Books.

"The Man of Property" (1906).

In this first novel of the "Forsyte Saga", after introducing us to the impressive array of Forsytes headed by the formidable Aunt Ann, Galsworthy moves into the main action of the saga by detailing Soames Forsyte's desire to own things, including his beautiful wife, Irene Forsyte (née Heron). He is jealous of her friendships and wants her to be his alone. He concocts a plan to move her to the country, to Robin Hill and a house he is having built, away from everyone she knows and cares. She resists his grasping intentions, and falls in love with the architect Philip Bosinney who has been engaged by Soames to build the house. Bosinney returns her love although Bosinney is the fiancé of her young friend June Forsyte, the daughter of Soames's estranged cousin 'Young' Jolyon. There is no happy ending: Irene leaves Soames after he asserts what he perceives to be his ultimate right on his property, he rapes Irene, and Bosinney dies under the wheels of an omnibus after being driven frantic by the news of Irene's rape by Soames.

"Indian Summer of a Forsyte" (1918).

In a short interlude after "The Man of Property", Galsworthy delves into the newfound friendship between Irene and Old Jolyon Forsyte (June's grandfather, and by now the owner of the house Soames had built). This attachment gives Old Jolyon pleasure, but exhausts his strength. He leaves Irene money in his will with Young Jolyon, his son, as trustee. In the end, Old Jolyon dies under an ancient oak tree in the garden of the Robin Hill house.

"In Chancery" (1920).

The marital discord of both Soames and his sister Winifred is the subject of the second novel (the title references the Court of Chancery, which deals with domestic issues). They take steps to divorce their spouses, Irene and Montague Dartie respectively. However, while Soames tells his sister to brave the consequences of going to court, he is unwilling to go through a divorce. Instead, he stalks and hounds Irene, follows her abroad, and asks her to have his child, which was his father's wish.  Irene inherits £15,000 after Old Jolyon's death. His son, Young Jolyon Forsyte, also Soames's cousin, manages Irene's finances. When she first leaves Soames, Young Jolyon offers his support. By the time his son Jolly dies in the South African War, Irene has developed a strong friendship with Jolyon. Then Soames confronts young Jolyon and Irene at Robin Hill, falsely accusing them of having an affair. Young Jolyon and Irene assert that they have had an affair because Soames has it in his mind already. This statement gives Soames the evidence he needs for divorce proceedings. That confrontation sparks an eventual consummation between young Jolyon and Irene, leading to their marriage once the divorce is final and the birth of a son Jolyon 'Jon' Forsyte. Soames marries Annette, the young daughter of a French Soho restaurant owner. With his new wife, he has his only child, a daughter named Fleur Forsyte.

"Awakening" (1920).

The subject of the second interlude is the naive and exuberant lifestyle of eight-year-old Jon Forsyte. He loves and is loved by his parents. He has an idyllic youth, and his every desire indulged.

"To Let" (1921).

This novel concludes the Forsyte Saga. Second cousins Fleur and Jon Forsyte meet and fall in love, ignorant of their parents' past troubles, indiscretions and misdeeds. Once Soames, Jolyon, and Irene discover their romance, they forbid their children to see each other again. Irene and Jolyon also fear that Fleur is too much like her father, and once she has Jon in her grasp, will want to possess him entirely. Despite her feelings for Jon, Fleur has a very suitable suitor, Michael Mont, heir to a baronetcy, who has fallen in love with her. If they marry, Fleur would elevate the status of her family from nouveau riche to the aristocratic upper class. The title derives from Soames' reflections as he breaks up the house in which his Uncle Timothy, recently deceased in 1920 at age 101 and the last of the older generation of Forsytes, had lived a recluse, hoarding his life like property.  Knowing he is soon to die from a weak heart, Jolyon writes a letter to Jon, detailing the events of Irene's marriage to Soames, including her love affair with Philip Bosinney and Soames's rape of her and warns him that Irene would be alone if he were to marry Fleur. But while Jon reads the letter, Jolyon suddenly dies of a heart attack, and Jon is left torn between the past and his present love for Fleur. He ultimately rejects Fleur, breaking his own heart as well as hers and leaves for Canada. Fleur marries Michael Mont, though she knows she doesn't love him. With her marriage, Soames is separated from the only person whom he has truly loved. Irene also leaves for Canada, selling the house at Robin Hill. Soames and Irene briefly exchange glances at a distance and a kind of peace is made between them, but Soames is left contemplating all that he never really had but tried to possess.

Adaptations.

Twentieth century.

Silent films.

In the silent film era, the book was filmed in 1920 and 1922.

1949 movie.

A 1949 adaptation, called "That Forsyte Woman" in its United States release, starred Errol Flynn as Soames, Greer Garson as Irene, Walter Pidgeon as Young Jolyon, and Robert Young as Philip Bosinney.

1967 serial.

A television adaptation by the BBC of "The Forsyte Saga", and its sequel trilogy "A Modern Comedy", starred Eric Porter as Soames, Joseph O'Conor as Old Jolyon, Susan Hampshire as Fleur, Kenneth More as Young Jolyon and Nyree Dawn Porter as Irene. It was adapted for television and produced by Donald Wilson and was shown in 26 episodes on Saturday evenings between 7 January and 1 July 1967 on BBC2. It was the repeat on Sunday evenings on BBC1 starting on 8 September 1968 that secured the programme's success, with 18 million tuning in for the final episode in 1969. It was shown in the United States on public television and broadcast all over the world, and became the first British television programme to be sold to the Soviet Union.

Radio adaptations.

There have been various BBC radio dramatisations. The first was probably a radio production of "The Man of Property" in 11 weekly parts commencing 9 December 1945 on the BBC Home Service. The music used as the opening and closing theme came from Edward Elgar's "Enigma Variations", specifically the "Nimrod" variation. This adaptation starred Leo Genn as Jo, Grizelda Hervey as Irene and Ronald Simpson as Soames. It was adapted by Muriel Levy and produced by Val Gielgud and Felix Felton. Young Jolyons in later adaptations included Andrew Cruickshank, Leo Genn and Guy Rolfe. Another production of the dramatised cycle came soon after the 1967 TV series, which had Rachel Gurney as Irene, Noel Johnson as Young Jolyon and Alan Wheatley as Soames. The version broadcast in 1990 comprised a 75-minute opening episode followed by 22 hour-long episodes, entitled "The Forsyte Chronicles". It was the most expensive radio drama serial ever broadcast, due to its length and its big-name cast, which included Dirk Bogarde, Diana Quick, Michael Williams and Alan Howard. This radio series was rerun on BBC 7 radio in 2004, and has been released commercially.  In January 2016, BBC Radio 4 began broadcasting a new radio adaptation by Shaun McKenna and Lin Coghlan under the title "The Forsytes", scheduled to continue until late 2017. The cast was led by Joseph Millson as Soames, Jessica Raine as Fleur, Juliet Aubrey as Irene, Harry Haddon Paton as Bosinney and Ewan Bailey as Young Jolyon. It was directed by Marion Nancarrow and Gemma Jenkins.

Twenty-first century.

"The Forsyte Saga" (2002).

In 2002, the first two books and the first interlude were adapted by Granada Television for the ITV network, although, like the 1967 production, the miniseries took many liberties with Galsworthy's original work. Additional funding for this production was provided by American PBS station WGBH, the BBC version having been a success on PBS in the early 1970s.

"The Forsyte Saga: To Let" (2003 serial).

Immediately following the success of the 2002 adaptation, a second series was released in 2003. It portrays the saga's last book "To Let". Much of the cast resumed their roles, but most of the first generation of Forsytes had died in the previous series. The principal characters played by Damian Lewis, Gina McKee, Rupert Graves, and Amanda Root return. It has also been released on DVD.

Themes.

Duty versus Desire: Young Jolyon was the favourite of the family until he left his wife for his daughter's governess. He eschews his status in society and in the Forsyte clan to follow his heart. Soames, though it seems he is the polar opposite of Jolyon, has those same inclinations toward doing what he desires. For example, instead of finding a wife who is rich, he marries Irene and then Annette, who have neither money nor status. When he takes Irene to a play about a married woman and her lover, he ironically sympathizes with the lover and not the husband. However, most of his decisions are on the side of duty.  Generations and Change: The many generations of the Forsyte clan remind everyone of what has come to pass over the years. However, as the old ranks begin to die, people are able to change. For example, after a few generations, the fact that they are nouveau riche does not matter as much. This is also the case with Soames and Irene's marital problems. Once they grow old and their children can overcome their parents' past, Soames can finally let go of the past. Another change with generations is the diminished number of Forsyte offspring. Many of the second generation have fewer children.

Sequels.

Galsworthy's own sequel to "The Forsyte Saga" came in "A Modern Comedy", written in the years 1924 to 1928. This comprises the novel "The White Monkey"; an interlude, "A Silent Wooing"; a second novel, "The Silver Spoon"; a second interlude, "Passers By"; and a third novel, "Swan Song". The principal characters are Soames and Fleur, and the second saga ends with the death of Soames in 1926. This is also the point reached at the end of the 1967 television series, but Galsworthy wrote one further trilogy, "End of the Chapter", comprising "Maid in Waiting", "Flowering Wilderness", and "Over the River" (also known as "One More River"), chiefly dealing with Michael Mont's young cousin, Dinny Cherrell. The three trilogies are published under the collective title of "The Forsyte Chronicles".  In 1930, Galsworthy published "On Forsyte 'Change" which deals in the main with the older Forsytes before the events chronicled in "The Man of Property". Galsworthy states in a foreword that "They have all been written since "Swan Song" was finished but in place they come between the Saga and the Comedy..." By way of explanation he writes that "It is hard to part suddenly and finally from those with whom one has lived so long; and these footnotes do really, I think, help to fill in and round out the chronicles of the Forsyte family."  In 1994, Suleika Dawson published a sequel to "The Forsytes" titled "" in which Soames's daughter, Fleur, Lady Mont, is the main character. She has been a dutiful wife and mother, and has long forgotten her love for Jon Forsyte, but when tragedy brings Jon back to England, Fleur is determined to recapture the past and the love of her life.

