=Berlin=, capital both of the Empire and of the Kingdom of Prussia, is
by far the most important center of population in Germany. It lies on
both sides of the Spree, and by the Spandau and Tetlow canals to the
Havel it is linked with the systems of the Oder and the Elbe. It is
eighty-four miles from Stettin and one hundred and eighty miles from
Hamburg, and is the center of the great Prussian state railway system.
(See Internal Communications.)
The city itself is served by an Outer Circle (_Ringbahn_) and by the
_Stadtbahn_, running east and west through the city. There are electric
surface lines, an overhead, or elevated, electric railway, and a shallow
underground railway.
On an island in the center of the city stands the Royal Palace, a
foursquare pile built at different times between 1451 and the present
day. It stands in the Schloss-platz, and is one of the few old buildings
in Berlin, dating from the sixteenth century. It contains over six
hundred rooms, including the great White Salon, and halls of the Black
and Red Eagle orders.
UNTER DEN LINDEN.--From this island stretches westward the noblest
street in Berlin, Unter den Linden (“under the lime trees”). The
triumphal arch at the west end of the street, the Brandenburg Gate (a
copy, made in 1789-93, of the Propylæa at Athens), forms the entrance to
the large park (six hundred and thirty acres) of the Thiergarten. In the
east is the magnificent avenue of the Siegesallee or Avenue of Victory,
adorned with thirty-two marble groups of the rulers of Prussia and
Brandenburg. In the Unter den Linden are many splendid public edifices,
among which are the Armory, the Opera House, the Royal Library, the new
Town Hall, the University, the palaces of William I. and of Frederick
III., and the monument to Frederick the Great by Rauch.
In the northeast of the Thiergarten stands the most imposing building of
the city, the Imperial Diet or Parliament, erected from designs by
Wallot, in 1884-94, at a cost of over five million dollars.
BUSINESS QUARTER.--The Friedrichs-Stadt is the business center of
Berlin, and the streets in this section are interesting. The banking
street, Behrenstrasse, and the Wilhelmstrasse, the official quarter,
where is the imperial chancellor’s palace, lie to the south. Fine shops
and restaurants line the Friedrichstrasse, while Viktoriastrasse is one
of the many thoroughfares of the fashionable district, southwest.
Königstrasse and Kaiser Wilhelmstrasse are the business streets of the
city proper.
The Tempelhofn Feld, also to the south, is the parade and review ground
of the Berlin garrison.
The most striking bridge is the Schloss-brücke, or Palace bridge, by F.
Schinkel, with colossal marble figures. It leads from Unter den Linden,
to the Lustgarten, a park in which stands an equestrian statue of
Frederick William III.
[Illustration: =DRAMATIC THEATER, GENSDARMEN MARKT=]
The Opera Platz contains statues of five generals, by Rauch, and is
bounded by the Palace, University, Opera House, and St. Hedwig’s Church,
an imitation of the Roman Pantheon. The Schauspielhaus, the leading
dramatic theater, is in Gensdarmen Markt. The Schauspielhaus, with the
church on each side, is considered one of the finest architectural
groups in Berlin.
STATUES AND ART MUSEUMS, ETC.--No city has so many statues and monuments
to the national heroes, kingly or military, or to those famed in
literature, science and art.
[Illustration: =GERMAN CATHEDRAL, GENSDARMEN MARKT=]
The Royal Library, once in the palace, is now in the new building, built
in 1909 on Unter den Linden; it contains nearly five million printed
books. The University Library is housed in the same building. There is a
large public library and twenty-eight municipal libraries.
The Royal Museum, in the Lustgarten, north of the Schlossplatz, is
divided into the Old and the New Museums, containing the treasures of
classical and mediæval sculpture, the Egyptian collection, etc. The Old
Museum is the finest building in the city, with a grand Ionic portico,
adorned with colossal bronze groups, and richly frescoed halls. It has
vast collections of antiquities; the halls of Greek, Roman, mediæval,
and modern sculptures; and the Hall of the Heroes.
