Konrad von Gochstaden. A man making autofalacio.

Mr. Konrad von Gochstaden was a son of the canon of the cathedral in Cologne. Unfortunately, almost nothing is known about his childhood. We don’t even imagine in which year this guy was born, in 1198 or 1205. However, already in 1216 he was appointed a canon, and 10 years later the rector of the cathedral in Cologne. during the years of his ministry, he gained the fame of an uncompromising and severe fellow. In 1238 the archbishop of Cologne died, and the clergy of the cathedral elected Konrad. He immediately rolled up his sleeves and decided to take all this stuff into his own hands, which forced him to enter into a series of skirmishes with neighboring secular rulers and aristocracy, who tried the cleric to prevent reigning alone in Cologne. In the end, he succeeded, the craftsmen raised their heads, but the practically independent city moved under the authority of the church.

In 1239, another round of confrontation between secular power and Rome started. Initially, the bishop took Frederick’s position, but then, for unclear reasons, he moved to the camp of the Gregory IX. After the death of the former opponent of the pope, Frederick II, Mr. Gochstaden managed to appoint the Roman protege, Henry Raspe, on the position of the ruler of the Germans. And when the latter died six months later, the cleric placed on the this throne another Pope Gregory IX’s ruler – William of Holland. Among these clashes, archbishop was able to build something new. In 1248, von Gochstaden laid the new Cologne Cathedral, the construction of which lasted for several hundred years. This really impressive cathedral is one of the biggest in Europe, and the German government have today to spend a lot of money every year to maintain the cathedral. 15 years later by order of Mr. Gochstaden the cathedral in the neighboring city of Xanten also was laid.

Henry Raspe

Soon the archbishop and the pope had a tiff. After the death of Archbishop of Mainz, the public demanded Konrad, who gained a serious weight, to be placed on this position, but the pope decided that he would not reside in two important German provinces simultaneously, and even deprived him the title of papal legate in Germany. Soon the friendship between the archbishop and ruler Wilhelm also deteriorated. The bishop did not give up, and awaited Wilhelm’s death and in the election of the next German ruler, he sold his vote for a considerable sum of money to Richard Cornwallis, the brother of the king of England Henry III. As a result, Richard became Emperor, and a couple of months later the bishop solemnly crowned him in Aachen.

 

Statue of Konrad

In 1261 the archbishop died, and grateful citizens decorated the town hall with a sculpture of him. The sculpture of Konrad stands on a balloon depicting auto-fellatio. Auto-fellatio is an act when a fellow dandle his own penis with his mouth. Why? Nobody knows.

Brief History of Ethiopia

It’s time to discuss about history of Ethiopia. Generally we bypass history of African states, but this time we’ll change this tradition. We use information from this page, and you can visit the site to get information about the topic.

This place is claimed to be cradle of human, thus men lived here since the Paleolithic. The early Ethiopians spread from this place everywhere. The neighboring Egyptians came to them and named this place Punt. Aksum kingdom, the first Ethiopian kingdom, was founded in the first century and was among the earliest states which accepted Christianity. Ethiopian Orthodox Church goes back to fourth century, about six centuries earlier that Northern Europe accepted this religion. In the end of eleventh century the queen of native Jews, who were expelled when converted Christians ordered them to abandon their country, took the state and held the country with her successor this territory for forty years.

This moment became the key one in the history of the kingdom. A military leader, who managed to expel once again invaders, founded new Ethiopian royal family. This guy’s name was Mara Takla. The moment is thought an establishment of the Empire of Ethiopia, which lasted until 1974. However the year when this coup happened is unknown. The new ruler moved the capital in Lalibela, which exhibits a few churches made of rock and a cross produced from a part of iron.

About hundred years later other military leader went out, and declared himself an offspring of Solomonic, Jewish king united state of Israel, and so he must be the king. The guy was a native Habesha. In honor of this people the country had received the name by which it was famous for centuries, Abyssinia. Solomonic line remained the ruling house in the country for lion’s share of the Ethiopian history,  more than 7 centuries, despite the fact that the country resisted the Arabian, Turkish and European invasion. So, from 1529 to 1543 the empire successfully wage war against the state of Adal, that managed to annex Ethiopia for a short time, the battle of Shimbra Kure even ended with death of the emperor. Later emperor Fasilides laid a capital of the country – Gondar, which preserved some beautiful buildings.

Some centuries later Italy joined carve-up of Africa’s cake, commencing an important campaign in African history. The war started after Italy concluded a peace with Ethiopia, but every country treated it in their own way because of incorrect translation of “may” in the treaty as “must”. Italian Kingdom invaded Ethiopian empire, but the key battle ended with the Italian epic defeat, paving the way for the first triumph of an African country in a campaign against a Western country. The Mussolini, who wish renascence of the power of his country, arrived in rule, he started a new campaign against Ethiopia. This time, the Italian were successful, in part because of prohibited usage of chemical warfare. Haile Selassie I, the most famous ruler of Ethiopia ever, was managed to escape to England, while the Italian king occupied the post of Emperor of Abyssinia. In the Second World War, the British army chased Italian forces out and invited to rule Haile Selassie back, who would remain the Emperor for another thirty years. I should to mention that Rastafarian movement honor him as god and look at him like at Jesus Christ.

In 30 years communism touched Black continent… Marxist junta, backed by USSR, dethroned the Emperor, and throw him in prison, where he soon died. This was the end of the monarchy and start of the long period of wars.