Awards.

"The Forsyte Saga" earned John Galsworthy the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1932.

The Forsyte Saga, first published under that title in 1922, is a series of three novels and two interludes published between 1906 and 1921 by Nobel Prize–winning English author John Galsworthy. They chronicle the vicissitudes of the leading members of a large, upper-middle-class English family, similar to Galsworthy's family. Only a few generations removed from their farmer ancestors, the family members are keenly aware of their status as "new money". The main character, Soames Forsyte, sees himself as a "man of property" by virtue of his ability to accumulate material possessionsbut this does not succeed in bringing him pleasure.

Sága rodu Forsytů ("The Forsyte Saga") je románová trilogie a zároveň nejznámější dílo anglického spisovatele Johna Galsworthyho, nositele Nobelovy ceny za literaturu za rok 1932. Do češtiny přeložil Zdeněk Urbánek.


Formation and Aktion T4.

The "Einsatzgruppen" were formed under the direction of SS-"Obergruppenführer" Reinhard Heydrich and operated by the "Schutzstaffel" (SS) before and during World War II. The "Einsatzgruppen" had their origins in the ad hoc "Einsatzkommando" formed by Heydrich to secure government buildings and documents following the "Anschluss" in Austria in March 1938. Originally part of the "Sicherheitspolizei" (Security Police; SiPo), two units of "Einsatzgruppen" were stationed in the Sudetenland in October 1938. When military action turned out not to be necessary due to the Munich Agreement, the "Einsatzgruppen" were assigned

Invasion of Poland.

In response to Adolf Hitler's plan to invade Poland on 1 September 1939, Heydrich re-formed the "Einsatzgruppen" to travel in the wake of the German armies. Membership at this point was drawn from the SS, the "Sicherheitsdienst" (Security Service; SD), the police, and the Gestapo. Heydrich placed SS-"Obergruppenführer" Werner Best in command, who assigned to choose personnel for the task forces and their subgroups, called "Einsatzkommandos", from among educated people with military experience and a strong ideological commitment to Nazism. Some had previously been members of paramilitary groups such as the "Freikorps". Heydrich instructed Wagner in meetings in late July that the "Einsatzgruppen" should undertake their operations in cooperation with the "Ordnungspolizei" (Order Police; Orpo) and military commanders in the area. Army intelligence was in constant contact with "Einsatzgruppen" to coordinate their activities with other units.  Initially numbering 2,700 men (and ultimately 4,250 in Poland), the "Einsatzgruppen"s mission was to kill members of the Polish leadership most clearly identified with Polish national identity: the intelligentsia, members of the clergy, teachers, and members of the nobility. As stated by Hitler: "... there must be no Polish leaders; where Polish leaders exist they must be killed, however harsh that sounds". SS-"Brigadeführer" Lothar Beutel, commander of "Einsatzgruppe" IV, later testified that Heydrich gave the order for these killings at a series of meetings in mid-August. The "Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen" — lists of people to be killed —

Preparations for Operation Barbarossa.

On 13 March 1941, in the lead-up to Operation Barbarossa, the planned invasion of the Soviet Union, Hitler dictated his "Guidelines in Special Spheres re: Directive No. 21 (Operation Barbarossa)". Sub-paragraph B specified that "Reichsführer-SS" Heinrich Himmler would be given "special tasks" on direct orders from the Führer, which he would carry out independently. This directive was intended to prevent friction between the Wehrmacht and the SS in the upcoming offensive. Hitler also specified that criminal acts against civilians perpetrated by members of the Wehrmacht during the upcoming campaign would not be prosecuted in the military courts, and thus would go unpunished.  In a speech to his leading generals on 30 March 1941, Hitler described his envisioned war against the Soviet Union. General Franz Halder, the Army's Chief of Staff, described the speech:  Though General Halder did not record any mention of Jews, German historian Andreas Hillgruber argued that because of Hitler's frequent contemporary statements about the coming war of annihilation against "Judeo-Bolshevism", his generals would have understood Hitler's call for the destruction of the Soviet Union as also comprising a call for the destruction of its Jewish population. The genocide was often described using euphemisms such as "special tasks" and "executive measures"; "Einsatzgruppe" victims were often described as having been shot while trying to escape. In May 1941, Heydrich verbally passed on the order to kill the Soviet Jews to the SiPo NCO School in Pretzsch, where the commanders of the reorganised "Einsatzgruppen" were being trained for Operation Barbarossa. In spring 1941, Heydrich and the First Quartermaster of the "Wehrmacht Heer", General Eduard Wagner, successfully completed negotiations for co-operation between the "Einsatzgruppen" and the German Army to allow the implementation of the "special tasks". Following the Heydrich-Wagner agreement on 28 April 1941, Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch ordered that when Operation Barbarossa began, all German Army commanders were to immediately identify and register all Jews in occupied areas in the Soviet Union, and fully co-operate with the "Einsatzgruppen".  In further meetings held in June 1941 Himmler outlined to top SS leaders the regime's intention to reduce the population of the Soviet Union by 30 million people, not only through direct killing of those considered racially inferior, but by depriving the remainder of food and other necessities of life.

Organisation starting in 1941.

For Operation Barbarossa, initially four "Einsatzgruppen" were created, each numbering 500–990 men to comprise a total force of 3,000. "Einsatzgruppen" A, B, and C were to be attached to Army Groups North, Centre, and South; "Einsatzgruppe" D was assigned to the 11th Army. The "Einsatzgruppe" for Special Purposes operated in eastern Poland starting in July 1941. The "Einsatzgruppen" were under the control of the RSHA, headed by Heydrich and later by his successor, SS-"Obergruppenführer" Ernst Kaltenbrunner. Heydrich gave them a mandate to secure the offices and papers of the Soviet state and Communist Party; to liquidate all the higher cadres of the Soviet state;

Killings in the Soviet Union.

After the invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, the "Einsatzgruppen"s main assignment was to kill civilians, as in Poland, but this time its targets specifically included Soviet Communist Party commissars and Jews. In a letter dated 2 July 1941 Heydrich communicated to his SS and Police Leaders that the "Einsatzgruppen" were to execute all senior and middle ranking Comintern officials; all senior and middle ranking members of the central, provincial, and district committees of the Communist Party; extremist and radical Communist Party members; people's commissars; and Jews in party and government posts. Open-ended instructions were given to execute "other radical elements (saboteurs, propagandists, snipers, assassins, agitators, etc.)." He instructed that any pogroms spontaneously initiated by the population of the occupied territories were to be quietly encouraged.  On 8 July, Heydrich announced that all Jews were to be regarded as partisans, and gave the order for all male Jews between the ages of 15 and 45 to be shot. On 17 July Heydrich ordered that the "Einsatzgruppen" were to kill all Jewish Red Army prisoners of war, plus all Red Army prisoners of war from Georgia and Central Asia, as they too might be Jews. Unlike in Germany, where the Nuremberg Laws of 1935 defined as Jewish anyone with at least three Jewish grandparents, the "Einsatzgruppen" defined as Jewish anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent; in either case, whether or not the person practised the religion was irrelevant. The unit was also assigned to exterminate Romani people and the mentally ill. It was common practice for the "Einsatzgruppen" to shoot hostages.  As the invasion began, the Germans pursued the fleeing Red Army, leaving a security vacuum. Reports surfaced of Soviet guerrilla activity in the area, with local Jews immediately suspected of collaboration. Heydrich ordered his officers to incite anti-Jewish pogroms in the newly occupied territories. Pogroms, some of which were orchestrated by the "Einsatzgruppen", broke out in Latvia, Lithuania, and Ukraine. Within the first few weeks of Operation Barbarossa, 40 pogroms led to the deaths of 10,000 Jews, and by the end of 1941 some 60 pogroms had taken place, claiming as many as 24,000 victims. However, SS-"Brigadeführer" Franz Walter Stahlecker, commander of "Einsatzgruppe" A, reported to his superiors in mid-October that the residents of Kaunas were not spontaneously starting pogroms, and secret assistance by the Germans was required. A similar reticence was noted by "Einsatzgruppe" B in Russia and Belarus and "Einsatzgruppe" C in Ukraine; the further east the "Einsatzgruppen" travelled, the less likely the residents were to be prompted into killing their Jewish neighbours.  All four main "Einsatzgruppen" took part in mass shootings from the early days of the war. Initially the targets were adult Jewish men, but by August the net had been widened to include women, children, and the elderly—the entire Jewish population. Initially there was a semblance of legality given to the shootings, with trumped-up charges being read out (arson, sabotage, black marketeering, or refusal to work, for example) and victims being killed by a firing squad. As this method proved too slow, the "Einsatzkommandos" began to take their victims out in larger groups and shot them next to, or even inside, mass graves that had been prepared. Some "Einsatzkommandos" started to use automatic weapons, with survivors being killed with a pistol shot.  As word of the massacres got out, many Jews fled; in Ukraine, 70 to 90 per cent of the Jews ran away. This was seen by the leader of "Einsatzkommando" VI as beneficial, as it would save the regime the costs of deporting the victims further east over the Urals. In other areas the invasion was so successful that the "Einsatzgruppen" had insufficient forces to immediately kill all the Jews in the conquered territories. A situation report from "Einsatzgruppe" C in September 1941 noted that not all Jews were members of the Bolshevist apparatus, and suggested that the total elimination of Jewry would have a negative impact on the economy and the food supply. The Nazis began to round their victims up into concentration camps and ghettos and rural districts were for the most part rendered "Judenfrei" (free of Jews). Jewish councils were set up in major cities and forced labour gangs were established to make use of the Jews as slave labour until they were totally eliminated, a goal that was postponed until 1942.  The "Einsatzgruppen" used public hangings as a terror tactic against the local population. An "Einsatzgruppe B" report, dated 9 October 1941, described one such hanging. Due to suspected partisan activity near Demidov, all male residents aged 15 to 55 were put in a camp to be screened. The screening produced seventeen people who were identified as "partisans" and "Communists". Five members of the group were hanged while 400 local residents were assembled to watch; the rest were shot.

