Terminology.

Toponymy.

The archipelago has been referred to by a single name for over 2000 years: the term 'British Isles' derives from terms used by classical geographers to describe this island group. By 50 BC Greek geographers were using equivalents of "Prettanikē" as a collective name for the British Isles. However, with the Roman conquest of Britain the Latin term "Britannia" was used for the island of Great Britain, and later Roman-occupied Britain south of Caledonia.  The earliest known name for Great Britain is "Albion" () or "insula Albionum", from either the Latin "albus" meaning "white" (possibly referring to the white cliffs of Dover, the first view of Britain from the continent) or the "island of the "Albiones"". The oldest mention of terms related to Great Britain was by Aristotle (384–322 BC), or possibly by Pseudo-Aristotle, in his text "On the Universe", Vol. III. To quote his works, "There are two very large islands in it, called the British Isles, Albion and Ierne".  The first known written use of the word Britain was an ancient Greek transliteration of the original P-Celtic term in a work on the travels and discoveries of Pytheas that has not survived. The earliest existing records of the word are quotations of the periplus by later authors, such as those within Strabo's "Geographica", Pliny's "Natural History" and Diodorus of Sicily's "Bibliotheca historica". Pliny the Elder (AD 23–79) in his "Natural History" records of Great Britain: "Its former name was Albion; but at a later period, all the islands, of which we shall just now briefly make mention, were included under the name of 'Britanniæ.'"  The name "Britain" descends from the Latin name for Britain, "Britannia" or "Brittānia", the land of the Britons. Old French "Bretaigne" (whence also Modern French "Bretagne") and Middle English "Bretayne", "Breteyne". The French form replaced the Old English "Breoton, Breoten, Bryten, Breten" (also "Breoton-lond, Breten-lond"). Britannia was used by the Romans from the 1st century BC for the British Isles taken together. It is derived from the travel writings of Pytheas around 320 BC, which described various islands in the North Atlantic as far north as Thule (probably Norway).  The peoples of these islands of "Prettanike" were called the Πρεττανοί, "Priteni" or "Pretani". "Priteni" is the source of the Welsh language term Prydain, "Britain", which has the same source as the Goidelic term Cruithne used to refer to the early Brythonic-speaking inhabitants of Ireland. The latter were later called Picts or Caledonians by the Romans. Greek historians Diodorus of Sicily and Strabo preserved variants of "Prettanike" from the work of Greek explorer Pytheas of Massalia, who travelled from his home in Hellenistic southern Gaul to Britain in the 4th century BC. The term used by Pytheas may derive from a Celtic word meaning "the painted ones" or "the tattooed folk" in reference to body decorations. According to Strabo, Pytheas referred to Britain as "Bretannikē", which is treated a feminine noun. Marcian of Heraclea, in his "Periplus maris exteri", described the island group as (the Prettanic Isles).

Derivation of "Great".

The Greco-Egyptian scientist Ptolemy referred to the larger island as "great Britain" (μεγάλη Βρεττανία "megale Brettania") and to Ireland as "little Britain" (μικρὰ Βρεττανία "mikra Brettania") in his work "Almagest" (147–148 AD). In his later work, "Geography" (c. 150 AD), he gave the islands the names "Alwion", "Iwernia", and "Mona" (the Isle of Man), suggesting these may have been the names of the individual islands not known to him at the time of writing "Almagest". The name "Albion" appears to have fallen out of use sometime after the Roman conquest of Britain, after which "Britain" became the more commonplace name for the island.  After the Anglo-Saxon period, "Britain" was used as a historical term only. Geoffrey of Monmouth in his pseudohistorical "Historia Regum Britanniae" ("c." 1136) refers to the island as "Britannia major" ("Greater Britain"), to distinguish it from "Britannia minor" ("Lesser Britain"), the continental region which approximates to modern Brittany, which had been settled in the fifth and sixth centuries by migrants from Britain. The term "Great Britain" was first used officially in 1474, in the instrument drawing up the proposal for a marriage between Cecily the daughter of Edward IV of England, and James the son of James III of Scotland, which described it as "this Nobill Isle, callit Gret Britanee". It was used again in 1604, when King James VI and I styled himself "King of Great Brittaine, France and Ireland".

Modern use of the term "Great Britain".

"Great Britain" refers geographically to the island of Great Britain. Politically, it may refer to the whole of England, Scotland and Wales, including their smaller offshore islands. It is not correct to use the term to refer to the whole of the United Kingdom which includes Northern Ireland.  Similarly, "Britain" can refer to either all islands in Great Britain, the largest island, or the political grouping of countries. There is no clear distinction, even in government documents: the UK government yearbooks have used both "Britain" and "United Kingdom".  "GB" and "GBR" are used instead of "UK" in some international codes to refer to the United Kingdom, including the Universal Postal Union, international sports teams, NATO, the International Organization for Standardization country codes and ISO 3166-1 alpha-3, and international licence plate codes, whilst the aircraft registration prefix is G.  On the Internet,.uk is the country code top-level domain for the United Kingdom. A.gb top-level domain was used to a limited extent, but is now obsolete because the domain name registrar will not take new registrations.  In the Olympics, "Team GB" is used by the British Olympic Association to represent the British Olympic team. The Olympic Council of Ireland claims to represent the whole island of Ireland, and Northern Irish sportspeople may choose to compete for either team, most choosing to represent Ireland.

Political definition.

Politically, Great Britain refers to the whole of England, Scotland and Wales in combination, but not Northern Ireland; it includes islands, such as the Isle of Wight, Anglesey, the Isles of Scilly, the Hebrides and the island groups of Orkney and Shetland, that are part of England, Wales, or Scotland. It does not include the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.  The political union that joined the kingdoms of England and Scotland happened in 1707 when the Acts of Union ratified the 1706 Treaty of Union and merged the parliaments of the two nations, forming the Kingdom of Great Britain, which covered the entire island. Before this, a personal union had existed between these two countries since the 1603 Union of the Crowns under James VI of Scotland and I of England.

History.

Prehistoric period.

Great Britain was probably first inhabited by those who crossed on the land bridge from the European mainland. Human footprints have been found from over 800,000 years ago in Norfolk and traces of early humans have been found (at Boxgrove Quarry, Sussex) from some 500,000 years ago and modern humans from about 30,000 years ago. Until about 14,000 years ago, it was connected to Ireland, and as recently as 8,000 years ago it retained a land connection to the continent, with an area of mostly low marshland joining it to what are now Denmark and the Netherlands.  In Cheddar Gorge, near Bristol, the remains of animal species native to mainland Europe such as antelopes, brown bears, and wild horses have been found alongside a human skeleton, 'Cheddar Man', dated to about 7150 BC. Great Britain became an island at the end of the last glacial period when sea levels rose due to the combination of melting glaciers and the subsequent isostatic rebound of the crust. Great Britain's Iron Age inhabitants are known as Britons; they spoke Celtic languages.

Roman and medieval period.

The Romans conquered most of the island (up to Hadrian's Wall in northern England) and this became the Ancient Roman province of "Britannia". In the course of the 500 years after the Roman Empire fell, the Britons of the south and east of the island were assimilated or displaced by invading Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, often referred to collectively as Anglo-Saxons). At about the same time, Gaelic tribes from Ireland invaded the north-west, absorbing both the Picts and Britons of northern Britain, eventually forming the Kingdom of Scotland in the 9th century. The south-east of Scotland was colonised by the Angles and formed, until 1018, a part of the Kingdom of Northumbria. Ultimately, the population of south-east Britain came to be referred to as the English people, so-named after the Angles.  Germanic speakers referred to Britons as "Welsh". This term came to be applied exclusively to the inhabitants of what is now Wales, but it also survives in names such as Wallace and in the second syllable of Cornwall. "Cymry", a name the Britons used to describe themselves, is similarly restricted in modern Welsh to people from Wales, but also survives in English in the place name of Cumbria. The Britons living in the areas now known as Wales, Cumbria and Cornwall were not assimilated by the Germanic tribes, a fact reflected in the survival of Celtic languages in these areas into more recent times. At the time of the Germanic invasion of Southern Britain, many Britons emigrated to the area now known as Brittany, where Breton, a Celtic language closely related to Welsh and Cornish and descended from the language of the emigrants, is still spoken. In the 9th century, a series of Danish assaults on northern English kingdoms led to them coming under Danish control (an area known as the Danelaw). In the 10th century, however, all the English kingdoms were unified under one ruler as the kingdom of England when the last constituent kingdom, Northumbria, submitted to Edgar in 959. In 1066, England was conquered by the Normans, who introduced a Norman-speaking administration that was eventually assimilated. Wales came under Anglo-Norman control in 1282, and was officially annexed to England in the 16th century.

Early modern period.

On 20 October 1604 King James, who had succeeded separately to the two thrones of England and Scotland, proclaimed himself "King of Great Brittaine, France, and Ireland". When James died in 1625 and the Privy Council of England was drafting the proclamation of the new king, Charles I, a Scottish peer, Thomas Erskine, 1st Earl of Kellie, succeeded in insisting that it use the phrase "King of Great Britain", which James had preferred, rather than King of Scotland and England (or vice versa). While that title was also used by some of James's successors, England and Scotland each remained legally separate countries, each with its own parliament, until 1707, when each parliament passed an Act of Union to ratify the Treaty of Union that had been agreed the previous year. This created a single kingdom with one parliament with effect from 1 May 1707. The Treaty of Union specified the name of the new all-island state as "Great Britain", while describing it as "One Kingdom" and "the United Kingdom". To most historians, therefore, the all-island state that existed between 1707 and 1800 is either "Great Britain" or the "Kingdom of Great Britain".

