Copenhagen

Copenhagen (IPA /ˌkoʊpənˈheɪɡən/;Danish: København [kʰøb̥m̩ˈhɑʊ̯ˀn] ( listen); also known by other alternative names) is the capital and most populated city of Denmark with an urban population of 1,263,698 (as of 1 January 2015) and a metropolitan population of 2,013,009 (as of 1 October 2015). It is situated on the eastern coast of Zealand, 164 km (102 mi) east of Odense and 28 km (17 mi) northwest of Malmö, Sweden. The city itself is divided in several municipalities. The core "Copenhagen Municipality" for example contains the enclave of Frederiksberg, a municipality in its own right.

Ludvig Brandstrup

Ludvig Brandstrup (16 August 1861 – 13 May 1935) was a Danish sculptor. He is remembered above all for his equestrian statue of Christian IX in Esbjerg but was also one of the most competent portraitists of his day.

Early life and education

Born in Tranekær on the Danish island of Langeland, Brandstrup attended Sorø Academy before training for five years as a carpenter with Severin and Andreas Jensen in Copenhagen, after which he spent a year studying in the sculptor Vilhelm Bissen's studio in 1884 where he learnt the art of sculpting marble in the Thorvaldsen style. He then spent a short period at Copenhagen's Technical School from where he entered the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 1885, graduating in 1888.

Career

He first exhibited at the Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition in 1886 before winning the Neuhausen Medal in 1889 for a portrait of Frederik Ludvig Liebenberg. In 1899, he was awarded the Thorvaldsen Medal for the equestrian statue of Christian IX which stands on the central square in Esbjerg. During his journeys to Italy in the early 1990s, he was inspired by the Florentine Renaissance style, especially Donatello's work. The influence of the Classical style can be seen in his Atlante (1903) and Psyke (1921). Brandstrup became one of his generation's best portraitists, often receiving orders from the brewer Carl Jacobsen. His sensitive work includes busts of the artist Vilhelm Kyhn (c. 1889), the art historian Julius Lange (1896), the philosopher Harald Høffding (1900) and a double bust of Carl Jacobsen and his wife Ottilia (1904).

Victoria's Secret

Victoria's Secret is an American designer, manufacturer and marketer of women's premium lingerie, womenswear and beauty products. With 2012 sales of $6.12 billion, it is the largest American retailer of women's lingerie. Victoria's Secret is wholly owned by L Brands, a publicly traded company.

1977: Founding

Victoria's Secret was founded by Tufts University and Stanford Graduate School of Business alumnus Roy Raymond, and his wife Gaye, in San Francisco, California, on June 12, 1977. The original store was in Palo Alto, California, at Stanford Shopping Center. The original store was moved to a larger location within the same center in 1996. The original store was located next to the Ralph Lauren Polo store facing El Camino Real. It had a bay window, one bra wall, one panty wall, one dressing room (the other was used for storage,) and a loft for the manager's office. Above the merchandise walls, on both sides, was a large space with antiques, hat boxes, bust forms, etc. Despite small size of the store, it did a booming business.

South Africa

South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa, is the southernmost sovereign state in Africa. It is bounded on the south by 2,798 kilometers of coastline of southern Africa stretching along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans, on the north by the neighbouring countries of Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, and on the east by Mozambique and Swaziland, and surrounding the kingdom of Lesotho. South Africa is the 25th-largest country in the world by land area, and with close to 53 million people, is the world's 24th-most populous nation. It is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Old World or the Eastern Hemisphere.

South Africa is a multiethnic society encompassing a wide variety of cultures, languages, and religions. Its pluralistic makeup is reflected in the constitution's recognition of 11 official languages, which is among the highest number of any country in the world. Two of these languages are of European origin: Afrikaans developed from Dutch and serves as the first language of most white and coloured South Africans; English reflects the legacy of British colonialism, and is commonly used in public and commercial life, though it is fourth-ranked as a spoken first language.

German-occupied Europe

German–occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were occupied by the military forces of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 and 1945 and administered by the Nazi regime.

Background

Several German occupied countries entered World War II as Allies of the United Kingdom or the Soviet Union. Some were forced to surrender such as Czechoslovakia; others like Poland (invaded on 1 September 1939) were conquered in battle and then occupied. In some cases, the legitimate governments went into exile, in other cases the governments-in-exile were formed by their citizens in other Allied countries. Selected countries occupied by Nazi Germany were officially neutral. Others were former members of the Axis powers that were occupied by German forces at a later stage of the war.

Occupied countries

The countries occupied included all, or most of the following:

See also