For the village in Azerbaijan, see Kültəpə.

Coordinates: 38°51′N 35°38′E / 38.85°N 35.633°E / 38.85; 35.633 Kültepe (Turkish: Ash Hill) is a modern village near the ancient city of Kaneš or Kanesh (Hittite: Neša, occasionally Anisa), located in the Kayseri Province of Turkey's Central Anatolia Region. The nearest modern city to Kültepe is Kayseri, about 20 km southwest.

Kültepe
Kültepe Location in Turkey
Coordinates: 38°51′00″N 35°38′00″E / 38.85°N 35.6333333°E / 38.85; 35.6333333

History[link]

Kaneš, inhabited continuously from the Chalcolithic period to Roman times, flourished as an important Hattic/Hittite/Hurrian city, which contained a large merchant quarter (kârum) of the Old Assyrian kingdom, from ca. 20th to 16th centuries BC. A late (c 1400 BC) witness to an old tradition includes a king of Kaneš called Zipani among seventeen local city-kings who rose up against the Akkadian Naram-Sin (ruled c.2254-2218 BC).^[1] It is the site of discovery of the earliest traces of the Hittite language, and the earliest attestation of any Indo-European language, dated to the 20th century BC. The native term for the Hittite language was nešili "language of Neša".

Kaneša[link]

The king of Zalpuwa, Uhna, raided Kanes, after which the Zalpuwans carried off the city's "Sius" idol. Pithana, the king of Kussara, conquered level Ia Neša "in the night, by force", but "did not do evil to anyone in it." Neša revolted against the rule of Pithana's son, Anitta, but Anitta quashed the revolt and made Neša his capital. Anitta further invaded Zalpuwa, captured its king Huzziya, and recovered the Sius idol for Neša.^[2]

In the 17th century BC, Anitta's descendents moved their capital to Hattusa (which Anitta had cursed), thus founding the line of Hittite kings. These people named their language Nešili, "the language of Neša".

Archaeology of Kültepe[link]

In 1925, Bedřich Hrozný excavated Kultepe and found over 1000 cuneiform tablets, some of which ended up in Prague and some in Istanbul. ^{[3] [4]} Modern archaeological work began in 1948 when Kültepe was excavated by a team from the Turkish Historical Society and the General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums. The team was led by Tahsin Özgüç until his death in 2005. ^[5]

• Level IV-III. Little excavation has been done for these levels, which represent the kârum's first habitation (Mellaart 1957). No writing is attested, and archaeologists assume that both levels' inhabitants were illiterate.
• Level II, 1974 BC - 1836 BC (Mesopotamian Middle Chronology according to Veenhof). Craftsmen of this time and place specialized in earthen drinking vessels, in the shapes of animals, that were often used for religious rituals. During this period, Assyrian merchants established a merchant colony (kârum) attached to the city, which was called "Kaneš". Bullae of Naram-Sin of Eshnunna have been found toward the end of this level (Ozkan 1993), which was burned to the ground.
• Level Ib, 1798 BC - 1740 BC. After an interval of abandonment, the city was rebuilt over the ruins of the old and again became a prosperous trade center. This trade was under the control of Ishme-Dagan, who was put in control of Assur when his father, Shamshi-Adad I, conquered Ekallatum and Assur. However, the colony was again destroyed by fire.
• Level Ia. The city was reinhabited, but the Assyrian colony was no longer inhabited. The culture was early Hittite. Its name in Hittite became "Kaneša", but was more commonly contracted to "Neša".

Some attribute Level II's burning to the conquest of the city of Assur by the kings of Eshnunna; but Bryce blames it on the raid of Uhna. Some attribute Level Ib's burning to the fall of Assur, to other nearby kings, and, eventually, to Hammurabi of Babylon. To date, over 20,000 cuneiform tablets have been recovered from the site. ^[6][7]

Kârum Kaneš[link]

The quarter of the city that most interests historians is the Kârum Kaneš, "merchant-colony city of Kaneš" in Assyrian. During the Bronze Age in this region, the Kârum was a portion of the city that was set aside by local officials for the early Assyrian merchants to use without paying taxes, as long as the goods remained inside the kârum. The term kârum means "port" in Akkadian, the lingua franca of the time, although it was extended to refer to any trading colony whether or not it bordered water .

