by the machinery already existing, i.e. the sick benefit societies,
partly by new machinery devised to meet the new obligation imposed.
The sick-funds (_Krankenkassen_) are thus of seven kinds: (1) free
assistance funds (_Freie Hilfskassen_), either registered under the
law of 1876, as modified in 1884 (_Eingeschriebene Hilfskassen_), or
established under the law of the separate states (_landesrechtliche
Hilfskassen_); (2) _Betriebs-_ or _Fabrikkrankenkassen_, funds
established by individual factory-owners; (3) _Baukrankenkasse_, a
fund established for workmen engaged on the construction (_Bau_) of
particular engineering works (canal-digging, &c.), by individual
contractors; (4) gild sick funds (_Innungskrankenkassen_), established
by the gilds for the workmen and apprentices of their members; (5)
miners' sick fund (_Knappschaftskasse_); (6) local sick fund
(_Ortskrankenkasse_), established by the commune for particular crafts
or classes of workmen; (7) _Gemeindekrankenversicherung_, i.e.
insurance of members of the commune as such, in the event of their not
subscribing to any of the other funds. Of these, 2, 3, 6 and 7 were
created under the above-mentioned laws.
The number of such funds amounted in 1903 to 23,271, and included
10,224,297 workmen. The _Ortskrankenkassen_, with 4,975,322 members,
had the greatest, and the _Baukrankenkassen_, with 16,459, the
smallest number of members. The _Ortskrankenkassen_, which endeavour
to include workmen of a like trade, have to a great extent, especially
in Saxony, fallen under the control of the Social Democrats. The
appointment of permanent doctors (_Kassenarzte_) at a fixed salary has
given rise to much difference between the medical profession and this
local sick fund; and the insistence on "freedom of choice" in doctors,
which has been made by the members and threatens to militate against
the interest of the profession, has been met on the part of the
medical body by the appointment of a commission to investigate cases
of undue influence in the selection.
According to the statistics furnished in the _Vierteljahreshefte zur
Statistik des deutschen Reiches_ for 1905, the receipts amounted to
upwards of L10,000,000 for 1903, and the expenditure to somewhat less
than this sum. Administrative changes were credited with nearly
L600,000, and the invested funds totalled L9,000,000. The workmen
contribute at the rate of two-thirds and the employers at the rate of
one-third; the sum payable in respect of each worker varying from
1(1/2)-3% of the earnings in the "communal sick fund" to at most
l(1/2)-4% in the others.
2. Insurance against old age and invalidity comprehends all persons
who have entered upon their 17th year, and who belong to one of the
following classes of wage-earners: artisans, apprentices, domestic
servants, dressmakers, charwomen, laundresses, seamstresses,
housekeepers, foremen, engineers, journeymen, clerks and apprentices
in shops (excepting assistants and apprentices in chemists' shops),
schoolmasters, schoolmistresses, teachers and governesses, provided
the earnings do not exceed L100 per annum. The insured are arranged in
five classes, according to the amount of their yearly earnings: viz.
L17, 10s.; L27, 10s.; L47, 10s.; L57, 10s.; and L100. The
contributions, affixed to a "pension book" in stamps, are payable each
week, and amount, in English money, to 1.45d., 2.34d., 2.82d., 3.30d.
and 4.23d. Of the contribution one half is paid by the employer and
the other by the employee, whose duty it is to see that the amount has
been properly entered in the pension book. The pensions, in case of
invalidity, amount (including a state subsidy of L2, 10s. for each)
respectively to L8, 8s.; L11, 5s.; L13, 10s.; L15, 15s.; and L18. The
old-age pensions (beginning at 70 years) amount to L5, 10s.; L7; L8,
10s.; L10; and L11, 10s. The old-age and invalid insurance is carried
out by thirty-one large territorial offices, to which must be added
nine special unions. The income of the forty establishments was, in
1903, L8,500,000 (including L1,700,000 imperial subsidy). The capital
collected was upwards of L50,000,000.
It may be added that employees in mercantile and trading houses, who
have not exceeded the age of 40 years and whose income is below L150,
are allowed voluntarily to share in the benefits of this insurance.
3. _Accident Insurance (Unfallversicherung)._--The insurance of
workmen and the lesser officials against the risks of accident is
effected not through the state or the commune, but through
associations formed _ad hoc_. These associations are composed of
members following the same or allied occupations (e.g. foresters,
seamen, smiths, &c.), and hence are called "professional associations"
(_Berufsgenossenschaften_). They are empowered, subject to the limits
set by the law, to regulate their own business by means of a general
meeting and of elected committees. The greater number of these
associations cover a very wide field, generally the whole empire; in
such cases they are empowered to divide their spheres into sections,
and to establish agents in different centres to inquire into cases of
accident, and to see to the carrying out of the rules prescribed by
the association for the avoidance of accidents. Those associations, of
which the area of operations extends beyond any single state, are
subordinate to the control of the imperial insurance bureau
(_Reichsversicherungsamt_) at Berlin; those that are confined to a
single state (as generally in the case of foresters and husbandmen)
are under the control of the state insurance bureau
(_Landesversicherungsamt_).
So far as their earnings do not exceed L150 per annum, the following
classes are under the legal obligation to insure: labourers in mines,
quarries, dockyards, wharves, manufactories and breweries;
bricklayers and navvies; post-office, railway, and naval and military
servants and officials; carters, raftsmen and canal hands; cellarmen,
warehousemen; stevedores; and agricultural labourers. Each of these
groups forms an association, which within a certain district embraces
all the industries with which it is connected. The funds for covering
the compensation payable in respect of accidents are raised by
payments based, in agriculture, on the taxable capital, and in other
trades and industries on the earnings of the insured. Compensation in
respect of injury or death is not paid if the accident was brought
about through the culpable negligence or other delict of the insured.
In case of injury, involving incapacity for more than thirteen weeks
(for the earlier period the _Krankenkassen_ provide), the weekly sum
payable during complete or permanent incapacity is fixed at the ratio
of two-thirds of the earnings during the year preceding the accident,
and in case of partial disablement, at such a proportion of the
earnings as corresponds to the loss through disablement. In certain
circumstances (e.g. need for paid nursing) the sum may be increased to
the full rate of the previous earnings. In case of death, as a
consequence of injury, the following payments are made: (1) a sum of
at least L2, 10s. to defray the expenses of interment; (2) a monthly
allowance of one-fifth of the annual earnings as above to the widow
and each child up to the age of 15.
_Life Insurance._--There were forty-six companies in 1900 for the
insurance of life. The number of persons insured was 1,446,249 at the
end of that year, the insurances amounting to roughly L320,000,000.
Besides these are sixty-one companies--of which forty-six are
comprised in the above life insurance companies--paying subsidies in
case of death or of military service, endowments, &c. Some of these
companies are industrial. The transactions of all these companies
included in 1900 over 4,179,000 persons, and the amount of insurances
effected was L80,000,000.
_Religion._--So far as the empire as a whole is concerned there is no
state religion, each state being left free to maintain its own
establishment. Thus while the emperor, as king of Prussia, is _summus
episcopus_ of the Prussian Evangelical Church, as emperor he enjoys no
such ecclesiastical headship. In the several states the relations of
church and state differ fundamentally according as these states are
Protestant or Catholic. In the latter these relations are regulated
either by concordats between the governments and the Holy See, or by
bulls of circumscription issued by the pope after negotiation. The
effects of concordats and bulls alike are tempered by the exercise by
the civil power of certain traditional reserved rights, e.g. the
_placetum regium_, _recursus ab abusu_, _nominatio regia_, and that of
vetoing the nomination of _personae minus gratae_. In the Protestant
states the ecclesiastical authority remains purely territorial, and the
sovereign remains effective head of the established church. During the
19th century, however, a large measure of ecclesiastical self-government
(by means of general synods, &c.) was introduced, _pari passu_ with the
growth of constitutional government in the state; and in effect, though
the theoretical supremacy of the sovereign survives in the church as in
the state, he cannot exercise it save through the general synod, which
is the state parliament for ecclesiastical purposes. Where a sovereign
rules over a state containing a large proportion of both Catholics and
Protestants, which is usually the case, both systems coexist. Thus in
Prussia the relations of the Roman Catholic community to the Protestant
state are regulated by arrangement between the Prussian government and
Rome; while in Bavaria the king, though a Catholic, is legally _summus
episcopus_ of the Evangelical Church.
