Tracks of Germany, Sweden, Spain and Netherlands in Poland

1. Tracks of Germany, Sweden, Spain and Netherlands in Poland

2. Germany

3. Volkswagen

4. Volkswagen AG or VW, is an automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Germany. It forms the core of Volkswagen Group and is the world's fourth largest car producer after Toyota, GM and Ford, respectively. • The name means "people's car" in German, in which it is pronounced. Its German tagline is "Aus Liebe zum Automobil", which is translated as "For the love of the car" - or, "For Love of the People's Cars", as translated by VW in other languages, though in direct translation it reads "Out of love for the car.„

5. History of Volkswagen Origins in 1930s Germany had a keen interest in cars even though he did not drive. In 1933, he demanded that Ferdinand Porsche make changes to his original 1931 design to make it more suited for the working man. Hans Ledwinka discussed his ideas with Ferdinand Porsche who used many Tatra design features in the 1938 Kdf-Wagen, later known as the VW Käfer - or Beetle. Changes included better fuel efficiency, reliability, ease of use, and economically efficient repairs and parts. The intention was that ordinary Germans would buy the car by means of a savings scheme ("Fünf Mark die Woche musst Du sparen, willst Du im eigenen Wagen fahren" — "Save five Marks a week, if you want to drive your own car") which around 336,000 people eventually paid into. Volkswagen honoured its savings agreements after World War II;Ford, which had a similar "coupon" savings system, reportedly did not.Prototypes of the car called the "Kdf-Wagen" (German: Kraft durch Freude -- "strength through joy"), appeared from 1936 onwards (the first cars had been produced in Stuttgart). The car already had its distinctive round shape and air-cooled, flat-four, rear-mounted engine. The VW car was just one of many KdF programmes which included things such as tours and outings. Erwin Komenda, the longstanding Porsche chief designer, developed the car body of the prototype, which was recognizably the Beetle we know today. It was one of the first to be designed with the aid of a wind tunnel; unlike the Chrysler Airflow, it would be a success. The new factory in the new town of KdF-Stadt, now called Wolfsburg, purpose-built for the factory workers, only produced a handful of cars by the time war started in 1939. None were actually delivered to holders of the completed saving stamp books, though one Type 1 Cabriolet was presented to Hitler on his birthday in 1938. War meant production changed to military vehicles, the Type 81 Kübelwagen (Bucket car) utility vehicle (VW's most common wartime model) and the amphibious Schwimmwagen.

6. Volkswagen in the Twenty-First Century Volkswagen began introducing Volkswagen an array of new models after Bernd Pischetsrieder became Volkswagen Group CEO (responsible for all Group brands) in 2002. The fifth generation Volkswagen Golf was launched in 2004, came runner-up to the Fiat Panda in the 2004 European Car of the Year, and has spawned several cousins: SEAT Toledo, Skoda Octavia and Audi A3 hatchback ranges as well as a new mini-MPV, the Seat Altea. The GTI, a "hot hatchback" performance version of the Golf, boasts a 2.0 L Turbocharged direct injection engine. VW began marketing the Golf under the Rabbit name once again in the U.S. and Canada in June 2006. (The GTI had arrived to North America four months earlier.) The fifth-generation Jetta, and the performance version, the GLI, are also available in the United States and Canada. The sixth-generation Passat and the fifth-generation Jetta both debuted in 2005, and VW has announced plans to expand its lineup further by bringing back the Scirocco by 2008. Other models in Wolfgang Bernhard's (Volkswagen brand CEO) "product offensive" include the Tiguan mid-sized SUV in 2008 and a Passat Coupé. In November 2006 Bernd Pischetsrieder announced his resignation as Volkswagen Group CEO and was replaced by Audi worldwide CEO Martin Winterkorn at the beginning of 2007. Winterkorn is credited with making Audi a challenger to the dominance of BMW and Mercedes and his design-led strategy has led to Audi being considered one of the most important brands in the world. It remains to be seen how Winterkorn's focus on design shapes the Volkswagen brand's future. Nevertheless, Volkswagen continues to have complicated relations with both unions and shareholders. The German state of Lower Saxony owns significant stock in VW, as does sportscar manufacturer Porsche.

