Schleicher Vshll-korV August (b. Feb. 19, 1821, Meiningen, Saxe- Meiningen—d. Dec. 6, 1868, Jena, Prussia) German linguist. He began his career studying classical and Slavic languages. Influenced by G.W.F. Hegel and Charles Darwin, he formed the theory that a language is an organism, with periods of development, maturity, and decline. He invented a system of language classification that resembled a botanical taxonomy, tracing groups of related languages and arranging them in a genealogical tree. His model, the Stammbaumtheorie (“family-tree theory”), was a major development in the study of Indo-European lan¬ guages. His great work was A Compendium of the Comparative Grammar of the Indo-European, Sanskrit, Greek and Latin Languages (1874-77), in which he attempted to reconstruct Proto-Indo-European.
Schleicher, Kurt von (b. April 7, 1882, Brandenburg, Ger.—d. June 30, 1934, Berlin) German army officer and last chancellor of the Weimar Republic. A career army officer, he rose to major general by 1929 and became a key figure in the Weimar Republic. His political intrigues helped secure for him the posts of defense minister (1932) and chancellor (1932— 33). Seeking to keep the Nazis under the army’s control, he offered to participate in a government with Adolf Hitler, but Hitler refused him and
thereafter regarded Schleicher as his chief enemy. Dismissed by Paul von Hindenburg in favour of Hitler,
Schleicher was murdered during the Night of the Long Knives.
Schleiden Vshll-donV Mathias Jacob (b. April 5, 1804, Hamburg,
Ger.—d. June 23, 1881, Frankfurt am Main) German botanist. Trained as a lawyer, he soon left the profes¬ sion to study natural science. He and Theodor Schwann developed the cell theory, which states that organisms are composed of cells or substances made by cells; they were thus the first to formulate what was then an informal belief as a principle of biol¬ ogy equal in importance to the atomic theory of chemistry. He also recognized the importance of the cell nucleus and sensed its connection with cell division. He was one of the first German biologists to accept Charles Darwin’s theory of evolu¬ tion.
Schleiermacher Vshli-or-.mak- or\, Friedrich (Ernst Daniel) (b.
Nov. 21, 1768, Breslau, Silesia,
Prussia—d. Feb. 12, 1834, Berlin)
German theologian, preacher, and classical philologist. A member of the clergy from 1796, he taught at the University of Berlin from 1810 to his death. In On Religion (1799), he con¬ tended that the Romantics were not as far from religion as they thought.
In 1817 he helped unite Prussia’s Lutheran and Reformed churches.
His major work, The Christian Faith (1821-22), is a systematic interpre¬ tation of Christian dogmatics. His work influenced theology through the 19th and early 20th centuries; he is generally recognized as the founder of modern Protestant theology.
Schlesinger Vshla-ziq-or, 'shle-sin-jorV, Arthur M(eier), and Schlesinger, Arthur M(eier), Jr. (respectively b. Feb. 27, 1888, Xenia, Ohio, U.S.—d. Oct. 30, 1965, Boston, Mass.; b. Oct. 15, 1917, Columbus, Ohio) U.S. historians. The elder Schlesinger taught at Harvard University for three decades beginning in 1924. He helped to broaden the study of U.S. history by emphasizing social and urban developments. His books include The Colonial Merchants and the American Revolution, 1763-1776 (1917) and Rise of the City, 1878-1898 (1933), and he coed¬ ited (with Dixon Ryan Fox) the series A History of American Life (1928— 43). His son taught at Harvard (1946-61) and the City University of New York (1966-95). Long active in liberal politics, he was an adviser to Adlai Stevenson and John F. Kennedy during their presidential campaigns and served as Kennedy’s special assistant. His books include The Age of Jack- son (1946, Pulitzer Prize), The Age of Roosevelt, 3 vol. (1957-60), A Thousand Days (1965, National Book Award, Pulitzer Prize), The Impe¬ rial Presidency (1973), and The Cycles of American History (1986).