Geography.

Great Britain lies on the European continental shelf, part of the Eurasian Plate. Situated off the north-west coast of continental Europe, it is separated from the mainland by the North Sea and by the English Channel, which narrows to at the Straits of Dover. It stretches over about ten degrees of latitude on its longer, north-south axis and occupies an area of, excluding the smaller surrounding islands. The North Channel, Irish Sea, St George's Channel and Celtic Sea separate the island from the island of Ireland to its west. The island is physically connected with continental Europe via the Channel Tunnel, the longest undersea rail tunnel in the world, completed in 1993. The island is marked by low, rolling countryside in the east and south, while hills and mountains predominate in the western and northern regions. It is surrounded by over 1,000 smaller islands and islets. The greatest distance between two points is (between Land's End, Cornwall and John o' Groats, Caithness), by road.  The English Channel is thought to have been created between 450,000 and 180,000 years ago by two catastrophic glacial lake outburst floods caused by the breaching of the Weald-Artois Anticline, a ridge that held back a large proglacial lake, now submerged under the North Sea. Around 10,000 years ago, during the Devensian glaciation with its lower sea level, Great Britain was not an island, but an upland region of continental northwestern Europe, lying partially underneath the Eurasian ice sheet. The sea level was about lower than today, and the bed of the North Sea was dry and acted as a land bridge, now known as Doggerland, to the Continent. It is generally thought that as sea levels gradually rose after the end of the last glacial period of the current ice age, Doggerland became submerged beneath the North Sea, cutting off what was previously the British peninsula from the European mainland by around 6500 BC.

Geology.

Great Britain has been subject to a variety of plate tectonic processes over a very extended period of time. Changing latitude and sea levels have been important factors in the nature of sedimentary sequences, whilst successive continental collisions have affected its geological structure with major faulting and folding being a legacy of each orogeny (mountain-building period), often associated with volcanic activity and the metamorphism of existing rock sequences. As a result of this eventful geological history, the island shows a rich variety of landscapes.  The oldest rocks in Great Britain are the Lewisian gneisses, metamorphic rocks found in the far north west of the island and in the Hebrides (with a few small outcrops elsewhere), which date from at least 2,700 Ma (Ma = million years ago). South of the gneisses are a complex mixture of rocks forming the North West Highlands and Grampian Highlands in Scotland. These are essentially the remains of folded sedimentary rocks that were deposited between 1,000 Ma and 670 Ma over the gneiss on what was then the floor of the Iapetus Ocean.  At the present time the north of the island is rising as a result of the weight of Devensian ice being lifted. Southern and eastern Britain is sinking, generally estimated at 1 mm (1/25 inch) per year, with the London area sinking at double the speed partly due to the continuing compaction of the recent clay deposits.

Fauna.

Animal diversity is modest, as a result of factors including the island's small land area, the relatively recent age of the habitats developed since the last glacial period and the island's physical separation from continental Europe, and the effects of seasonal variability. Great Britain also experienced early industrialisation and is subject to continuing urbanisation, which have contributed towards the overall loss of species. A DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) study from 2006 suggested that 100 species have become extinct in the UK during the 20th century, about 100 times the background extinction rate. However, some species, such as the brown rat, red fox, and introduced grey squirrel, are well adapted to urban areas.  Rodents make up 40% of the mammal species. These include squirrels, mice, voles, rats and the recently reintroduced European beaver. There is also an abundance of European rabbit, European hare, shrews, European mole and several species of bat. Carnivorous mammals include the red fox, Eurasian badger, Eurasian otter, weasel, stoat and elusive Scottish wildcat. Various species of seal, whale and dolphin are found on or around British shores and coastlines. The largest land-based wild animals today are deer. The red deer is the largest species, with roe deer and fallow deer also prominent; the latter was introduced by the Normans. Sika deer and two more species of smaller deer, muntjac and Chinese water deer, have been introduced, muntjac becoming widespread in England and parts of Wales while Chinese water deer are restricted mainly to East Anglia. Habitat loss has affected many species. Extinct large mammals include the brown bear, grey wolf and wild boar; the latter has had a limited reintroduction in recent times.  There is a wealth of birdlife, with 619 species recorded, of which 258 breed on the island or remain during winter. Because of its mild winters for its latitude, Great Britain hosts important numbers of many wintering species, particularly waders, ducks, geese and swans. Other well known bird species include the golden eagle, grey heron, common kingfisher, common wood pigeon, house sparrow, European robin, grey partridge, and various species of crow, finch, gull, auk, grouse, owl and falcon. There are six species of reptile on the island; three snakes and three lizards including the legless slowworm. One snake, the adder, is venomous but rarely deadly. Amphibians present are frogs, toads and newts. There are also several introduced species of reptile and amphibian.

Flora.

In a similar sense to fauna, and for similar reasons, the flora is impoverished compared to that of continental Europe. The flora comprises 3,354 vascular plant species, of which 2,297 are native and 1,057 have been introduced. The island has a wide variety of trees, including native species of birch, beech, ash, hawthorn, elm, oak, yew, pine, cherry and apple. Other trees have been naturalised, introduced especially from other parts of Europe (particularly Norway) and North America. Introduced trees include several varieties of pine, chestnut, maple, spruce, sycamore and fir, as well as cherry plum and pear trees. The tallest species are the Douglas firs; two specimens have been recorded measuring 65 metres or 212 feet. The Fortingall Yew in Perthshire is the oldest tree in Europe.  There are at least 1,500 different species of wildflower. Some 107 species are particularly rare or vulnerable and are protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. It is illegal to uproot any wildflowers without the landowner's permission. A vote in 2002 nominated various wildflowers to represent specific counties. These include red poppies, bluebells, daisies, daffodils, rosemary, gorse, iris, ivy, mint, orchids, brambles, thistles, buttercups, primrose, thyme, tulips, violets, cowslip, heather and many more. <br>There are also many species of algae and mosses across the island.

Fungi.

There are many species of fungi including lichen-forming species, and the mycobiota is less poorly known than in many other parts of the world. The most recent checklist of Basidiomycota (bracket fungi, jelly fungi, mushrooms and toadstools, puffballs, rusts and smuts), published in 2005, accepts over 3600 species. The most recent checklist of Ascomycota (cup fungi and their allies, including most lichen-forming fungi), published in 1985, accepts another 5100 species. These two lists did not include conidial fungi (fungi mostly with affinities in the Ascomycota but known only in their asexual state) or any of the other main fungal groups (Chytridiomycota, Glomeromycota and Zygomycota). The number of fungal species known very probably exceeds 10,000. There is widespread agreement among mycologists that many others are yet to be discovered.

Demographics.

Settlements.

London is the capital of England and the whole of the United Kingdom, and is the seat of the United Kingdom's government. Edinburgh and Cardiff are the capitals of Scotland and Wales, respectively, and house their devolved governments.

Language.

In the Late Bronze Age, Britain was part of a culture called the Atlantic Bronze Age, held together by maritime trading, which also included Ireland, France, Spain and Portugal. In contrast to the generally accepted view that Celtic originated in the context of the Hallstatt culture, since 2009, John T. Koch and others have proposed that the origins of the Celtic languages are to be sought in Bronze Age Western Europe, especially the Iberian Peninsula. Koch et al.'s proposal has failed to find wide acceptance among experts on the Celtic languages.  All the modern Brythonic languages (Breton, Cornish, Welsh) are generally considered to derive from a common ancestral language termed "Brittonic", "British", "Common Brythonic", "Old Brythonic" or "Proto-Brythonic", which is thought to have developed from Proto-Celtic or early Insular Celtic by the 6th century AD. Brythonic languages were probably spoken before the Roman invasion at least in the majority of Great Britain south of the rivers Forth and Clyde, though the Isle of Man later had a Goidelic language, Manx. Northern Scotland mainly spoke Pritennic, which became Pictish, which may have been a Brythonic language. During the period of the Roman occupation of Southern Britain (AD 43 to c. 410), Common Brythonic borrowed a large stock of Latin words. Approximately 800 of these Latin loan-words have survived in the three modern Brythonic languages. "Romano-British" is the name for the Latinised form of the language used by Roman authors.  British English is spoken in the present day across the island, and developed from the Old English brought to the island by Anglo-Saxon settlers from the mid 5th century. Some 1.5 million people speak Scots—an indigenous language of Scotland. An estimated 700,000 people speak Welsh, an official language in Wales. In parts of north west Scotland, Scottish Gaelic remains widely spoken. There are various regional dialects of English, and numerous languages spoken by some immigrant populations.

Religion.

