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Theodoric grew up as a hostage in Constantinople, received a privileged education.

Emperor Zeno subsequently gave him the title of Patrician and the office of Magister militum (master of the soldiers), and even appointed him as Roman Consul. In 488, Emperor Zeno ordered Theoderic to overthrow the German Foederatus Odoacer, who had likewise been made patrician and even King of Italy, but who had since betrayed Zeno. After a victorious three-year war, Theoderic killed Odoacer with his own hands, settled his 200,000 to 250,000 people in Italy, and founded an Ostrogothic Kingdom based in Ravenna.

While he promoted separation between the Arian Ostrogoths and the Roman population, Theoderic stressed the importance of racial harmony, though intermarriage was outlawed. Seeking to restore the glory of Ancient Rome, he ruled Italy in its most peaceful and prosperous period since Valentinian, until his death in 526.

Theodoric is remembered as a patron of learning. His court fostered such scholars as Cassiodorus, whose diplomatic correspondence in the name of the king is marked by ornate Latin and contains letters addressed to all variety of officials, from low-level military and bureaucratic functionaries to Emperors and kings such as Clovis. The philosopher Boethius was also a court treasure and friend of the king.

Throughout his reign, Theodoric put much effort into building and restoration throughout Italy, but particularly in Ravenna, his capital. Several buildings built by Theodoric, including the church of San Apollinaire, famed for its mosaics, stand to this day.

On a hill above the town of Coburg, in the Upper Franconia, Veste Coburg is one of the largest castles in Germany. The hill overlooked the important trade route from Nuremberg via Erfurt to Leipzig.

The Imperial Abbey in Saalfeld, Thuringia founded in 1071 was administered from Coburg.

From 1225, the town was controlled by the Dukes of Merania, followed in 1248 by the Counts of Henneberg, who ruled Coburg until 1353, except from 1292 to 1312, when the House of Anhalt was in charge.

The castle passed to the House of Wettin with the marriage of Catherine of Henneberg and became their outpost in Franconia.

During the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, Martin Luther spent six months at the castle, while the Elector of Saxony attended the Diet. Luther was forbidden to attend by the Elector, who feared that he would be imprisoned and burned as a heretic. While at the castle, Luther continued with his translation of the Bible into German.

Leopold Frederick was born Prince of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and become the King of Belgium in 1831. Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha married his first cousin, Queen Victoria in 1840. After her marriage, Queen Victoria said of Coburg:

“If I were not who I am, this would have been my real home, but I shall always consider it my second one.”

Queen Victoria made six visits to Coburg during her 63-year reign. A visit in 1894 brought together Queen Victoria, her son Edward (future Edward VII), her second son Alfred (Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha), her daughter the German dowager Empress Friedrich (Victoria), and many of her grandchildren, including Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, and the future King George V of Britain.

In a November 1919 referendum, the locals voted to join Bavaria with an 88% majority. On 1 July 1920, Coburg became part of the new state of Bavaria.

Queen Elizabeth II has accepted a gift of a Christmas tree from her great-grandfather’s ancestral lands near Coburg.

Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the husband of Queen Victoria, is said to have imported the Christmas tree tradition to England.

Legend has it that Martin Luther, the religious reformer, invented the Christmas tree.

One winter’s night in 1536, Luther was walking through a pine forest near his home in Wittenberg when he suddenly looked up and saw thousands of stars glinting jewel-like among the branches of the trees. This wondrous sight inspired him to set up a candle-lit fir tree in his house that Christmas to remind his children of the starry heavens from whence their Saviour came.

By 1605 decorated Christmas trees had made their appearance in Strasburg. That year an anonymous writer recorded how at Yuletide the inhabitants ‘set up fir trees in the parlours … and hang thereon roses cut out of many-coloured paper, apples, wafers, gold-foil, sweets, etc.’

Source: Windsor: A christmas tree for the queen | All media content | DW.COM | 20.11.2016

The legend of the ford of the Franks

About 146 CE a Frankish king established a fort where the river was shallow enough to be crossed on foot. The name is derived from Franconofurd, the tribe of the Franks and Furt (cf. English ‘ford’)

Frankonovurd (in Old High German) or Vadum Francorum (in Latin) were the first names mentioned in written records from 794, when Charlemagne presided over an imperial assembly and church synod. Transformed to Frankenfort during the Middle Ages and then to Franckfort and Franckfurth in the modern era. By the 19th century, the name Frankfurt had been established as the official spelling.

The suffix ‘am Main’ has been used regularly since the 14th century. In English, the city’s full name of Frankfurt am Main means ‘Frankfurt on the Main’ (pronounced like English ‘mine’ or German mein). Frankfurt is located on an ancient ford (German: Furt) on the Main River. As a part of early Franconia, the inhabitants were the early Franks, thus the city’s name reveals its legacy as “the ford of the Franks on the Main”.

Among English speakers, the city is commonly known simply as Frankfurt, but Germans occasionally call it by its full name to distinguish it from the other (significantly smaller) German city of Frankfurt an der Oder

making a difference

It is not enough to know, you must also use the knowledge; it is not enough to wish, you must also act… Thinking in order to act, acting in order to think, that is the sum of all wisdom.

Closing the Gap in a Generation.

Is a statement that we have in our heads the knowledge to close the gap in a generation; we have in our hands the means to close the gap in a generation; the question is what do we have in our hearts. Do we have the will to close the gap in a generation?

Creating the conditions for individuals to take control over their lives will enable social flourishing of all members of society.

Professor Sir Michael Marmot’s evidence-based optimism is fuelled by examples, from round the world, of actions that make a difference to health inequalities. We need government action but action by communities, too.

Sir Michael is the President of the World Medical Association, Director of the Institute of Health Equity and a leading researcher on health inequality issues for more than three decades playing a central role in research projects studying health equity.

Source: Social justice and health: making a difference