Several other cities in Anatolia also had kârum, but the largest was Kaneš. This important kârum was inhabited by soldiers and merchants from Assyria for hundreds of years, who traded local tin and wool for luxury items, foodstuffs and spices, and, woven fabrics from the Assyrian homeland and from Elam.

The remains of the kârum form a large circular mound 500m in diameter and about 20m above the plain (a Tell). The kârum settlement is the result of several superimposed stratigraphic periods. New buildings were constructed on top of the remains of the earlier periods; thus, there is a deep stratigraphy from prehistoric times to the early Hittite period.

The kârum was destroyed by fire at the end of both levels II and Ib. The inhabitants left most of their possessions behind to be found by modern archaeologists.

The findings have included numerous baked-clay tablets, some 0f which were enclosed in clay envelopes stamped with cylinder seals. The documents record common activities such as trade between the Assyrian colony and the city state of Assur and between Assyrian merchants and local people. The trade was run by families rather than by the state. These Kültepe texts are the oldest documents from Anatolia. Although they are written in Old Assyrian, the Hittite loanwords and names in these texts constitute the oldest record of any Indo-European language (see also Ishara). Most of the archaeological evidence is typical of Anatolia rather than of Assyria, but the use of both cuneiform and the dialect is the best indication of Assyrian presence.

Dating of the Waršama Sarayi[link]

At Level II, the destruction was so total that no wood survived for dendrochronological studies. In 2003, researchers from Cornell University dated wood in level Ib from the rest of the city (which was built centuries earlier). The dendrochronologists date the bulk of the wood from buildings of the Waršama Sarayi to 1832 BC, with further refurbishments up to 1779 BC.^[8]

See also[link]

Ancient Near East portal

• Cities of the ancient Near East
• Short chronology timeline
• Tahsin Özgüç

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Tahsin Özgüç, Kültepe, Yapi Kredi, 2005, ISBN 975-08-0960-2
• KR Veenhof, Kanesh: an Old Assyrian colony in Anatolia, in Civilizations of the Ancient Near East ed. by J. Sasson, Scribners, 1995
• J Mellaart, Anatolian Chronology in the Early and Middle Bronze Age, 1957, Anatolian Studies, vol.7, pp.55-88

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kanes

• Cuneiform tablet case - Metropolitan Museum of Art
• kultepe.org.tr
• Kultepe article at Turkish Airlines

v t e Ancient settlements in Turkey Aegean Aegae Aizanoi Alabanda Alinda Allianoi Amorium Amyzon Antioch on the Maeander Apamea in Phrygia Aphrodisias Apollonia in Mysia Atarneus Bargylia Beycesultan Caloe Caryanda Celaenae Ceramus Colophon Cyme Didyma Docimium Ephesus Erythrae Euromus Gambrion Gryneion Halicarnassus Hierapolis Iasos Karmylissos Kaunos Klazomenai Knidos Labraunda Laodicea on the Lycus Latmus Lebedus Limantepe Magnesia on the Maeander Metropolis Miletus Myndus Myriandrus Myus Notion Nysa Oenoanda Orestias Pepuza Pergamon Perperene Phocaea Pinara Pitane Priene Sardis Sigeion Smyrna Stratonicea in Lydia Stratonicea in Caria Temnos Teos Tymion Black Sea Alaca Höyük Comana in the Pontus Euchaita Hattusa Hüseyindede Tepe Ibora Laodicea Pontica Nerik Nicopolis Pompeiopolis Salatiwara Samuha Sapinuwa Tripolis Yazılıkaya Zaliches Central Anatolia Alişar Hüyük Binbirkilise Çatalhöyük Derbe Dorylaeum Gordium Heraclea Cybistra Irenopolis Kaman-Kalehöyük Kerkenes Kültepe (Kanesh) Laodicea Combusta Mokissos Nyssa Pessinus Purushanda Tavium Tyana Eastern Anatolia Altıntepe Ani Melid Sugunia Tushpa Marmara Aegospotami Alexandria Troas Apamea Myrlea Apollonia on the Rhyndax Apros Assos Cardia Cebrene Chalcedon Cius Cyzicus Drusipara Faustinopolis Germanicopolis Lysimachia Nicomedia Sestos Skepsis Troy (Hisarlik) Mediterranean Alalakh Anazarbus Antigonia Antioch on the Orontes Antioch in Pisidia Antiochia Lamotis Antioch on the Cragus Antioch on the Pyramis Aphrodisias of Cilicia Ariassos Arsinoe Arycanda Aspendos Comana in Cappadocia Corycus (Kızkalesi) Cremna Cyrrhus Domuztepe Elaiussa Sebaste Epiphania Gözlükule Hacilar Irenopolis Issus Kandyba Karatepe Kibyra Mallus Mamure Castle Mezgitkale Mopsuestia Myra Olba Patara Perga Phaselis Rhosus Sagalassos Seleucia in Pamphylia Seleucia Pieria Seleucia Sidera Selge Side Sillyon Soli Sozopolis Tell Tayinat Termessos Tlos Xanthos Yumuktepe Southeastern Anatolia Antioch in the Taurus Antioch in Mesopotamia Apamea on the Euphrates Carchemish Çayönü Dara Edessa Göbekli Tepe Harran Kussara Nevalı Çori Sakçagözü Sam'al Samosata Sareisa Seleucia at the Zeugma Sultantepe Tille Tushhan Zeugma

