Berlin, Sir Isaiah (b. June 9, 1909, Riga, Latvia—d. Nov. 5, 1997, Oxford, Eng.) Latvian-born British political philosopher and historian of ideas. His family immigrated to Britain in 1920. Educated at the Univer¬ sity of Oxford, Berlin taught there from 1950 to 1967, serving as presi¬ dent of Wolfson College from 1966 to 1975 and thereafter teaching at All Souls College. His writings on political philosophy are chiefly concerned with the problem of free will in increasingly totalitarian and mechanistic societies. His most important works include Karl Marx (1939), The Hedgehog and the Fox (1953), Historical Inevitability (1955), The Age of Enlightenment (1956), and Four Essays on Liberty (1969).
Berlin, University of or Humboldt University of Berlin Pub¬ lic university in Berlin, Germany. It was founded (as Friedrich Wilhelm University) in 1809-10 by Wilhelm, baron von Humboldt. By the mid 1800s it had attained world renown for its modern curriculum and its scientific research institutes. Among its faculty were G.W.F. Hegel, Johann Gott¬ lieb Fichte, Arthur Schopenhauer, Leopold von Ranke, Hermann von Helm¬ holtz, Friedrich Schleiermacher, and Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. In the 1930s it was Nazified, and many of its faculty fled abroad. Under the German Democratic Republic after World War II, it was renamed Humboldt Uni¬ versity and given a Marxist-Leninist orientation. It was reorganized after East and West Germany reunified in 1990.
Berlin blockade and airlift (1948^-9) International crises that arose from an attempt by the Soviet Union to force the Allied powers (U.S., Britain, and France) to abandon their postwar jurisdictions in West Ber¬ lin. The Soviets, regarding the economic consolidation of the three Allied occupation zones in Germany in 1948 as a threat to the East German
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Berlin Painter ► Bernanos I 205
economy, blockaded all transportation routes between Berlin and West Germany. The U.S. and Britain responded by supplying the city with food and other supplies by military air transport and airlifting out West Berlin exports. An Allied embargo on exports from the Eastern bloc forced the Soviets to lift the blockade after 11 months.
Berlin Painter (fl. 500^160 bc, Athens, Greece) Greek vase painter, the outstanding vase painter of the late Archaic period. He is best known as the decorator of an amphora now in Berlin. Whereas it had been cus¬ tomary to frame the groups of figures on each side of the vase with pat¬ tern bands, the Berlin Painter eliminated the frame, allowing the figures to dominate and stand out sharply against the black background. Nearly 300 vases are attributed to him.
Berlin Wall Barrier surrounding West Berlin that closed off East Ger¬ mans access to West Berlin from 1961 to 1989 and served as a symbol of the Cold War’s division of East and West Germany. The barrier was built in response to the flight of about 2.5 million East Germans to West Germany in the years 1949-61. First erected on the night of Aug. 12-13, 1961, it developed into a system of concrete walls topped with barbed wire and guarded with watchtowers, gun emplacements, and mines. It was opened in the 1989 democratization that swept through eastern Europe and has been largely torn down.
Berlin West Africa Conference (1884-85) Series of negotiations at Berlin in which the major European nations met to determine the future of Central Africa. The participants declared the Congo River basin region to be neutral, guaranteed freedom of trade and shipping for all colonial powers, forbade slave trading, and rejected Portugal’s claims to the region.
Berlinguer V.ber-lin-'gwerV Enrico (b. May 25, 1922, Sassari, Sar¬ dinia, Italy—d. June 11, 1984, Padua) Italian politician. Born into a middle-class Sardinian family, he joined the Communist Party in 1943 and held a series of party posts before becoming secretary-general in 1972, a post he would keep until his death. He became a leading advo¬ cate of “national communism,” seeking independence from Moscow and favouring the adaptation of Marxism to local requirements. His proposal for a coalition government of Christian Democrats and communists was never realized.
Berlioz Vber-le-.ozX, (Louis-) Hector (b. Dec. 11, 1803, La Cote- Saint-Andre, France—d. March 8, 1869, Paris) French composer. He stud¬ ied guitar in his early years and later studied music at the Paris Conservatoire, against his parents’ wishes. His first great score was the stormy Symphonie fantastique (1830), which became a landmark of the Romantic era. Impulsive and passionate, he was a contentious critic and gadfly constantly at war with the musical establishment. Though he was the most compelling French musical figure of his time, his idiosyncratic compositional style kept almost all his music out of the repertory until the mid-20th century. His works include the operas Benvenuto Cellini (1837) and Les Troyens (1858); the program symphonies Harold in Italy (1834) and Romeo and Juliet (1839); and the choral dramas La Damnation de Faust (1846) and L’Enfance du Christ (1854). He was also known as a brilliant conductor with an unsurpassed knowledge of the orchestra; his orchestration treatise (1843) is the most influential such work ever writ¬ ten.
Berlusconi, Silvio (b. Sept. 29, 1936, Milan, Italy) Italian media tycoon and prime minister in 1994 and again from 2001. After graduat¬ ing from the University of Milan, he became a real estate developer, amassing a considerable fortune by the 1970s. By the 1990s he owned more than 150 businesses, including three television networks and Italy’s largest publishing house. In 1994 he founded Forza Italia, a conservative political party, and was elected prime minister. Faced with conflict of interest and other charges, he resigned in December 1994. He was later convicted of fraud and corruption, though he was acquitted of tax eva¬ sion. Despite the convictions and criticism of his control of much of the Italian media, he remained the leader of Forza Italia and again became prime minister in 2001.
Bermejo \ber-'ma-ho\, Bartolome or Bartolome de Cardenas
Vkar-da-nas\ (b. c. 1440, Cordoba, Spain—d. 1495, Barcelona) Spanish painter. He was active in Valencia (1468), Aragon (1474-85), and Barce¬ lona (from 1486). Bermejo’s earliest masterpiece is the panel painting Santo Domingo de Silos (1474). His Pieta (1490) in Barcelona Cathedral is considered a masterpiece of early Spanish oil painting; the influence of
Rogier van der Weyden can be seen in the rich detail and colour. Bermejo cultivated the Flemish style and was considered the most outstanding painter in Spain before El Greco.
Bermejo \ber-'ma-ho\ River River, northern Argentina. Rising on the Bolivian frontier, it flows southeast 650 mi (1,045 km) into the Paraguay River on the border of Paraguay and Argentina. The abundant silt it car¬ ries in suspension is the source of its name ( bermejo , “reddish”). It is navigable for small craft along its central course, known as the Teuco River.
Bermuda British overseas territory (pop., 2005 est.: 65,400), western Atlantic Ocean. Comprising 7 main islands and about 170 additional (named) islets and rocks, it lies about 570 mi (920 km) southeast of Cape Hatteras, N.C., U.S. The archipelago has a total land area of about 20.5 sq mi (53 sq km). The capital is Hamilton on Main Island. Bermuda was named for Juan de Bermudez, who may have visited the islands in 1503. Colonized by the English in 1612, Bermuda became a crown colony in 1684, and its status changed to an overseas territory in 2002. Its economy is based on tourism and international finance; its gross national product per capita is among the world’s highest.
Bermuda Triangle Triangular section of the North Atlantic Ocean whose boundaries are usually said to be Bermuda, the southern U.S. coast, and the Greater Antilles. The region attracted international attention after numerous planes and ships were said to have mysteriously disappeared there. Reports of unnatural occurrences were popularized, but by the late 20th century much of the myth surrounding the Bermuda Triangle had been dispelled.