Killings in the Baltic states.

"Einsatzgruppe" A operated in the formerly Soviet-occupied Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. According to its own reports to Himmler, "Einsatzgruppe" A killed almost 140,000 people in the five months following the invasion: 136,421 Jews, 1,064 Communists, 653 people with mental illnesses, 56 partisans, 44 Poles, five Romani, and one Armenian were reported killed between 22 June and 25 November 1941.  Upon entering Kaunas, Lithuania, on 25 June 1941, the "Einsatzgruppe" released the criminals from the local jail and encouraged them to join the pogrom which was underway. Between 23–27 June 1941, 4,000 Jews were killed on the streets of Kaunas and in nearby open pits and ditches. Particularly active in the Kaunas pogrom was the so-called "Death Dealer of Kaunas", a young man who murdered Jews with a crowbar at the Lietukis Garage before a large crowd that cheered each killing with much applause; he occasionally paused to play the Lithuanian national anthem "Tautiška giesmė" on his accordion before resuming the killings.  As "Einsatzgruppe" A advanced into Lithuania, it actively recruited local nationalists and antisemitic groups. In July 1941, members of the "Baltaraisciai" movement joined the massacres. A pogrom in Riga in early July killed 400 Jews. Latvian nationalist Viktors Arājs and his supporters undertook a campaign of arson against synagogues. On 2 July, "Einsatzgruppe" A commander Stahlecker appointed Arājs to head the "Arajs Kommando", a "Sonderkommando" of about 300 men, mostly university students. Together, "Einsatzgruppe" A and the "Arājs Kommando" killed 2,300 Jews in Riga on 6–7 July. Within six months, Arājs and his men would kill about half of Latvia's Jewish population. Local officials, the "Selbstschutz", and the "Hilfspolizei" (Auxiliary Police) played a key role in rounding up and massacring Jewish Lithuanians, Latvians, and Estonians. These groups helped the "Einsatzgruppen" and other killing units to quickly identify Jews. The "Hilfspolizei", consisting of auxiliary police organised by the Germans and recruited from former Latvian Army and police officers, ex-"Aizsargi", members of the Pērkonkrusts, and university students, assisted in the murder of Latvia's Jewish citizens. Similar units were created elsewhere, and provided much of the manpower for the Holocaust in Eastern Europe.  With the creation of units such as the "Arājs Kommando" and the "Rollkommando Hamann" in Lithuania, the attacks changed from the spontaneous mob violence of the pogroms to more systematic massacres. With extensive local help, "Einsatzgruppe" A was the first "Einsatzgruppe" to attempt to systematically exterminate all the Jews in its area. Latvian historian Modris Eksteins wrote: In late 1941, the "Einsatzkommandos" settled into headquarters in Kovno, Riga, and Tallinn. "Einsatzgruppe" A grew less mobile and faced problems because of its small size. The Germans relied increasingly on the "Arājs Kommando" and similar groups to perform massacres of Jews.  Such extensive and enthusiastic collaboration with the "Einsatzgruppen" has been attributed to several factors. Since the Russian Revolution of 1905, the "Kresy Wschodnie" and other borderlands had experienced a political culture of violence. The period of Soviet rule had been profoundly traumatic for residents of the Baltic states and areas that had been part of Poland until 1939; the population was brutalised and terrorised by the imposed Soviet rule, and the existing familiar structures of society were destroyed. Historian Erich Haberer notes that many survived and made sense of the "totalitarian atomization" of society by seeking conformity with communism. As a result, by the time of the German invasion in 1941, many had come to see conformity with a totalitarian regime as socially acceptable behaviour; thus, people simply transferred their allegiance to the German regime when it arrived. Some who had collaborated with the Soviet regime sought to divert attention from themselves by naming Jews as collaborators and killing them.

Second sweep.

"Einsatzgruppe B, C", and "D" did not immediately follow "Einsatzgruppe" A's example in systematically killing all Jews in their areas. The "Einsatzgruppe" commanders, with the exception of "Einsatzgruppe" A's Stahlecker, were of the opinion by the fall of 1941 that it was impossible to kill the entire Jewish population of the Soviet Union in one sweep, and thought the killings should stop. An "Einsatzgruppe" report dated 17 September advised that the Germans would be better off using any skilled Jews as labourers rather than shooting them. Also, in some areas poor weather and a lack of transportation led to a slowdown in deportations of Jews from points further west. Thus, an interval passed between the first round of "Einsatzgruppen" massacres in summer and fall, and what American historian Raul Hilberg called the second sweep, which started in December 1941 and lasted into the summer of 1942. During the interval, the surviving Jews were forced

Transition to gassing.

After a time, Himmler found that the killing methods used by the "Einsatzgruppen" were inefficient: they were costly, demoralising for the troops, and sometimes did not kill the victims quickly enough. Many of the troops found the massacres to be difficult if not impossible to perform. Some of the perpetrators suffered physical and mental health problems, and many turned to drink. As much as possible, the "Einsatzgruppen" leaders militarized the genocide. The historian Christian Ingrao notes an attempt was made to make the shootings a collective act without individual responsibility. Framing the shootings in this way was not psychologically sufficient for every perpetrator to feel absolved of guilt. Browning notes three categories of potential perpetrators: those who were eager to participate right from the start, those who participated in spite of moral qualms because they were ordered to do so, and a significant minority who refused to take part. A few men spontaneously became excessively brutal in their killing methods and their zeal for the task. Commander of "Einsatzgruppe" D, SS-"Gruppenführer" Otto Ohlendorf, particularly noted this propensity towards excess, and ordered that any man who was too eager to participate or too brutal should not perform any further executions.  During a visit to Minsk in August 1941, Himmler witnessed an "Einsatzgruppen" mass execution first-hand and concluded that shooting Jews was too stressful for his men. By November he made arrangements for any SS men suffering ill health from having participated in executions to be provided with rest and mental health care. He also decided a transition

Plans for the Middle East and Britain.

According to research by German historians Klaus-Michael Mallmann and, "Einsatzgruppe" Egypt, led by Walter Rauff, was raised in 1942 in Athens. The unit was to enter Egypt and Mandatory Palestine once German forces arrived there. According to Mallmann and Cüppers, the unit's purpose was to carry out a mass killing of the Jewish populations in those areas. Given its small staff of only 24 men, Mallmann and Cüppers theorize the unit would have needed help from local residents and from the "Afrika Korps" to complete their assignment. Former Iraqi prime minister Rashid Ali al-Gaylani and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini played roles, engaging in antisemitic radio propaganda, preparing to recruit volunteers, and in raising an Arab-German Battalion that would also follow "Einsatzgruppe" Egypt to the Middle

Jäger Report.

The "Einsatzgruppen" kept official records of many of their massacres and provided detailed reports to their superiors. The Jäger Report, filed by Commander "SS-Standartenführer" Karl Jäger on 1 December 1941 to his superior, Stahlecker (head of "Einsatzgruppe" A), covers the activities of "Einsatzkommando" III in Lithuania over the five-month period from 2 July 1941 to 25 November 1941.  Jäger's report provides an almost daily running total of the liquidations of 137,346 people, the vast majority of them Jews. The report documents the exact date and place of massacres, the number of victims, and their breakdown into categories (Jews, Communists, criminals, and so on). Women were shot from the very beginning, but initially in fewer numbers than

Involvement of the Wehrmacht.

The killings took place with the knowledge and support of the German Army in the east. As ordered by Hitler, the Wehrmacht cooperated with the "Einsatzgruppen", providing logistical support for their operations, and participated in the mass killings. On 10 October 1941 Field Marshal Walther von Reichenau drafted an order to be read to the German Sixth Army on the Eastern Front. Now known as the Severity Order, it read in part:  Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt of Army Group South expressed his "complete agreement" with the order. He sent out a circular to the generals under his command urging them to release their own versions and to impress upon their troops the need to exterminate the Jews. General Erich von Manstein, in an order to his troops on 20 November, stated that "the Jewish-Bolshevist system must be exterminated once and for all." Manstein sent a letter to "Einsatzgruppe" D commanding officer Ohlendorf complaining that it was unfair that the SS was keeping all of the murdered Jews' wristwatches for themselves instead of sharing with the army.  Beyond this trivial complaint, the Army and the "Einsatzgruppen" worked closely and effectively. On 6 July

Einsatzgruppen Trial.