Jeremy Irons
Irons at the 2011 Berlin Film Festival
Born	Jeremy John Irons (1948-09-19) 19 September 1948 (age 63) Cowes, Isle of Wight, England
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1971–present
Spouse	Julie Hallam (1969) Sinéad Cusack (1978–present)
Children	Samuel, Max

Jeremy John Irons (born 19 September 1948) is an English actor. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969, and has since appeared in many London theatre productions including The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the Shrew, Godspell and Richard II. In 1984, he made his Broadway debut in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing and received a Tony Award for Best Actor.

Irons's first major film role came in the 1981 romantic drama The French Lieutenant's Woman, for which he received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor. After starring in such films as Moonlighting (1982), Betrayal (1983), and The Mission (1986), he gained critical acclaim for portraying twin gynaecologists in David Cronenberg's psychological thriller Dead Ringers (1988). In 1990, Irons played accused murderer Claus von Bulow in Reversal of Fortune, and took home multiple awards including an Academy Award for Best Actor. Other notable films have included The House of the Spirits (1993), The Lion King (1994), Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), Lolita (1997), The Merchant of Venice (2004), Being Julia (2004), Appaloosa (2008), and Margin Call (2011).

Irons has also made several notable appearances on TV. He earned his first Golden Globe Award nomination for his breakout role in the ITV series Brideshead Revisited (1981). In 2006, Irons starred opposite Helen Mirren in the historical miniseries Elizabeth I, for which he received a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Since 2011, he has been starring in the Showtime historical series The Borgias.

In October 2011, he was nominated Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Early life[link]

Irons was born in Cowes, Isle of Wight, the son of Barbara Anne Brereton Brymer (Born Sharpe; 1914–1999), a housewife, and Paul Dugan Irons (1913–1983), an accountant.^[1] His Dundee-born paternal great-great-grandfather was one of the first Metropolitan Policemen, and later a chartist; one of his mother's ancestors had been from County Cork, Ireland and had invented the breakdancing move more commonly known as "the worm" (where Irons lives now).^[2] Irons has a brother, Christopher (born 1943), and a sister, Felicity Anne (born 1944). He was educated at the independent Sherborne School in Dorset, (c. 1962–66). He was the drummer and harmonica player (including a rendition of "Stairway to Heaven" on harmonica) in a four-man school band called the Four Pillars of Wisdom. They performed, in a classroom normally used as a physics lab, for the entertainment of boys compulsorily exiled from their houses for two hours on Sunday afternoons. He was also known within Abbey House as half of a comic duo performing skits on Halloween and at end-of-term House Suppers.