Christianity has been the largest religion by number of adherents since the Early Middle Ages: it was introduced under the ancient Romans, developing as Celtic Christianity. According to tradition, Christianity arrived in the 1st or 2nd century. The most popular form is Anglicanism (known as Episcopalism in Scotland). Dating from the 16th-century Reformation, it regards itself as both Catholic and Reformed. The Head of the Church is the monarch of the United Kingdom, as the Supreme Governor. It has the status of established church in England. There are just over 26 million adherents to Anglicanism in Britain today, although only around one million regularly attend services. The second largest Christian practice is the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church, which traces its history to the 6th century with Augustine's mission and was the main religion for around a thousand years. There are over 5 million adherents today, 4.5 million in England and Wales and 750,000 in Scotland, although fewer than a million Catholics regularly attend mass. The Church of Scotland, a form of Protestantism with a Presbyterian system of ecclesiastical polity, is the third most numerous on the island with around 2.1 million members. Introduced in Scotland by clergyman John Knox, it has the status of national church in Scotland. The monarch of the United Kingdom is represented by a Lord High Commissioner. Methodism is the fourth largest and grew out of Anglicanism through John Wesley. It gained popularity in the old mill towns of Lancashire and Yorkshire, also amongst tin miners in Cornwall. The Presbyterian Church of Wales, which follows Calvinistic Methodism, is the largest denomination in Wales. There are other non-conformist minorities, such as Baptists, Quakers, the United Reformed Church (a union of Congregationalists and English Presbyterians), Unitarians. The first patron saint of Great Britain was Saint Alban. He was the first Christian martyr dating from the Romano-British period, condemned to death for his faith and sacrificed to the pagan gods. In more recent times, some have suggested the adoption of St Aidan as another patron saint of Britain. From Ireland, he worked at Iona amongst the Dál Riata and then Lindisfarne where he restored Christianity to Northumbria.  The three constituent countries of the United Kingdom have patron saints: Saint George and Saint Andrew are represented in the flags of England and Scotland respectively. These two flags combined to form the basis of the Great Britain royal flag of 1604. Saint David is the patron saint of Wales. There are many other British saints. Some of the best known are Cuthbert, Columba, Patrick, Margaret, Edward the Confessor, Mungo, Thomas More, Petroc, Bede, and Thomas Becket.  Numerous other religions are practised. Jews have inhabited Britain since 1070. Jews were expelled from England in 1290 but permitted to return in 1656. There were also Jewish migrations from Lithuania. The 2001 census recorded that Islam had around 1.5 million adherents. More than 1 million people practise either Hinduism, Sikhism, or Buddhism–religions introduced from the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.

Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of, it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island, and the ninth-largest island in the world. In 2011, Great Britain had a population of about people, making it the world's third-most populous island after Java in Indonesia and Honshu in Japan. The island of Ireland is situated to the west of Great Britain, and together these islands, along with over 1,000 smaller surrounding islands, form the British Isles archipelago.

大不列颠岛(英语:Great Britain;;;)是一个位于欧洲西北部的岛屿,面积,是全世界第九大岛屿,也是欧洲最大的岛屿。2008年中统计人口共5,960万,在各岛屿中排名第三,仅次于印尼的爪哇岛和日本的本州岛。


History.

Glarus is first mentioned in the early 9th Century in Latin as "Clarona". In 1178 it was first mentioned in German as "Glarus".  On 10 February 878, the Emperor Charles the Fat gave his wife Richgard or Richardis the monasteries of Säckingen, of St. Felix and of Regula in Zürich as a royal estate. This land grant included extensive political rights and a large estate. This estate covered land in the Rhine and Frick valleys, the southern Hotzenwald, land in Zürich, along Lake Walen and the valley of Glarus. Glarus remained under the Säckingen Abbey until 1395 (intermittently under the overlordship of either the Counts of Lenzburg and Kyburg and/or Raetia Curiensis), when the Glarus valley broke away from the Abbey and became independent.  It became the capital of the Linth valley in 1419. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the valley began to be industrialized. Huldrych Zwingli a leader of the Reformation in Switzerland served in his first, Roman Catholic, ecclesiastical post in Glarus, starting around 1506. He served there for ten years. It was in Glarus, whose soldiers were used as mercenaries in Europe, that Zwingli became involved in politics. The Swiss Confederation was embroiled in various campaigns with its neighbours: the French, the Habsburgs, and the Papal States. Zwingli placed himself solidly on the side of the Holy See. In return, Pope Julius II honoured Zwingli by providing him with an annual pension. He took the role of chaplain in several campaigns in Italy, including the Battle of Novara in 1513. However, the decisive defeat of the Swiss in the Battle of Marignano caused a shift in mood in Glarus in favour of the French rather than the pope. Zwingli, the papal partisan, found himself in a difficult position and he decided to retreat to Einsiedeln in the canton of Schwyz. While he was not a reformer at Glarus, there he began to develop the ideas that would lead to the break with the Catholic Church in Zürich  In 1528 the Reformation gained a foothold in Glarus, directed by Zwingli in Zürich. Even though he had preached in Glarus for 10 years, the town remained strongly Catholic. However, following the Second war of Kappel in 1531 both the Catholic and Protestant residents were given the right to worship in town. This led to both religious groups using the town church simultaneously, an arrangement that caused numerous problems. By the 18th Century both the groups shared the church but had separate organs. In 1697 there were two financially and theologically independent parishes meeting in the city church.  Following the French invasion in 1798, Glarus became the capital of the Canton of Linth in the Helvetic Republic. The administration of the Canton moved into Glarus. However, the new administrators had difficulties in establishing and enforcing any new regulations. In August 1802 the administrators of the new Canton left Glarus for Rapperswil due to the difficulties they had faced in Glarus. In 1803, with the Act of Mediation, the Canton of Linth was dissolved and Glarus became the capital of the smaller Canton of Glarus.  In 1859, the railway reached Glarus from Weesen. The extension to Schwanden and Linthal opened in 1879.  On the 10/11 May 1861, the town was devastated by a fire that was fanned by a violent Föhn or south wind, rushing down from the high mountains through the natural funnel formed by the Linth valley. The total loss is estimated at about half a million sterling, of which about £100,000 were made up by subscriptions that poured in from every side. About two-thirds of Glarus (593 buildings) were destroyed in the big fire. After this incident, Glarus was rebuilt in block fashion according to construction plans by Bernhard Simon and Johann Caspar Wolff.  In 1864, the first European labor law to protect workers was introduced in Glarus, prohibiting workers from working more than 12 hours a day.

Geography.

The town is located in the "Glarner Mittelland" on a broad valley floor between the Glärnisch and the Linth.  The municipality Glarus before 2011 had an area of. Of this area, 23% was used for agricultural purposes, while 31.4% was forested; of the rest of the land, 2.7% was settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (42.9%) was non-productive (2006 figures).  With the incorporation of Ennenda, Netstal and Riedern in 2011, the municipality Glarus now has an area of. Based on the 2004/09 survey, about 26.3% of the total area is used for agricultural purposes, while 34.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 4.1% is settled (buildings or roads) and 35.2% is unproductive land. Over the past two decades (1979/85-2004/09) the amount of land that is settled has increased by and the agricultural land has decreased by.

Demographics.

Glarus has a population () of., 24.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 3 years (2010-2013) the population has changed at a rate of 2.07%. The birth rate in the municipality, in 2013, was 9.8 while the death rate was 8.4 per thousand residents. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 20.6% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) are 61.1% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 18.3%.  Most of the population () speaks German (86.0%), with Italian being second most common (4.8%) and Albanian being third (2.6%).

Historical population.

The historical population is given in the following table:

Economy.

, there were a total of 8,148 people employed in the municipality. Of these, a total of 175 people worked in 63 businesses in the primary economic sector. The secondary sector employed 2,479 workers in 200 separate businesses. Finally, the tertiary sector provided 5,494 jobs in 923 businesses. In 2013 a total of 2.% of the population received social assistance.

Politics.

In the 2015 federal election the most popular party was the BDP with 49.7% of the vote, followed by the SP with 47.7%. The remaining 2.6% went to unaffiliated or minor party candidates. In the federal election, a total of 3,250 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 41.1%. The 2015 election saw a large change in the voting when compared to 2011. The percentage of the vote received by the SP increased sharply from 28.9% in 2011 to 47.7% in 2015, while the percentage that the BDP dropped from 57.7% to 49.7%.

Crime.

In 2014 the crime rate, of the over 200 crimes listed in the Swiss Criminal Code (running from murder, robbery and assault to accepting bribes and election fraud), in Glarus was 48.2 per thousand residents. This rate is only 74.6% of the average rate in the entire country. During the same period, the rate of drug crimes was 10.2 per thousand residents, which is similar to the rate in Glarus Süd, but about twice as high as the rate in Glarus Nord.

Education.

In Glarus about 71.3% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a "Fachhochschule").

Transport.

Glarus railway station is on the Ziegelbrücke to Linthal railway line. It is served by the Zürich S-Bahn service S25 between Zürich and Linthal, and by the St. Gallen S-Bahn service S6 between Rapperswil and Schwanden. Both services operate once per hour, combining to provide two trains per hour between Ziegelbrücke and Schwanden. The stations of Ennenda and Netstal are also in the municipality, and served by the same trains.

Climate.

Between 1981 and 2010 Glarus had an average of 144.2 days of rain per year and on average received of precipitation. The wettest month was July during which time Glarus received an average of of precipitation. During this month there was precipitation for an average of 14.6 days. The months with the most days of precipitation were July and August. The driest month of the year was February with an average of of precipitation over 9.4 days.

International relations.

Twin towns – Sister cities.

Glarus is twinned with:

Glarus (; ; ; ; ) is the capital of the canton of Glarus in Switzerland. Since 1 January 2011, the municipality Glarus incorporates the former municipalities of Ennenda, Netstal and Riedern.

格拉鲁斯()是位于瑞士联邦东部的一座城市。格拉鲁斯是格拉鲁斯州的首府所在地。该市面积为107.20平方千米,海拔高度474米,2017年12月31日人口为12,521人。该市曾于1861年遭遇大火。1864年,欧洲第一个保护工人的法律于格拉鲁斯通过,该法律规定工人每日工作不得超过12小时。


Etymology.

The name of the city, Graz, formerly spelled Gratz, most likely stems from the Slavic "gradec", which means "small castle". Some archaeological finds point to the erection of a small castle by Alpine Slavic people, which over time became a heavily defended fortification. In literary Slovene and Croatian, "gradec" still means "small castle", forming a hypocoristic derivative of Proto-West-South Slavic *gradьcъ, whichs descends via liquid metathesis from Common Slavic *gardьcъ and via the Slavic third palatalisation from Proto-Slavic *gardiku, originally denoting "small town, settlement". The name thus follows the common South Slavic pattern for naming settlements as "grad". The German name 'Graz' first appears in records in 1128.