7. In North America, VW faced many of challenges. After rising significantly between 1998 and 2001, VW's North American sales began to fall sharply leading to a 2005 loss of roughly $1 billion (U.S.) for its operations in the U.S. and Canada. Profitablility has not been strong, and the reliability of the company's South American and Latin American-produced cars appears to bear some of the responsibility for this situation. By 2005, its models sat near the bottom of Consumer Reports reliability ratings, and J.D. Power and Associates ranked VW 35th out of 37 bands in its initial quality survey. Attempts to enter a new market segment also compromised Volkswagen's standing in North America. In 2002, Volkswagen announced the debut of its Phaeton luxury car, which was critically acclaimed but not well received in the marketplace. VW announced its discontinuance in the U.S. market for the 2007 model year due to the disappointing sales. Volkswagen in 2005, despite challenges, still maintained North American sales of 224,195 -- a dramatic increase from the low in 1993 when US sales totaled only 49,533 vehicles. Momentum continued for fiscal 2006, as VW's North American sales for the year were 235,140 vehicles, a 4.9 percent increase over 2005, despite a slump in domestic North American manufacturer's sales. VW plans to close out the decade with the release on several new vehicles worldwide and a barrage of advertising. In conjunction with the introduction of new models, production location of Volkswagen vehicles also underwent great change. The 2007 Eos, a hardtop convertible, is produced in a new facility in Portugal. All Golf/Rabbit and GTIs as of 2006 are manufactured in Wolfsburg, Germany rather than VW's Mexican factory in Puebla, where Golfs and GTIs for the North American market were produced from 1989 to 1998, and the Brazilian factory in Curitiba where Golfs and GTIs were produced from 1999 to 2006 (The Jetta has principally been made in Mexico since 1989). VW is also in the process of reconfiguring an automotive assembly plant in Belgium. The new models and investments in manufacturing improvements were noticed immediately by automotive critics. Favorable reviews for VW's newest cars include the GTI being named by Consumer Reports as the top sporty car under $25,000, one of Car and Driver magazines "10 Best" for 2007, and Automobile Magazine's 2007 Car of the Year. J.D. Power and Associates 2006 Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout (APEAL) Study scored Volkswagen fourteenth overall with strong performances by its new Jetta and Passat models.

8. Volkswagen is recognized as one of the leading small diesel engine manufacturers, and is partnering with Mercedes and other companies to market BlueTec clean diesel technology. Volkswagen has offered a number of its vehicles with a TDI (Turbo Direct Injection) engine, which lends class-leading fuel economy to several models. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, four of the ten most fuel efficient vehicles available for sale in the U.S. in 2004 were powered by Volkswagen diesel engines. They were a three-way tie for 8th (TDI Beetle, TDI Golf, TDI Jetta) and ninth, the TDI Jetta Wagon. As of 2007, VW has not yet offered a gas-electric hybrid powertrain such as that in the Toyota Prius (though a diesel-electric hybrid 5th generation Jetta was produced as a test vehicle). In addition, all VAG TDI diesel engines produced since 1996 can be driven on 100% biodiesel fuel. For the 2007 model year, however, strict U.S. government emissions regulations have forced VW to drop most diesels from their U.S. engine lineup, but a new lineup of diesel engines compatible to U.S. standards are due for 2008. Volkswagen long resisted adding an utility vehicle to its lineup, but it finally relented with the introduction of the Touareg in the early 2000s, sharing major components with the Porsche Cayenne sport utility vehicle. Though acclaimed as a fine handling vehicle, the Touareg has been a modest seller at best. Some automotive analysts blame the Touraeg's absence of a third-row seat, the relatively poor fuel economy, and the high vehicle mass. VW plans to add a compact SUV with styling influences from its "Concept A" concept vehicle. On July 20, 2006, VW announced that the new vehicle would be called the Tiguan. One major irony of Volkswagen's current North American lineup is the absence of a minivan, considering that VW is credited for inventing the minivan with its original Transporter, but the firm is currently developing just such a vehicle for the U.S. and Canadian markets with DaimlerChrysler, with current plans to introduce it in 2008. Volkswagen is also considering a new entry-level model for the North American lineup. A venture with DaimlerChrysler to produce such a vehicle was considered but dropped as of September 2006. Due to technical difficulty adapting the Polo to meet North American vehicle regulations, VW presented in 2006 the "Iroc" as a concept of the proposed 2009 Scirocco as a potential new small model. In September 2006, Volkswagen began offering the City Golf and City Jetta only for the Canadian market. Both models are basically the Mk.IV Golf and Jetta, making them smaller than the current Rabbit and Jetta and competing directly to the Toyota Yaris and Honda Fit. Volkswagen's introduction of such models is seen as a test of the market for a subcompact and, if successful, may be the beginnings of a thriving subcompact market for Volkswagen. When Martin Winterkorn became the eighth postwar CEO of Volkswagen, the company made several personnel changes in Wolfsburg. Other key personnel changes were made at Volkswagen of America in Auburn Hills, Michigan, as VW tries to continue increasing U.S. sales while trying to return the American operations to profitability.