According to the religious census of 1900 there were in the German
empire 35,231,104 Evangelical Protestants, 20,327,913 Roman Catholics,
6472 Greek Orthodox, 203,678 Christians belonging to other
confessions, 586,948 Jews, 11,597 members of other sects and 5938
unclassified. The Christians belonging to other confessions include
Moravian Brethren, Mennonites, Baptists, Methodists and Quakers,
German Catholics, Old Catholics, &c. The table on following page shows
the distribution of the population according to religious beliefs as
furnished by the census of 1900.
Almost two-thirds of the population belong to the Evangelical Church,
and rather more than a third to the Church of Rome; the actual figures
(based on the census of 1900) being (%) Evangelical Protestants, 62.5;
Roman Catholics, 36.1; Dissenters and others, .043, and Jews, 1.0. The
Protestants have not increased proportionately in number since 1890,
while the Roman Catholics show a small relative increase. Three states
in Germany have a decidedly predominant Roman Catholic population,
viz. Alsace-Lorraine, Bavaria and Baden; and in four states the
Protestant element prevails, but with from 24 to 34% of Roman
Catholics; viz. Prussia, Wurttemberg, Hesse and Oldenburg. In Saxony
and the eighteen minor states the number of Roman Catholics is only
from 0.3 to 3.3% of the population.
+--------------------------+-------------+-----------+-----------+--------+
| States. |Evangelicals.| Catholics.| Other | Jews. |
| | | |Christians.| |
+--------------------------+-------------+-----------+-----------+--------+
| Prussia | 21,817,577 |12,113,670 | 139,127 |392,322 |
| Bavaria | 1,749,206 | 4,363,178 | 7,607 | 54,928 |
| Saxony | 3,972,063 | 198,265 | 19,103 | 12,416 |
| Wurttemberg | 1,497,299 | 650,392 | 9,426 | 11,916 |
| Baden | 704,058 | 1,131,639 | 5,563 | 26,132 |
| Hesse | 746,201 | 341,570 | 7,368 | 24,486 |
| Mecklenburg-Schwerin | 597,268 | 8,182 | 487 | 1,763 |
| Saxe-Weimar | 347,144 | 14,158 | 361 | 1,188 |
| Mecklenburg-Strelitz | 100,568 | 1,612 | 62 | 331 |
| Oldenburg | 309,510 | 86,920 | 1,334 | 1,359 |
| Brunswick | 436,976 | 24,175 | 1,271 | 1,824 |
| Saxe-Meiningen | 244,810 | 4,170 | 395 | 1,351 |
| Saxe-Altenburg | 189,885 | 4,723 | 206 | 99 |
| Saxe-Coburg-Gotha | 225,074 | 3,330 | 515 | 608 |
| Anhalt | 301,953 | 11,699 | 794 | 1,605 |
| Schwarzburg-Sondershausen| 79,593 | 1,110 | 27 | 166 |
| Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt | 92,298 | 676 | 37 | 48 |
| Waldeck | 55,285 | 1,831 | 164 | 637 |
| Reuss-Greiz | 66,860 | 1,043 | 444 | 48 |
| Reuss-Schleiz | 135,958 | 2,579 | 466 | 178 |
| Schaumburg-Lippe | 41,908 | 785 | 177 | 257 |
| Lippe | 132,708 | 5,157 | 205 | 879 |
| Lubeck | 93,671 | 2,190 | 213 | 670 |
| Bremen | 208,815 | 13,506 | 876 | 1,409 |
| Hamburg | 712,338 | 30,903 | 3,149 | 17,949 |
| Alsace-Lorraine | 372,078 | 1,310,450 | 4,301 | 32,379 |
+--------------------------+-------------+-----------+-----------+--------+
| Total | 35,231,104 |20,327,913 | 203,678 |586,948 |
+--------------------------+-------------+-----------+-----------+--------+
From the above table little can be inferred as to the geographical
distribution of the two chief confessions. On this point it must be
borne in mind that the population of the larger towns, on account of
the greater mobility of the population since the introduction of
railways and the abolition of restrictions upon free settlement, has
become more mixed--Berlin, Leipzig, Hamburg, &c., showing
proportionally more Roman Catholics, and Cologne, Frankfort-on-Main,
Munich more Protestants than formerly. Otherwise the geographical
limits of the confessions have been but little altered since the
Thirty Years' War. In the mixed territories those places which
formerly belonged to Roman Catholic princes are Roman Catholic still,
and _vice versa_. Hence a religious map of South Germany looks like an
historical map of the 17th century. The number of localities where the
two confessions exist side by side is small. Generally speaking, South
Germany is predominantly Roman Catholic. Some districts along the
Danube (province of Bavaria, Upper Palatinate, Swabia), southern
Wurttemberg and Baden, and in Alsace-Lorraine are entirely so. These
territories are bordered by a broad stretch of country on the north,
where Protestantism has maintained its hold since the time of the
Reformation, including Bayreuth or eastern upper Franconia, middle
Franconia, the northern half of Wurttemberg and Baden, with Hesse and
the Palatinate. Here the average proportion of Protestants to Roman
Catholics is two to one. The basin of the Main is again Roman Catholic
from Bamberg to Aschaffenburg (western upper Franconia and lower
Franconia). In Prussia the western and south-eastern provinces are
mostly Roman Catholic, especially the Rhine province, together with
the government districts of Munster and Arnsberg. The territories of
the former principality of Cleves and of the countship of Mark
(comprising very nearly the basin of the Ruhr), which went to
Brandenburg in 1609, must, however, be excepted. North of Munster,
Roman Catholicism is still prevalent in the territory of the former
bishopric of Osnabruck. In the east, East Prussia (Ermeland excepted)
is purely Protestant. Roman Catholicism was predominant a hundred
years ago in all the frontier provinces acquired by Prussia in the
days of Frederick the Great, but since then the German immigrants have
widely propagated the Protestant faith in these districts. A
prevailingly Roman Catholic population is still found in the district
of Oppeln and the countship of Glatz, in the province of Posen, in the
Polish-speaking _Kreise_ of West Prussia, and in Ermeland (East
Prussia). In all the remaining territory the Roman Catholic creed is
professed only in the Eichsfeld on the southern border of the province
of Hanover and around Hildesheim.
Protestant Church.
The adherents of Protestantism are divided by their confessions into
Reformed and Lutheran. To unite these the "church union" has been
introduced in several Protestant states, as for example in Prussia and
Nassau in 1817, in the Palatinate in 1818 and in Baden in 1822. Since
1817 the distinction has accordingly been ignored in Prussia, and
Christians are there enumerated only as Evangelical or Roman Catholic.
The union, however, has not remained wholly unopposed--a section of
the more rigid Lutherans who separated themselves from the state
church being now known as Old Lutherans. In 1866 Prussia annexed
Hanover and Schleswig-Holstein, where the Protestants were Lutherans,
and Hesse, where the Reformed Church had the preponderance. The
inhabitants of these countries opposed the introduction of the union,
but could not prevent their being subordinated to the Prussian
_Oberkirchenrat_ (high church-council), the supreme court of the state
church. A synodal constitution for the Evangelical State Church was
introduced in Prussia in 1875. The _Oberkirchenrat_ retains the right
of supreme management. The ecclesiastical affairs of the separate
provinces are directed by consistorial boards. The parishes
(_Pfarreien_) are grouped into dioceses (_Sprengel_), presided over by
superintendents, who are subordinate to the superintendent-general of
the province. Prussia has sixteen superintendents-general. The
ecclesiastical administration is similarly regulated in the other
countries of the Protestant creed. Regarding the number of churches
and chapels Germany has no exact statistics.
Roman Catholic Church.
There are five archbishoprics within the German empire: Gnesen-Posen,
Cologne, Freiburg (Baden), Munich-Freising and Bamberg. The twenty
bishoprics are: Breslau (where the bishop has the title of
"prince-bishop"), Ermeland (seat at Frauenburg, East Prussia), Kulm
(seat at Pelplin, West Prussia), Fulda, Hildesheim, Osnabruck,
Paderborn, Munster, Limburg, Trier, Metz, Strassburg, Spires,
Wurzburg, Regensburg, Passau, Eichstatt, Augsburg, Rottenburg
(Wurttemberg) and Mainz. Apostolic vicariates exist in Dresden (for
Saxony), and others for Anhalt and the northern missions.