The New Museum is entered from the Old, and contains Kaulbach’s famous
mural paintings, the Egyptian museum, an immense collection of casts,
twelve cabinets of Northern antiquities four rooms of objects of art,
and five hundred thousand engravings. It has a renaissance façade to the
east. Opposite is the new Corinthian temple of the National Gallery,
which contains a magnificent and world-renowned collection of ancient
and modern paintings.
BERLIN SUBURBS.--In recent years there has been a remarkable expansion
of the suburban districts of Berlin, residential sites have sprung up in
the pine woods and by the lakes of the Havel to the northwest, and
Spandau, Charlottenburg, and Potsdam may almost be regarded as suburbs.
[Illustration: =THE BOURSE, OR EXCHANGE, BERLIN=]
POTSDAM, “the Versailles of Prussia,” with its palaces and parks, is
sixteen miles from Berlin, among wooded hills and the lakelike expanses
of the Havel. Here is the Sans Souci Palace, built by Frederick the
Great, and full of reminiscences of him. Near by are the
Picture-Gallery, the Orangery (adorned with fine statuary), and the
Sicilian Garden. The New Palace has two hundred richly adorned rooms,
with fine paintings, and a noteworthy Marble Saloon.
The Marble Palace is north of Potsdam, and has many paintings.
Babelsberg is a new Gothic palace, with rich art-treasures. The Royal
Palace (1660) is full of relics of the Great Frederick. The Garrison
Church contains his tomb and military trophies. The Church of Peace is a
noble Ionic basilica, with masterpieces of sculpture. The famous Sans
Souci fountains play on summer Sunday afternoons.
INDUSTRIES OF BERLIN.--In its industries Berlin is almost as varied as
London, but machinery, especially locomotive and electrical, woolens,
dyeing, furniture and metal work are the chief. It is beginning to rival
Leipzig in book production, and its breweries are large. Besides being
the center of the great trade in corn and other cereals of Eastern
Europe, its great banks exercise increasing international influence.
A CENTER OF EDUCATION AND CULTURE.--The famous Freidrich Wilhelm
University, founded in 1810, now the largest in numbers in Germany, the
splendid technical institution at Charlottenburg, and its numerous
schools of all ranks, make Berlin one of the greatest intellectual and
educational centers of the world. As the seat of the Imperial Court, and
of the Imperial Parliament and administration, it is also the social
center of the empire, and its modern wealth and luxury have made it a
growing rival to Paris as a city of pleasure.
Since 1878 the city has been practically rebuilt; the sudden growth of
population has resulted in much overcrowding and crushingly high
rentals. Once deplorable, the sanitation, water supply, and public
hygiene are now of the highest standard, and German scientific
thoroughness has made it the most highly organized and best administered
city in the world.
[Illustration: =ST. HEDWIG’S CHURCH, BERLIN=]
[Illustration: =THE NEW HOHENZOLLERN CATHEDRAL, BERLIN=]
=Other Prussian Cities.=--Breslau on the Oder, the capital of the mining
districts of Silesia, has grown to be the second town of the kingdom,
carrying on very extensive manufactures and a great trade by river and
railway. It is also the emporium of the flax-growing district of
Silesia. About the Rhenish coal fields, which yield half the supply of
the kingdom, stand the manufacturing and trading towns of Cologne,
Aachen or Aix, Barmen, Düsseldorf, Elberfeld, Crefeld and Dortmund,
spinning cotton, wool, linen, and silk; and the famous iron and steel
works of Solingen and Essen, where Krupp’s steel guns are made.
Magdeburg, on the Elbe, and Cassel, on the Fulda, are the great
manufacturing and trading towns of central Prussia. Much of the internal
trade of Germany is still carried on at great annual fairs, and in this
respect the two Frankforts (on the Main to the west, and on the Oder to
the east) hold the most important place. Hanover, on the Leine, is the
point of exchange of the mineral products of the Harz for the goods
which come in by Bremen on the Weser, and has important manufactures of
its own.
