The emperor seconded the efforts of his vassals, Albert the Bear, margrave of the Saxon north mark, and Conrad I., margrave of Meissen and Lusatia, to extend the authority of the Germans in the districts east of the Elbe, and assisted Norbert, archbishop of Magdeburg, and Albert I., archbishop of Bremen, to spread Christianity.
De Pere is the seat of St Norbert's college (Roman Catholic, 1902) and has a public library.
St Norbert was a friend of St Bernard of Clairvaux - and he was largely influenced by the Cistercian ideals as to both the manner of life and the government of his order.
Norbert's test plates, which bear graduated groups of extremely fine and narrow divisions are very useful, while the tests of Amphipleura pellucida and Surirella gemma are often employed.
Norbert Wiener defined cybernetics as " control and communication in the animal and the machine " .