The Old Catholics (q.v.), who seceded from the Roman Church in
consequence of the definition of the dogma of papal infallibility,
number roughly 50,000, with 54 clergy.
Jews.
It is in the towns that the Jewish element is chiefly to be found.
They belong principally to the mercantile class, and are to a very
large extent dealers in money. Their wealth has grown to an
extraordinary degree. They are increasingly numerous in Hamburg,
Berlin, Frankfort-on-Main, Breslau, Konigsberg, Posen, Cologne,
Nuremberg and Furth. As a rule their numbers are proportionately
greater in Prussia than elsewhere within the empire. But, since 1871,
the Jewish population of Germany shows a far smaller increase than
that of the Christian confessions, and even in the parts of the
country where the Jewish population is densest it has shown a tendency
to diminish. It is relatively greatest in the province of Posen, where
the numbers have fallen from 61,982 (39.1 per thousand) in 1871 to
35,327 (18.7 per thousand) in 1900. The explanation is twofold--the
extraordinary increase (1) in their numbers in Berlin and the province
of Brandenburg, and (2) in the number of conversions to the Christian
faith. In this last regard it may be remarked that the impulse is less
from religious conviction than from a desire to associate on more
equal terms with their neighbours. Though still, in fact at least, if
not by law, excluded from many public offices, especially from
commands in the army, they nevertheless are very powerful in Germany,
the press being for the most part in their hands, and they furnish in
many cities fully one-half of the lawyers and the members of the
corporation. It should be mentioned, as a curious fact, that the
numbers of the Jewish persuasion in the kingdom of Saxony increased
from 3358 (1.3 per thousand) in 1871 to 12,416 (3 per thousand) in
1900.
_Education._--In point of educational culture Germany ranks high among
all the civilized great nations of the world (see EDUCATION:
_Germany_). Education is general and compulsory throughout the empire,
and all the states composing it have, with minor modifications, adopted
the Prussian system providing for the establishment of elementary
schools--_Volksschulen_--in every town and village. The school age is
from six to fourteen, and parents can be compelled to send their
children to a _Volksschule_, unless, to the satisfaction of the
authorities, they are receiving adequate instruction in some other
recognized school or institution.
The total number of primary schools was 60,584 in 1906-1907; teachers,
166,597; pupils, 9,737,262--an average of about one _Volksschule_ to
every 900 inhabitants. The annual expenditure was over L26,000,000, of
which sum L7,500,000 was provided by state subvention. There were also
in Germany in the same year 643 private schools, giving instruction
similar to that of the elementary schools, with 41,000 pupils. A good
criterion of the progress of education is obtained from the
diminishing number of illiterate army recruits, as shown by the
following:
+-----------+---------+------------------------+
| | |Unable to Read or Write.|
| |Number of+--------+---------------+
| Years. |Recruits.| Total. | Per 1000 |
| | | | Recruits. |
+-----------+---------+--------+---------------+
| 1875-1876 | 139,855 | 3331 | 23.7 |
| 1880-1881 | 151,180 | 2406 | 15.9 |
| 1885-1886 | 152,933 | 1657 | 10.8 |
| 1890-1891 | 193,318 | 1035 | 5.4 |
| 1895-1896 | 250,287 | 374 | 1.5 |
| 1898-1899 | 252,382 | 173 | 0.7 |
| 1900-1901 | 253,000 | 131 | 0.45 |
+-----------+---------+--------+---------------+
Of the above 131 illiterates in 1900-1901, 114 were in East and West
Prussia, Posen and Silesia.
_Universities and Higher Technical Schools._--Germany owes its large
number of universities, and its widely diffused higher education to its
former subdivision into many separate states. Only a few of the
universities date their existence from the 19th century; the majority of
them are very much older. Each of the larger provinces, except Posen,
has at least one university, the entire number being 21. All have four
faculties except Munster, which has no faculty of medicine. As regards
theology, Bonn, Breslau and Tubingen have both a Protestant and a
Catholic faculty; Freiburg, Munich, Munster and Wurzburg are exclusively
Catholic; and all the rest are Protestant.
The following table gives the names of the 21 universities, the dates
of their respective foundations, the number of their professors and
other teachers for the winter half-year 1908-1909, and of the students
attending their lectures during the winter half-year of 1907-1908:
+------------+-----------+----------+--------------------------------------+-------+
| | Date of |Professors| Students. | |
| |Foundation.| and +---------+------+---------+-----------+ Total.|
| | | Teachers.|Theology.| Law. |Medicine.|Philosophy.| |
+------------+-----------+----------+---------+------+---------+-----------+-------+
| Berlin | 1809 | 493 | 326 | 2747 | 1153 | 3934 | 8220 |
| Bonn | 1818 | 190 | 395 | 833 | 282 | 1699 | 3209 |
| Breslau | 1811 | 189 | 330 | 617 | 284 | 840 | 2071 |
| Erlangen | 1743 | 77 | 155 | 323 | 355 | 225 | 1058 |
| Freiburg | 1457 | 150 | 219 | 373 | 580 | 642 | 1814 |
| Giessen | 1607 | 100 | 63 | 204 | 331 | 546 | 1144 |
| Gottingen | 1737 | 161 | 102 | 441 | 188 | 1126 | 1857 |
| Greifswald | 1456 | 105 | 68 | 188 | 186 | 361 | 803 |
| Halle | 1694 | 174 | 331 | 450 | 217 | 1239 | 2237 |
| Heidelberg | 1385 | 177 | 55 | 357 | 385 | 879 | 1676 |
| Jena | 1558 | 116 | 48 | 267 | 265 | 795 | 1375 |
| Kiel | 1665 | 121 | 35 | 271 | 239 | 480 | 1025 |
| Konigsberg | 1544 | 152 | 68 | 317 | 218 | 502 | 1105 |
| Leipzig | 1409 | 234 | 303 | 1013 | 606 | 2419 | 4341 |
| Marburg | 1527 | 117 | 133 | 400 | 261 | 876 | 1670 |
| Munich | 1826 | 239 | 169 | 1892 | 1903 | 1979 | 5943 |
| Munster | 1902 | 95 | 278 | 458 | .. | 870 | 1606 |
| Rostock | 1418 | 65 | 48 | 67 | 211 | 322 | 648 |
| Strassburg | 1872 | 167 | 241 | 369 | 255 | 844 | 1709 |
| Tubingen | 1477 | 111 | 464 | 467 | 263 | 384 | 1578 |
| Wurzburg | 1582 | 102 | 106 | 331 | 625 | 320 | 1382 |
+------------+-----------+----------+---------+------+---------+-----------+-------+
Not included in the above list is the little academy--Lyceum
Hosianum--at Braunsberg in Prussia, having faculties of theology
(Roman Catholic) and philosophy, with 13 teachers and 150 students. In
all the universities the number of matriculated students in 1907-1908
was 46,471, including 320 women, 2 of whom studied theology, 14 law,
150 philosophy and 154 medicine. There were also, within the same
period, 5653 non-matriculated _Horer_ (hearers), including 2486 women.
Ten schools, technical high schools, or _Polytechnica_, rank with the
universities, and have the power of granting certain degrees. They
have departments of architecture, building, civil engineering,
chemistry, metallurgy and, in some cases, anatomy. These schools are
as follows: Berlin (Charlottenburg), Munich, Darmstadt, Karlsruhe,
Hanover, Dresden, Stuttgart, Aix-la-Chapelle, Brunswick and Danzig; in
1908 they were attended by 14,149 students (2531 foreigners), and had
a teaching staff of 753. Among the remaining higher technical schools
may be mentioned the three mining academies of Berlin, Clausthal, in
the Harz, and Freiberg in Saxony. For instruction in agriculture there
are agricultural schools attached to several universities--notably
Berlin, Halle, Gottingen, Konigsberg, Jena, Poppelsdorf near Bonn,
Munich and Leipzig. Noted academies of forestry are those of Tharandt
(in Saxony), Eberswalde, Munden on the Weser, Hohenheim near
Stuttgart, Brunswick, Eisenach, Giessen and Karlsruhe. Other technical
schools are again the five veterinary academies of Berlin, Hanover,
Munich, Dresden and Stuttgart, the commercial colleges
(_Handelshochschulen_) of Leipzig, Aix-la-Chapelle, Hanover,
Frankfort-on-Main and Cologne, in addition to 424 commercial schools
of a lesser degree, 100 schools for textile manufactures and numerous
schools for special metal industries, wood-working, ceramic
industries, naval architecture and engineering and navigation. For
military science there are the academies of war (_Kriegsakademien_) in
Berlin and Munich, a naval academy in Kiel, and various cadet and
non-commissioned officers' schools.