After the close of World War II, 24 senior leaders of the "Einsatzgruppen" were prosecuted in the Einsatzgruppen Trial in 1947–48, part of the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials held under United States military authority. The men were charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes, and membership in the SS (which had been declared a criminal organization). Fourteen death sentences and two life sentences were among the judgments; only four executions were carried out, on 7 June 1951; the rest were reduced to lesser sentences. Four additional "Einsatzgruppe" leaders were later tried and executed by other nations.  Several "Einsatzgruppen" leaders, including Ohlendorf, claimed at the trial to have received an order before Operation Barbarossa requiring them to murder all Soviet Jews. To date no evidence has been found that such an order was ever issued. German prosecutor Alfred Streim noted that if such an order had been given, post-war courts would only have been able to convict the "Einsatzgruppen" leaders as "accomplices" to mass murder. However, if it could be established that the "Einsatzgruppen" had committed mass murder without orders, then they could have been convicted as "perpetrators" of mass murder, and hence could have received stiffer sentences, including capital punishment.  Streim postulated that the existence of an early comprehensive order was a fabrication created for use in Ohlendorf's defence. This theory is now widely accepted by historians. Longerich notes that most orders received by the "Einsatzgruppen" leaders—especially when they were being ordered to carry out criminal activities—were vague, and couched in terminology that had a specific meaning for members of the regime. Leaders were given briefings about the need to be "severe" and "firm"; all Jews were to be viewed as potential enemies that had to be dealt with ruthlessly. British historian Sir Ian Kershaw argues that Hitler's apocalyptic remarks before Barbarossa about the necessity for a war without mercy to "annihilate" the forces of "Judeo-Bolshevism" were interpreted by "Einsatzgruppen" commanders as permission and encouragement to engage in extreme antisemitic violence, with each "Einsatzgruppen" commander to use his own discretion about how far he was prepared to go.  Most of the perpetrators of Nazi war crimes were never charged, and returned unremarked to civilian life. The West German Central Prosecution Office of Nazi War Criminals only charged about a hundred former "Einsatzgruppe" members with war crimes. And as time went on, it became more difficult to obtain prosecutions; witnesses grew older and were less likely to be able to offer valuable testimony. Funding for trials was inadequate, and the governments of Austria and Germany became less interested in obtaining convictions for wartime events, preferring to forget the Nazi past.

Einsatzgruppen (, lit. "deployment groups"; also "task forces") were "Schutzstaffel" (SS) paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass killings, primarily by shooting, during World War II (1939–45) in German-occupied Europe. The "Einsatzgruppen" were involved in the murder of much of the intelligentsia, including members of the priesthood and cultural elite of Poland, and had an integral role in the implementation of the so-called "Final Solution to the Jewish Question" ("Die Endlösung der Judenfrage") in territories conquered by Nazi Germany. Almost all of the people they killed were civilians, beginning with the intelligentsia and swiftly progressing to Soviet political commissars, Jews, and Romani people as well as actual or alleged partisans throughout Eastern Europe.

Einsatzgruppen (něm. "Einsatz", nasazení a "Gruppe", skupina) byly ozbrojené oddíly SS a SD pod velením důstojníků SS nasazované převážně za frontou proti civilnímu obyvatelstvu (především proti Židům), partyzánům a vzdělaným vrstvám porobených národů. Působily hlavně ve Střední a Východní Evropě a v těsné spolupráci s ostatními oddíly politické policie vyvražďovaly bez jakékoli dokumentace Židy, příslušníky inteligence, komunistické funkcionáře a politické komisaře a další skutečné i domnělé odpůrce Třetí říše. Ač v nich působilo jen několik tisíc mužů, převážně, ale ne výlučně Němců, mají patrně na svědomí miliony mrtvých a podstatnou část obětí Holokaustu.


Building and grounds.

The initial display building opened in 1975 as the first building constructed to be a railroad museum, and featured an operating turntable from the Reading Company. The original building was roughly 45,000 square feet in size and included an observation bridge leading across Rolling Stock Hall, allowing visitors to see the trains from above. In June 1995, Rolling Stock Hall was enlarged to 100,000 square feet.  Today, the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania covers 18 acres. This includes Rolling Stock Hall, a second floor changing-exhibit gallery, an observation bridge, a hands on education center called Stewart Junction, an extensive library and archives, a restoration and paint shop, and an outdoor storage and display yard. Rolling Stock Hall and the second floor are both handicapped accessible. The yard is subject to weather closure.  A newly designed entrance and gift shop were opened in June 2007. Some larger or more modern engines and cars are displayed outdoors, and a new roundhouse to store some of the larger locomotives is to be built in the near future.  The National Toy Train Museum, & Choo Choo Barn are located nearby, and the Strasburg Rail Road is across the street from the museum.

History.

For 1939-1940 New York World's Fair, the Pennsylvania Railroad had displayed a number of historic locomotives and cars they had collected over the years. After the fair had ended, the PRR, decided to preserve the equipment that was displayed, along with various other locomotives and rolling stock. The equipment was stored away in a roundhouse in Northumberland, PA, and looked after by employees.  With the state looking to establish a railroad museum and PRR successor Penn Central looking to rid itself of the collection in the late 1960s, it was decided the museum was to be built directly next to the Strasburg Rail Road in Strasburg, PA. The engines were moved to the Strasburg Rail Road, where they were stored while the museum was under construction. A large number of the Pennsylvania Railroad's Historic Collection was sent to Strasburg coupled together, forming the "Train of Trains."  The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania was officially opened to the public April 1, 1975. As the museum acquired more equipment, they required more space, so in 1995, Rolling Stock Hall was expanded by 55,000 square feet. Today, the museum covers 18 acres of land, including 100,000 square feet indoors. In the next few years, the addition of a roundhouse is expected to be built to house some of the larger locomotives that are currently stored outside. In all, the museum holds roughly 100 pieces of rolling stock, some nearing 200 years old.

Collection.

Locomotives.

The collection is made up of more than a hundred historic locomotives and cars, many of which are part of the historical collection of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Following the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair, the PRR placed many of their historic rolling stock aside for preservation. The collection was stored in a roundhouse in Northumberland, Pennsylvania. In 1969, the collection was relocated from Northumberland, PA to Strasburg, PA, where they were stored at the Strasburg Rail Road until the museum's completion in 1975.  Some of these engines had operated on the Strasburg Railroad for a number of years before being put back on display. PRR #1223, famous for its use in the 1969 film Hello, Dolly!, and PRR #7002 (originally #8063), a re-creation of the famous original PRR #7002, which set an unofficial land speed record in 1905 by traveling at 127.1 miles per hour. Both were leased to the Strasburg Rail Road, and retired permanently in 1989.  Other historic locomotives are featured at the Museum, including the famous "Lindbergh Engine", PRR #460, which completed a 6-year cosmetic restoration November, 2016, and the oldest PRR locomotive #1187, built in 1888. The 1187 is placed over a pit, so visitors may go underneath and see the locomotive's underside. #1187 got into an accident in 1895 and was barely damaged from the incident, but the smoke box had to be rebuilt and the rebuilt smoke box is still on the locomotive to this day. The official steam locomotive of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania PRR #3750, famous for pulling President Warren Harding's funeral train, is on display outside of the museum. Two replicas are also included in the Pennsylvania Historic Collection, the John Bull (locomotive) (orig. built 1831) and the John Stevens (orig. built 1825). Other locomotives in the collection include two PRR GG1 locomotives, the original prototype PRR #4800 and the PRR #4935, Amtrak E60 #603, and the Tahoe, a 2-6-0 built in 1875 for use on the Virginia & Truckee Railroad. They also have two fireless steam locomotives (Bethlehem Steel #111 and Pennsylvania Power & Light #4094-D), and examples of the three most common geared locomotives: a Shay locomotive (Leetonia Railway #1), a Heisler locomotive (Chicago Mill & Lumber Company #4), and a Climax locomotive (W. H. Mason Company #1).  The museum's most recent acquisition is Amtrak AEM-7 number 915, donated by Amtrak in 2015.

Cars.

The museum also has a large collection of rail cars. Many of these are examples of cars seen on the Pennsylvania Railroad, including a P70 passenger car, a B60 Baggage car, and an N5c caboose. There are also several wood bodied freight and passenger cars. Also on display is PRR 1651, one of the first all-steel passenger cars.

Other.

The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania has a Solari board listing train departure times that was formerly used at Amtrak's 30th Street Station in Philadelphia on static display. The Solari board, which was the last such one at an Amtrak station, was used until January 26, 2019 when it was removed and replaced with a digital board. The Solari board from 30th Street Station has been on static display at the museum since July 2019.

The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania is a railroad museum in Strasburg, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The museum is located on the east side of Strasburg along Pennsylvania Route 741. It is administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission with the active support of the Friends of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania (FRM).

Železniční muzeum v Pensylvánii (Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania), umístěné na východ od města Strasburg v Pensylvánii, při dálnici „Route 741“, bylo otevřeno v roce 1975. Je přes ulici naproti Strasburské železniční stanici, každý z těchto objektů je však úplně samostatný.


Context.

