=GERMANY= (from Lat. Germania) is the English name of the country which
the natives call Deutschland, and the French L’Allemagne; while
internationally it is known as the German Empire (Das Deutsches Reich),
especially since 1871.
The German Empire is composed of a federation of twenty-five states,
with one common imperial province, the names of which, with their areas
and populations, are given on a subsequent page. Heligoland was ceded by
Britain to Germany in 1890.
=Divisions of the Empire.=--The political divisions or states of the
German Empire, together with their areas and population at the last
census, are given in the subjoined table:
===============================+=======+==========
STATES |AREA IN|POPULATION
| SQ. | AT LAST
| MILES | CENSUS
-------------------------------+-------+----------
KINGDOMS | |
1. Prussia |134,616|40,163,333
2. Bavaria | 29,292| 6,876,497
3. Saxony | 5,789| 4,802,485
4. Württemburg | 7,534| 2,435,611
GRAND-DUCHIES | |
5. Baden | 5,823| 2,141,832
6. Hesse | 2,966| 1,282,219
7. Mecklenburg-Schwerin | 5,068| 639,879
8. Saxe-Weimar | 1,397| 417,166
9. Mecklenburg-Strelitz | 1,131| 106,347
10. Oldenburg | 2,482| 482,430
DUCHIES | |
11. Brunswick | 1,418| 494,387
12. Saxe-Meiningen | 953| 278,792
13. Saxe-Altenburg | 511| 216,313
14. Saxe-Coburg-Gotha | 764| 257,208
15. Anhalt | 888| 331,047
PRINCIPALITIES | |
16. Schwarzburg-Sondershausen| 333| 89,984
17. Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt | 363| 100,712
18. Waldeck-Pyrmont | 433| 61,723
19. Reuss, Junior Branch | 122| 152,765
20. Reuss, Elder Branch | 319| 72,616
21. Schaumburg-Lippe | 131| 46,650
22. Lippe-Detmold | 469| 150,749
FREE-TOWNS | |
23. Lübeck | 115| 116,533
24. Bremen | 99| 298,736
25. Hamburg | 160| 1,015,707
REICHSLAND | |
26. Alsace-Lorraine | 5,604| 1,871,702
+-------+----------
TOTAL |208,780|64,903,423
-------------------------------+-------+----------
=Location and Extent.=--This combination of Germanic States extends now
from the Alps and the Bohemian mountains on the south to the Baltic on
the north; and from the borders of France, Belgium, and Holland, on the
west, to those of Russia on the east; the greatest distance across it
from east to west and from north to south being about five hundred
miles. The coast-line measures about nine hundred and fifty miles. The
most remarkable features of the coast are the expansions of the river
mouths in the Baltic; the lagoons called the Kurische Haff, Frische
Haff, and Stettiner Haff; the estuaries of the Elbe and Weser; and the
rounded inlets of Jade Bay and the Ems mouth, on the North Sea.
The mountains on the south and the sea on the north give natural
frontiers for the most part, but west and east artificial boundaries are
marked out, which correspond only in a few parts with the ethnographic
limits of Germanic and Romanic peoples on the one side, and Germanic and
Slavonic on the other.
=Surface Characteristics.=--The surface of the empire falls naturally
into three divisions: the lowlands in the north, the table-land of the
south, and the basin of the Middle Rhine.
THE LOWLANDS are part of the Great European plain, and are largely
occupied with sandy tracts, with here and there deposits of peat. They
are well watered, and in certain districts fertile, while the monotony
of their level is broken by two lines of hills whose heights vary from
five hundred to eight hundred feet, and which may be said to extend
roughly from the Mecklenberg to the Vistula, and from the moors of
Lüneburg in Hanover to Silesia.