9. Photos

10. Volkswagen IV

11. VW Passat

12. Auschwitz Auschwitz was the largest of the Nazi concentration camps. Located in southern Poland, it took its name from the nearby town of Oświęcim (Auschwitz in German), situated about 50 kilometers west of Kraków and 286 kilometers from Warsaw. Following the Nazi occupation of Poland in September 1939, Oświęcim was incorporated into Germany and renamed Auschwitz. The complex consisted of three main camps: Auschwitz I, the administrative center; Auschwitz II (Birkenau), an extermination camp or Vernichtungslager; and Auschwitz III (Monowitz), a work camp. There were also around 40 satellite camps, some of them tens of kilometers from the main camps, with prisoner populations ranging from several dozen to several thousand.]The camp commandant, Rudolf Höss, testifed at the Nuremberg Trials that up to 2.5 million people had died at Auschwitz. The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum revised this figure in 1990, and new calculations now place the figure at 1.1–1.6 million,about 90 percent of them Jews from almost every country in Europe.Most of the dead were killed in gas chambers using Zyklon-B; other deaths were caused by systematic starvation, forced labor, lack of disease control, individual executions, and so-called medical experiments.

13. Summary • Beginning in 1940, Nazi Germany built several concentration camps and an extermination camp in the area, which at the time was under German occupation. The Auschwitz camps were a major element in the perpetration of the Holocaust; at least 1.1 million people were killed there, of whom over 90% were Jews. • The three main camps were: • Auschwitz I, the original concentration camp which served as the administrative center for the whole complex, and was the site of the deaths of roughly 70,000 people, mostly Poles and Soviet prisoners of war. • Auschwitz II (Birkenau), an extermination camp, where at least 1.1 million Jews, 75,000 Polish people, and some 19,000 Roma (Gypsies) were killed. • Auschwitz III (Monowitz), which served as a labor camp for the Buna-Werke factory of the I.G. Farben concern. • See list of subcamps of Auschwitz for others. • Like all Nazi concentration camps, the Auschwitz camps were operated by Heinrich Himmler's SS. The commandants of the camp were the SS-Obersturmbannführers Rudolf Höß (often written "Hoess") until the summer of 1943, and later Arthur Liebehenschel and Richard Baer. Höß provided a detailed description of the camp's workings during his interrogations after the war and also in his autobiography. He was hanged in 1947 in front of the entrance to the crematorium of Auschwitz I. Command of the women's camp, which was separated from the men's area by the incoming railway line was held in turn by Johanna Langefeld, Maria Mandel, and Elisabeth Volkenrath.