Callenbach wove his story using the fiber of technologies, lifestyles, folkways, and attitudes that were common in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest. The "leading edges" (his main ideas for Ecotopian values and practices) were patterns in actual social experimentation taking place in the American West. To draw an example, Callenbach's fictional Crick School was based on Pinel School, an alternative school located outside Martinez, California, and attended for a time by his son.  Callenbach placed the genesis of Ecotopia with an article he researched and wrote titled "The Scandal of Our Sewage". Besides the important social dimensions of the story, he talked publicly about being influenced, during work on the novel, by many streams of thought: scientific discoveries in ecology and conservation biology; the urban-ecology movement, concerned with a new approach to urban planning; and the soft-energy movement, championed by Amory Lovins and others. Much of the environmentally benign energy, home building and transportation technology described by the author was based on his reading of research findings published in such journals as "Scientific American" and "Science".  Callenbach’s concept does not reject high technology (or "any" technology) as long as it does not interfere with the Ecotopian social order and serves the overall objectives. Members of his fictional society prefer to demonstrate a "conscious selectivity" toward technology, so that not only human health and sanity might be preserved, but also social and ecological wellbeing. For example, Callenbach’s story anticipated the development and liberal usage of videoconferencing.  During the 1970s when "Ecotopia" was written and published, many prominent counterculture and new left thinkers decried the consumption and overabundance that they perceived as characteristic of post-World War Two America. The citizens of Ecotopia share a common aim: a balance between themselves and nature. They were “literally sick of bad air, chemicalized food, and lunatic advertising. They turned to politics because it was finally the only route to self-preservation.” In the mid-20th century as “firms grew in size and complexity citizens needed to know the market would still serve the interests of those for whom it claimed to exist.” Callenbach’s "Ecotopia" targets the fact that many people did not feel that the market or the government were serving them in the way they wanted them to. This book could be interpreted as “a protest against consumerism and materialism, among other aspects of American life."  The term "ecotopian fiction", as a subgenre of science fiction and utopian fiction, makes implicit reference to this book.

Plot summary.

The book is set in 1999 (25 years in the future from 1974) and consists of diary entries and reports of journalist William Weston, who is the first American mainstream media reporter to investigate Ecotopia, a small country that broke away from the United States in 1980. Prior to Weston's reporting, most Americans had been barred from entering the new country, which is depicted as being on continual guard against revanchism. The new nation of Ecotopia consists of Northern California, Oregon, and Washington; it is hinted that Southern California is a lost cause. The novel takes its form as a narrative from Weston's diary in combination with dispatches that he transmits to his publication, the fictional "Times-Post".  At the beginning, Weston is skeptically curious about, not yet sympathetic to the Ecotopians. He describes details of the Ecotopian transportation system and the preferred lifestyle. This includes a wide range of gender roles, sexual freedom, and acceptance of non-monogamous relationships. Liberal cannabis use is evident. Televised passive, mass-media, spectator sports have been displaced in favor of local arts coverage, local participatory sports, and general fitness. A large fraction of young male Ecotopians participate voluntarily in a decidedly male ritual of mock warfare using wooden spears but no guns or arrows. The games are not re-enactments. Physical injuries, occasionally serious, are considered part of the game. Ecotopians on the whole value the benefits to young males over the accidental injuries. Ecotopia also tolerates the voluntary separatism of many people of African descent who have, in fact, chosen to live in a mini-nation in the San Francisco East Bay-area.  Ecotopian society has favored decentralized and renewable energy production and green building construction. The citizens are technologically creative, while remaining involved with and sensitive to nature. Thorough-going education reform is described, along with a highly localized system of universal medical care. (The narrator discovers that Ecotopian healing practices may include sexual stimulation.) The national defense strategy has focused on developing a highly advanced arms industry, while also allegedly maintaining hidden WMD within major US population centers to discourage conquest and annexation.  Through Weston's diary we learn of observations he does not include in his columns, such as his personally transformative love affair with an Ecotopian woman. The book's parallel narrative structures allow the reader to see how Weston's internal reflections, as recorded in his diary, are diffracted in his external pronouncements to his readers. Despite Weston's initial reservations, throughout the novel Ecotopian citizens are characterized as clever, technologically resourceful, emotionally expressive, and even occasionally violent – but also socially responsible, patriotic. They often live in extended families, and tend to live by choice in ethnically separated localities. Their economic enterprises are generally employee-owned and -controlled. The current governmental administration is that of a woman-led (but not exclusively female) party, and government structures are highly decentralized.  The novel concludes with Weston's finding himself enchanted by Ecotopian life and deciding to stay in Ecotopia as its interpreter to the wider world.

Values exemplified in the novel.

The values embodied by those Ecotopians depicted in the novel reflect the values espoused by its author. Callenbach said that his Ecotopians attach fundamental importance to environmental and social stability within which variety can flourish. They value creativity. They ensure equality for women. They implement the protection and restoration of natural systems. They promote food production in their cities.  As well, they treasure personal quality-of-life values, such as health and friendliness, and both meaningful discussion and play.  Callenbach began writing the novel by depicting the recycling of valuable materials and substances by the society; he saw a much-expanded role for recycling of all sorts, and this is key to many concepts underpinning Ecotopia.

Anticipation of emerging realities.

Worth mentioning is Callenbach's speculation on the roles of TV in his envisioned society. The author espoused the fly on the wall genre of direct political-process broadcasts, deeming them valuable to the citizenry. In some ways anticipating C-SPAN, which would first be broadcast in 1979, "Ecotopia" mentions that the daily life of the legislature and some of that of the judicial courts is televised in Ecotopia. Even highly technical debates are televised, addressing the needs and desires of Ecotopian viewers.  Another interesting detail in the story is "print on demand" (POD) publishing. Ecotopian customers could choose selected print media from a jukebox-like device that would then print and bind the book. In the 21st century, POD services that print, bind and ship books for customers who order on-line have become commonplace.

Impact.

The importance of this book is not so much its literary style as in the lively imagination of an alternative and ecologically sound lifestyle on a greater scale, presented more or less realistically. It expressed on paper the dream of an alternative future held by many in the movements of the 1970s and later. Even the names of the two characters most reflective of their respective viewpoints – "Will West(on)", the representative for materialist American culture and "Vera Allwen" (= "All women + all men"), the President and spokeswoman for Ecotopia – suggest the degree to which the author intended the book to be a reflection of what he saw as American ecological and cultural deficiencies.  However, in contrast to much of the Green movement in contemporary America, with its preference for regulation, Callenbach's Ecotopia has relatively laissez-faire economic tendencies, guided by intense moral pressure toward sustainable practices both in private life and in business.  In 1981, Callenbach published "Ecotopia Emerging", a multi-strand "prequel" suggesting how the sustainable nation of Ecotopia could have come into existence.  In 1990, Audio Renaissance released a partial dramatization of "Ecotopia" on audiocassettes in the form of recordings of a radio network broadcast (the "Allied News Network" replacing the "Times-Post"). The tape-recorded diaries of William Weston were read by the book's author, Ernest Callenbach. Weston's reports were read by veteran news reporter Edwin Newman.  In the online "Earth Island Journal", "Ecotopia" was reviewed by Brian Smith, identifying himself as a child not of the 1960s but the 1980s. He read the novel 30 years after it was first published, and said of it: "I felt great affinity for the details of the world Callenbach predicted. Even better, I was impressed by how many of his ideas came to pass."  "Ecotopia" is now required reading in a number of colleges (see "New York Times" article "The Novel That Predicted Portland" referenced below).

Reception.

Don Milligan in the British magazine "Peace News" gave "Ecotopia" a negative review, stating ""Ecotopia" is a shoddy amalgam of Swedish social democracy, Swiss neutrality, and Yugoslav workers' co-ops cobbled together with the authoritarianism of "A Blueprint for Survival"..."Ecotopia" is a flawed vision of a flawed future."  In marked contrast, Ralph Nader praised the book, noting that "None of the happy conditions in Ecotopia are beyond the technical or resource reach of our society."  According to Scott Timberg, quoting University of Nevada environmental-literature professor Scott Slovic in "The New York Times", "'Ecotopia' [the concept] became almost immediately absorbed into the popular culture. You hear people talking about the idea of Ecotopia, or about the Northwest as Ecotopia."  In "bolo’bolo", P.M. criticizes Callenbach by saying:

Ecotopia: The Notebooks and Reports of William Weston is a utopian novel by Ernest Callenbach, published in 1975. The society described in the book is one of the first ecological utopias and was influential on the counterculture and the green movement in the 1970s and thereafter. The author himself claimed that the society he depicted in the book is not a true utopia (in the sense of a perfect society), but, while guided by societal intentions and values, was "im"perfect and in-process.

Ecotopia: The Notebooks and Reports of William Weston (Ekotopie: Deníky a záznamy Williama Westona) je klíčová kniha Ernesta Callenbacha publikovaná roku 1975. Společnost popsaná v knize je jednou z prvních ekologických utopií a měla významný vliv na kontrakulturu a hnutí zelených v 70. letech a později. Energie vlídná k životnímu prostředí a další působivé stavební a dopravní technologie, které Callenbach popsal ve své "Ecotopii" jsou založeny na výzkumných objevech v časopisech jako "Scientific American". Mezi základní nitky příběhu patří technologie, životní styly, lidové zvyky a postoje, které se odrazily (z reálného života) kupříkladu i na stránky "Whole Earth Catalog" a jeho následníka "CoEvolution Quarterly" a byly rovněž popsány v novinách, románech nebo filmech. Callenbachovy hlavní myšlenky o ekotopických hodnotách a zvycích byly založeny na skutečných experimentech na americkém Západě. Například Callenbachova fiktivní "Crick School" byla založena na alternativní škole Pinel School, která leží poblíž Martinezu, CA a kterou kdysi navštěvoval jeho syn.


History.

History of great success: 1950s to 1980s.

For at least half a century, Madrid has been a standard-bearer in European basketball, accumulating a record ten continental titles, based on its dominance in the 1960s. Its early dominance in Spain has resulted in another untouchable cache of 35 national domestic league and 28 national cup trophies. And almost every time that Madrid did not play in Europe's top-tier level competition, it won a different continental trophy – four Saporta Cups, a Korać Cup, and a ULEB Cup – as a stepping-stone back to the big time.  Players like Emiliano Rodríguez, Clifford Luyk, Wayne Brabender, Walter Szczerbiak, Juan Antonio Corbalán, Dražen Petrović, Mirza Delibašić, Arvydas Sabonis, and Dejan Bodiroga have turned Real Madrid into one of the biggest basketball clubs in the world. Madrid won as many as 7 EuroLeague titles between 1964 and 1980, becoming a European basketball club legend, and even when it took the club 15 years to win it again, it found success in other European competitions, too.  Madrid downed Olimpia Milano in the 1984 Cup Winners' Cup, on free throws made by Brian Jackson, then Petrović had 62 points in the 1989 Cup Winners' Cup final, against Snaidero Caserta. Madrid added a 1988 Korać Cup title, against Cibona Zagreb.