_Libraries._--Mental culture and a general diffusion of knowledge are
extensively promoted by means of numerous public libraries established
in the capital, the university towns and other places. The most
celebrated public libraries are those of Berlin (1,000,000 volumes and
30,000 MSS.); Munich (1,000,000 volumes, 40,000 MSS.); Heidelberg
(563,000 volumes, 8000 MSS.); Gottingen (503,000 volumes, 6000 MSS.);
Strassburg (760,000 volumes); Dresden (500,000 volumes, 6000 MSS.);
Hamburg (municipal library, 600,000 volumes, 5000 MSS.); Stuttgart
(400,000 volumes, 3500 MSS.); Leipzig (university library, 500,000
volumes, 5000 MSS.); Wurzburg (350,000 volumes); Tubingen (340,000
volumes); Rostock (318,000 volumes); Breslau (university library,
300,000 volumes, 7000 MSS.); Freiburg-im-Breisgau (250,000 volumes);
Bonn (265,000 volumes); and Konigsberg (230,000 volumes, 1100 MSS.).
There are also famous libraries at Gotha, Wolfenbuttel and Celle.
_Learned Societies._--There are numerous societies and unions, some of
an exclusively scientific character and others designed for the
popular diffusion of useful knowledge. Foremost among German academies
is the Academy of Sciences (_Akademie der Wissenschaften_) in Berlin,
founded in 1700 on Leibnitz's great plan and opened in 1711. After
undergoing various vicissitudes, it was reorganized by Frederick the
Great on the French model and received its present constitution in
1812. It has four sections: physical, mathematical, philosophical and
historical. The members are (1) ordinary (50 in number, each receiving
a yearly dotation of L30), and (2) extraordinary, consisting of
honorary and corresponding (foreign) members. It has published since
1811 a selection of treatises furnished by its most eminent men, among
whom must be reckoned Schleiermacher, the brothers Humboldt, Grimm,
Savigny, Bockh, Ritter and Lachmann, and has promoted philological and
historical research by helping the production of such works as _Corpus
inscriptionum Graecarum_; _Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum_; _Monumenta
Germaniae historica_, the works of Aristotle, Frederick the Great's
works and Kant's collected works. Next in order come (1) the Academy
of Sciences at Munich, founded in 1759, divided into three classes,
philosophical, historical and physical, and especially famous for its
historical research; (2) the Society of Sciences (_Gesellschaft der
Wissenschaften_) in Gottingen, founded in 1742; (3) that of Erfurt,
founded 1758; (4) Gorlitz (1779) and (5) the "Royal Saxon Society of
Sciences" (_Konigliche sachsische Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften_),
founded in Leipzig in 1846. Ample provision is made for scientific
collections of all kinds in almost all places of any importance,
either at the public expense or through private munificence.
_Observatories._--These have in recent years been considerably
augmented. There are 19 leading observatories in the empire, viz. at
Bamberg, Berlin (2), Bonn, Bothkamp in Schleswig, Breslau, Dusseldorf,
Gotha, Gottingen, Hamburg, Heidelberg, Jena, Kiel, Konigsberg,
Leipzig, Munich, Potsdam, Strassburg and Wilhelmshaven.
_Book Trade._--This branch of industry, from the important position it
has gradually acquired since the time of the Reformation, is to be
regarded as at once a cause and a result of the mental culture of
Germany. Leipzig, Berlin and Stuttgart are the chief centres of the
trade. The number of booksellers in Germany was not less than 10,000
in 1907, among whom were approximately 6000 publishers. The following
figures will show the recent progress of German literary production,
in so far as published works are concerned:
Year 1570 1600 1618 1650 1700 1750 1800 1840 1884 1902
Books 229 791 1293 725 951 1219 3335 6904 15,607 26,902
_Newspapers._--While in England a few important newspapers have an
immense circulation, the newspapers of Germany are much more numerous,
but on the whole command a more limited sale. Some large cities,
notably Berlin, Cologne, Hamburg, Dresden, Leipzig and Munich, have,
however, newspapers with a daily circulation of over 100,000 copies,
and in the case of some papers in Berlin a million copies is reached.
Most readers receive their newspapers through the post office or at
their clubs, which may help to explain the smaller number of copies
sold.
_Fine Arts._--Perhaps the chief advantage which Germany has derived
from the survival of separate territorial sovereignties within the
empire has been the decentralization of culture. Patronage of art is
among the cherished traditions of the German princes; and even
where--as for instance at Cassel--there is no longer a court, the
artistic impetus given by the former sovereigns has survived their
fall. The result has been that there is in Germany no such
concentration of the institutions for the encouragement and study of
the fine arts as there is in France or England. Berlin has no
practical monopoly, such as is possessed by London or Paris, of the
celebrated museums and galleries of the country. The picture galleries
of Dresden, Munich and Cassel still rival that at Berlin, though the
latter is rapidly becoming one of the richest in the world in works of
the great masters, largely at the cost of the private collections of
England. For the same reason the country is very well provided with
excellent schools of painting and music. Of the art schools the most
famous are those of Munich, Dusseldorf, Dresden and Berlin, but there
are others, e.g. at Karlsruhe, Weimar and Konigsberg. These schools
are in close touch with the sovereigns and the governments, and the
more promising pupils are thus from the first assured of a career,
especially in connexion with the decoration of public buildings and
monuments. To this fact is largely due the excellence of the Germans
in grandiose decorative painting and sculpture, a talent for the
exercise of which plenty of scope has been given them by the numerous
public buildings and memorials raised since the war of 1870. Perhaps
for this very reason, however, the German art schools have had no such
cosmopolitan influence as that exercised by the schools of Paris, the
number of foreign students attending them being comparatively small.
It is otherwise with the schools of music, which exercise a profound
influence far beyond the borders of Germany. Of these the most
important are the conservatoires of Leipzig, Dresden, Berlin, Munich
and Frankfort-on-Main. The fame of Weimar as a seat of musical
education, though it possesses an excellent conservatoire, is based
mainly on the tradition of the abbe Liszt, who gathered about him here
a number of distinguished pupils, some of whom have continued to make
it their centre. Music in Germany also receives a great stimulus from
the existence, in almost every important town, of opera-houses partly
supported by the sovereigns or by the civic authorities. Good music
being thus brought within the reach of all, appreciation of it is very
wide-spread in all classes of the population. The imperial government
maintains institutes at Rome and Athens which have done much for the
advancement of archaeology. (P. A. A.)
_Army._--The system of the "nation in arms" owes its existence to the
reforms in the Prussian army that followed Jena. The "nation in arms"
itself was the product of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars,
but it was in Prussia that was seen the systematization and the
economical and effective application of the immense forces of which the
revolutionary period had demonstrated the existence (see also ARMY;
CONSCRIPTION; FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY WARS, &c.). It was with an army and a
military system that fully represented the idea of the "nation in arms"
that Prussia created the powerful Germany of later days, and the same
system was extended by degrees over all the other states of the new
empire. But these very successes contained in themselves the germ of new
troubles. Increased prosperity, a still greater increase in population
and the social and economic disturbances incidental to the conversion of
an agricultural into a manufacturing community, led to the practical
abandonment of the principle of _universal_ service. More men came
before the recruiting officer than there was money to train; and in 1895
the period of service with the colours was reduced from three to two
years--a step since followed by other military powers, the idea being
that with the same peace effective and financial grants half as many men
again could be passed through the ranks as before.