TABLE-LANDS.--In the southern plateau of Bavaria, the Fichtelgebirge is
clearly the pivot round which the other mountain systems revolve. Thus,
to its northwest there rises the Thuringian Forest and the Harz
Mountains, and to the northeast the Erzgebirge, the Riesengebirge, and
the Sudetic Mountains. Southwest radiate the Franconian and Swabian
Juras and the Schwarzwald or Black Forest heights. Westward stretch the
Taunus Mountains, while beyond these, and divided only by the Rhine, are
the ridges of the Vosges. In the extreme southeast of Bavaria the
Tyrolese or Noric Alps follow the northern bank of the Inn, and from
this range rises the Zugspitze (nine thousand seven hundred feet), which
is the highest summit in the whole empire. Between Basle and Mannheim,
the Middle Rhine is splendidly sheltered by the Vosges and the Black
Forest, which guard its course to left and right. (See further under the
Rhine.)
=Rivers.=--By far the greater part of the country is drained northwards
to the Baltic and the North Sea by its navigable highways, the Vistula,
Oder, Elbe, Weser, and Rhine. The southeastern corner alone belongs to
the upper basin of the Danube, flowing towards the Black Sea. (See
Danube.)
The Vistula and the Oder are Baltic waterways, but more important from a
commercial point of view are the Elbe, with its chief affluents the
Mulde, Havel, and the Saale, and the great Rhine, which both empty into
the North Sea, along with the smaller Ems and the Weser, which latter is
the only purely German stream. This fact is worth noticing, as the
sources of the Oder, Elbe, and Vistula must be traced in Austria, and
sections only of the Rhine and Danube traverse the empire.
=Climate.=--Broadly speaking, the general contours are not favorable to
climate; for the level exposed flats, north and east offer no resistance
to the passage in winter of the dry, piercing winds from Siberia and the
Arctic, while to the south and west the mountainous tracts form
effectual barriers against the moist Anti-trades. Extremes of
temperature increase eastward in proportion to the distance from the
Atlantic. In the warmer latitudes of the south, the elevations
counteract the natural tendency to grow hotter, so that Ratisbon has the
same temperature as Hamburg. In the Upper Harz the rainfall reaches
sixty-six inches, but the mean annual precipitation is only about twenty
inches. On the whole the climate may briefly be described as
continental. It should be noted that the general slope of the country is
from the southeast to northwest, that is, away from the sun, and also
that the Rhine valley is so delightfully sheltered that it reaps the
full benefit of its warm latitude, and thus enjoys excellent weather
conditions.
=Internal Communications.=--The commercial prosperity of the empire may
in some measure be traced to the excellence of the railways, the
majority of which are managed by the state. Berlin is splendidly
provided with communications by rail, and it may with truth be said that
it is within twenty-four hours’ reach of almost every point in the
empire. Further, the trunk systems have many of them an international
importance; for the great Oriental express from Paris to Constantinople
traverses the line from Strassburg to Vienna through Munich, while Paris
is linked with the remote Siberia by means of the lines from Cologne to
Berlin and from Berlin to Warsaw. Berlin is also directly connected with
Breslau, Hamburg, Danzig, and Königsberg. From Frankfort-on-Main, which
is the trading center between north and south Germany, lines radiate to
Cologne, Ostend, Antwerp, Flushing, Rotterdam, and Berlin northward, and
in a southerly direction to Strassburg, Basle, Munich, and Vienna, while
east and west it is joined up with Dresden, Breslau and Metz.
Domestic commerce has been further facilitated by an elaborate network
of canals. By far the most important of these is the Kaiser-Wilhelm
Canal (sixty-one miles long), which unites the North Sea and the Baltic.
The Dortmund-Ems (one hundred and fifty miles long) and the Elbe-Trave
(forty-three miles long) have only recently been completed. Since the
building of the Rhine and Rhone canal through Mulhaüsen, it has been
possible for a barge to pass from Rotterdam to Marseilles without
unloading.
The union of the Danube and Rhine is effected by the Ludwigs canal, and
that of the Seine and Rhine by the Rhine and Marne Canal. A number of
canals, including the Teltow (opened in 1906), serve to connect the
Spree, and therefore Berlin, with the Oder and the Elbe, the Oder and
Vistula being joined by what is known as the Bromberger Canal.