1990–2010.

Real Madrid won the 1992 Saporta Cup trophy against PAOK, on a buzzer-beating jumper by Rickey Brown. It was not until Sabonis arrived in Madrid, when Real won its last EuroLeague title in 1995, by beating Olympiacos in the final. Madrid next won the 1997 Saporta Cup title against Verona, but no more European-wide trophies came for the club in the next decade.  Madrid still found success at home, winning Spanish League titles in 2000 and 2005. It all changed in 2007, when Joan Plaza was promoted to the club's head coach position. With the help of players like Louis Bullock, Felipe Reyes, and Álex Mumbrú, Madrid added a new trophy to its roll of honours, the ULEB Cup, as it won 12 of its last 13 games, and downed Lietuvos Rytas, by a score of 75–87, in the 2007 ULEB Cup Final. Moreover, Madrid finished in 2nd place in the 2006–07 Spanish League regular season, and stayed strong in its play in Palacio Vistalegre, during the Spanish league playoffs; to lift its 30th national league trophy, by besting their arch-rivals, Winterthur FC Barcelona, 3–1 in the Spanish League title series in 2007.

2011–present: Pablo Laso era.

In Pablo Laso's era, Real Madrid Baloncesto managed to find consistent success. Spanish top-tier level players of the time, like Sergio Rodríguez and Rudy Fernández, were acquired by the club. Also, ACB Rising Star winner Nikola Mirotić was a part of the team's mix, along with Sergio Llull and Felipe Reyes, to give Real Madrid a strong home grown core of players. This group of players gave Real Madrid Baloncesto 6 Copa del Reys (Spanish Cup) titles, 5 Spanish Super Cup titles, 5 Liga ACB (Spanish League) titles, 2 EuroLeague championship, and an FIBA Intercontinental Cup championship.  On May 17, 2015, after waiting 20 years to win another EuroLeague championship, Real Madrid won the 2015 EuroLeague championship against Olympiacos. Madrid's Andrés Nocioni was named the Final Four MVP. This title was called "La Novena". Following the EuroLeague title, the 2014–15 ACB season's championship was also won by Real. Because Real also won the national Spanish Cup and the national Spanish Supercup that season, the club won its first "Quadruble crown".  On September 27, 2015, 34 years after their last FIBA Intercontinental Cup title, Real Madrid won their fifth FIBA Intercontinental Cup trophy, after defeating the Brazilian League club Bauru. Sergio Llull was named the MVP of the tournament. Real Madrid thus made it a record five FIBA Intercontinental Cup titles won, and with the Intercontinental Cup title.  On 20 May 2018, Real Madrid conquered again the EuroLeague, achieving their tenth title ever. The considered major leader of the team that season would be a Slovenian guard/forward named Luka Dončić, who became the designated MVP of the EuroLeague on all accounts at 19 years old.

Honours.

Individual awards.

ACB Most Valuable Player ACB Finals MVP All-ACB First Team All-ACB Second Team ACB Three Point Shootout Champion ACB Slam Dunk Champion ACB Most Spectacular Player of the Year  Spanish Cup MVP Spanish Supercup MVP EuroLeague MVP EuroLeague Final Four MVP FIBA Intercontinental Cup MVP All-EuroLeague First Team All-EuroLeague Second Team EuroLeague Rising Star EuroLeague Best Defender

Notable players.

Players who are currently on the team are in boldface. Players who are still active, but in other team, are in "italics".

Real Madrid Baloncesto (English: Real Madrid Basketball) is a Spanish professional basketball team that was founded in 1931, as a division of the Real Madrid CF multi sports club. They play domestically in the Liga ACB, and internationally in the EuroLeague.

Real Madrid Baloncesto (pokud nehrozí záměna se slavnějším fotbalovým klubem téhož jména, používá se obvykle název Real Madrid) je profesionální španělský basketbalový klub hrající španělskou nejvyšší soutěž Liga Endesa. Klub vznikl v roce 1932 jako basketbalový oddíl v rámci sportovního klubu Real Madrid a i přes pozdější osamostatnění nese dodnes jeho jméno.


Description.

General.

"Fritillaria" is a genus of perennial herbaceous bulbiferous geophytes, dying back after flowering to an underground storage bulb from which they regrow in the following year. It is characterised by nodding (pendant) flowers, perianths campanulate (bell- or cup-shaped) with erect segments in upper part, a nectarial pit, groove or pouch at the base of the tepal, anthers usually pseudobasifixed, rarely versatile, fruit sometimes winged, embryo minute.  The bulbs are typically tunicate, consisting of a few tightly packed fleshy scales with a translucent tunic that disappears with further growth of the bulb. However, some species ("F. imperialis", "F. persica") have naked bulbs with many scales and loosely attached bulbils, resembling those of the closely related "Lilium", although "F. persica" has only a single scale.  The stems have few or many cauline leaves (arising from the stem) that are opposite on the stem or verticillate (arranged in whorls), sometimes with a cirrhose apex (ending in a tendril).  The inflorescence bears flowers that are often solitary and nodding, but some form umbels or have racemes with many flowers. The flowers are usually actinomorphic (radially symmetric), but weakly zygomorphic (single plane of symmetry) in "F. persica". The campanulate perianth has six tepals, in two free whorls of three (trimerous), white, yellow, green, purple or reddish. The erect segments usually tesselated with squares of alternating light and dark colours. While the tepals are usually the same size in both whorls, in "F. pallidiflora", the outer tepals are wider. The tepals have nectarial pits, grooves ("F. sewerzowii") or pouches at their base. In "F. persica" the nectarial pouch is developed into a short spur. The perigonal nectaries are large and well developed, and in most species (with the exception of subgenus "Rhinopetalum"), are linear to lanceolate or ovate and weakly impressed upon the tepals.  The flowers are bisexual, containing both male (androecium) and female (gynoecium) characteristics. The pistil has three carpels (tricarpellary). The ovaries are hypogynous (superior, that is attached above the other floral parts). The ovule is anatropous in orientation and has two integuments (bitegmic), the micropyle (opening) being formed from the inner integument, while the nucellus is small. The embryo sac or megagametophyte is tetrasporic, in which all four megaspores survive. The style is trilobate to trifid (in 3 parts) and the surface of the stigma is wet.  Stamens are six, in two trimerous whorls of three, and diplostemonous (outer whorl of stamens opposite outer tepals and the inner whorl opposite inner tepals). Filaments filiform or slightly flattened, but sometimes papillose and rarely hairy ("F. karelinii"). Anthers are linear to ellipsoid, but rarely subglobose ("F. persica") in shape, and their attachment to the filament is usually pseudobasifixed (connective tissue extends in a tube around the filament tip), rarely attached at the centre and free (dorsifixed versatile; "F. fusca" and some "Liliorhiza" species). In contrast, pseudobasifixed anthers can not move freely. The pollen grains are spheroidal and reticulate (net like pattern), with individual brochi (lumina within reticulations) of 4–5 μm.  The capsule is obovoid to globose, loculicidal and six-angled, sometimes with wings. The seeds are flattened with a marginal wing, the seed coat made out of both integuments, but the testa is thin and the endosperm lacks starch. The embryo is small.

Phytochemistry.

Fritillaria, like other members of the family Liliaceae, contain flavonol glycosides and tri- and diferulic-acid sucrose esters, steroidal alkaloids, saponins and terpenoids that have formed the active ingredients in traditional medicine ("see Traditional medicine"). Certain species have flowers that emit disagreeable odors that have been referred to as phenolic, putrid, sulfurous, sweaty and skunky. The scent of "Fritillaria imperialis" has been called "rather nasty", while that of "F. agrestis", known commonly as stink bells, is reminiscent of canine feces. On the other hand, "F. striata" has a sweet fragrance. The "foxy" odor of "F. imperialis" has been identified as 3-methyl-2-butene-1-thiol (dimethylallyl mercaptan), an alkylthiol.

Genome.

"Fritillaria" represents the most extreme case of genome size expansion in angiosperms. Polyploidy is rare, with nearly all species being diploid and only occasional reports of triploidy. Reported genome size in "Fritillaria" vary from 1Cx (DNA content of unreplicated haploid chromosome complement) values of 30.15 to 85.38 Gb (Giga base pairs), that is > 190 times that of "Arabidopsis thaliana", which has been called the "model plant" and > 860 times that of "Genlisea aurea", which represents the smallest land plant genome sequenced to date. Giant genome size is generally defined as >35 pg (34 Gb). The largest genomes in diploid "Fritillaria" are found in subgenus "Japonica", exceeding 85 Gb. At least one species, tetraploid "F. assyriaca", has a very large genome. With approximately 127 pg (130 Gb), it was for a long time the largest known genome, exceeding the largest vertebrate animal genome known to date, that of the marbled lungfish ("Protopterus aethiopicus"), in size. Heterochromatin levels vary by biogeographic region, with very little in Old World and abundant levels in New World species. Most species have a basic chromosome number of x=12, but x=9, 11 and 13 have been reported.

Taxonomy.

History.

Pre-Linnaean.

