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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...

Broch, Hermann

(Encyclopedia)Broch, Hermann hĕrˈmän brôkh [key], 1886–1951, Austrian novelist. Broch is one of the masters of European modernism. Influenced by Immanuel Kant and Ludwig Wittgenstein, Karl Kraus, and the Vien...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...