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Semper, Gottfried

(Encyclopedia)Semper, Gottfried gôtˈfrēt zĕmˈpər [key], 1803–79, German architect. Semper was among the most influential architects of the 19th cent. In his book Der Stil in den technischen und tektonischen...

Natta, Giulio

(Encyclopedia)Natta, Giulio, 1903–79, Italian chemist, Ph.D. the Polytechnic of Milan, 1924. Natta held brief appointments at several academic institutions, including the Univ. of Pavia (1933–35), the Univ. of ...

Zuckmayer, Carl

(Encyclopedia)Zuckmayer, Carl kärl tso͝okˈmīər [key], 1896–1977, German dramatist. Zuckmayer devoted himself to writing after the success of his comedy Der fröhliche Weinberg [the merry vineyard] (1925). Du...

dialectic

(Encyclopedia)dialectic dīəlĕkˈtĭk [key] [Gr.,= art of conversation], in philosophy, term originally applied to the method of philosophizing by means of question and answer employed by certain ancient philosop...

Anderssen, Adolf

(Encyclopedia)Anderssen, Adolf (Karl Ernst Adolf Anderssen), 1818–79, German chess player, b. Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland). He graduated (1847) from Breslau Univ. and later was a mathematics professor there. An...

Mackinder, Sir Halford John

(Encyclopedia)Mackinder, Sir Halford John hălˈfərd, məkĭnˈdər [key], 1861–1947, English geopolitician. Educated at Oxford (1887–1905), he led in the revival of British geographical learning. He establish...

Pontoppidan, Henrik

(Encyclopedia)Pontoppidan, Henrik hănˈrēk pôntôˈpĭdän [key], 1857–1943, Danish novelist. He shared the 1917 Nobel Prize in Literature with Karl Gjellerup. Pontoppidan devoted himself to engineering, journ...

Berlin, Sir Isaiah

(Encyclopedia)Berlin, Sir Isaiah, 1909–97, English political scientist, b. Riga, Latvia (then in Russia). His family moved to St. Petersburg when he was a boy and emigrated to London in 1921. He was educated at O...

Acosta, Uriel

(Encyclopedia)Acosta, Uriel dä kōˈstä [key], c.1585–1640, Jewish rationalist, b. Oporto, Portugal. His original name was Gabriel da Costa, and his family had been converted to Roman Catholicism. When he reach...

Slatin, Rudolf Carl, Freiherr von

(Encyclopedia)Slatin, Rudolf Carl, Freiherr von päˈshä [key], 1857–1932, Austrian adventurer in British and Egyptian service. Called to Egypt by C. G. Gordon, Slatin became governor of Dara (1879) and governor...