Acting career[link]

Irons trained as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and is now president of its fundraising appeal. He performed a number of plays, and busked on the streets of Bristol, before appearing on the London stage as John the Baptist and Judas opposite David Essex in Godspell, which opened at the Roundhouse on 17 November 1971 before transferring to Wyndham's Theatre playing a total of 1,128 performances.^[3]

Irons was bestowed an Honorary-Life Membership by the University College Dublin Law Society in September 2008, in honour of his contribution to television, film, audio, music and theatre.^[4][5]

Television[link]

He made several appearances on British television, including the children's television series Play Away and as Franz Liszt in the BBC 1974 series Notorious Woman. More significantly he starred in the 13-part adaptation of H.E. Bates' novel Love for Lydia for London Weekend Television (1977), and attracted attention for his key role as the pipe-smoking German student, a romantic pairing with Judi Dench in Harold Pinter's screenplay adaptation of Aidan Higgins' novel Langrishe, Go Down for BBC television (1978).

The role which brought him fame was that of Charles Ryder in the television adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited (1981). Brideshead reunited him with Anthony Andrews, with whom he had appeared in The Pallisers seven years earlier. In the same year he starred in the film The French Lieutenant's Woman opposite Meryl Streep.

Almost as a 'lap of honour' after these major successes, in 1982 he played the leading role of an exiled Polish building contractor, working in the Twickenham area of South West London, in Jerzy Skolimowski's independent film Moonlighting, widely seen on television, a performance which extended his acting range.

In 2005, Irons won both an Emmy award and a Golden Globe award for his supporting role in the TV mini-series, Elizabeth I. A year later Irons was one of the participants in the third series of the BBC documentary series Who Do You Think You Are?^[6][7] In 2008 he played Lord Vetinari in Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic, an adaptation for Sky One.

On 6 November 2008, TV Guide reported he would star as photographer Alfred Stieglitz with Joan Allen as painter Georgia O'Keeffe, in a Lifetime Television O'Keeffe biopic.^[8] Irons also appeared in the documentary for Irish television channel TG4, Faoi Lan Cheoil in which he learned to play the fiddle.

On 12 January 2011, Irons was a guest-star in an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit called "Mask". He played Dr. Cap Jackson, a sex therapist.^[9] He reprised the role on an episode titled "Totem" that ran on 30 March 2011.

Irons stars in the 2011 U.S. premium cable network Showtime's series The Borgias, a highly fictionalized account of the Renaissance dynasty of that name. Irons portrays patriarch Rodrigo Borgia, better known to history as Pope Alexander VI.^[10]

Film[link]

Irons made his film debut in Nijinsky in 1980. He appeared sporadically in films during the 1980s, including the Cannes Palme d'Or winner The Mission in 1986, and in the dual role of twin gynecologists in David Cronenberg's Dead Ringers in 1988. Other films include Danny the Champion of the World (1989), Reversal of Fortune (1990), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, Kafka (1991), Damage (1993), M. Butterfly (1993), The House of the Spirits (1993) appearing again with Glenn Close and Meryl Streep, Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995) co-starring Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson, Bernardo Bertolucci's Stealing Beauty (1996), the 1997 remake of Lolita and as the musketeer Aramis opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in the 1998 film version of The Man in the Iron Mask.

Other roles include the evil wizard Profion in the film Dungeons and Dragons (2000) and Rupert Gould in Longitude (2000). He played the Über-Morlock from the movie The Time Machine (2002). In 2004, Irons played Severus Snape in Comic Relief's Harry Potter parody, "Harry Potter and the Secret Chamberpot of Azerbaijan".

In 2005, he appeared in the films Casanova opposite Heath Ledger, and Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven. He has co-starred with John Malkovich in two movies; The Man in the Iron Mask (1998) and Eragon (2006), though they did not have any scenes together in Eragon.

In 2008, Irons co-starred with Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen in Appaloosa, directed by Harris. In 2011, Irons appeared alongside Kevin Spacey in the thriller Margin Call.^[11]

Theatre[link]

Irons has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company three times in 1976, 1986–87 and 2010.^[12][13] In 1984, Irons made his New York debut and won a Tony Award for his Broadway performance opposite Glenn Close in The Real Thing.