=Productions and Industries.=--Following this distribution of climate,
the forests which still cover a great part of Germany, and form a
feature of its landscapes, are chiefly of the hardier pines in the north
and east, and of deciduous trees in the south and west. About sixty-one
per cent of the surface of the empire is suitable for cultivation, the
forests occupy twenty-five per cent, and the uncultivable moors and
mountain tracts only eight per cent.
AGRICULTURE.--There are sixty-five million acres of cultivated soil, and
over twenty-one million acres of grass and pasture lands. Rye and oats
are the chief grains, the former flourishing in the north despite the
drawbacks of poor climate and soil. Almost as much land is devoted to
potatoes as to rye; for the sandy plains of western Prussia and
Pomerania seem to suit this crop equally well. Flax, hemp, and the
beet--the last for the sugar industry--are grown in Saxony and in the
Baltic provinces, especially in Hanover. The vine covers the dry, sunny
slopes of the Vosges, and is also extensively grown along the Rhine. The
rich alluvial soils of the sheltered valleys in the southwest are also
favorable to the production of tobacco and hops, which are accordingly
cultivated with success in Baden, Hesse, and Bavaria.
MINERALS.--Germany is rich in minerals, especially in coal and iron. The
great industrial activity of the country very largely depends on the
fact that these two minerals are found together, and moreover in
proximity to navigable water-courses. In the Rhine basin the coal beds
follow the courses of the Ruhr, Saar, and Ill, and excellent iron ore is
found in both the Ruhr and Saar coal fields. Coal is also found in
Silesia, while the Saxon mines in the Elbe basin yield chiefly the
lignite variety.
Almost one half of the zinc produced in the world is mined in Germany,
the chief centers being at Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle), in Rhenish Prussia,
and Königshütte, on the Oder coal fields, while nearly half the silver
of Europe is produced from the silver, lead, and copper ores found in
the Harz Mountains, Silesia, and the mines of Freiberg (Saxony). Most of
the German copper comes from the Harz and Erzgebirge Mountains. Large
quantities of rock and potassium salts are produced in Hanover, Saxony,
Thuringia, and Anhalt. The mineral springs of Baden-Baden, Wiesbaden,
Ems, etc., are world famous.
MANUFACTURES.--The industrial development of the empire proceeded at an
almost unprecedented rate throughout the last century. The following
catalogue will give some idea of the local distribution of the various
industries: Iron goods and machinery are manufactured in Prussia,
Saxony, Alsace-Lorraine, and Bavaria; steel goods in Rhenish Prussia.
Woolens and worsteds are produced in Saxony and the Rhine province;
cotton goods in Prussia, Saxony, Baden, Bavaria and Alsace-Lorraine;
silk at Elberfeld (Rhenish Prussia) and in Baden; and linen goods in
Westphalia, Silesia, and Saxony. The Rhine and Moselle districts are
important centers for light wines; Bavaria is famous for its toys, like
Nuremberg for its watches and pencils, and Meissen, Dresden, and Berlin,
etc., for their porcelain. Finally there are manufactories up and down
the country of chemicals, beer, sugar, tobacco, leather (in
Hesse-Darmstadt), and paper.
=People and Language.=--The German-speaking inhabitants of the empire
are about ninety-three per cent of the total population; but a
considerable proportion of these are not of the Germanic stock. Among
the peoples retaining their own language (about four and one-fourth
millions) are Poles (exclusively in eastern and northeastern Prussia),
Wends (in Silesia, Brandenburg, and Saxony), Czechs (in Silesia),
Lithuanians (in eastern Prussia), Danes (in Sleswick), French (in
Rhenish Prussia, Alsace and Lorraine) and Walloons (about
Aix-la-Chapelle in Rhenish Prussia). The Germans are divided into High
and Low Germans; the language of the former is the cultivated language
of all the German states; that of the latter, known as Platt-Deutsch, is
spoken in the north and northwest. (See further, Teutonic peoples, in
Book of Races.)
=Education and General Culture.=--Germany stands conspicuously foremost
in the field of state education, and so far is without rival for the
admirable systemization and for the variety and thoroughness of the
technical trainings provided. It is established by law that every child
from the age of six to fourteen must attend one of the elementary
schools (“Volkschulen”), or some other recognized scholastic
institution.