14. Photos

15. " Selection" on the Judenrampe, May/June 1944

16. Sweden

17. Volvo

18. VOLVO Volvo Cars, or Volvo Personvagnar, is a well-known Swedish automobile maker founded in 1927 in the city of Gothenburg in Sweden. Volvo was formed as a subsidiary company to the ball bearing maker SKF. It was not until 1935 when Volvo AB was introduced on the Swedish stock exchange that SKF sold most of the shares in the company. Volvo Cars was owned by ABVolvo until 1999, when it was acquired by the Ford Motor Company and placed in its Premier Automotive Group. Volvo is a premium manufacturer and competes with Acura, Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Infiniti, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz and Saab producing cars ranging from luxury SUVs, wagons, and sedans to compact executive sedans and coupes. Volvo has 2,500 dealerships worldwide in 100 markets; 60 percent of sales come from Europe, 30 percent from North America, and the other 10 percent is from the rest of the world. The Volvo brand has a reputation for comfort, solidity, safety and longevity,but the cars are often compared with tractors, partially because Volvo also makes tractors, but also because the cars are considered slow and heavy. Volvo owners are often proud of achieving prodigious mileages. According to Norwegian figures the average age at scrapping of Volvos is second only to Mercedes at 19.8 years. More recent models have moved away from the boxy styles favoured in the 1970s and 1980s (satirised in the film Crazy People with the slogan "they're boxy, but they're good") and have also acquired a reputation for sporting performance, following on from the racing success of the 850 series. Reliability is currently somewhat better than average. In the USA Volvo dealers are listed by Forbes as one of the best among all carmakers (9th)and luxury carmakers (6th). Brand loyalty has historically been high.Volvo company came about in Gothenburg, Sweden in the year 1927. The company was founded by SKF as a subsidiary company 100% owned by SKF. Assar Gabrielsson was appointed the managing director and Gustav Larson as the technical manager. "Cars are driven by people. Therefore the guiding principle behind everything at Volvo is it must remain safe", Assar Gabrielsson and Gustav Larson 1927.

19. Despite this, Volvo's originally had a reputation for high death rates in the event of an accident. This led to a drastic overhaul of Volvo's safety approaches and an aggressive marketing campaign to brand the cars as 'the safest on the road'. This perception branding has been so successful that "safety" is now the first word most associate with Volvo. The trademark Volvo was first registered by SKF the 11th May 1915 with the intention to use it for a special series of ball bearing for the American market, but it was never used for this purpose. SKF trademark as it looks today was used instead for all the SKF-products. Some pre-series of Volvo-bearings stamped with the brand name 'Volvo' were manufactured but was never released to the market and it was not until 1927 that the trademark was used again, now as a trademark and company name for an automobile. Volvo - "I roll," was thought to be a good trademark for a ball bearing as well as for an automobile. The first Volvo car left the assembly line April 14, 1927 was called Volvo ÖV 4. After this the young company produced closed top and cabriolet vehicles, which were designed to hold strong in the Swedish climate and terrain. The Volvo symbol is an ancient chemistry sign for iron. The iron sign is used to symbolize the strength of iron used in the car as Sweden is known for its quality iron. The diagonal line (a strip of metal) across the grille came about to hold the actual symbol, a circle with an arrow, in front of the cooler. In the registration application for Volvo logotype in 1927, they simple made a copy of the entire cooler for ÖV4, viewed from the front. In 1964 Volvo opened its Torslanda plant in Sweden, which currently is the one of its largest production sites (chiefly large cars and SUV). Then in 1965 the Ghent, Belgium plant was opened, which is the companys' second largest production site (chiefly small cars). Finally in 1989 the Uddevalla plant in Sweden was opened, which is now jointly operated by Volvo Car Corporation and Pininfarina of Italy.

20. Volvo 240

21. Volvo c30

22. Swedish Deluge The Deluge (Polish: Potop, full Polish name is Potop Szwedzki [Swedish Deluge]) is the name commonly assigned in the history of Poland to a series of wars in the 17th century which left Poland-Lithuania in ruins. In a stricter sense, "The Deluge" refers to the Swedish and Russian invasion and occupation of the country from 1655–1660; in a general sense it applies to the series of misfortunes beginning with the Khmelnytskyi Uprising in 1648 and ending in either 1656, 1660 or even in 1667.

