Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

148 results found

Svoboda, Ludvík

(Encyclopedia)Svoboda, Ludvík lo͝odˈvĕk svôˈbôdä [key], 1895–1979, Czechoslovak general and political leader. Svoboda served in the Czech Legion in World War I and became an officer (1922) in the army of ...

Björling, Jussi

(Encyclopedia)Björling, Jussi yo͞osˈsĭ byörˈlĭng [key], 1911–60, Swedish tenor. He studied at the Royal Opera School in Stockholm, making his debut there in 1930 as Don Ottavio in Mozart's Don Giovanni. He...

George of Podebrad

(Encyclopedia)George of Podebrad pôdˈyĕbrät [key], 1420–71, king of Bohemia (1458–71). A Bohemian nobleman, he became leader of the Utraquists, or the moderate Hussites, in the wars between Hussites and Cat...

George William

(Encyclopedia)George William, 1597–1640, elector of Brandenburg (1619–40). Mild and irresolute, he was a Calvinist, yet he ruled a Lutheran people. He failed to turn the strategic position of Brandenburg to adv...

Bürgi, Joost

(Encyclopedia)Bürgi, Joost or Jost, 1552–1632, Swiss mathematician and instrument maker. As the official clockmaker (1579–92) to Duke Wilhelm IV of Hesse-Kassell, he developed the first clock with a minute han...

Mach, Ernst

(Encyclopedia)Mach, Ernst ĕrnst mäkh [key], 1838–1916, Austrian physicist and philosopher, b. Moravia. He taught (1864–67) mathematics at Graz and later, until his retirement in 1901, was professor of physics...

Masaryk, Jan

(Encyclopedia)Masaryk, Jan yän mäˈsärĭk [key], 1886–1948, Czechoslovak diplomat, son of Thomas G. Masaryk. He was (1925–38) Czechoslovak minister to Great Britain, and in London he became (1940) foreign mi...

Heym, Stefan

(Encyclopedia)Heym, Stefan hīm [key], 1913–2001, German writer, b. Chemnitz as Helmut Flieg. A Jew, he fled the Nazis (1933), moved to Prague, and settled (1935) in the United States, where he attended the Univ...

Wiesenthal, Simon

(Encyclopedia)Wiesenthal, Simon vēˈsĕntäl [key], 1908–2005, Austrian-Jewish Nazi hunter, b. Butschatsch, Galicia, Austria-Hungary (now Buchach, Ukraine). He received (1932) an architectural engineering degree...

Werfel, Franz

(Encyclopedia)Werfel, Franz fränts vĕrˈfəl [key], 1890–1945, Austrian writer, b. Prague. He expressed his belief in the brotherhood of man in lyric verse, in expressionist and conventional plays, and in novel...