The chief ports belonging to Prussia are the Baltic ones--Königsberg,
Danzig, Stettin, Stralsund, Memel, Rostock, Wismar, and Kiel, on the
Baltic; Altona, on the Elbe, next Hamburg. Posen, on the Warthe, was the
ancient capital of Poland, and is the most important fortress towards
the Russian frontier. Wiesbaden is the most important and the oldest of
the watering-places which have grown up round the mineral springs of
Nassau. Eisleben, where Luther was born, and Erfurt, where he resided,
both in Prussian Saxony, are notable points in connection with the
history of the Reformation in Germany.
[Illustration: =THE NEW PALACE AT POTSDAM=
Erected by Frederick the Great, at a cost of $2,250,000. The principal
rooms are the Shell Saloon, the rooms of Frederick the Great, the Marble
(concert) room, and ball room.]
=Dresden and Other Cities of Saxony.=--Dresden, its capital, finely
placed on both banks of the Elbe, famous for its art treasures, has also
many varied manufactures. Its architecture and its art collections have
given it the name of “the German Florence.”
The old bridge, Augustusbrücke (Augustus Bridge), may be taken as the
center of the most interesting part of Dresden. Immediately to the east
of the Augustusbrücke, on the Alstadt side, stretches the beautiful
Brühl Terrasse, whence are fine views over the river. There are
high-class concerts in the Belvedere on the Brühl Terrace. Near the
flight of steps to the terrace, facing the Royal Palace and Catholic
Church, is the Rathaus (Town Hall) with an equestrian statue of King
Albert in front.
[Illustration: =THE ZWINGER, DRESDEN, CONTAINING THE WORLD-RENOWNED
GALLERY OF PAINTINGS=]
The Royal Palace, just south of the Augustusbrücke, will be discovered
by its lofty tower, three hundred and thirty-one feet high.
The Zwinger, to the west of the Schloss, is a range of buildings of
seven pavilions, with the Museum at one corner. In the Museum are the
picture gallery, with collections of engravings and drawings, and
mineralogical collections, with scientific instruments.
The Picture Gallery is of world renown, containing more than two
thousand four hundred paintings, mostly by Italian and Flemish masters.
The gem of the collection is Raphael’s “Sistine Madonna;” other
masterpieces being Titian’s “Tribute Money,” and Correggio’s “Magdalene”
and “La Notte.”
The Green Vault in the Royal Palace contains an unrivaled collection of
precious stones, articles wrought in gold, silver, and ivory, etc. The
new Hoftheater is one of the finest theaters in Europe. Of the churches
the most noted are the Frauenkirche, with its lofty dome (three hundred
and ten feet high).
The so-called “Dresden china” is made for the most part at Meissen,
fifteen miles from Dresden.
=Leipzig= is not only the seat of a famous university and the great book
market of Germany, but has one of the largest annual fairs in the world,
to which merchants come from all parts of the earth, even from America
and China.
Chemnitz and Zwickau, beside the Saxon coal field, are the great woolen
and machine-manufacturing towns of the kingdom. Freiberg is famed for
its school of mines.
=Cities of Bavaria.=--Munich (München), the capital, stands in the midst
of a bare elevated plain on the left bank of the Isar, one thousand
seven hundred feet above sea-level, but has risen to importance as the
central point of the great grain-growing plateau of southern Bavaria. It
is the great corn depot of the country, and the place of manufacture of
its favorite beer. In recent times it has become celebrated as a seat of
the fine arts and for its splendid buildings.
Ancient Nürnburg, with its double line of walls, where watches, first
called Nürnberg eggs, were invented, is the great seat of industry and
commerce in the north of Bavaria, exporting toys which go to all parts
of the world. It stands on the Ludwigs Canal, the most important one in
the kingdom, uniting the navigable tributaries of the Rhine and Danube.
Augsburg, on the Lech, northwest of Munich, where the Protestants
presented the Confession of Faith to Charles V., is a chief center of
Bavarian trade and exchange. Würzburg, on the Main, is the old capital
of Franconia, the district which was peopled by colonies of Franks in
the sixth century.
Speyer or Spire and the fortress of Landau are also important places in
the palatinate.
=Cities of Württemberg.=--Stuttgart, where Hegel was born, and where
Schiller spent his youth, is the capital, and stands next to Leipzig and
Berlin in the printing arts and book trade. The fortress of Ulm, on the
Danube, where it leaves Württemberg, has a large transit trade.