Gerard (1597) states that "Fritillaria" was unknown to the ancients, but certainly it was appearing in the writings of sixteenth century European botanists, including Dodoens (1574, 1583), Lobelius (1576, 1581), and Clusius (1583) in addition to Gerard, and was mentioned by Shakespeare and other authors of the period (see Culture). Species of Fritillaria were known in Persia (Iran) in the sixteenth century, from where they were taken to Turkey. European travelers then brought back specimens together with many other exotic eastern plants to the developing botanical gardens of Europe. By the middle of the sixteenth century there was already a flourishing export trade of various bulbs from Turkey to Europe. In Persia, the first mention in the literature was by Hakim Mo'men Tonekabon in his "Tohfe Al-Mo'menin" in 1080 AH (ca. 1669 AD), who described the medicinal properties of "F. imperialis" ("laleh sarnegoun").  European fritillaries had recently been documented in the wild amongst the Loire meadows in 1570 by Noël Capperon, an Orléans apothecary, and which he had mentioned to Clusius in correspondence in 1571, and sent him a specimen of these "F. meleagris". He also corresponded with Dodoens. Capperon had suggested the name Fritillaria to Clusius, rather than the vernacular variegated lily ("Lilium ou bulbum variegatum"). He stated that the flower was known locally as Fritillaria because of a resemblance to the board used in playing checkers. In recognition of this, the botanical authority is sometimes written "Fritillaria" (Caperon) L.  The first account in a botanical text is by Dodoens in his "Purgantium" (1574) and in more detail in "Stirpium" (1583). In the "Purgantium", Dodoens describes and illustrates "F. meleagris" as "Meleagris flos", without mentioning Capperon. He was also aware, through having been sent a picture, of "F. imperialis", and decided to include it as well, without making a connection. His term for "F. imperialis" was "Corona imperialis".  Consequently, Lobelius, in his "Plantarum" (1576), gives Dodoens the credit for describing "F. meleagris". He used the word "Fritillaria" for the first time, describing "F. meleagris", which he considered to belong to the "Lilio-Narcissus" plants, including tulips. The term "Lilio-Narcissus" refers to an appearance of having lily-like flowers, but a narcissus-like bulb. He called it "Fritillaria" (synonyms "Lilio-Narcissus purpurens variegatus" or "Meleagris flos Dodonaei"). Lobelius also included amongst the lilies, but not as "Fritillaria", "Corona imperialis" which he mentions originated in Turkey and added what he referred to as "Lilium persicum" ("Fritillaria persica"). In his later vernacular "Kruydtboeck" (1581) he described two species he considered related, Fritillaria "Lilio-Narcissus purpurens variegatus" and "Lilio-Narcissus variegatus atropurpureus Xanctonicus". He acknowledged that the plant had originally been found near Orleans and then sent to the Netherlands. "Fritillaria is ook een soort van lelie narcis die de oorsprong heeft uit het land van Orléans van waar dat ze gebracht is in Nederland". In his own language he referred to it as "Fritillaria of heel bruin gespikkelde Lelie-Narcisse". He also included "Corona imperialis" and "Lilium persicum" as before.  Dodoens had proposed the name "Meleagris flos" or Guinea-fowl flower, for what we now know as "Fritillaria meleagris", after a resemblance to that bird's spotted plumage, then known as "Meleagris avis". In the seventeenth century, John Parkinson provided an account of twelve species of what he referred to as "Fritillaria" - the checkered daffodil, in his "Paradisus" (1635), correctly placing it as closest to the lilies. He provides his version of Capperon's discovery, and suggests that some feel he should be honoured with the name "Narcissus Caparonium". Often when these exotic new plants entered the English language literature they lacked common names in the language. While Henry Lyte can only describe "F. meleagris" as "Flos meleagris", "Fritillaria" or "lilionarcissus", it appears that it was Shakespeare who applied the common name of "chequered".  Although Clausius had corresponded with Capperon in 1571, he did not publish his account of European flora (other than Spain) till his "Rariorum Pannoniam" of 1583, where he gives an account of Capperon's discovery, noting the names, Fritillaria, Meleagris and Lilium variegatum. However he did not consider "F. imperialis" or "F. persica" to be related, calling both of them "Lilium", "Lilium persicum" and "Lilium susianum" respectively.

Post-Linnaean.

Although the first formal description is attributed to Joseph Pitton de Tournefort in 1694, by convention, the first valid formal description is by Linnaeus, in his "Species Plantarum" (1753). Therefore, the botanical authority is given as "Tourn. ex L.". Linnaeus identified five known species of "Fritillaria", and grouped them in his "Hexandria Monogynia" (six stamens+one pistil), his system being based on sexual characteristics. These characteristics defined the core group of the family Liliaceae for a long time. Linnaeus' original species were "F. imperialis", "F. regia" (now "Eucomis regia"), "F. persica", "F. pyrenaica" and "F. meleagris". The family Liliaceae was first described by Michel Adanson in 1763, placing "Fritillaria" in section Lilia of that family, but also considering "Imperialis" as a separate genus to "Fritillaria", together with five other genera. The formal description of the family is attributed to Antoine Laurent de Jussieu in 1789, who included eight genera, including "Imperialis", in his Lilia.  Although the circumscription of Liliaceae and its subdivisions have undergone considerable revision over the ensuing centuries, the close relationship between "Fritillaria" and "Lilium" the type genus of the family, have ensured that the former has remained part of the core group, which constitutes the modern much-reduced family. For instance, Bentham and Hooker (1883), placed "Fritillaria" and "Lilium" in Liliaceae tribe Tulipeae, together with five other genera.

Phylogeny.

"Fritillaria" is generally considered a monophyletic genus, placed within the tribe Lilieae "s.s.", where it is a sister group to "Lilium" and the largest member of that tribe. The evolutionary and phylogenetic relationships between the genera currently included in Liliaceae are shown in the following Cladogram:  More recently, some larger phylogenetic studies of Lilieae, "Lilium" and "Fritillaria" have suggested that "Fritillaria" may actually consist of two distinct biogeographical clades (A and B), and that these are in a polytomous relationship with "Lilium". This could mean that "Fritillaria" is actually two distinct genera, suggesting that the exact relationship is not yet fully resolved.

Subdivision.

The large number of species have traditionally been divided into a number of subgroupings. By 1828, Duby in his treatment of the Flora of France, recognized two subgroups, which he called section "Meleagris" and section "Petilium". By 1874, Baker had divided 55 species into ten subgenera:  In the 1880s, both Bentham and Hooker (1883) and Boissier (1884) independently simplified this by reducing nine of these subgenera to five, which they treated as sections rather than subgenera. Bentham and Hooker, who recognized more than 50 species, transferred the tenth of Baker's subgenera, "Notholirion" to "Lilium". Boissier, by contrast, in his detailed account of oriental species, recognized "Notholirion" as a separate genus, whose status has been maintained since ("see cladogram"). He also divided "Eufritillaria" into subsections.  In the post-Darwinian era, Komarov (1935) similarly segregated "Rhinopetalum" and "Korolkowia" as separate genera, but Turrill and Sealy (1980) more closely followed Boissier, but further divided "Eufritillaria" and placed all American species in "Liliorhiza". However, the best known and cited of these classification schemes based on plant morphology is that of Martyn Rix, produced by the Fritillaria Group of the Alpine Garden Society in 2001. This listed 165 taxa grouped into 6 subgenera, 130 species, 17 subspecies, and 9 varieties. Rix, who described eight subgenera in all, restored both "Rhinopetalum" and "Korolkowia" as subgenera. He also used series to further subdivide subgenera, kept Boissier's four sections, renamed "Eufritillaria" as "Fritillaria", and added subgenera "Davidii" and "Japonica". The largest of these is "Fritillaria", while "Theresia", "Korolkowia" and "Davidii" are monotypic (containing a single species).  Baker based his classification on the characteristics of the bulb, style, nectary and capsule valves. The large nectaries of "Fritillaria" have been the focus of much of the morphological classification, while the distinct form of the nectaries in "Rhinopetalum" were the basis for considering it a separate genus.

Molecular phylogenetics.

The development of molecular phylogenetics and cladistic analysis has allowed a better understanding of the infrageneric relationships of "Fritillaria" species. Initial studies showed the major infrageneric split to be by biogeographic region into two clades, North America (clade A) and Eurasia (clade B). Clade A corresponded most closely with subgenus "Liliorhiza".  A subsequent study by Rønsted and colleagues (2005), using an expanded pool of taxa of 37 species including all of Rix's subgenera and sections, confirmed the initial split on the basis of geography and supported the broad division of the genus into Rix's eight subgenera but not the deeper relationships (sections and series). Clade A corresponds with subgenus "Liliorhiza" centred in California, but a number of species ("F. camschatcensis" - Japan and Siberia), "F. maximowiczii" and "F. dagana" - Russia) are also found in Western Asia. These Asian species form a grade with the true North American species, suggesting an origin in Asia followed by later dispersal. Of clade B, the Eurasian species, the largest subgenus, "Fritillaria", appeared to be polyphyletic in that "F. pallidiflora" appeared to segregate in subclade B1, with subgenera "Petillium", "Korolkowia" and "Theresia" while all other species formed a clade within B2.  The phylogenetic, evolutionary and biogeographical relationships between the subgenera are shown in this cladogram:  The number of taxa sampled was subsequently enlarged to 92 species (66% of all species), and all species in each subgenus except "Rhinopetalum" (80%), "Liliorhiza" and "Fritillaria" (60%). This expanded study further resolved the evolutionary relationships between the subgenera but also confirmed the polyphyletic nature of subgenus "Fritillaria" as shown in the following cladogram. The majority of taxa within this subgenus ("Fritillaria" 2) form a subclade centred in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, but with some species ranging into China. The remainder ("Fritillaria" 1), being centred in China and Central Asia, but with some species ranging into North and South Asia. This group is therefore probably a separate subgenus.