In 1907 the recruiting statistics were as follows:
Number of young men attaining service age (including
those who had voluntarily enlisted before their time) 556,772
Men belonging to previous years who had been put back
for re-examination, &., still borne on the lists 657,753
---------
1,214,525
_Deduct_--Physically unfit, &c. 35,802
Struck off 860
Voluntarily enlisted in the army and navy,
on or before attaining service age 57,739
Assigned as recruits to the navy 10,374
Put back, &c. 684,193
-------
788,968
-------
Available as army recruits, fit 425,557
-------
Of these, (a) Assigned to the active army for two or three
years' service with the colours _ _ 212,661
(b) Assigned to the Ersatz-Reserve of the | |
army and navy |_untrained_| 89,877
(c) Assigned to the 1st levy of Landsturm |_ _| 123,019
-------
425,557
Thus only half the men on whom the government has an effective hold go
to the colours in the end. Moreover few of the men "put back, &c.," who
figure on both sides of the account for any one year, and seem to
average 660,000, are really "put back." They are in the main those who
have failed or fail to present themselves, and whose names are retained
on the liability lists against the day of their return. Many of these
have emigrated.
By the constitution of the 16th of April 1871 every German is liable to
service and no substitution is allowed. Liability begins at the age of
seventeen, and actual service, as a rule, from the age of twenty. The
men serve in the active army and army reserve for seven years, of which
two years (three in the case of cavalry and horse artillery recruits)
are spent with the colours. During his four or five years in the
reserve, the soldier is called out for training with his corps twice,
for a maximum of eight weeks (in practice usually for six). After
quitting the reserve the soldier is drafted into the first ban of the
_Landwehr_ for five years more, in which (except in the cavalry, which
is not called out in peace time) he undergoes two trainings of from
eight to fourteen days. Thence he passes into the second ban and remains
in it until he has completed his thirty-ninth year--i.e. from six to
seven years more, the whole period of army and Landwehr service being
thus nineteen years. Finally, all soldiers are passed into the
_Landsturm_, in the first ban of which they remain until the completion
of their forty-fifth year. The second ban consists of untrained men
between the ages of thirty-nine and forty-five. Young men who reach a
certain standard of education, however, are only obliged to serve for
one year in the active army. They are called One-Year Volunteers
(_Einjahrig-Freiwilligen_), defray their own expenses and are the chief
source of supply of reserve and Landwehr officers. That proportion of
the annual contingents which is dismissed untrained goes either to the
Ersatz-Reserve or to the 1st ban of the Landsturm (the Landwehr, it will
be observed, contains only men who have served with the colours). The
Ersatz consists exclusively of young men, who would in war time be
drafted to the regimental depots and thence sent, with what training
circumstances had in the meantime allowed, to the front. Some men of the
Ersatz receive a short preliminary training in peace time.
In 1907 the average height of the private soldiers was 5 ft. 6 in., that
of the non-commissioned officers 5 ft. 6-1/2 in., and that of the
one-year volunteers 5 ft. 9-1/2 in. A much greater proportion of the
country recruits were accepted as "fit" than of those coming from the
towns. Voluntary enlistments of men who desired to become
non-commissioned officers were most frequent in the provinces of the old
Prussian monarchy, but in Berlin itself and in Westphalia the
enlistments fell far short of the number of non-commissioned officers
required for the territorial regiments of the respective districts.
Above all, in Alsace-Lorraine one-eighth only of the required numbers
were obtained.
_Peace and War Strengths._--German military policy is revised every
five years; thus a law of April 1905 fixes the strength and
establishments to be attained on March 31, 1910, the necessary
augmentations, &c., being carried out gradually in the intervening
years. The peace strength for the latter date was fixed at 505,839 men
(not including officers, non-commissioned officers and one-year
volunteers), forming--
633 battalions infantry.
510 squadrons cavalry.
574 batteries field and horse artillery.
40 battalions foot artillery.
29 battalions pioneers.
12 battalions communication troops.
23 train battalions, &c.
The addition of about 25,000 officers and 85,000 non-commissioned
officers, one-year men, &c., brings the peace footing of the German
army in 1910 to a total of about 615,000 of all ranks.
As for war, the total fighting strength of the German nation
(including the navy) has been placed at as high a figure as
11,000,000. Of these 7,000,000 have received little or no training,
owing to medical unfitness, residence abroad, failure to appear,
surplus of annual contingents, &c., as already explained, and not more
than 3,000,000 of these would be available in war. The real military
resources of Germany, untrained and trained, are thus about 7,000,000,
of whom 4,000,000 have at one time or another done a continuous period
of service with the colours.[6] This is of course for a war of defence
_a outrance_. For an offensive war, only the active army, the reserve,
the Ersatz and the 1st levy of the Landwehr would be really available.
A rough calculation of the number of these who go to form or to
reinforce the field armies and the mobilized garrisons may be given:
Cadres of officers and non-commissioned officers 100,000
From 7 annual contingents of recruits (i.e.
active army and reserve) 1,200,000
From 5 contingents of Landwehr (1st ban) 600,000
From 7 classes of Ersatz reserve called to the
depots, able-bodied men 400,000
One-year volunteers recalled to the colours or
serving as reserve and Landwehr officers 100,000
---------
2,400,000
These again would divide into a first line army of 1,350,000 and a
second of 1,050,000. It is calculated that the field army would
consist, in the third week of a great war, of 633 battalions, 410
squadrons and 574 batteries, with technical, departmental and medical
troops (say 630,000 bayonets, 60,000 sabres and 3444 guns, or 750,000
men), and that these could be reinforced in three or four weeks by 350
fresh battalions. Behind these forces there would shortly become
available for secondary operations about 460 battalions of the 1st ban
Landwehr, and 200 squadrons and about 220 batteries of the reserve and
Landwehr. In addition, each would leave behind depot troops to form
the nucleus on which the 2nd ban Landwehr and the Landsturm would
eventually be built up. The total number of units of the three arms in
all branches may be stated approximately at 2200 battalions, 780
squadrons and 950 batteries.
_Command and Organization._--By the articles of the constitution the
whole of the land forces of the empire form a united army in war and
peace under the orders of the emperor. The sovereigns of the chief
states are entitled to nominate the lower grades of officers, and the
king of Bavaria has reserved to himself the special privilege of
superintending the general administration of the three Bavarian army
corps; but all appointments are made subject to the emperor's
approval. The emperor is empowered to erect fortresses in any part of
the empire. It is the almost invariable practice of the kings of
Prussia to command their forces in person, and the army commands, too,
are generally held by leaders of royal or princely rank. The natural
corollary to this is the assignment of special advisory duties to a
responsible chief of staff. The officers are recruited either from the
Cadet Corps at Berlin or from amongst those men, of sufficient social
standing, who join the ranks as "avantageurs" with a view to obtaining
commissions. Reserve and Landwehr officers are drawn from among
officers and selected non-commissioned officers retired from the
active army, and one-year volunteers who have passed a special
examination. All candidates, from whatever source they come, are
subject to approval or rejection by their brother officers before
being definitively commissioned. Promotion in the German army is
excessively slow, the senior subalterns having eighteen to twenty
years' commissioned service and the senior captains sometimes thirty.
The number of officers on the active list is about 25,000. The
under-officers number about 84,000.
The German army is organized in twenty-three army corps, stationed and
recruited in the various provinces and states as follows: Guard,
Berlin (general recruiting); I. Konigsberg (East Prussia); II. Stettin
(Pomerania); III. Berlin (Brandenburg); IV. Magdeburg (Prussian
Saxony); V. Posen (Poland and part of Silesia); VI. Breslau (Silesia);
VII. Munster (Westphalia); VIII. Coblenz (Rhineland); IX. Altona
(Hanse Towns and Schleswig-Holstein); X. Hanover (Hanover); XI. Cassel
(Hesse-Cassel); XII. Dresden (Saxony); XIII. Stuttgart (Wurttemberg);
XIV. Karlsruhe (Baden); XV. Strassburg (Alsace); XVI. Metz (Lorraine);
XVII. Danzig (West Prussia); XVIII. Frankfurt-am-Main (Hesse
Darmstadt, Main country); XIX. Leipzig (Saxony); I. Bavarian Corps,
Munich; II. Bavarian Corps, Wurzburg; III. Bavarian Corps, Nuremberg.