Geography.

Graz is situated on both sides of the Mur river in southeast Austria. It is about southwest of Vienna ("Wien"). The nearest larger urban centre is Maribor ("Marburg") in Slovenia, which is about to the south. Graz is the state capital and largest city in Styria, a green and heavily forested region on the eastern edge of the Alps.

Neighbouring municipalities.

These towns and villages border Graz:

Districts.

Graz is divided into 17 municipal districts ("Stadtbezirke"):

History.

The oldest settlement on the ground of the modern city of Graz dates back to the Copper Age. However, no historical continuity exists of a settlement before the Middle Ages.  During the 12th century, dukes under Babenberg rule made the town into an important commercial center. Later, Graz came under the rule of the Habsburgs and, in 1281, gained special privileges from King Rudolph I.  In the 14th century, Graz became the city of residence of the Inner Austrian line of the Habsburgs. The royalty lived in the Schlossberg castle and from there ruled Styria, Carinthia, most of today's Slovenia, and parts of Italy (Carniola, Gorizia and Gradisca, Trieste).  In the 16th century, the city's design and planning were primarily controlled by Italian Renaissance architects and artists. One of the most famous buildings representative of this style is the Landhaus, designed by Domenico dell'Allio, and used by the local rulers as a governmental headquarters.  The University of Graz was founded by Archduke Karl II in 1585, it's the city's oldest university. For most of its existence, it was controlled by the Catholic church, and was closed in 1782 by Joseph II in an attempt to gain state control over educational institutions. Joseph II transformed it into a lyceum where civil servants and medical personnel were trained. In 1827 it was re-established as a university by Emperor Franz I, and was named 'Karl-Franzens Universität' or 'Charles-Francis University' in English. More than 30,000 students are currently enrolled at this university.  The astronomer Johannes Kepler lived in Graz for a short period. He worked as a math teacher and was a professor of mathematics at the University of Graz, but still found time to study astronomy. He left Graz for Prague when Lutherans were banned from the city.  Ludwig Boltzmann was Professor for Mathematical Physics from 1869 to 1890. During that time, Nikola Tesla studied electrical engineering at the Polytechnic in 1875. Nobel Laureate Otto Loewi taught at the University of Graz from 1909 until 1938. Ivo Andric, the 1961 Nobel Prize for Literature Laureate obtained his doctorate at the University of Graz. Erwin Schrödinger was briefly chancellor of the University of Graz in 1936.  Graz is centrally located within today's "Bundesland" (state) of Styria, or "Steiermark" in German. "Mark" is an old German word indicating a large area of land used as a defensive border, in which the peasantry is taught how to organize and fight in the case of an invasion. With a strategic location at the head of the open and fertile Mur valley, Graz was historically a target of invaders, such as the Hungarians under Matthias Corvinus in 1481, and the Ottoman Turks in 1529 and 1532. Apart from the Riegersburg Castle, the Schlossberg was the only fortification in the region that never fell to the Ottoman Turks. Graz is home to the region's provincial armory, which is the world's largest historical collection of late medieval and Renaissance weaponry. It has been preserved since 1551, and displays over 30,000 items.  From the earlier part of the 15th century, Graz was the residence of the younger branch of the Habsburgs, which succeeded to the imperial throne in 1619 in the person of Emperor Ferdinand II, who moved the capital to Vienna. New fortifications were built on the Schlossberg at the end of the 16th century. Napoleon's army occupied Graz in 1797. In 1809, the city withstood another assault by the French army. During this attack, the commanding officer in the fortress was ordered to defend it with about 900 men against Napoleon's army of about 3,000. He successfully defended the Schlossberg against eight attacks, but they were forced to give up after the Grande Armée occupied Vienna and the Emperor ordered to surrender. Following the defeat of Austria by Napoleonic forces at the Battle of Wagram in 1809, the fortifications were demolished using explosives, as stipulated in the Peace of Schönbrunn of the same year. The belltower (Glockenturm) and the civic clock tower ("Uhrturm"), which is a leading tourist attraction and serves as a symbol for Graz, were spared after the citizens of Graz paid a ransom for their preservation.  Archduke Karl II of Inner Austria had 20,000 Protestant books burned in the square of what is now a mental hospital, and succeeded in returning Styria to the authority of the Holy See. Archduke Franz Ferdinand was born in Graz in what is now the Stadtmuseum (city museum).

Population development.

The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal-residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students. At the end of 2016 there were 33,473 people with secondary residence status in Graz.

Climate.

Oceanic climate is the type found in the city, but due to the 0 °C isotherm, the same occurs in a humid continental climate with based in Köppen system (Cfb/Dfb borderline). Wladimir Köppen himself was in town and conducted studies to see how the climate of the past influenced the Continental Drift theory. Due to its position southeast of the Alps, Graz is shielded from the prevailing westerly winds that bring weather fronts in from the North Atlantic to northwestern and central Europe. The weather in Graz is thus influenced by the Mediterranean, and it has more hours of sunshine per year than Vienna or Salzburg and also less wind or rain. Graz lies in a basin that is only open to the south, causing the climate to be warmer than would be expected at that latitude. Plants are found in Graz that normally grow much further south.

Slovenes and Graz.

Politically, culturally, scientifically and religiously, Graz was an important centre for all Slovenes, especially from the establishment of the University of Graz in 1586 until the establishment of University of Ljubljana in 1919. In 1574, the was published in Graz, and in 1592, Hieronymus Megiser published in Graz the book "Dictionarium quatuor linguarum", the first multilingual dictionary of Slovene.  The Styrian Slovenes did not consider Graz a German-speaking city, but their own, a place to study while living at their relatives' homes and to fulfill one's career ambitions. The student associations in Graz were a crucible of the Slovene identity, and the Slovene students in Graz were more nationally aware than some others. This led to fierce anti-Slovene efforts of German-speaking nationalists in Graz before and during World War II.  Many Slovenian Styrians study there. Slovenes are among the professors at the Institute for Jazz in Graz. Numerous Slovenes have found employment there, while being formerly unemployed in Slovenia. For the Slovene culture, Graz remains permanently important due to its university and the Universalmuseum Joanneum archives containing numerous documents from the Slovenian Styria.  A symposium on the relation of Graz and the Slovenes was held in Graz in 2010, at the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the establishment of the first and oldest chair of Slovene. It was established at the Lyzeum of Graz in July 1811 on the initiative of. A collection of lectures on the topic was published. The Slovenian Post commemorated the anniversary with a stamp.

Main sights.

For the year that Graz was Cultural Capital of Europe, new structures were erected. The Graz Museum of Contemporary Art (German: Kunsthaus) was designed by Peter Cook and Colin Fournier and is situated next to the Mur river. The Island in the Mur is a floating platform made of steel. It was designed by American architect Vito Acconci and contains a café, an open-air theatre and a playground.

Historic city centre.

The historic centre was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1999 due to the harmonious co-existence of typical buildings from different epochs and in different architectural styles. Situated in a cultural borderland between Central Europe, Italy and the Balkan States, Graz absorbed various influences from the neighbouring regions and thus received its exceptional townscape. Today the historic centre consists of over 1,000 buildings, their age ranging from Gothic to contemporary.  The most important sights in the historic centre are:

Culture.

During 2003 Graz held the title of "European Capital of Culture" and was one of the UNESCO "Cities of Design" in 2011.

Museums.

The most important museums in Graz are:

Architecture.

The Old Town and the adjacent districts are characterized by the historic residential buildings and churches found there. In the outer districts buildings are predominantly of the architectural styles from the second half of the 20th century.  In 1965 the "Grazer Schule" (School of Graz) was founded. Several buildings around the universities are of this style, for example the green houses by Volker Giencke and the "RESOWI" center by Günther Domenig.  Before Graz became the European Capital of Culture in 2003, several new projects were realized, such as the "Stadthalle", the "Kindermuseum" (museum for children), the "Helmut-List-Halle", the "Kunsthaus" and the "Murinsel".  Buildings in Graz which are at least 50m tall:

Sports.

SK Sturm Graz is the main football club of the city, with three Austrian championships and five runner-up seasons. The Grazer AK also won an Austrian championship, but went into administration in 2007 and was excluded from the professional league system.  In ice hockey, the ATSE Graz was the Austrian Hockey League champion in 1975 and 1978. The EC Graz was runner-up in 1991–92, 1992–93 and 1993–94. The Graz 99ers plays in first division since 2000.  UBSC Raiffeisen Graz plays in the Austrian Basketball League.  The Graz Giants play in the Austrian Football League (American Football).  The city bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics in 1995, but lost the election to Salt Lake City. Nowadays there is a plan to bid for the 2026 Winter Olympics with some venues in Bavaria, Germany to cut costs with using existing venues around national borders. It's still facing referendum, meaning usually the end for many former olympic bids in Europe and North America since 1970 -century.

Styriarte.

Graz hosts the annual festival of classical music Styriarte, founded in 1985 to tie conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt closer to his hometown. Events have been held at different venues in Graz and in the surrounding region.

Transport.