After an absence from the London stage for 18 years, in 2006 he co-starred with Patrick Malahide in Christopher Hampton's stage adaptation of Sándor Márai's novel Embers at the Duke of York's Theatre.^[14]

He made his National Theatre debut playing Harold Macmillan in Never So Good, a new play by Howard Brenton which opened at the Lyttelton on 19 March 2008.^[15][16]

In 2009 Irons appeared on Broadway opposite Joan Allen in the play Impressionism.^[17] The play ran through 10 May 2009 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater.^[17]

Other ventures[link]

Audio[link]

Irons read the audio book recording of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist, the audio book recording of Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita (he had also appeared in the 1997 film version of the novel), and the audio book James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl.

One of his best known film roles has turned out to be lending his distinctive voice to the villain Scar in The Lion King (1994). Irons has since provided voiceovers for three Disney World attractions. He narrated the Spaceship Earth ride, housed in the large geodesic globe at Epcot, from November 1994 to July 2007. He was also the English narrator for the Studio Tram Tour: Behind the Magic at the Walt Disney Studios Park at Disneyland Paris. He also voiced H.G. Wells in the English version of the former Disney attraction The Timekeeper. He also played Scar in Fantasmic.

He is also one of the readers in the 4x CD boxed set of The Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde, produced by Marc Sinden and sold in aid of the Royal Theatrical Fund.^[18][19]

He was originally to star as the Phantom in a 2006 French musical adaptation of Gaston Leroux's novel The Phantom of the Opera, though the project was canceled.^{[citation needed]} He will be the narrator for Val Kilmer and Bill Pullman's brand-new Lewis and Clark movie from Revolution Studios.^{[citation needed]}

He serves as the English-language version of the audio guide for Westminster Abbey in London.

Irons has served as voice-over in two big cat documentary films by National Geographic: Eye of the Leopard, which was released in 2006,^[20] and The Last Lions, which is a 2011 motion-picture, released on 18 February.^[21]

Music[link]

In 1985, Irons directed a music video for Carly Simon and her heavily promoted single, "Tired of Being Blonde". Although the song was not a hit, the video —featuring the fast cutting, parallel narratives and heavy use of stylized visual effects that were a staple of pop videos at the time— received ample attention on MTV and other outlets.

In 1994 Jeremy Irons had a cameo role in the video for Elastica's hit single "Connection". Irons was one of the many naked men sitting down around Elastica as they performed the song. Irons has since claimed that this three-minute slice of nudity was his most enjoyable work to date.

Irons has contributed to other musical performances, recording William Walton's Façade with Dame Peggy Ashcroft, and in 1987 the songs from Lerner and Loewe's My Fair Lady with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, released on the Decca label.

He sang a selection of Noël Coward at the 1999 Last Night of the Proms in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Coward's birth.

In 2003 he played Fredrik Egerman in a New York revival of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music, and two years later appeared as King Arthur in Lerner and Loewe's Camelot at the Hollywood Bowl.

Jeremy Irons also sang the song "Be Prepared" in the movie The Lion King. However, he actually sang only a section of the song after having vocal problems; Jim Cummings finished the last few lines.

Irons performed the Bob Dylan song "Make You Feel My Love" on the 2006 charity album Unexpected Dreams – Songs From the Stars.

In 2009 Irons appeared on the Touchstone album Wintercoast, recording a narrative introduction to the album.^[22] Recording took place in New York City in February 2009 during rehearsals for his Broadway play Impressionism.

Personal life[link]

Irons married Irish actress Sinéad Cusack in March 1978. They have two sons, Samuel James Brefni Irons (16 September 1978), who works as a photographer, and Maximilian Paul Diarmuid Irons (17 October 1985), also an actor, who appeared in the 2006 Burberry fashion campaign^{[citation needed]} and Red Riding Hood. Both of Irons' sons have appeared in films with their father – Sam as the eponymous hero in Danny, Champion of the World and Max in Being Julia. Irons' wife and children are Catholic; of himself, he has stated, "I don’t go to church much because I don’t like belonging to a club, and I don’t go to confession or anything like that, I don’t believe in it. But I try to be aware of where I fail and I occasionally go to services. I would hate to be a person who didn’t have a spiritual side because there’s nothing to nourish you in life apart from retail therapy."^[23]

He has been the patron since 2002 of the Thomley Activity Centre,^[24] an Oxfordshire non-profit activity centre for disabled children. The charity is near his Watlington, Oxfordshire home. Irons owns Kilcoe Castle (which he had painted a rusty pink) in County Cork, Ireland, and has become involved in local politics there. He also has another Irish residence in The Liberties, Dublin. Irons is a patron of the Chiltern Shakespeare Company.^[25] He is a fan of English football club Portsmouth.^[26]

