Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Lettow-Vorbeck, Paul von poul fən lĕtˈō-fôrˈbĕk [key], 1870–1964, German general. In World War I he conducted a brilliant defense of German East Africa against vastly superior Allied power. ...

(Encyclopedia) Hevesy, Georg von gāˈôrkh fən hĕˈvĕshē [key], 1885–1966, Hungarian physicist and chemist. He received the 1943 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the use of isotopes as tracers in stud...

(Encyclopedia) Wissmann, Hermann von hĕrˈmän fən vĭsˈmän [key], 1853–1905, German explorer in Africa. He crossed (1880–82) Africa from Luanda to Zanzibar and, on behalf of Leopold II of Belgium, explored ...

(Encyclopedia) Bekesy, Georg von gāˈôrk fən bĕkˈĭshē [key], 1899–1972, American biophysicist, b. Budapest, Hungary, grad. Univ. of Budapest (Ph.D. 1923). He was (1923–46) a physicist in the research labo...

(Encyclopedia) Bennigsen, Rudolf von ro͞oˈdôlf fən bĕnˈĭksən [key], 1824–1902, German political leader. A liberal nationalist from Hanover, he favored German unification under a democratic Prussian state. ...

(Encyclopedia) Schwanthaler, Ludwig von lo͝otˈvĭkh fən shvänˈtälər [key], 1802–48, German sculptor. Though he was a neoclassicist, his later works were more in the romantic manner and devoted to themes tha...

(Encyclopedia) Chambord, Henri Charles Ferdinand Marie Dieudonné, comte de äNrēˈ shärl fĕrdēnäNˈ märēˈ dyödônāˈ kôNt də shäNbôrˈ [key], 1820–83, Bourbon claimant to the French throne, posthumo...

(Encyclopedia) Humboldt, Wilhelm, Freiherr von frīˈhĕr fən ho͝omˈbôlt [key], 1767–1835, German statesman and philologist; brother of Alexander von Humboldt. As Prussian minister of education (1809–10) he...

(Encyclopedia) Rezzori, Gregor von, 1914–98, Austrian-Romanian writer, b. Gregor Arnulph Hilarius von Rezzori d'Arezzo in Czernowitz, Austria-Hungary (later in Romania and the USSR, now Chernivtsi, Ukraine). The a...

(Encyclopedia) Heidenstam, Verner von vĕrˈnər fən hāˈdənstäm [key], 1859–1940, Swedish lyric poet, novelist, and essayist. His first volume of poetry, Pilgrimage and Wanderyears (1888), challenged the cont...