23. History of Swedish Deluge Before "The Deluge", the Commonwealth was a Central European power; but during the wars Poland lost an estimated 1/3 of its population (relatively higher losses than during World War II), and its status as a great power. The misfortunes began in 1648 by the uprising of the Ruthenian feudal lord and Ukrainian Cossack leader BohdanKhmelnytsky. Khmelnytsky told his people that the Poles had sold them as slaves "into the hands of the accursed Jews", a reference to the Arenda system of renting out serfs to (sometimes) Jewish businessmen for three years at a time. With this as their battle cry, the Cossacks murdered a large number of Jews during the years 1648–1649. The precise number of dead may never be known, but the decrease of the Jewish population during that period is estimated at 50,000 to 200,000. Although the Cossacks were defeated in the Battle of Beresteczko (1651), their rebellion was used as a pretext by the Russians to invade and occupy the eastern half of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1655. The Swedes invaded and occupied the remaining half in the same year. Princes Janusz Radziwiłł and Bogusław Radziwiłł began negotiations with the Swedish king Charles X Gustav of Sweden aimed at breaking up the Commonwealth and the Polish-Lithuanian union. They signed the Kėdainiai Treaty according to which the Radziwiłłs were to rule over two Duchies carved up from the lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, under Swedish vassalage (the Union of Kėdainiai). Polish-Lithuanian King John II Casimir had few friends among the szlachta, as he sympathized with Austria and was openly contemptuous of the culture of the nobility.In addition, Casimir had become a member of the Jesuits in 1643 and received the title of Cardinal. Nevertheless, in December 1646 John Casimir returned to Poland and, in October 1647, resigned his position of Cardinal to stand in elections for the Polish throne. He succeeded to the throne in 1648. However, in the eyes of the nobility, Charles Gustav (Casimir's cousin) was the legitimate heir to the Polish-Lithuanian throne.

24. Many members of the Polish nobility (szlachta), including Deputy Chancellor of the Crown Hieronim Radziejowski and Grand Treasurer of the Crown Bogusław Leszczyński, thinking that John II Casimir of Poland was a weak king, or a Jesuit-King, or for other reasons, encouraged Charles Gustav to claim the Polish crown. But Poznań Voivod Krzysztof Opaliński surrendered Great Poland to Charles Gustav, and quickly, other areas surrendered also. Almost the whole country followed suit, but several places still resisted, the most remarkable and symbolic of which was the Jasna Góra resistance. Led by The Grand Prior Augustyn Kordecki, the garrison of the most famous Sanctuary-Fortress of Poland defeated its enemies. Soon, the Tyszowce Confederation supported John Casimir, hidden in Silesia. Grand Hetman of Poland, (The Crown): Stefan Czarniecki and Grand Hetman of Lithuania: Jan Paweł Sapieha started the counterattack in order to put away those loyal to Charles Gustav. In the end, John II Casimir was solemnly crowned at Lwów Cathedral in 1656 (Lwów Oath). The Swedes were driven back in 1657 and the Russians were finally defeated in 1662. The War for Ukraine ended with the treaty of Andrusovo (13 January 1667), with the help of Turkish intervention due to their claims in the Crimea. Forces from Prussia and Transylvania were also defeated, but Prussia gained a formal recognition of independence and ceased to be a Polish vassal. The Deluge also stopped the era of Polish tolerance, since most of the invaders were non-Catholic, with expulsion of the Polish brethren as a clear sign of it. During the Deluge, many thousands of Polish Jews also fell victim to pogroms initiated by rebelling Cossacks. With the Treaty of Hadiach on September 16, 1658, the Polish Crown elevated the Cossacks and Ruthenians to a position equal to that of Poland and Lithuania in the Polish-Lithuanian Union, and in fact transformed the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth into a Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian Commonwealth (Polish: Rzeczpospolita Trojga Narodów, "Commonwealth of Three Nations"). Supported by Cossack Ataman Ivan Vyhovsky and the starshyna, this treaty changed East European history. However, Russia refused to recognize the treaty and maintained its claims to Ukraine.