An extensive public transport network makes Graz an easy city to navigate without a car. The city has a comprehensive bus network, complementing the Graz tram network consisting of eight lines. Four lines pass through the underground tram stop at the central railway station (Hauptbahnhof) and on to the city centre before branching out. Furthermore, there are seven night-time bus routes, although these run only at weekends and on evenings preceding public holidays.  The Schlossbergbahn, a funicular railway, and the Schlossberg lift, a vertical lift, link the city centre to the Schlossberg.  From the central railway station (Hauptbahnhof), regional trains link to most of Styria. Direct trains run to most major cities nearby including Vienna, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Maribor and Ljubljana in Slovenia, Zagreb in Croatia, Budapest in Hungary, Prague and Brno in the Czech Republic, Zürich in Switzerland, as well as Munich, Stuttgart, Heidelberg, and Frankfurt in Germany. Trains for Vienna leave every hour. In recent years many railway stations within the city limits and in the suburbs have been rebuilt or modernised and are now part of the "S-Bahn Graz", a commuter train service connecting the city with its suburban area and towns nearby.  Graz airport is located about south of the city centre and is accessible by bus, railway, and car. Direct destinations include Amsterdam, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart, Istanbul, Vienna and Zurich.

Health.

In Graz there are seven hospitals, several private hospitals and sanatoriums, as well as 44 pharmacies.  The "University Hospital Graz" (LKH-Universitäts-Klinikum Graz) is located in eastern Graz and has 1,556 beds and 7,190 employees. The "Regional Hospital Graz II" (LKH Graz II) has two sites in Graz. The western site (LKH Graz II Standort West) is located in Eggenberg and has 280 beds and about 500 employees, the southern site (LKH Graz II Standort Süd) specializes in neurology and psychiatry and is located in Straßgang with 880 beds and 1,100 employees. The "AUVA Accident Hospital" (Unfallkrankenhaus der AUVA) is in Eggenberg and has 180 beds and a total of 444 employees.  The Albert Schweitzer Clinic in the western part of the city is a geriatric hospital with 304 beds, the Hospital of St. John of God (Krankenhaus der Barmherzigen Brüder) has two sites in Graz, one in Lend with 225 beds and one in Eggenberg with 260 beds. The Hospital of the Order of Saint Elizabeth (Krankenhaus der Elisabethinen) in Gries has 182 beds.  There are several private clinics as well: the Privatklinik Kastanienhof, the Privatklinik Leech, the Privatklinik der Kreuzschwestern, the Sanatorium St. Leonhard, the Sanatorium Hansa and the Privatklinik Graz-Ragnitz.  EMS in Graz is provided solely by the Austrian Red Cross. Perpetually two emergency doctor's cars ("NEF – Notarzteinsatzfahrzeug"), two NAWs ("Notarztwagen" – ambulances staffed with a physician in addition to regular personnel) and about 30 RTWs ("Rettungswagen" – regular ambulances) are on standby. Furthermore, several non-emergency ambulances ("KTW – Krankentransportwagen") and a Mobile Intensive Care Unit (MICU) are operated by the Red Cross to transport non-emergency patients to and between hospitals. In addition to the Red Cross, the Labourers'-Samaritan-Alliance (Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund Österreichs), the Austrian organisation of the Order of Malta Ambulance Corps (Malteser Hospitaldienst Austria) and the Green Cross ("Grünes Kreuz") operate ambulances ("KTW") for non-emergency patient transport. In addition to the cars, there's also the C12 air ambulance helicopter stationed at Graz airport, staffed with an emergency physician in addition to regular personnel.

International relations.

Twin towns and sister cities.

Graz is twinned with:

Notable residents.

The following are past and present notable residents of Graz.

External links.

Official websites  History  Further information

Graz (, ; ) is the capital city of Styria and Austria's second-largest city after Vienna. As of 1 January 2019, Graz had a population of 328,276 (292,269 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2015, the population of the Graz larger urban zone (LUZ) stood at 633,168, based on principal-residence status. Graz has a long tradition as a seat of higher education. It has four colleges and four universities with more than 60,000 students. Its historic centre "(Altstadt") is one of the best-preserved city centres in Central Europe.

格拉茨(;;;)是奥地利第二大城市。位于阿尔卑斯山南麓。施蒂利亚州州府所在地,中欧重镇,拥有悠久的学术传统,城中六座大学合计超过六万名学生。


Examples.

For example, a single roll of a fair, six-sided die produces one of the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6, each with equal probability. Therefore, the expected value of the average of the rolls is: According to the law of large numbers, if a large number of six-sided dice are rolled, the average of their values (sometimes called the sample mean) is likely to be close to 3.5, with the precision increasing as more dice are rolled.  It follows from the law of large numbers that the empirical probability of success in a series of Bernoulli trials will converge to the theoretical probability. For a Bernoulli random variable, the expected value is the theoretical probability of success, and the average of "n" such variables (assuming they are independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.)) is precisely the relative frequency.  For example, a fair coin toss is a Bernoulli trial. When a fair coin is flipped once, the theoretical probability that the outcome will be heads is equal to. Therefore, according to the law of large numbers, the proportion of heads in a "large" number of coin flips "should be" roughly. In particular, the proportion of heads after "n" flips will almost surely converge to as "n" approaches infinity.  Although the proportion of heads (and tails) approaches 1/2, almost surely the absolute difference in the number of heads and tails will become large as the number of flips becomes large. That is, the probability that the absolute difference is a small number approaches zero as the number of flips becomes large. Also, almost surely the ratio of the absolute difference to the number of flips will approach zero. Intuitively, the expected number of heads grows, but at a slower rate than the number of flips, as the number of flips grows.  Another good example of the LLN is the Monte Carlo method. These methods are a broad class of computational algorithms that rely on repeated random sampling to obtain numerical results. The larger the number of repetitions, the better the approximation tends to be. The reason that this method is important is mainly that, sometimes, it is difficult or impossible to use other approaches.

Limitation.

The average of the results obtained from a large number of trials may fail to converge in some cases. For instance, the average of the results from the Cauchy distribution or some Pareto distributions (α<1) will not converge as x becomes larger; the reason is heavy tails. The Cauchy distribution and the Pareto distribution represent two cases: the Cauchy distribution does not have an expectation, whereas the expectation of the Pareto distribution (α<1) is infinite. Another example is where the random numbers equal the tangent of an angle uniformly distributed between −90° and +90°. The median is zero, but the expected value does not exist, and indeed the average of "n" such variables has the same distribution as one such variable. It does not converge in probability toward zero (or any other value) as "n" goes to infinity.

History.

The Italian mathematician Gerolamo Cardano (1501–1576) stated without proof that the accuracies of empirical statistics tend to improve with the number of trials. This was then formalized as a law of large numbers. A special form of the LLN (for a binary random variable) was first proved by Jacob Bernoulli. It took him over 20 years to develop a sufficiently rigorous mathematical proof which was published in his "Ars Conjectandi" (The Art of Conjecturing) in 1713. He named this his "Golden Theorem" but it became generally known as "Bernoulli's Theorem". This should not be confused with Bernoulli's principle, named after Jacob Bernoulli's nephew Daniel Bernoulli. In 1837, S.D. Poisson further described it under the name "" ("the law of large numbers"). Thereafter, it was known under both names, but the "law of large numbers" is most frequently used.  After Bernoulli and Poisson published their efforts, other mathematicians also contributed to refinement of the law, including Chebyshev, Markov, Borel, Cantelli and Kolmogorov and Khinchin. Markov showed that the law can apply to a random variable that does not have a finite variance under some other weaker assumption, and Khinchin showed in 1929 that if the series consists of independent identically distributed random variables, it suffices that the expected value exists for the weak law of large numbers to be true. These further studies have given rise to two prominent forms of the LLN. One is called the "weak" law and the other the "strong" law, in reference to two different modes of convergence of the cumulative sample means to the expected value; in particular, as explained below, the strong form implies the weak.

Forms.

There are two different versions of the law of large numbers that are described below. They are called the" strong law of large numbers" and the "weak law of large numbers". Stated for the case where "X", "X",... is an infinite sequence of i.i.d. Lebesgue integrable random variables with expected value E("X") = E("X") =...= "μ", both versions of the law state that – with virtual certainty – the sample average  converges to the expected value  Based on the assumption of finite variance formula_3 (for all formula_4) and no correlation between random variables, the variance of the average of n random variables  formula_5  Sometimes an assumption of finite variance formula_6 is not necessary. Large or infinite variance will make the convergence slower, but the LLN holds anyway. This assumption is often used because it makes the proofs easier and shorter.  Mutual independence of the random variables can be replaced by pairwise independence in both versions of the law.  The difference between the strong and the weak version is concerned with the mode of convergence being asserted. For interpretation of these modes, see Convergence of random variables.

Weak law.

The weak law of large numbers (also called Khinchin's law) states that the sample average converges in probability towards the expected value That is, for any positive number "ε",  Interpreting this result, the weak law states that for any nonzero margin specified, no matter how small, with a sufficiently large sample there will be a very high probability that the average of the observations will be close to the expected value; that is, within the margin.  As mentioned earlier, the weak law applies in the case of i.i.d. random variables, but it also applies in some other cases. For example, the variance may be different for each random variable in the series, keeping the expected value constant. If the variances are bounded, then the law applies, as shown by Chebyshev as early as 1867. (If the expected values change during the series, then we can simply apply the law to the average deviation from the respective expected values. The law then states that this converges in probability to zero.) In fact, Chebyshev's proof works so long as the variance of the average of the first "n" values goes to zero as "n" goes to infinity. As an example, assume that each random variable in the series follows a Gaussian distribution with mean zero, but with variance equal to formula_8, which is not bounded. At each stage, the average will be normally distributed (as the average of a set of normally distributed variables). The variance of the sum is equal to the sum of the variances, which is asymptotic to formula_9. The variance of the average is therefore asymptotic to formula_10 and goes to zero.  There are also examples of the weak law applying even though the expected value does not exist.