The formation of a XX. army corps out of the extra division of the
XIV. corps at Colmar in Alsace, with the addition of two regiments
from Westphalia and drafts of the XV. and XVI. corps, was announced in
1908 as the final step of the programme for the period 1906-1910. The
normal composition of an army corps on war is (a) staff, (b) 2
infantry divisions, each of 2 brigades (4 regiments or 12
battalions), 2 regiments of field artillery (comprising 9 batteries of
field-guns and 3 of field howitzers, 72 pieces in all), 3 squadrons of
cavalry, 1 or 2 companies of pioneers, a bridge train and 1 or 2
bearer companies; (c) corps troops, 1 battalion rifles, telegraph
troops, bridge train, ammunition columns, train (supply) battalion,
field bakeries, bearer companies and field hospitals, &c., with, as a
rule, one or two batteries of heavy field howitzers or mortars and a
machine-gun group. The remainder of the cavalry and horse artillery
attached to the army corps in peace goes in war to form the cavalry
divisions. Certain corps have an increased effective; thus the Guard
has a whole cavalry division, and the I. corps (Konigsberg) has three
divisions. Several corps possess an extra infantry brigade of two
2-battalion regiments, but these, unless stationed on the frontiers,
are gradually absorbed into new divisions and army corps. In war
several army corps, cavalry divisions and reserve divisions are
grouped in two or more "armies," and in peace the army corps are
divided for purposes of superior control amongst several "army
inspections."
The cavalry is organized in regiments of cuirassiers, dragoons,
lancers, hussars and mounted rifles,[7] the regiments having four
service and one depot squadrons. Troopers are armed with lance, sword
and carbine (for which in 1908 the substitution of a short rifle with
bayonet was suggested). In peace time the highest permanent
organization is the brigade of two regiments or eight squadrons, but
in war and at manoeuvres divisions of three brigades, with horse
artillery attached, are formed.
The infantry consists of 216 regiments, mostly of three battalions
each. These are numbered, apart from the eight Guard regiments and the
Bavarians, serially throughout the army. Certain regiments are styled
grenadiers and fusiliers. In addition there are eighteen chasseur or
rifle battalions (_Jager_). The battalion has always four companies,
each, at war strength, 250 strong. The armament of the infantry is the
model 1898 magazine rifle and bayonet (see RIFLE).
The field (including horse) artillery consists in peace of 94
regiments subdivided into two or three groups (_Abteilungen_), each of
two or three 6-gun batteries. The field gun in use is the quick-firing
gun 96/N.A. (see ORDNANCE: _Field Equipments_).
The foot artillery is intended for siege and fortress warfare, and to
furnish the heavy artillery of the field army. It consists of forty
battalions. Machine gun detachments, resembling 4-gun batteries and
horsed as artillery, were formed to the number of sixteen in
1904-1906. These are intended to work with the cavalry divisions.
Afterwards it was decided to form additional small groups of two guns
each, less fully horsed, to assist the infantry, and a certain number
of these were created in 1906-1908.
The engineers are a technical body, not concerned with field warfare
or with the command of troops. On the other hand, the pioneers (29
battalions) are assigned to the field army, with duties corresponding
roughly to those of field companies R.E. in the British service. Other
branches represented in Great Britain by the Royal Engineers are known
in Germany by the title "communication troops," and comprise railway,
telegraph and airship and balloon battalions. The Train is charged
with the duties of supply and transport. There is one battalion to
each army corps.
_Remounts._--The peace establishment in horses is approximately
100,000. Horses serve eight to nine years in the artillery and nine to
ten in the cavalry, after which, in the autumn of each year, they are
sold, and their places taken by remounts. The latter are bought at
horse-fairs and private sales, unbroken, and sent to the 25 remount
depots, whence, when fit for the service, they are sent to the various
units, as a rule in the early summer. Most of the cavalry and
artillery riding horses come from Prussia proper. The Polish districts
produce swift Hussar horses of a semi-eastern type. Hanover is second
only to East Prussia in output of horses. Bavaria, Saxony and
Wurttemberg do not produce enough horses for their own armies and have
to draw on Prussia. Thirteen thousand four hundred and forty-five
young horses were bought by the army authorities during 1907. The
average price was about L51 for field artillery draught horses, L65
for heavy draught horses, and L46 for riding horses.
The military expenditure of Germany, according to a comparative table
furnished to the House of Commons by the British war office in 1907,
varied between L36,000,000 and L44,000,000 per annum in the period
1899-1902, and between L42,000,000 and L51,000,000 per annum in that
of 1905-1909.
_Colonial Troops._--In 1906 these, irrespective of the brigade of
occupation then maintained in north China and of special
reinforcements sent to S.W. Africa during the Herrero war, consisted
of the _German East Africa_ troops, 220 Europeans and 1470 natives;
the _Cameroon_ troops, 145 European and 1170 natives; _S.W. African
troops_, entirely European and normally consisting of 606 officers
and men active and a reserve of ex-soldier settlers; the Kiao-Chau
garrison (chiefly marines), numbering 2687 officers and men; and
various small police forces in Togo, New Guinea, Samoa, &c.
_Fortresses._--The fixed defences maintained by the German empire
(apart from naval ports and coast defences) belong to two distinct
epochs in the military policy of the state. In the first period
(roughly 1871-1899), which is characterized by the development of the
offensive spirit, the fortresses, except on the French and Russian
frontiers, were reduced to a minimum. In the interior only Spandau,
Custrin, Magdeburg, Ingolstadt and Ulm were maintained as defensive
supporting points, and similarly on the Rhine, which was formerly
studded with fortresses from Basel to Emmerich, the defences were
limited to New Breisach, Germersheim, Mainz, Coblenz, Cologne and
Wesel, all of a "barrier" character and not organized specially as
centres of activity for field armies. The French frontier, and to a
less extent the Russian, were organized offensively. Metz, already
surrounded by the French with a girdle of forts, was extended and
completed (see FORTIFICATION AND SIEGECRAFT) as a great entrenched
camp, and Strassburg, which in 1870 possessed no outlying works, was
similarly expanded, though the latter was regarded an instrument of
defence more than of attack. On the Russian frontier Konigsberg,
Danzig, Thorn, Posen, Glogau (and on a smaller scale Boyen in East
Prussia and Graudenz on the Vistula) were modernized and improved.
From 1899, however, Germany began to pay more attention to her fixed
defences, and in the next years a long line of fortifications came
into existence on the French frontier, the positions and strength of
which were regulated with special regard to a new strategic
disposition of the field armies and to the number and sites of the
"strategic railway stations" which were constructed about the same
time. Thus, the creation of a new series of forts extending from
Thionville (Diedenhofen) to Metz and thence south-eastward was coupled
with the construction of twelve strategic railway stations between
Cologne and the Belgian frontier, and later--the so-called
"fundamental plan" of operations against France having apparently
undergone modification in consequence of changes in the foreign
relations of the German government--an immense strategic railway
station was undertaken at Saarburg, on the right rear of Thionville
and well away from the French frontier, and many important new works
both of fortification and of railway construction were begun in Upper
Alsace, between Colmar and Basel.
The coast defences include, besides the great naval ports of
Wilhelmshaven on the North Sea and Kiel on the Baltic, Danzig, Pillau,
Memel, Friedrichsort, Cuxhaven, Geestemunde and Swinemunde.
(C. F. A.)
_Navy._--The German navy is of recent origin. In 1848 the German people
urged the construction of a fleet. Money was collected, and a few
men-of-war were fitted out; but these were subsequently sold, the German
_Bundestag_ (federal council) not being in sympathy with the aspirations
of the nation. Prussia however, began laying the foundations of a small
navy. To meet the difficulty arising from the want of good harbours in
the Baltic, a small extent of territory near Jade Bay was bought from
Oldenburg in 1854, for the purpose of establishing a war-port there. Its
construction was completed at enormous expense, and it was opened for
ships by the emperor in June 1869 under the name of Wilhelmshaven. In
1864 Prussia, in annexing Holstein, obtained possession of the excellent
port of Kiel, which has since been strongly fortified. From the time of
the formation of the North German Confederation the navy has belonged to
the common federal interest. Since 1st October 1867 all its ships have
carried the same flag, of the national colours--black, white, red, with
the Prussian eagle and the iron cross.