Schlesinger, John (Richard) (b. Feb. 16, 1926, London, Eng.—d. July 25, 2003, Palm Springs, Calif., U.S.) British film and theatre direc¬ tor. He worked as an actor before becoming a documentary director for BBC television, where he won praise for his Terminus (1960). His fea¬ ture films A Kind of Loving (1962) and Billy Liar (1963) were caustic depictions of English urban life. The successful Darling (1965) mocked the shallowness of the jet set, and he followed it with Far from the Mad¬ ding Crowd (1967). His first American film, Midnight Cowboy (1969), won him an Academy Award. His later films include Sunday Bloody Sun¬ day (1971), Marathon Man (1976), Madame Sousatzka (1988), Cold Comfort Farm (1995), and The Next Best Thing (2000).
Kurt von Schleicher, 1932
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Schleswig-Holstein ► Schnabel I 1699
Schleswig-Holstein Vshlas-.vik-'hol-.shtlnN Historical area and state (pop., 2002 est.: 2,804,249), northwestern Germany. With an area of 6,073 sq mi (15,729 sq km), the state occupies the southern half of the Jutland Peninsula and includes Fehmam Island in the Baltic Sea and various islands in the Frisian Islands group. Its capital is Kiel. From the 15th cen¬ tury the former duchies of Schleswig and Holstein were subject to the claims and counterclaims of Denmark, Sweden, the Holy Roman Empire, Prussia, and Austria. The Danes ceded them to Prussia and Austria in 1864, and in 1866 both areas became part of Prussia (see Schleswig- Holstein Question). The northern part of Schleswig was awarded to Den¬ mark in 1920. The German part of Schleswig-Holstein was organized as a state of West Germany after World War II. Industries include shipbuild¬ ing, electrical engineering, paper, textiles, clothing, and tourism.
Schleswig-Holstein Question Vshles-.wig-'hol-.stlnX Conflict between Denmark and Prussia over Schleswig-Holstein. In the 1840s the Danish-speaking population of northern Schleswig, supported by the Dan¬ ish government, wanted to detach Schleswig from Holstein and incorpo¬ rate it with Denmark, whereas the German-speaking majority of the two duchies wanted to combine them as a state within the German Confed¬ eration. An 1848 uprising by Germans in the region was aided by the Prussian army in a war that ousted Denmark’s troops (1848-51). The agreements of 1851-52 restored the region’s status quo. In 1863 a renewed attempt by Denmark to annex Schleswig caused Prussia and Austria to declare war in 1864. After the Danish defeat at Dybbpl and the occupation of Jutland, Denmark was forced to surrender all of Schleswig- Holstein to Prussia and Austria.
Schlieffen Plan Vshle-f3n\ Plan of attack used by the German armies at the outbreak of World War I. It was named after its developer, Count Alfred von Schlieffen (1833-1913), former chief of the German general staff. To meet the possibility of Germany’s facing a war against France in the west and Russia in the east, Schlieffen proposed that, instead of aiming the first strike against Russia, Germany should aim a rapid, deci¬ sive blow with a large force at France’s flank through Belgium, then sweep around and crush the French armies against a smaller German force in the south. The plan used at the beginning of World War I had been modified by Helmuth von Moltke, who reduced the size of the attacking army and was blamed for Germany’s failure to win a quick victory.
Schliemann Vshle-manV Heinrich (b. Jan. 6, 1822, Neubukow, Mecklenburg-Schwerin—d. Dec. 26,
1890, Naples, Italy) German archae¬ ologist and excavator of Troy, Myce¬ nae, and Tiryns. As a boy he loved the Homeric poems, and he eventually learned ancient and modem Greek and many other languages. As a mili¬ tary contractor in the Crimean War he made a sufficient fortune to retire at 36 and devote himself to archae¬ ology. In 1873, at Hisarlik, Tur., he discovered the remains of ancient Troy (verifying the historical event of the Trojan War) and a treasure of gold jewelry (“Priam’s Treasure”), which he smuggled out of the coun¬ try. Because the Ottoman govern¬ ment prevented his return, he began excavating Mycenae in Greece, where he found more invaluable remains and treasures. He and Wil¬ helm Dorpfeld (1853-1940) resumed work at Hisarlik in 1878, exposing the stratigraphy more clearly and advancing archaeological technique. In 1884 they excavated the great fortified site at Tiryns. Schliemann’s excavations helped to lengthen considerably the perspective of history and to popularize archae¬ ology. His contributions were genuine, though his written accounts con¬ tain many self-serving fabrications.