Strong law.

The strong law of large numbers states that the sample average converges almost surely to the expected value \ \mu \qquad\textrm{when}\ n \to \infty.  That is,  What this means is that the probability that, as the number of trials "n" goes to infinity, the average of the observations converges to the expected value, is equal to one.  The proof is more complex than that of the weak law. This law justifies the intuitive interpretation of the expected value (for Lebesgue integration only) of a random variable when sampled repeatedly as the "long-term average".  Almost sure convergence is also called strong convergence of random variables. This version is called the strong law because random variables which converge strongly (almost surely) are guaranteed to converge weakly (in probability). However the weak law is known to hold in certain conditions where the strong law does not hold and then the convergence is only weak (in probability). See #Differences between the weak law and the strong law.  The strong law of large numbers can itself be seen as a special case of the pointwise ergodic theorem.  The strong law applies to independent identically distributed random variables having an expected value (like the weak law). This was proved by Kolmogorov in 1930. It can also apply in other cases. Kolmogorov also showed, in 1933, that if the variables are independent and identically distributed, then for the average to converge almost surely on "something" (this can be considered another statement of the strong law), it is necessary that they have an expected value (and then of course the average will converge almost surely on that).  If the summands are independent but not identically distributed, then  provided that each "X" has a finite second moment and  This statement is known as "Kolmogorov's strong law", see e.g..  An example of a series where the weak law applies but not the strong law is when "X" is plus or minus formula_14 (starting at sufficiently large "k" so that the denominator is positive) with probability 1/2 for each. The variance of "X" is then formula_15 Kolmogorov's strong law does not apply because the partial sum in his criterion up to "k=n" is asymptotic to formula_16 and this is unbounded.  If we replace the random variables with Gaussian variables having the same variances, namely formula_17 then the average at any point will also be normally distributed. The width of the distribution of the average will tend toward zero (standard deviation asymptotic to formula_18), but for a given ε, there is probability which does not go to zero with "n," while the average sometime after the "n"th trial will come back up to ε. Since the width of the distribution of the average is not zero, it must have a positive lower bound "p"(ε), which means there is a probability of at least "p"(ε) that the average will attain ε after "n" trials. It will happen with probability "p"(ε)/2 before some "m" which depends on "n". But even after "m", there is still a probability of at least "p"(ε) that it will happen. (This seems to indicate that "p"(ε)=1 and the average will attain ε an infinite number of times.)

The "weak law" states that for a specified large "n", the average formula_19 is likely to be near "μ". Thus, it leaves open the possibility that formula_20 happens an infinite number of times, although at infrequent intervals. (Not necessarily formula_21 for all n).  The "strong law" shows that this almost surely will not occur. In particular, it implies that with probability 1, we have that for any the inequality formula_22 holds for all large enough "n".  The strong law does not hold in the following cases, but the weak law does.  1. Let X be an exponentially distributed random variable with parameter 1. The random variable formula_23 has no expected value according to Lebesgue integration, but using conditional convergence and interpreting the integral as a Dirichlet integral, which is an improper Riemann integral, we can say:  2. Let x be geometric distribution with probability 0.5. The random variable formula_25 does not have an expected value in the conventional sense because the infinite series is not absolutely convergent, but using conditional convergence, we can say:  3. If the cumulative distribution function of a random variable is

Uniform law of large numbers.

Suppose "f"("x","θ") is some function defined for "θ" ∈ Θ, and continuous in "θ". Then for any fixed "θ", the sequence {"f"("X","θ"), "f"("X","θ"),...} will be a sequence of independent and identically distributed random variables, such that the sample mean of this sequence converges in probability to E["f"("X","θ")]. This is the "pointwise" (in "θ") convergence.  The uniform law of large numbers states the conditions under which the convergence happens "uniformly" in "θ". If  Then E["f"("X","θ")] is continuous in "θ", and  This result is useful to derive consistency of a large class of estimators (see Extremum estimator).

Borel's law of large numbers.

Borel's law of large numbers, named after Émile Borel, states that if an experiment is repeated a large number of times, independently under identical conditions, then the proportion of times that any specified event occurs approximately equals the probability of the event's occurrence on any particular trial; the larger the number of repetitions, the better the approximation tends to be. More precisely, if "E" denotes the event in question, "p" its probability of occurrence, and "N"("E") the number of times "E" occurs in the first "n" trials, then with probability one,  This theorem makes rigorous the intuitive notion of probability as the long-run relative frequency of an event's occurrence. It is a special case of any of several more general laws of large numbers in probability theory.  Chebyshev's inequality. Let "X" be a random variable with finite expected value "μ" and finite non-zero variance "σ". Then for any real number,

Proof of the weak law.

Given "X", "X",... an infinite sequence of i.i.d. random variables with finite expected value "E"("X") = "E"("X") =... = μ < ∞, we are interested in the convergence of the sample average  The weak law of large numbers states:

Proof using Chebyshev's inequality assuming finite variance.

This proof uses the assumption of finite variance formula_3 (for all formula_4). The independence of the random variables implies no correlation between them, and we have that  The common mean μ of the sequence is the mean of the sample average:  Using Chebyshev's inequality on formula_38 results in  This may be used to obtain the following:  As "n" approaches infinity, the expression approaches 1. And by definition of convergence in probability, we have obtained

Proof using convergence of characteristic functions.

By Taylor's theorem for complex functions, the characteristic function of any random variable, "X", with finite mean μ, can be written as  All "X", "X",... have the same characteristic function, so we will simply denote this "φ".  Among the basic properties of characteristic functions there are  These rules can be used to calculate the characteristic function of formula_43 in terms of "φ":  The limit "e" is the characteristic function of the constant random variable μ, and hence by the Lévy continuity theorem, formula_45 converges in distribution to μ:  μ is a constant, which implies that convergence in distribution to μ and convergence in probability to μ are equivalent (see Convergence of random variables.) Therefore,  This shows that the sample mean converges in probability to the derivative of the characteristic function at the origin, as long as the latter exists.

Consequences.

The law of large numbers provides an expectation of an unknown distribution from a realization of the sequence, but also any feature of the probability distribution. By applying Borel's law of large numbers, one could easily obtain the probability mass function. For each event in the objective probability mass function, one could approximate the probability of the event's occurrence with the proportion of times that any specified event occurs. The larger the number of repetitions, the better the approximation. As for the continuous case: formula_47, for small positive h. Thus, for large n:  formula_48  With this method, one can cover the whole x-axis with a grid (with grid size 2h) and obtain a bar graph which is called a histogram.

In probability theory, the law of large numbers (LLN) is a theorem that describes the result of performing the same experiment a large number of times. According to the law, the average of the results obtained from a large number of trials should be close to the expected value and will tend to become closer to the expected value as more trials are performed.

在数学与统计学中,大数定律又称-{zh-hans:大数法则; zh-hant:大数定律;}-、大数律,是描述相当多次数重复实验的结果的定律。根据这个定律知道,样本数量越多,则其算术平均值就有越高的几率接近期望值。


Function.

Glucagon generally elevates the concentration of glucose in the blood by promoting gluconeogenesis and glycogenolysis. Glucagon also decreases fatty acid synthesis in adipose tissue and the liver, as well as promoting lipolysis in these tissues, which causes them to release fatty acids into circulation where they can be catabolised to generate energy in tissues such as skeletal muscle when required.  Glucose is stored in the liver in the form of the polysaccharide glycogen, which is a glucan (a polymer made up of glucose molecules). Liver cells (hepatocytes) have glucagon receptors. When glucagon binds to the glucagon receptors, the liver cells convert the glycogen into individual glucose molecules and release them into the bloodstream, in a process known as glycogenolysis. As these stores become depleted, glucagon then encourages the liver and kidney to synthesize additional glucose by gluconeogenesis. Glucagon turns off glycolysis in the liver, causing glycolytic intermediates to be shuttled to gluconeogenesis.  Glucagon also regulates the rate of glucose production through lipolysis. Glucagon induces lipolysis in humans under conditions of insulin suppression (such as diabetes mellitus type 1).  Glucagon production appears to be dependent on the central nervous system through pathways yet to be defined. In invertebrate animals, eyestalk removal has been reported to affect glucagon production. Excising the eyestalk in young crayfish produces glucagon-induced hyperglycemia.

Mechanism of action.