25. Swedish king Charles X Gustav in battle of Warsaw 1656

26. Oath of king John Casimir of Poland, taken in 1655 in Lwów, during The Deluge.

27. Spain

28. Seat

29. Seat SEAT is a Spanish automobile manufacturer founded in 1950 and now subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group. The acronym "SEAT" stood for Sociedad Española de Automóviles de Turismo (Spanish Corporation of Touring Cars), and should be pronounced "SEH-aht." Today, SEAT reinforces its race-bred and aggressive image with sporty cars such as Ibiza and León, which have made the brand very popular among teenagers.Initially, SEAT manufactured rebadged Fiat models that differed very little visually from the products of the Italian parent. The SEAT Panda (later restyled as SEAT Marbella) for example was based on the Fiat Panda. The SEAT 600, based on Fiat 600, was the first car for many Spanish families, and became a symbol of the Spanish Miracle. The first car under the new SEAT logo without Fiat involvement appeared in 1982, and was called the SEAT Ronda. This was a restyled Fiat Ritmo, and sparked a lawsuit from Fiat against SEAT, as the former claimed the car was still too similar to the Ritmo. The then president of SEAT, Juan Miguel Antoñanzas, showed a Ronda to the press with all the parts different from the Fiat Ritmo painted in bright yellow, to highlight the differences. This ended the dispute. Rumour at the time had it that Fiat was angry because the Ronda restyling was in fact too close to their own planned restyling for the Fiat Ritmo, which they had to scrap. After the withdrawal of Fiat in 1981, the Volkswagen Group signed a cooperation agreement with SEAT, becoming the major shareholder in 1986, and owner of 100% of the company in 1990.

30. Facilities SEAT has its manufacturing plant in Martorell, an industrial city near Barcelona. The Martorell plant is one of the newest in Europe. Each year more than 450,000 cars are manufactured in this plant. Seat's headquarters have been recently moved also from Barcelona to Martorell. SEAT has its own sales and distribution facilities in 50 countries. The number of employees is 14,500. Additionally, 1,250 people work in the research and development center in Martorell. Presence in different markets The company develops and designs its own models of cars in accordance with the policies of the Volkswagen Group. Some of its cars have been sold outside Europe as Volkswagens, such as the SEAT Ibiza hatchback, known in South Africa as the Volkswagen Polo Playa, the SEAT Inca panel van as the Volkswagen Caddy, or the SEAT Córdoba also known as the Volkswagen Polo Classic. Rumors of a SEAT model being sold as a Volkswagen in Canada and the United States to supplement the VW brand's lineup there have occasionally circulated, but have always been unsubstantiated and ultimately proven to be false. SEAT markets 6 models in Mexico, and has dealer presence in 27 Mexican states.SEAT's entry into the Mexican but not other North American markets is likely due to less restrictive safety and emissions in Mexico. SEAT's presence in international markets (outside of Europe) has yet to be realised with the failed plan to launch SEAT in Canada in 1994 and with the withdrawing of SEAT from the Australian market after only selling its range from 1995-1999. SEAT is also positioned to launch in the United States sometime after 2008, although this has yet to be verified as a certainty. SEAT currently continues to expand to international markets under Volkswagen's wings, particularly in the Middle East and Asia.

31. Popular Culture In Spain people joke about the car translating its letters as "Siempre Estamos Apretando Tornillos" which literally means "We Are Always Tightening Screws" implying that the cars need to be fixed often. This was more appropriate in the pre-1990 era before the Volkswagen-inspired revolution, but many subsequent motoring surveys have rated SEATs among the most satisfying cars to own.

32. Photos

33. Seat Leon

34. Pasodoble Paso Doble or pasodoble is a lively style of dance to the duple meter march-like pasodoble music. It actually originated in France , but is modeled after the sound, drama, and movement of the Spanish bullfight. Paso doble means "two step" in Spanish.