Heilbronn is another important trading place. Tübingen is the
university town.
[Illustration: =THE PINAKOTHEK, MUNICH, FAMOUS GERMAN MUSEUM OF FINE
ARTS=]
The little territory belonging to the house of Hohenzollern, which runs
into Württemberg on the south, fell by inheritance to the king of
Prussia in 1849.
=Cities of Baden, and Elsass-Lothringen= (Alsace-Lorraine).--Carlsruhe,
the capital, and Mannheim, at the confluence of the Neckar and Rhine,
are its largest towns. Heidelberg (north) and Freiburg (south) are the
seats of universities. Baden-Baden in the center, the famous
watering-place, gives its name to the Duchy.
The fortress of Strassburg, on the Rhine, in central Elsass, anciently a
free imperial city of Germany, is the chief place in the Reichsland and
its university town, noted also for its manufacture of leather-work and
of beer. The cotton, wool and silk factories and machine works of the
province center at Mülhausen in southern Elsass.
The fortresses of Metz and Diedenhofen or Thionville, memorable in the
war of 1871, are the chief places in Lothringen.
=Cities of the Smaller States.=--Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck, the
remaining free Hanse[6] towns, are republics, each governed by a senate
and house of burgesses. Each of them has a small territory besides that
occupied by the city.
[6] The Hansa or League of the North German towns was the first
trade union of Europe, and dates from the thirteenth century. At one
time it included eighty-five towns, and had several foreign
factories.
They are the great gates of the external commerce of Germany, and from
this have also become important centers for the preparation of foreign
products, and of the necessaries of trading (tobacco, sugar-refining,
cotton-spinning, shipbuilding). Besides the traffic brought to Hamburg
and Bremen by their rivers, all the railways of the northwest converge
toward them.
GERMAN COLONIES.--At the commencement of the war these had a total area
of 1,134,239 square miles, with a population of about 14,890,000, of
whom 24,170 (including garrison and police) were whites. Of these whites
about 18,500 were settled Germans.
The following is a list of the principal colonies and regions under the
protection or influence of Germany, with approximate estimates of area
and population:
====================+=========+===================+=========+==========
COLONIES AND | DATE OF | METHOD OF |ESTIMATED| ESTIMATED
DEPENDENCIES | ACQUISI-| GOVERNMENT |AREA SQ. |POPULATION
| TION | |MILES |
--------------------+---------+-------------------+---------+----------
IN AFRICA | | | |
Togoland | 1884 | Imperial Governor | 33,700 | 1,000,000
Kamerun | 1884 | Imperial Governor | 191,130 | 3,000,000
German South West | | | |
Africa |1884-1890| Imperial Governor | 322,450 | 120,000
German East Africa|1885-1890| Imperial Governor | 384,180 |10,000,000
| | +---------+----------
Total African | | | |
Possessions |1884-1890| | 931,460 |14,120,000
| | +---------+----------
IN ASIA | | | |
Kiauchau Bay | 1897 | Imperial Governor | 200 | 33,000
IN THE PACIFIC | | | |
_German New | | | |
Guinea_ | | | |
Kaiser Wilhelm’s| |} {| }|
Land |1885-1886|} {| 70,000}|
Bismarck Archi- | |} {| }| 300,000
pelago | 1885 |} {| 20,000}|
Caroline Islands| 1899 |} {| ... |
Palau or Pelew | |}Imperial Governor{| |
Islands | 1899 |} {| 560}|
Marianne Islands| 1899 |} {| 250}|
Solomon Islands | 1886 |} {| 4,200}| 56,000
Marshall | |} {| }|
Islands, etc. | 1886 |} {| 150}|
_Samoan Islands_ | | | |
Savii | 1899 |}Imperial Governor{| 660}| 37,000
Upolu | 1899 |} {| 340}|
| | +---------+----------
Total Pacific | | | |
Possessions |1884-1899| | 96,160| 393,000
--------------------+---------+-------------------+---------+----------
[Illustration: =PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS, BERLIN=]