From 1848 to 1868 the increase of the navy was slow. In 1851 it
consisted of 51 vessels, including 36 small gunboats of 2 guns each. In
1868 it consisted of 45 steamers (including 2 ironclads) and 44 sailing
vessels, but during the various wars of the period 1848-1871, only a few
minor actions were fought at sea, and for many years after the French
War the development of the navy did not keep pace with that of the
empire's commercial interests beyond the seas, or compete seriously with
the naval power of possible rivals. But towards the end of the 19th
century Germany started on a new naval policy, by which her fleet was
largely and rapidly increased. Details of this development will be found
in the article NAVY (see also _History_ below, _ad fin._). It will be
sufficient here to give the statistics relating to the beginning of the
year 1909, reference being made only to ships effective at that date and
to ships authorized in the construction programme of 1907:
Modern battleships 20 effective, 4 approaching completion.
Old battleships and coast
defence ships 11 effective (4 non-effective).
Armoured cruisers 9 effective, 1 approaching completion.
Protected cruisers 31 effective, 2 approaching completion.
Torpedo craft of modern
types 130 effective, 3 approaching completion.
_Administration._--In 1889 the administration was transferred from the
ministry of war to the imperial admiralty (_Reichsmarineamt_), at the
head of which is the naval secretary of state. The chief command was
at the same time separated from the administration and vested in a
naval officer, who controls the movements of the fleet, its personnel
and training, while the maintenance of the arsenals and dockyards,
victualling and clothing and all matters immediately affecting the
_materiel_, fall within the province of the secretary of state. The
navy is divided between the Baltic (Kiel) and North Sea
(Wilhelmshaven) stations, which are strategically linked by the Kaiser
Wilhelm Canal (opened in 1895), across the Schleswig-Holstein
peninsula. Danzig, Cuxhaven and Sonderburg have also been made naval
bases.
_Personnel._--The German navy is manned by the obligatory service of
the essentially maritime population--such as sailors, fishermen and
others, as well as by volunteers, who elect for naval service in
preference to that in the army. It is estimated that the total
seafaring population of Germany amounts to 80,000. The active naval
personnel was, in 1906, 2631 officers (including engineers, marines,
medical, &c.) and 51,138 under-officers and men, total 53,769. In
addition, there is a reserve of more than 100,000 officers and men.
(P. A. A.)
_Finance._--The imperial budget is voted every year by the Reichstag.
The "extraordinary funds," from which considerable sums appear annually
in the budget, were created after the Franco-German War. Part of the
indemnity was invested for definite purposes. The largest of these
investments served for paying the pensions of the invalided, and
amounted originally to L28,000,000. Every year, not only the interest,
but part of the capital is expended in paying these pensions, and the
capital sum was thus reduced in 1903 to L15,100,000, and in 1904 to
L13,200,000. Another fund, of about L5,200,000, serves for the
construction and armament of fortresses; while L6,000,000, known as the
_Reichskriegsschatz_--or "war treasure fund"--is not laid out at
interest, but is stored in coined gold and bullion in the Juliusturm at
Spandau. In addition to these, the railways in Alsace-Lorraine, which
France bought of the Eastern Railway Company for L13,000,000, in order
to transfer them to the control of Germany, are also the property of the
empire.
During the years 1908 and 1909 considerable public discussion and
political activity were devoted to the reorganization of German imperial
finance, and it is only possible here to deal historically with the
position up to that time, since further developments of an important
nature were already foreshadowed.
In 1871 the system accepted was that the imperial budget should be
financed substantially by its reliance on the revenue from what were the
obvious imperial resources--customs and excise duties, stamp duties,
post and telegraph receipts, and among minor sources the receipts from
the Alsace-Lorraine railways. But it was also provided that, for the
purpose of deficits, the states should, in addition, if required by the
imperial minister of finance, contribute their quotas according to
population--_Matrikular Beitrage_. It was not expected that these would
become chronic, but in a few years, and emphatically by the early
'eighties, they were found to be an essential part of the financial
system, owing to regular deficits. It had been intended that, in return
for the _Matrikular Beitrage_, regular assignments (_Uberweisungen_)
should be returned to the states, in relief of their own taxation, which
would practically wipe out the contribution; but instead of these the
_Uberweisungen_ were considerably less. Certain reorganizations were
made in 1887 and 1902, but the excess of the _Matrikular Beitrage_ over
the _Uberweisungen_ continued; the figures in 1905 and 1908 being as
follows (in millions of marks):--
+------+-------------+---------------+---------+
| | Matrikular- | Uberweisungen.| Excess. |
| | Beitrage. | | |
+------+-------------+---------------+---------+
| 1905 | 213 | 189 | 24 |
| 1908 | 346 | 195 | 150 |
+------+-------------+---------------+---------+
These figures show how natural it was to desire to relieve the states by
increasing the direct imperial revenue.
Meanwhile, in spite of the "matricular contributions," the calls on
imperial finance had steadily increased, and up to 1908 were continually
met to a large extent by loans, involving a continual growth of the
imperial debt, which in 1907 amounted to 3643 millions of marks. The
imperial budget, like that of most European nations, is divided into two
portions, the ordinary and the extraordinary; and the increase under
both heads (especially for army and navy) became a recurrent factor. A
typical situation is represented by the main figures for 1905 and 1906
(in millions of marks):
+------+-----------------------+----------+-----------+
| | Expenditure. | | |
| +-----------+-----------+ Revenue. | Raised by |
| | Ordinary. | Extra- | | Loan. |
| | | ordinary. | | |
+------+-----------+-----------+----------+-----------+
| 1905 | 2002 | 193 | 2053 | 341 |
| 1906 | 2157 | 235 | 2118 | 258 |
+------+-----------+-----------+----------+-----------+
The same process went on in 1907 and 1908, and it was necessarily
recognized that the method of balancing the imperial budget by a regular
increase of debt could not be satisfactory in a country where the
general increase of wealth and taxable capacity had meanwhile been
conspicuous. And though the main proposals made by the government for
new taxation, including new direct taxes, resulted in a parliamentary
deadlock in 1909, and led to Prince von Bulow's resignation as
chancellor, it was already evident that some important reorganization of
the imperial financial system was inevitable.
_Currency._--The German empire adopted a gold currency by the law of
the 4th of December 1871. Subsequently the old local coinages
(_Landesmunzen_) began to be called in and replaced by new gold and
silver coins. The old gold coins, amounting to L4,550,000, had been
called in as early as 1873; and the old silver coins have since been
successively put out of circulation, so that none actually remains as
legal tender but the thaler (3s.). The currency reform was at first
facilitated by the French indemnity, a great part of which was paid in
gold. But later on that metal became scarcer; the London gold prices
ran higher and higher, while silver prices declined. The average rate
per ounce of standard silver in 1866-1870 was 60-5/8d., in January
1875 only 57-1/2d., in July 1876 as low as 49d. It rose in January
1877 to 57-1/2d., but again declined, and in September 1878 it was
50-5/8d. While the proportion of like weights of fine gold and fine
silver in 1866-1870 averaged 1 to 15.55, it was 1 to 17.79 in 1876, 1
to 17.18 in 1877, and, in 1902, in consequence of the heavy fall in
silver, the ratio became as much as 1 to 39. By the currency law of
the 9th of July 1873, the present coinage system was established and
remains, with certain minor modifications, now in force as then
introduced. The unit is the mark (1 shilling)--the tenth part of the
imperial _gold coin_ (Krone = crown), of which last 139-1/2 are struck
from a pound of pure gold. Besides these ten-mark pieces, there are
Doppelkronen (double crowns), about equivalent in value to an English
sovereign (the average rate of exchange being 20 marks 40 pfennige per
L1 sterling), and, formerly, half-crowns (halbe Kronen = 5 marks) in
gold were also issued, but they have been withdrawn from circulation.
Silver coins are 5, 2 and 1 mark pieces, equivalent to 5, 2 and 1
shillings respectively, and 50 pfennige pieces = 6d. Nickel coins are
10 and 5 pfennige pieces, and there are bronze coins of 2 and 1
pfennige. The system is decimal; thus 100 pfennige = 1 mark, 1000
pfennige = the gold krone (or crown), and 1d. English amounts roughly
to 8 pfennige.
