C, the coldest January from -4.1 °C to 2.6 °C. Air temperature below 0 °C occurs on average over 86 days a year, most frequently in January and February. The average annual rainfall is 537 mm, the average rainfall in the cool half-year is 225 mm, and in the warmer half-year is 350 mm. On average, 167 days with precipitation occurs.


title: Szczecin

text: Szczecin's architectural style is due to trends popular in the last half of the 19th century and the first years of the 20th century: Academic art and Art Nouveau. In many areas built after 1945, especially in the city centre, which had been destroyed due to Allied bombing, social realism is prevalent.


title: Szczecin

text: The city has an abundance of green areas: parks and avenueswide streets with trees planted in the island separating opposing traffic (where often tram tracks are laid); and roundabouts. Szczecin's city plan resembles that of Paris, mostly because Szczecin was rebuilt in the 1880s according to a design by Georges-Eugène Haussmann, who had redesigned Paris under Napoléon III. This pattern of street design is still used in Szczecin, as many recently built (or modified) city areas include roundabouts and avenues.


title: Szczecin

text: During the city's reconstruction in the aftermath of World War II, the communist authorities of Poland wanted the city's architecture to reflect an old Polish Piast era. Since no buildings from that time existed, instead Gothic as well as Renaissance buildings were picked as worthy of conservation. The motivation behind this decision was that Renaissance architecture was used by the Griffin dynasty, which had Lechitic and West Slavic roots and was seen to be of Piast extraction by some historians. This view was manifested, for example, by erecting respective memorials, and the naming of streets and enterprises, while German traces were replaced by symbols of three main categories: Piasts, the martyrdom of Poles, and gratitude to the Soviet and Polish armies which had ended the Nazi atrocities against Polish citizens.


title: Szczecin

text: The ruins of the former Griffin residence, initially renamed "Piast Palace", also played a central role in this concept and were reconstructed in Renaissance style, with all traces of later eras removed. In general, post-Renaissance buildings, especially those from the 19th and early 20th centuries, were deemed unworthy of conservation until the 1970s, and were in part used in the "Bricks for Warsaw" campaign (an effort to rebuild Warsaw after it had been systematically razed following the Warsaw Uprising): with 38 million bricks, Szczecin became Poland's largest brick supplier. The Old Town was rebuilt in the late 1990s, with new buildings, some of which were reconstructions of buildings destroyed in World WarII.


title: Szczecin

text: The Gothic monuments preserved to this day are parts of European Route of Brick Gothic, along with monuments of other Pomeranian cities, e.g. Stargard, Kamień Pomorski, Sławno and Chełmno.


title: Szczecin

text: A portion of the Szczecin Landscape Park in the forest of Puszcza Bukowa lies within Szczecin's boundaries.


title: Szczecin

text: Szczecin contains 28 extant historic water pumps, known as Szczecin pumps or Berliners, which are a popular tourist attraction due to their colorful and intricate design.


title: Szczecin

text: The city is administratively divided into districts (Polish: "dzielnica"), which are further divided into smaller neighbourhoods. The governing bodies of the latter serve the role of auxiliary local government bodies called "Neighbourhood Councils" (Polish: "Rady Osiedla"). Elections for neighbourhood councils are held up to six months after each City Council election. Voter turnout is rather low (on 20May 2007 it ranged from 1.03% to 27.75% and was 3.78% on average). Councillors are responsible mostly for small infrastructure like trees, park benches, playgrounds, etc. Other functions are mostly advisory.


title: Szczecin

text: Babin, Barnucin, Basen Górniczy, Błędów, Boleszyce, Bystrzyk, Cieszyce, Cieśnik, Dolina, Drzetowo, Dunikowo, Glinki, Grabowo, Jezierzyce, Kaliny, Kępa Barnicka, Kijewko, Kluczewko, Kłobucko, Kniewo, Kraśnica, Krzekoszów, Lotnisko, Łasztownia, Niemierzyn, Odolany, Oleszna, Podbórz, Port, os.Przyjaźni, Rogatka, Rudnik, Sienna, Skoki, Słowieńsko, Sosnówko, Starków, Stoki, Struga, Śmierdnica, os.Świerczewskie, Trzebusz, Urok, Widok, Zdunowo.


title: Szczecin

text: Since the 12th-century Christianization of the city, the majority of the population were Catholics, then since the Renaissance era, up to the end of World War II, the vast majority of the population were Lutheran Protestants, and since 1945, the majority are again Catholics. Historically, the number of inhabitants doubled from 6,081 in 1720, to 12,360 in 1740, and reached 21,255 in 1812, with only 476 Catholics and 5 Jews. By 1852 the population was 48,028, and 58,487 ten years later (1861), including 1,065 Catholics and 1,438 Jews. In 1885, it was 99,543, and by 1905 it ballooned to 224,119 settlers (incl. the military), among them 209,152 Protestants, 8,635 Catholics and 3,010 Jews. In 1939, the number of inhabitants reached 268,421 persons according to German sources including 233,424 Protestants, 10,845 Catholics, and 1,102 Jews. The current population of Szczecin by comparison was 406,427 in 2009. Following the Revolution of Dignity, Szczecin, much like most other major urban centers in Poland, saw an unprecedented influx of foreign nationals, an overwhelming majority of them Ukrainians; in July 2017 26 thousand of them were officially registered as living and working in Szczecin, with unofficial estimates going as high as 50 thousand, thus making up more than 10% of the city's inhabitants.


title: Szczecin

text: Recently, the city has favoured the centre right Civic Platform. Nearly two-thirds (64.54%) of votes cast in the second round of the 2010 presidential election went to the Civic Platform's Bronisław Komorowski, and in the following year's Polish parliamentary election the party won 46.75% of the vote in the Szczecin constituency with Law and Justice second garnering 21.66% and Palikot's Movement third with 11.8%.