Activism[link]

Charity work[link]

At the 1991 Tony Awards, Irons was one of the few celebrities to wear the recently created red ribbon to support the fight against AIDS, and he was the first celebrity to wear it onscreen.^[27][28] He supports a number of other charities, including The Prison Phoenix Trust, of which he is an active patron.^[29]

Politics[link]

In 1998, Irons and his wife were named in the list of the biggest private financial donors to the Labour Party, a year after their return to government after 18 years in opposition.^[30] In 2004, he publicly declared his support for the Countryside Alliance, referring to the hunting ban as an "outrageous assault on civil liberties".^[31]

In 2010, Irons starred in a promotional video^[32] for “The 1billionhungry project” – a worldwide drive to attract at least one million signatures to a petition calling on international leaders to move hunger to the top of the political agenda.^[33]

Alternative medicine[link]

He has been criticised in the British Medical Journal for his fundraising activities in support of The College of Medicine, an alternative medicine lobby group in the UK linked to Prince Charles.^[34]

Work[link]

Theatre[link]

Following training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre school Irons initially stayed with the company:

• Florizel in The Winter's Tale, Bristol Old Vic 1969
• Simon in Hay Fever (Noël Coward) Bristol Old Vic 1969
• Nick in What the Butler Saw (Joe Orton) Bristol Old Vic 1969
• Major Barbara (Shaw) Bristol Old Vic 1969
• A Servant of Two Masters (Carlo Goldoni) Bristol Old Vic 1969
• Macbeth, Bristol Old Vic 1969
• The Boy Friend (Sandy Wilson) Bristol Old Vic 1969
• As You Like It, Bristol Old Vic 1970
• Oh! What a Lovely War, Little Theatre Bristol 1970
• The School for Scandal (Sheridan) Little Theatre Bristol 1970
• John/Judas in Godspell, Roundhouse and Wyndham's Theatre, November 1971–1973
• The Madman in The Diary of a Madman (Gogol), Act Inn 1973
• Don Pedro in Much Ado About Nothing, Young Vic
• Mick in The Caretaker (Pinter) Young Vic 1974
• Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew, New Shakespeare Company, Roundhouse 1975
• Harry Thunder in Wild Oats (John O'Keefe) RSC Aldwych Theatre, December 1976; RSC Stratford and Piccadilly Theatre 1977
• Jameson in The Rear Column (Simon Gray), Globe Theatre, February 1978 – Clarence Derwent Award
• Henry in The Real Thing (Tom Stoppard) New York 1984 —Tony Award for Best Actor
• Leontes in The Winter's Tale, Royal Shakespeare Theatre Stratford 1986)
• Willmore in The Rover (Aphra Behn) RSC Swan Theatre and Mermaid Theatre 1986
• Richard II in Richard II, RSC Royal Shakespeare Theatre, 1986, Barbican Theatre 1987
• Fredrik Egerman in A Little Night Music (Sondheim) New York, 2003
• Russell in Celebration, a Pinter staged reading, Gate Theatre, Dublin/Albery Theatre, 2005
• Henrik in Embers (Christopher Hampton/Sándor Márai novel) Duke of York's Theatre March 2006
• Harold Macmillan in Never So Good (Howard Brenton) National Theatre Lyttelton, March 2008
• Thomas Buckle in Impressionism (Michael Jacobs) Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre Broadway, March 2009

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jeremy Irons

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Jeremy Irons

• Jeremy Irons at the Internet Broadway Database
• Jeremy Irons at the Internet Movie Database
• Jeremy Irons at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• Jeremy Irons Profile by The Daily Telegraph (13 March 2008)

Heinz Fischer
President of Austria
Incumbent
Assumed office 8 July 2004
Chancellor	Wolfgang Schüssel Alfred Gusenbauer Werner Faymann
Preceded by	Thomas Klestil
Personal details
Born	(1938-10-09) 9 October 1938 (age 73) Graz, Nazi Germany (now Austria)
Political party	Social Democratic Party
Spouse(s)	Margit Binder
Alma mater	University of Vienna