_Banking._--A new banking law was promulgated for the whole empire on
the 14th of March 1875. Before that date there existed thirty-two
banks with the privilege of issuing notes, and on the 31st of December
1872, L67,100,000 in all was in circulation, L25,100,000 of that sum
being uncovered. The banking law was designed to reduce this
circulation of notes; L19,250,000 was fixed as an aggregate maximum of
uncovered notes of the banks. The private banks were at the same time
obliged to erect branch offices in Berlin or Frankfort-on-Main for the
payment of their notes. In consequence of this regulation numerous
banks resigned the privilege of issuing notes, and at present there
are in Germany but the following private note banks, issuing private
notes, viz. the Bavarian, the Saxon, the Wurttemberg, the Baden and
the Brunswick, in addition to the Imperial Bank. The Imperial Bank
(Reichsbank) ranks far above the others in importance. It took the
place of the Prussian Bank in 1876, and is under the superintendence
and management of the empire, which shares in the profits. Its head
office is in Berlin, and it is entitled to erect branch offices in any
part of the empire. It has a capital of L9,000,000 divided into 40,000
shares of L150 each, and 60,000 shares of L50 each. The Imperial Bank
is privileged to issue bank-notes, which must be covered to the extent
of 1s. 3d. in coined money, bullion or bank-notes, the remainder in
bills at short sight. Of the net profits, a dividend of 3-1/2% is
first payable to the shareholders, 20% of the remainder is transferred
to the reserve until this has reached a total of L3,000,000, and of
the remainder again a quarter is apportioned to the shareholders and
three-quarters falls to the imperial exchequer. If the net profits do
not reach 3-1/2%, the balance must be made good from the reserve.
Private note banks are not empowered to do business outside the state
which has conceded them the privilege to issue notes, except under
certain limitations. One of these is that they agree that their
privilege to issue private notes may be withdrawn at one year's notice
without compensation. But this condition has not been enforced in the
case of such banks as have agreed to accept as binding the official
rate of discount of the Reichsbank after this has reached or when it
exceeds 4%. At other times they are not to discount at more than 1/4%
below the official rate of the Reichsbank, or in case the Reichsbank
itself discounts at a lower rate than the official rate, at more than
1/8% below that rate.
The following table shows the financial condition of the note-issuing
banks, in thousands of marks, over a term of years:
_Liabilities._
+------+-------+----------+---------------+------------+------------------+
| Year.| Banks.| Capital. | Reserve. | Notes in | Total, including |
| | | | |Circulation.|other Liabilities.|
+------+-------+----------+---------------+------------+------------------+
| 1900 | 8 | 219,672 | 48,329 | 1,313,855 | 2,237,017 |
| 1901 | 7 | 231,672 | 54,901 | 1,345,436 | 2,360,453 |
| 1902 | 6 | 216,000 | 56,684 | 1,373,482 | 2,353,951 |
| 1903 | 6 | 216,000 | 60,131 | 1,394,336 | 2,365,256 |
| 1904 | 6 | 216,000 | 64,385 | 1,433,421 | 2,378,845 |
+------+-------+----------+---------------+------------+------------------+
_Assets._
+------+-------+----------+----------------+-----------+------------------+
| Year.| Banks.| Coin and | Notes of State | Bills. | Total. |
| | | Bullion. |and other Banks.| | |
+------+-------+----------+----------------+-----------+------------------+
| 1900 | 8 | 899,630 | 51,931 | 1,036,961 | 2,239,564 |
| 1901 | 7 | 990,262 | 60,770 | 990,950 | 2,360,355 |
| 1902 | 6 |1,052,391 | 54,389 | 901,408 | 2,354,253 |
| 1903 | 6 | 973,953 | 54,231 | 984,604 | 2,356,511 |
| 1904 | 6 | 996,601 | 66,372 | 947,358 | 2,379,234 |
+------+-------+----------+----------------+-----------+------------------+
The total turnover of the Imperial Bank was, in the first year of its
foundation, 1-3/4 milliards pounds sterling; and, in 1899, 90
milliards. Eighty-five per cent of its bank-notes have been, on the
average, covered by metal reserve.
The total value of silver coins is not to exceed 10 marks, and that of
copper and nickel 2-1/2 marks per head of the population. While the
coinage of silver, nickel and copper is reserved to the state, the
coinage of gold pieces can be undertaken by the state for the account
of private individuals on payment of a fixed charge. The coinage takes
place in the six mints belonging to the various states--thus Berlin
(Prussia), Munich (Bavaria), Dresden (in the Muldenerhutte near
Freiberg, Saxony), Stuttgart (Wurttemberg), Karlsruhe (Baden) and
Hamburg (for the state of Hamburg). Of the thalers, the Vereinsthaler,
coined until 1867 in Austria, was by ordinance of the Bundesrat
declared illegal tender since the 1st of January 1903. No one can be
compelled to accept more than 20 marks in silver or more than 1 mark
in nickel and copper coin; but, on the other hand, the Imperial Bank
accepts imperial silver coin in payment to any amount.
The total value of thalers, which, with the exception of the
Vereinsthaler, are legal tender, was estimated in 1894 at about
L20,000,000.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Cotta, _Deutschlands Boden_ (2 vols., 1853); H.A.
Daniel, _Deutschland_ (1896); J. Kutzen, _Das deutsche Land_ (Breslau,
1900); Von Kloden, _Geographisches Handbuch_, vol. ii. (1875); G.
Neumann, _Das deutsche Reich_ (2 vols., 1874); O. Brunckow, _Die
Wohnplatze des deutschen Reiches--auf Grund der amtlichen Materialien
bearbeitet_ (new ed., Berlin, 1897); _Handbuch der Wirtschaftskunde
Deutschlands_ (4 vols., Leipzig, 1901-1905); _Gothaischer
genealogischer Hofkalender auf das Jahr 1907_ (Gotha); A. von W. Keil,
_Neumanns Ortslexikon des deutschen Reiches_ (3rd ed., Leipzig, 1894);
Meyer, _Konversations-Lexikon_ (1902 seqq.); Brockhaus,
_Konversations-Lexikon_ (1900 seqq.); J. Kurschner, _Staats- Hof- und
Kommunal-handbuch des Reiches und der Einzelstaaten_ (Leipzig, 1900);
P. Hage, _Grundriss der deutschen Staats- und Rechtskunde_ (Stuttgart,
1906), and for Statistical matter chiefly the following: _Centralblatt
fur das deutsche Reich. Herausgegeben im Reichsamt der Innern_
(Berlin, 1900); _Die deutsche Armee und die kaiserliche Marine_
(Berlin, 1889); _Gewerbe und Handel im deutschen Reich nach der
gewerblichen Betriebszahlung, vom 14. Juni 1895_ (Berlin, 1899);
_Handbuch fur das deutsche Reich auf das Jahr 1900, bearbeitet im
Reichsamt der Innern_ (Berlin); _Handbuch fur die deutsche
Handelsmarine auf das Jahr 1900; Statistik des deutschen Reichs_,
published by the _Kaiserliches Statistisches Amt_ (including trade,
navigation, criminal statistics, sick insurance, &c.); _Statistisches
Jahrbuch fur das deutsche Reich_ (Berlin, 1906) and _Vierteljahrshefte
fur Statistik des deutschen Reichs_ (including census returns,
commerce and railways). See also among English publications on
geographical and statistical matter: _Annual Statement of the Trade of
the United Kingdom with Foreign Countries and British Possessions for
the Year 1899_ (London, 1900); and G.G. Chisholm, _Europe_, being
vols. i. and ii. of Stanford's _Compendium of Geography and Travel_
(London, 1899 and 1900). The fullest general account of the geology of
Germany will be found in R. Lepsius, _Geologie von Deutschland und den
angrenzenden Gebieten_ (Stuttgart, first volume completed in 1892).
Shorter descriptions will be found in E. Kayser, _Lehrbuch der
geologischen Formationskunde_ (Stuttgart, English edition under the
title _Text-book of Comparative Geology_), and H. Credner, _Elemente
der Geologie_ (Leipzig).