35. Traditional Pasodoble is based on music played at bullfights during the bullfighters' entrance (paseo) or during the passes (faena) just before the kill. The leader of this dance plays the part of the matador. The follower generally plays the part of the matador's cape, but can also represent the bull or a flamenco dancer in some figures. Ballroom Paso Doble, like Samba, is a progressive International Latin dance. The Paso Doble (which actually originated in Southern France) is the Latin dance most resembling the International Standard style, in that forward steps are taken with the heel lead, the frame is wider and more strictly kept up, and there is significantly different and less hip movement. A significant number of paso doble songs are variants of España Cañi. The song has breaks in fixed positions in the song (two breaks at syllabus levels, three breaks and a longer song at Open levels). Traditionally Paso Doble routines are choreographed to match these breaks, as well as the musical phrases. Accordingly, most other ballroom Paso Doble tunes are written with similar breaks (those without are simply avoided in most competitions). Because of its inherently choreographed tradition, ballroom Paso Doble for the most part danced only competitively, almost never socially — or at least not without sticking to some sort of previously-learned routine. This said, in Spain, France, Vietnam and some parts of Germany to the left of the river Rhine, it is danced socially as a lead (not choreographed) dance.

36. Photos

38. Holland

40. Heineken International is a Dutch brewing company, founded in 1864 by Gerard Adriaan Heineken in Amsterdam. As of 2006, Heineken owns over 130 breweries in more than 65 countries and employs approximately 57,557 people. It brews and sells more than 170 international premium, regional, local and specialty beers, including Cruzcampo, Tiger, Żywiec, Starobrno, Zagorka, Birra Moretti, Ochota, Murphy’s, Star and of course Heineken Pilsener. Heineken claims that the original Heineken recipe has not changed since the beer was first produced nearly 150 years ago. With an annual beer production of 121.8 million hectoliters, Heineken ranks as the fourth largest brewery in the world after InBev, SABMiller, and Anheuser-Busch. Heineken's Dutch breweries are located in Zoeterwoude and 's-Hertogenbosch. The original brewery in Amsterdam, closed in 1988, is preserved as a museum called Heineken Experience.

41. History of The Heineken company was founded in 1864 when the 22-year-old Gerard Adriaan Heineken bought a brewery known as De Hooiberg (the haystack) in Amsterdam. In 1874 the brewery's name changed to Heineken's Bierbrouwerij Maatschappij, and opened a second brewery in Rotterdam in 1874. In 1886 Dr. H. Elion, a pupil of the French chemist Louis Pasteur, developed the "Heineken A-yeast" in the Heineken laboratory. This yeast is still the key ingredient of Heineken beer. In 1887 Heineken switched to the use of bottom-fermenting yeast. The founder's son, Henry Pierre Heineken, managed the company from 1917 to 1940, and continued involvement with the company until 1951. During his tenure, Heineken developed techniques to maintain consistent beer quality during large-scale production. Henry Pierre's son, Alfred Henry "Freddy" Heineken, started working at the company in 1940, and 1971 was appointed Chairman of the Executive Board. He was a powerful force behind Heineken's continued global expansion, and while he retired from the Executive Board in 1989, he maintained involvement with the company until his death in 2002. After World War I, the company aimed more and more on export. Three days after Prohibition ended in the United States, the first Heineken shipment landed as the first legal shipment of beer. From that day on, Heineken has remained one of the most successful imported beer brands in the United States. Purchasing breweries During this period, Heineken tried to increase its stock price by purchasing competing breweries and closing them down. After World War II, many small breweries were bought or closed, damaging the diverse beer culture of the Netherlands. In 1968 Heineken merged with its biggest competitor, Amstel, and in 1975 opened a new brewery in Zoeterwoude. The Amstel brewery was closed in 1980, and its production moved to Zoeterwoude and Den Bosch.