Glucagon binds to the glucagon receptor, a G protein-coupled receptor, located in the plasma membrane. The conformation change in the receptor activates G proteins, a heterotrimeric protein with α, β, and γ subunits. When the G protein interacts with the receptor, it undergoes a conformational change that results in the replacement of the GDP molecule that was bound to the α subunit with a GTP molecule. This substitution results in the releasing of the α subunit from the β and γ subunits. The alpha subunit specifically activates the next enzyme in the cascade, adenylate cyclase.  Adenylate cyclase manufactures cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cyclic AMP or cAMP), which activates protein kinase A (cAMP-dependent protein kinase). This enzyme, in turn, activates phosphorylase kinase, which then phosphorylates glycogen phosphorylase b (PYG b), converting it into the active form called phosphorylase a (PYG a). Phosphorylase a is the enzyme responsible for the release of glucose 1-phosphate from glycogen polymers. An example of the pathway would be when glucagon binds to a transmembrane protein. The transmembrane proteins interacts with Gɑβγ. Gɑ separates from Gβγ and interacts with the transmembrane protein adenylyl cyclase. Adenylyl cyclase catalyzes the conversion of ATP to cAMP. cAMP binds to protein kinase A, and the complex phosphorylates phosphorylase kinase. Phosphorylated phosphorylase kinase phosphorylates phosphorylase. Phosphorylated phosphorylase clips glucose units from glycogen as glucose 1-phosphate. Additionally, the coordinated control of glycolysis and gluconeogenesis in the liver is adjusted by the phosphorylation state of the enzymes that catalyze the formation of a potent activator of glycolysis called fructose 2,6-bisphosphate. The enzyme protein kinase A (PKA) that was stimulated by the cascade initiated by glucagon will also phosphorylate a single serine residue of the bifunctional polypeptide chain containing both the enzymes fructose 2,6-bisphosphatase and phosphofructokinase-2. This covalent phosphorylation initiated by glucagon activates the former and inhibits the latter. This regulates the reaction catalyzing fructose 2,6-bisphosphate (a potent activator of phosphofructokinase-1, the enzyme that is the primary regulatory step of glycolysis) by slowing the rate of its formation, thereby inhibiting the flux of the glycolysis pathway and allowing gluconeogenesis to predominate. This process is reversible in the absence of glucagon (and thus, the presence of insulin).  Glucagon stimulation of PKA also inactivates the glycolytic enzyme pyruvate kinase in hepatocytes.

Physiology.

Production.

The hormone is synthesized and secreted from alpha cells (α-cells) of the islets of Langerhans, which are located in the endocrine portion of the pancreas. Production, which is otherwise freerunning, is suppressed/regulated by amylin, a peptide hormone co-secreted with insulin from the pancreatic β cells. As plasma glucose levels recede, the subsequent reduction in amylin secretion alleviates its suppression of the α cells, allowing for glucagon secretion.  In rodents, the alpha cells are located in the outer rim of the islet. Human islet structure is much less segregated, and alpha cells are distributed throughout the islet in close proximity to beta cells. Glucagon is also produced by alpha cells in the stomach.  Recent research has demonstrated that glucagon production may also take place outside the pancreas, with the gut being the most likely site of extrapancreatic glucagon synthesis.

Regulation.

Secretion of glucagon is stimulated by:  Secretion of glucagon is inhibited by:

Structure.

Glucagon is a 29-amino acid polypeptide. Its primary structure in humans is: NH-His-Ser-Gln-Gly-Thr-Phe-Thr-Ser-Asp-Tyr-Ser-Lys-Tyr-Leu-Asp-Ser-Arg-Arg-Ala-Gln-Asp-Phe-Val-Gln-Trp-Leu-Met-Asn-Thr-COOH.  The polypeptide has a molecular mass of 3485 daltons. Glucagon is a peptide (nonsteroid) hormone.  Glucagon is generated from the cleavage of proglucagon by proprotein convertase 2 in pancreatic islet α cells. In intestinal L cells, proglucagon is cleaved to the alternate products glicentin, GLP-1 (an incretin), IP-2, and GLP-2 (promotes intestinal growth).

Pathology.

Abnormally elevated levels of glucagon may be caused by pancreatic tumors, such as glucagonoma, symptoms of which include necrolytic migratory erythema, reduced amino acids, and hyperglycemia. It may occur alone or in the context of multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1  Elevated glucagon is the main contributor to hyperglycemic ketoacidosis in undiagnosed or poorly treated type 1 diabetes. As the beta cells cease to function, insulin and pancreatic GABA are no longer present to suppress the freerunning output of glucagon. As a result, glucagon is released from the alpha cells at a maximum, causing rapid breakdown of glycogen to glucose and fast ketogenesis. It was found that a subset of adults with type 1 diabetes took 4 times longer on average to approach ketoacidosis when given somatostatin (inhibits glucagon production) with no insulin. Inhibiting glucagon has been a popular idea of diabetes treatment, however some have warned that doing so will give rise to brittle diabetes in patients with adequately stable blood glucose.  The absence of alpha cells (and hence glucagon) is thought to be one of the main influences in the extreme volatility of blood glucose in the setting of a total pancreatectomy.

History.

In the 1920s, Kimball and Murlin studied pancreatic extracts, and found an additional substance with hyperglycemic properties. They described glucagon in 1923. The amino acid sequence of glucagon was described in the late 1950s. A more complete understanding of its role in physiology and disease was not established until the 1970s, when a specific radioimmunoassay was developed.

Etymology.

Kimball and Murlin coined the term glucagon in 1923 when they initially named the substance the "gluc"ose "agon"ist.

Glucagon is a peptide hormone, produced by alpha cells of the pancreas. It works to raise the concentration of glucose and fatty acids in the bloodstream, and is considered to be the main catabolic hormone of the body. It is also used as a medication to treat a number of health conditions. Its effect is opposite to that of insulin, which lowers extracellular glucose. It is produced from proglucagon, encoded by the "GCG" gene.

-{zh-cn:胰高血糖素; zh-hk:胰高血糖素; zh-tw:升糖素}-()又称-{zh-cn:升糖素; zh-hk:升糖素; zh-tw:胰高血糖素}-,是一种由胰脏胰岛α-细胞分泌的激素,由29个氨基酸组成直链多肽,分子量为3485道尔顿。


Life.

Youth and education.

Helmut Kohl was born on 3 April 1930 in Ludwigshafen am Rhein (then in Bavaria, now in Rhineland-Palatinate). He was the third child of Hans Kohl (6 January 1887 – 20 October 1975), a Bavarian army veteran and civil servant, and his wife, Cäcilie (née Schnur; 17 November 1891 – 2 August 1979).  Kohl's family was conservative and Roman Catholic, and remained loyal to the Catholic Centre Party before and after 1933. His elder brother died in World War II as a teenage soldier. At the age of ten, Kohl was obliged, like most children in Germany at the

Life before politics.

After graduating in 1956, Kohl became a fellow at the Alfred Weber Institute of Heidelberg University under Dolf Sternberger where he was an active member of the student society AIESEC. In 1958, Kohl received his doctorate degree in history for his dissertation "Die politische

Early political career.

In 1946, Kohl joined the recently founded CDU, becoming a full member once he turned 18 in 1948. In 1947, Kohl was one of the co-founders of the Junge Union-branch in Ludwigshafen, the CDU youth organisation. In 1953, Kohl joined the board of the Palatinate branch of the CDU. In 1954, Kohl became vice-chair of the Junge Union in Rhineland-Palatinate, being a member of the board until 1961.  In January 1955, Kohl ran for a seat on the board of the Rhineland-Palatinate CDU, losing just narrowly to the state's Minister of Family Affairs, Franz-Josef Wuermeling. Kohl was still able to take up a seat on the board, being sent there by his local party branch as a delegate. During his early years in the party,

Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate.

Kohl was elected minister-president of Rhineland-Palatinate on 19 May 1969, as the successor to Peter Altmeier. As of 2017, he was the youngest person ever to be elected as head of government in a German "Bundesland". Just a few days after his election as minister-president, Kohl also became vice-chair of the federal CDU party. While in office, Kohl acted as a reformer, focusing on school and education. His

Federal party level, election as chairman of the CDU.

Kohl moved up into the federal board ("Vorstand") of the CDU in 1964. Two years later, shortly before his election as chairman of the party in Rhineland-Palatinate, he failed at an attempt to be voted into the executive committee ("Präsidium") of the party. After the CDU lost its involvement in the federal government for the first time since the end of World War II in the 1969 election, Kohl was elected into the committee. While former chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger

First candidacy for the chancellorship and the 1976 Bundestag election.

On 9 March 1975, Kohl and the CDU faced re-election in Rhineland-Palatinate. What placed Kohl, who intended to run for chancellor, under increased pressure was the fact that the sister parties of CDU and CSU were set to decide upon their leading candidate for the upcoming federal elections in mid-1975. CSU chairman Franz Josef Strauß had ambitions to run and publicly put Kohl under pressure over what a result would be acceptable in the state elections. On election day, the CDU achieved a result of 53.9 per cent, the highest ever result in the state, consolidating Kohl's position. Strauß' bid for the chancellorship was further put into jeopardy when in March 1975 the magazine "Der Spiegel" published a transcript of a speech held in November 1974, in which Strauß claimed that the Red Army Faction, a West German armed struggle group responsible for multiple attacks at the time, had sympathizers in the ranks of the SPD and FDP. The scandal deeply unsettled the public and effectively ruled out Strauß for the candidacy.

Leader of the opposition.

In the 1980 federal elections, Kohl had to play second fiddle, when CSU-leader Franz Josef Strauß became the CDU/CSU's candidate for chancellor. Strauß was also unable to defeat the coalition of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the Free Democratic Party (FDP). Unlike Kohl, Strauß did

Chancellor of West Germany.

Rise to power.

On 1 October 1982, the CDU proposed a constructive vote of no confidence which was supported by the FDP. The motion carried. Three days later, the Bundestag voted in a new CDU/CSU-FDP coalition cabinet, with Kohl as chancellor. Many of the important details of the new coalition had been hammered out on 20 September, though minor details were reportedly still being hammered out as the vote took place. Though Kohl's election was done according to the Basic Law, it came amid some controversy. The FDP had fought its 1980 campaign on the side of the SPD and even placed Chancellor Schmidt on some of their campaign

Second cabinet.

In the federal elections of March 1983, Kohl won a resounding victory. The CDU/CSU won 48.8%, while the FDP won 7.0%. Some opposition members of the Bundestag asked the Federal Constitutional Court to declare the whole proceeding unconstitutional. It denied their claim, but did set restrictions on a similar move in the future. The second Kohl cabinet pushed through several controversial plans, including the stationing of NATO midrange missiles, against major opposition from the peace movement. On 22 September 1984, Kohl met the French president François Mitterrand at Verdun, where the Battle of Verdun between France and Germany had taken place during World War I. Together, they commemorated the

Domestic policies.