Species.

The genus "Fritillaria" includes about 150 subordinate taxa, including species and subspecies. Estimates of the number of species vary from about 100 through 130–140. The Plant List (2013) includes 141 accepted species names, and 156 taxa in total.

Biogeography and evolution.

It is likely that two invasions across the Bering Straits to North America took place within the Lileae, one in each genus, "Lilium" and "Fritillaria". Within the Eurasian clade, the two subclades differ in bulb type. In subclade B2 ("Fritillaria", "Rhinopetalum", and "Japonica"), the bulb type is described as Fritillaria-type, with 2–3 fleshy scales and the tunica derived from the remnants of previous year's scales. by contrast subclade B2 ("Petilium", "Theresia" and "Korolkowia") differ. Those of "Theresia" and "Korolkowia" are large, consisting of a single large fleshy scale, while "Petilium" species have several large erect imbricate scales. In "Liliorhiza" the bulbs are naked and have numerous scales similar to "Lilium", but with numerous "rice-grain bulbils". The location of the bulbils differ from the more common aerial pattern of arising from within the axil of a leaf or inflorescence, as in "Lilium" and "Allium". Similar bulbils are also found in "Davidii". These bulbils arise in the axils of the scale leaves. Bulbils confer an evolutionary advantage in vegetative propagation.

Etymology.

When Noël Capperon, an Orléans apothecary, discovered "F. meleagris" growing in the Loire meadows in 1570, he wrote to Carolus Clusius, describing it, and saying that it was known locally as "fritillaria", supposedly because the checkered pattern on the flower resembled the board on which checkers was played. Clusius believed this to be an error, in that is actually the Latin name for the box in which the dice used in the game were kept, not the board itself.  Some North American species are called "mission bells".

Distribution and habitat.

"Fritillaria" are distributed in most temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere, from western North America, through Europe, the Mediterranean, Middle East and Central Asia to China and Japan. Centres of diversity include Turkey (39 species) and the Zagros Mountains of Iran (14–15 species). Iran is al so the centre of diversity of species such as "F. imperialis" and "F. persica". There are five areas of particularly active evolution and clustering of species - California, Mediterranean Greece and Turkey, Anatolia and the Zagros mountains, central Asia from Uzbekistan to western Xinjiang and the eastern Himalayas in southwestern China. "Fritillaria" species are found in a wide variety of climatic regions and habitats, but about half of them show a preference for full sun in open habitats.  A number of "Fritillaria" are widely introduced. Cultivated fritillaries ("F. meleagris") have been recorded in British gardens since 1578, but only in the wild since 1736, it is likely to be introduced, rather than be endemic. It is greatly diminished there due to loss of habitat, although persistent along the River Thames in Oxfordshire. "F. imperialis" was introduced into Europe around the 1570s around the 1570s, with Ulisse Aldrovandi sending a drawing to Francesco de' Medici in Florence, famed for his gardens at Villa di Pratolino in 1578. His friend Jacopo Ligozzi (1547–1627) was also including it in his paintings, as well as "F. persica". In Britain, "F. imperialis" was first seen in the London garden of James Nasmyth, surgeon to King James I in April 1605.

Ecology.

The majority of species are spring-flowering. Lily beetles (scarlet lily beetle, "Lilioceris lilii" and "Lilioceris chodjaii") feed on fritillaries, and may become a pest where these plants are grown in gardens or commercially.  Fritillaria are entomophilous (insect pollinated). Those species with large nectaries (4–12 x 1–4 mm) and have more fructose than glucose in the nectar are most commonly pollinated by wasps, while those with smaller nectaries (2–10 x 1–2 mm) and a more balanced nectar composition are most commonly pollinated by bumblebees.

Conservation.

A number of species of Fritillaria are endangered, from over-harvesting, habitat fragmentation, over-grazing and international demand for herbals. These include many species in Greece, and "Fritillaria gentneri" in the pacific Northwest of North America. In Japan, five of the eight endemic species (subgenus "Japonica") are listed as endangered. In China, the collection of "Fritillaria" bulbs to make traditional medicine, particularly "F. cirrhosa" from southwest China and the eastern Himalayas of Bhutan and Nepal and one of the most intensively harvested of the alpine medicinal plants threatens extinction.  In Iran, "F. imperialis" and "F. persica" are endangered and "F. imperialis" is protected. The genus is threatened by irregular grazing, change in pasture usage, pest (primarily "Lilioceris chodjaii") migration from pasture destruction, and harvesting by poor people for sale to florists.

Toxicity.

Most fritillaries contain poisonous steroidal alkaloids such as imperialin in the bulbs and some may even be deadly if ingested in quantity.

Uses.

The bulbs of a few species, such as "F. affinis", "F. camschatcensis", and "F. pudica", are edible if prepared carefully. They were commonly eaten by indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest coast of North America. The wild species flowering in areas such as Iran have become important for ecotourism, when in late May people come to the Valley of Roses, near Chelgerd, to see "F. imperialis" blooming. The area is also rich in "F. reuteri" and "F. gibbosa".

Horticulture.

Species of "Fritillaria" are becoming increasingly popular as ornamental garden plants, and many species and cultivars are commercially available. They are usually grown from dormant bulbs planted in Autumn. As perennials they repeat flower every year, and some species will increase naturally. While "Fritillaria" is mainly harvested from the wild fields for commercial use, the growing price of the herbal product results in over-exploitation and puts the species at risk of depletion.  The following may be most commonly found in cultivation:-

Traditional medicine.

Species of "Fritillaria" have been used in traditional medicine in China for over 2,000 years, and are one of the most widely used medicines today. The production of medicines from "F. cirrhosa" is worth US$400 million per annum. Although some are cultivated for this purpose, most are gathered in the wild. In recent years demand has increased leading to over-harvesting of wild populations. In addition to China, "Fritillaria" products are used medicinally in the Himalayas, including India, Nepal and Pakistan, as well as Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia. To meet the demand additional countries such as Turkey and Burma are involved in the collection. The products are used mainly as antitussives, expectorants, and antihypertensives. The active ingredients are thought to be isosteroidal and steroidal alkaloid compounds. Chinese sources suggest 16 species as source material, but this may be an overestimate due to the large number of synonyms in Chinese. Of these, 15 are in subgenus "Fritillaria" (both subclades), but one ("F. anhuiensis") is in subgenus "Liliorhiza". "F. imperialis" also has a long history of medicinal usage in China and Iran.  Fritillaria extracts (fritillaria in English, "bulbus fritillariae cirrhosae" in Latin) are used in traditional Chinese medicine under the name "chuan bei mu" (literally "Shell mother from Sichuan", or just "beimu"). Species such as "F. cirrhosa", "F. thunbergii" and "F. verticillata" are used in cough remedies. They are listed as "chuān bèi" () or "zhè bèi" (Chinese: 浙貝/浙贝), respectively, and are often in formulations combined with extracts of loquat ("Eriobotrya japonica"). "Fritillaria verticillata" bulbs are also traded as "bèi mǔ" or, in Kampō, "baimo" (Chinese/Kanji: 貝母, Katakana: バイモ). In one study fritillaria reduced airway inflammation by suppressing cytokines, histamines, and other compounds of inflammatory response.

Popular culture.

Shakespeare, Matthew Arnold and George Herbert and more recently Vita Sackville-West ("The Land" 1927) wrote romantically about fritillaries. Fritillaries were also a favourite of the Dutch flower painters that emerged around 1600, such as Ambrosius Bosschaert and Jacob de Gheyn II, and appeared in Italian art, such as that of Jacopo Ligozzi in the late sixteenth century.  Fritillaries are commonly used as floral emblems. "F. meleagris" (snake's head fritillary) is the county flower of Oxfordshire, UK, and the provincial flower of Uppland, Sweden, where it is known as "kungsängslilja" ("Kungsängen lily"). In Germany, "F. meleagris" appears as a heraldic device in a number of municipalities, such as Hetlingen, Seestermühe and Winseldorf, and also in Austria (Großsteinbach).  In Croatia this species is known as "kockavica", and the checkerboard pattern of its flowers may have inspired the "šahovnica" pattern on the nation's coat of arms. "F. camschatcensis" (Kamchatka fritillary) is the floral emblem of Ishikawa Prefecture and Obihiro City in Japan. Its Japanese name is "kuroyuri" (クロユリ), meaning "dark lily". "Fritillaria montana" is the floral emblem of Giardino Botanico Alpino di Pietra Corva, a botanical garden in Italy.

Fritillaria (fritillaries) is a genus of spring flowering herbaceous bulbous perennial plants in the lily family (Liliaceae). The type species, "Fritillaria meleagris", was first described in Europe in 1571, while other species from the Middle East and Asia were also introduced to Europe at that time. The genus has about 130–140 species divided among eight subgenera. The flowers are usually solitary, nodding and bell-shaped with bulbs that have fleshy scales, resembling those of lilies. They are known for their large genome size and genetically are very closely related to lilies. They are native to the temperate regions of the Northern hemisphere, from the Mediterranean and North Africa through Eurasia and southwest Asia to western North America. Many are endangered due to enthusiastic picking.

Řebčík ("Fritillaria") je rod jednoděložných rostlin z čeledi liliovité v užším pojetí ("Liliaceae" s. str.). Někteří autoři (např. Dostál 1989) z něho vydělují menší rod "Petilium" J. St.-Hill., česky komonka. Tento článek pojednává o rodu řebčík v širším pojetí ("Fritillaria" s.l.) včetně rodu "Petilium".