42. Photos Heineken Brouwery in Amsterdam

44. Shell

45. Royal Dutch Shell PLC is a multinational oil company ("oil major") of British and Dutch origins. It is one of the largest private sector energy corporations in the world, and one of the six "supermajors" (vertically integrated private sector oil exploration, natural gas, and petroleum product marketing companies). The company's head offices (also known as the "central offices") are in The Hague and London (Shell Centre). The company's main business is the exploration for and the production, processing, transportation and marketing of hydrocarbons (oil and gas). Shell also has a significant petrochemicals business (Shell Chemicals), and an embryonic renewable energy sector developing wind, hydrogen and solar power opportunities. Shell is incorporated in the UK with its corporate headquarters in The Hague, its tax residence is in the Netherlands, and its primary listings on the London Stock Exchange and Euronext Amsterdam (only "A" shares are part of the AEX index). Shell's revenues of $318.8 billion in 2006 made it the second-largest corporation in the world by revenues behind only ExxonMobil. Its 2006 gross profits of $26 billion made it the world's second most profitable company, after ExxonMobil and before BP. Forbes Global 2000 in 2006 ranked Shell the seventh largest company in the world. It operates in over 140 countries. In the United States, its subsidiary is Shell Oil Company, with headquarters in Houston, Texas, and is one of Shell's largest businesses.

46. History of Shell The Royal Dutch/Shell Group of companies was created in February 1907 when the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company (legal name in Dutch, N.V. Koninklijke Nederlandsche Petroleum Maatschappij) and the "Shell" Transport and Trading Company Ltd of the United Kingdom merged their operations - a move largely driven by the need to compete globally with the then monopolistic American oil company, Standard Oil. The terms of the merger gave 60% of the new Group to the Dutch arm and 40% to the British. To celebrate its centenary in 2007 Shell launched a scholarship fund Royal Dutch Petroleum Company was a Dutch company founded in 1890 by Jean Baptiste August Kessler, along with Henri Deterding and Hugo Loudon, when a Royal charter was granted by Dutch king Willem III to a small oil exploration company known as "Royal Dutch Company for the Exploration of Petroleum Wells in the Dutch Indies". The “Shell” Transport and Trading Company (the quotation marks are official) was a British company, founded in 1897 by Marcus Samuel and his brother Samuel Samuel. In 1919, Shell took control of the Mexican Eagle Petroleum Company and in 1921 formed Shell-Mex Limited which marketed products under the “Shell” and “Eagle” brands in the United Kingdom. In 1931, partly in response to the difficult economic conditions of the times, Shell-Mex merged its UK marketing operations with those of British Petroleum to create Shell-Mex and BP Ltd, a company that traded until the brands separated in 1975. In November 2004, following a period of turmoil caused by the revelation that Shell had been overstating its oil reserves, it was announced that the Shell Group would move to a single capital structure, creating a new parent company to be named Royal Dutch Shell plc, with its principal listing on the London Stock Exchange and the Amsterdam Stock Exchange and its headquarters in The Hague in the Netherlands. The unification was completed on 20 July 2005. Shares were issued at a 60/40 advantage for the shareholders of Royal Dutch in line with the original ownership of the Shell Group. Under the old capital structure, Shell's ADRs were traded on the New York Stock Exchange under RD (Royal Dutch) and SC (Shell).

47. Origin of the name and logo The origin of the brand name “Shell” is linked to the origins of The "Shell" Transport and Trading Company. In 1833, the founder's father, also Marcus Samuel, founded an import business to sell seashells to London collectors. When collecting seashell specimens in the Caspian Sea area in 1892, the younger Samuel realised there was potential in exporting lamp oil from the region and commissioned the world's first purpose built oil tanker, the Murex, to enter this market. By 1907 the company had a fleet of oil tankers. The Shell emblem is one of the most familiar commercial symbols in the world. Known as the "Pecten" after the sea shell, the giant scallop, Pecten maximus, on which its design is based, the current version of the logo was designed by Raymond Loewy and introduced in 1971.

48. Photos Shell Gas Station in California

49. A Shell oil refinery in Martinez, California.