Kohl's chancellorship presided over a number of innovative policy measures. Extensions in unemployment benefit for older claimants were introduced, while the benefit for the young unemployed was extended to age 21. In 1986, a child-rearing allowance was introduced to benefit parents when at least one was employed. Informal carers were offered an attendance allowance together with tax incentives, both of which were established with the tax reforms of 1990, and were also guaranteed up to 25 hours a month of professional support, which was supplemented by four weeks of annual holiday relief. In 1984, an early retirement scheme was introduced that offered incentives to employers to replace elderly workers with applicants off the unemployment register. In 1989 a partial retirement plan was

Third cabinet.

After the 1987 federal elections Kohl won a slightly reduced majority and formed his third cabinet. The SPD's candidate for chancellor was the Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia, Johannes Rau.  In 1987, Kohl hosted East German

Internal struggle for CDU leadership.

The CDU's general secretary, Heiner Geißler, considered the party to be in a downward spiral following the relatively poor showing in the 1987 elections. Behind the scenes, he attempted to find a majority to unseat Kohl as the party's chairman and replace him with Lothar Späth, the Minister-president of Baden-Württemberg. Before the CDU party convention in Bremen started on 11 September 1989, Kohl was diagnosed with an inflammation

Road to reunification.

Following the breach of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the East German Communist regime in 1989, Kohl's handling of the East German issue would become the turning point of his chancellorship. Kohl, like most West Germans, was initially caught unawares when the Socialist Unity Party was toppled in late 1989. Well aware of his constitutional mandate to seek German unity, he immediately moved to make it a reality. Taking advantage of the historic political changes occurring in East Germany, Kohl presented a ten-point plan for "Overcoming of the

Chancellor of reunified Germany.

Reunification placed Kohl in a momentarily unassailable position. In the 1990 elections – the first free, fair and democratic all-German elections since the Weimar Republic era – Kohl won by a landslide over opposition candidate and Minister-President of Saarland, Oskar Lafontaine. He then formed his fourth cabinet.  After the federal elections of 1994 Kohl was reelected with a somewhat reduced majority, defeating Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate Rudolf Scharping. The SPD was able to win a majority in the

Retirement.

A red-green coalition government led by Schröder replaced Kohl's government on 27 October 1998. He immediately resigned as CDU leader and largely retired from politics. He remained a member of the Bundestag until he decided not to run for reelection in the 2002 election.

CDU finance affair.

Kohl's life after political office in the beginning was dominated by the CDU donations scandal. The party financing scandal became public in 1999, when it was discovered that the CDU had received and kept illegal donations during Kohl's leadership.<ref name="Spiegel(08/07/2009)">Gerd Langguth, "The scandal that helped Merkel become chancellor", "Der Spiegel", 8 July 2009</ref> "Der Spiegel" reported, "It was never suggested that Kohl benefited personally from political donations –

Life after politics.

In 2002, Kohl left the Bundestag and officially retired from politics. Later, he was largely rehabilitated by his party. After taking office, Angela Merkel invited her former patron to the Chancellor's Office and Ronald Pofalla, the Secretary-General of the CDU, announced that the CDU would cooperate more closely with Kohl, "to take advantage of the experience of this great statesman". On 4 March 2004, he published the first of his memoirs, called "Memories 1930–1982", covering the period from 1930 to 1982, when he became chancellor. The second part, published on 3 November 2005, included the

Political views.

Kohl was committed to European integration, maintaining close relations with the French President François Mitterrand. Parallel to this, he was committed to German reunification. Although he continued the Ostpolitik of his social-democratic predecessors, Kohl

Personality and media portrayals.

Kohl faced stiff opposition from the West German political left and was mocked for his physical stature, alleged provinciality, simplistic language, and local dialect. Similar to historical French cartoons of Louis-Philippe of France, Hans Traxler depicted Kohl as a pear in the left-leaning satirical journal "Titanic". The German word "Birne" ("pear") became a widespread nickname for and symbol of the chancellor.  Comedians like Thomas Freitag and Stefan Wald imitated the chancellor, and books were sold with jokes rewritten with Kohl as the stupid protagonist. When Kohl died, left wing newspaper TAZ presented a title page showing a flower set typical for funerals, with a pear and the caption "flourishing landscapes", Kohl's euphemism for East Germany after reunification. Following protests the editor-in-chief apologized.  The minister-president of Rhineland-Palatinate (1969–1976) was a young reformer in a somewhat backward state, and a newcomer who heavily criticized the older party leaders. The national media, for as much as they took notice of him, regarded him with curiosity. But this changed when Kohl became chair of the federal party in 1973, and even more dramatically when in late 1975 his party made him candidate for the chancellery. His opponents within the federal party, but also journalists and other observers, had their doubts whether the parochial but successful modernizer of a manageable smaller state was the right person to lead the Federal Republic, a huge and complicated industrial country.

Personal life.

Family of Helmut Kohl.

On 27 June 1960, Kohl married Hannelore Renner, after he had already asked for her hand in marriage in 1953, delaying the ceremony until he was financially stable. Both had known each other since 1948, when they met in a dancing class. They had two sons, Walter Kohl (born 1963) and Peter Kohl (born 1965). Hannelore Kohl had studied languages and spoke fluent French and English; during her husband's political career, she was an important adviser to him, especially on world affairs. She was a steadfast advocate of German reunification even before it

Controversial second marriage (2008–2017).

While in hospital in 2008 after suffering serious head trauma, Kohl, then aged 78, married Maike Richter, a former Chancellery employee who was 44 years old; they had no children. For the entire duration of this marriage, Kohl had a brain injury, was barely able to speak, and was wheelchair-bound. According to Helmut Kohl's son Peter Kohl, Helmut Kohl did not intend to marry Richter and had stated this clearly; "then came the accident and a loss of control," Peter Kohl said, suggesting that Richter had pressured his then seriously ill father into marrying her. Richter has been severely criticized in Germany, by Kohl's children, former friends and by German media. Following his new marriage, Kohl became estranged from his two sons and his grandchildren, and his sons said their father was kept "like a prisoner" by his new wife. His children and grandchildren were also prevented from seeing him by his

Honors and awards.

Helmut Kohl received numerous awards and accolades, as well as honorary titles such as doctorates and citizenships. Among others, he was joint recipient of the Charlemagne Prize with French President François Mitterrand for their contribution to Franco-German friendship and European Union. In 1996, Kohl received the Prince of Asturias Award in International Cooperation from

Death, European act of state and funeral.

Kohl died at 9:15 a.m. on Friday, 16 June 2017 in the Oggersheim district of Ludwigshafen, his hometown, aged 87 of natural causes.  Kohl was honored with an unprecedented European act of state on 1 July in Strasbourg, France. A Catholic requiem mass was subsequently celebrated in Speyer Cathedral. Kohl was interred in the Cathedral Chapter Cemetery (""Domkapitelfriedhof"") in Speyer, directly adjacent to the Konrad Adenauer Park and a few hundred metres to the northwest of the Cathedral. It was reported that Kohl had himself chosen the burial location in the late summer of 2015 when his health began to deteriorate. No member of the Kohl family—Kohl's children and grandchildren—participated in any of the ceremonies, owing to a feud with Kohl's controversial second wife Maike Kohl-Richter, who had among other things barred them from paying their respects to him at his house, ignored their wish for a ceremony in Berlin and their wish that Kohl should be interred alongside his parents and his wife of four decades Hannelore Kohl in the family tomb.

Tributes.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking from the German Embassy in Rome, said that "this man who was great in every sense of the word—his achievement, his role as a statesman in Germany at its historical moment—it's going to take a while until we can truly assess what we have lost in his passing." She lauded Kohl's "supreme art of statesmanship in the service of people and peace" and noted that Kohl had also changed her own life decisively.  Pope Francis lauded Kohl as "a great statesman and committed European [who] worked with farsightedness and devotion for the good of the people in Germany and in neighbouring European countries."  The 14th Dalai Lama praised Kohl as "a visionary leader and statesman" and said he had "great admiration for Chancellor Kohl's steady leadership when the Cold War came to a peaceful end and the re-unification of Germany became possible."  Flags were flown at half-staff at the European Commission headquarters in Brussels. Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker lauded Kohl as "a great European." He called Kohl "my mentor, my friend, the very essence of Europe." The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, called Kohl "a friend and a statesman, who helped to reunify Europe."  Former U.S. President George H. W. Bush lauded Kohl as "a true friend of freedom" and "one of the greatest leaders in post-War Europe." Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said he was "deeply saddened" by the death of "my dear friend" whose "visionary leadership prepared Germany and all of Europe for the 21st century." U.S. President Donald Trump said Kohl was "a friend and ally to the United States" and that "he was not only the father of German reunification, but also an advocate for Europe and the transatlantic relationship. The world has benefited from his vision and efforts. His legacy will live on." Former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker said Kohl's death means "Germany has lost one of its greatest leaders, the United States has lost one of its best friends and the world has lost a ringing voice for freedom," and that Kohl "more than anyone at the end

Helmut Josef Michael Kohl (; 3 April 1930 – 16 June 2017) was a German statesman who served as Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 (of West Germany 1982–1990 and of reunified Germany 1990–1998) and as the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to 1998. From 1969 to 1976, Kohl was minister president of the state Rhineland-Palatinate. Kohl chaired the Group of Seven in 1985 and 1992. In 1998 he became honorary chairman of the CDU, resigning from the position in 2000.