There are also a number of fully-equipped Technical High Schools, with
the power of granting degrees, and some one thousand four hundred
secondary schools (gymnasia, realschulen, oberrealschulen, etc.);
numerous special schools of technology, agriculture, forestry, mining,
commerce, military science, etc. There are twenty-one universities in
the empire: at Königsberg, Berlin, Breslau, Greifswald (in Pomerania,
southeast of Stralsund), Kiel, Halle, Göttingen, Münster, Bonn, Marburg,
Rostock, Giessen, Jena, Leipzig, Heidelberg, Freiburg, Strassburg,
Tübingen, Munich, Erlangen, and Würzburg. All of these have the four
faculties of theology, law, medicine, and philosophy, and many are some
of the oldest foundations of their kind in Europe.
Outside the country the best known are probably Berlin, Munich, Leipzig,
and Bonn, which also have the largest numbers of undergraduates, and
Göttingen, Strassburg, Heidelberg, and Jena. Four teach theology
according to the Roman Catholic doctrine, while in four others the
theological faculty is open to both Protestants and Roman Catholics; the
remaining universities are Protestant.
Culture is further stimulated in the large towns by public libraries,
learned societies, museums, art galleries, and observatories, whilst
musical knowledge and appreciation diffuses itself from the
highly-reputed conservatories at Leipzig, Dresden, Munich, Frankfort,
and Berlin.
=Religion.=--The Constitution provides for entire liberty of conscience
and for complete social equality among all religious confessions. The
relation between Church and State varies in different parts of the
empire. The Jesuit order is interdicted in all parts of Germany, and all
convents and religious orders have been suppressed.
Protestantism predominates in the north and middle, and Roman
Catholicism in the southeast and west, although very few states exhibit
exclusively either form of faith. The Protestants belong chiefly either
to the Lutheran confession, which prevails in Saxony, Thuringia,
Hanover, and Bavaria east of the Rhine, or to the Reformed or
Calvinistic Church, which prevails in Hesse, Anhalt, and the Palatinate.
A union between these two churches has taken place in Prussia. There are
five Roman Catholic archbishoprics and fourteen Roman Catholic suffragan
bishoprics and six bishoprics immediately subject to Rome.
=Defense.=--Military service in Germany is compulsory and universal,
with the usual exemptions.
ARMY.--By the regulations in force, every German who is capable of
bearing arms must be in the standing army for seven years (generally his
twentieth to his twenty-seventh year). Two years must be spent in active
service and the remainder in the army of reserve. He then spends five
years in the first class of the Landwehr, after which he belongs to the
second class till his thirty-ninth year. Besides this, every German,
from seventeen to twenty-one and from thirty-nine to forty-five is a
member of the Landsturm, a force only to be called out in the last
necessity. Those who pass certain examinations require to serve only one
year with the colors, and are known as “volunteers.”
The wide stretches of unprotected borderlands have obliged the Germans
to consider very carefully the question of frontier defenses. Thus the
empire is at present divided into ten “fortress districts,” in which the
following are the chief fortified cities: Danzig, Königsberg Posen,
Neisse, Spandau, Magdeburg, Küstrin, Mainz, Ulm, Metz, Cologne, Koblenz,
Kiel, and Strassburg.
NAVY.--Rapid progress has been made in recent years in the formation of
a German navy. Prussia took the initiative in gathering together a
fleet, but by 1851 it had grown only to fifty-one vessels, thirty-six of
which were small gunboats. However, an advance was made in 1867, when
every vessel in the navy flew the national colors (black, white, and
red), and during the last twenty-five years the measure of progress has
been phenomenal. (See further, Armies and Navies of the World.)
Kiel is the chief naval station on the Baltic, and Wilhelmshaven on the
North Sea, these two bases being connected by the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal
across the Schleswig-Holstein peninsula. Other naval establishments are
Danzig, Cuxhaven, and Sonderburg.
[Illustration: Museum of Fine Arts