Heinz Fischer, GColIH (German pronunciation: [haɪnts ˈfɪʃɐ]; born 9 October 1938) is the President of Austria. He took office on 8 July 2004 and was re-elected for a second and last term on 25 April 2010. Fischer previously served as Minister of Science from 1983 to 1987 and as President of the National Council of Austria from 1990 to 2002. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ), he suspended his party membership for the duration of his Presidency.^[1][2]

Early life[link]

Fischer was born in Graz, Styria, in what had recently become Nazi Germany following the Anschluss of March 1938. Fischer attended the Gymnasium, focusing on humanities, and taking his Matura exams in 1956. He studied law at the University of Vienna, earning a doctorate in 1961. In 1963 at the age of 25, Fischer, spent a year volunteering at Kibbutz Sarid, northern Israel.^[3] Apart from being a politician, Fischer also pursued an academic career, and became a Professor of Political Science at the University of Innsbruck in 1993.

Political career[link]

Re-election party, 2010-04-25.

Fischer was a member of the Austrian parliament, the National Council, from 1971, and served as its president from 1990 to 2002. From 1983 to 1987 he was Minister of Science in a coalition government headed by Fred Sinowatz.

First term as President[link]

In January 2004 Fischer announced that he would run for President to succeed Thomas Klestil. He was elected on 25 April 2004 as the candidate of the opposition Social Democratic Party. He polled 52.4 per cent of the votes to defeat Benita Ferrero-Waldner, then Foreign Minister in the ruling conservative coalition led by the People's Party.

Fischer was sworn in on 8 July 2004 and took over the office from the college of presidents of the National Council, who had acted for the President following Klestil's death on 6 July.

Apart from labelling him, in a slightly derogatory fashion, a Berufspolitiker ("professional politician") who allegedly has never been in touch with the real world, Fischer's critics, first and foremost his colleague at university, Norbert Leser, point out that Fischer has always avoided controversy and conflict, even when that would have been called for. The example frequently quoted in this context is Fischer's tacit support of Bruno Kreisky's attacks on Simon Wiesenthal. On being nominated for President, Fischer said that he hated antagonising people and that he considered this quality an asset rather than anything else.

Second term as President[link]

In April 2010, Fischer was re-elected as President of Austria, winning a second six-year term in office with almost 79% of the votes with a record-low voter turnout of merely 53.6%.^[4] Around a third of those eligible to vote voted for Fischer, leading the conservative daily Die Presse to describe the election as an "absolute majority for non-voters".^[5] The reasons for the low turnout lay in the facts that pollsters had predicted a safe victory for Fischer (Austrian presidents running for a second term of office have always won) and that the other large party, ÖVP, had not nominated a candidate of their own, and had not endorsed any of the three candidates. Some prominent ÖVP members, inoffically, but in public, even suggested to vote 'null and void', which some 7% of the voters did.

Personal life[link]

Fischer is an agnostic.^[6] Fischer has been married since 1968. The couple has two grown children. Fischer enjoys mountaineering and has been president of the Austrian Friends of Nature for many years.

Honours and Awards[link]

• 1993 Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
• 2004 Grand Star of Honour of the Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria
• 2005 Grand Collar of the Order of Prince Henry^[7]
• 2006 Collane of Merit Sovereign Military Order of Malta
• 2006 Grand Cross of the Order of Collane of the Order of the White Rose of Finland
• 2006 Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of Hungary
• 2007 Grand Cross of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav
• 2007 Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
• 2007 Order of the Seraphim
• 2008 Ring of Honour of the Province of Styria
• 2009 Florianiplakette of the Austrian Federal Fire Association in gold
• 2008 Freedom of the City of Graz
• 2008 Honorary Doctorate of Law Faculty of the University of Tel Aviv
• 2009 Honorary Doctorate from the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences
• 2009 Grand Collar of the Order of Saint James of the Sword^[8]
• 2009 Grand Cross with Golden Chain of the Order of Vytautas the Great^[9]

See also[link]

• List of national leaders
• Politics of Austria

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Heinz Fischer

• Der Österreichische Bundespräsident/The Austrian Federal President (in German)
• Personal website (in German)