Powers the support which he had sought from them. In Oct. 1912, at a meeting at San Rossore, he came to certain agreements with the Italian Foreign Minister, San Giuliano, of which the objects were to secure the autonomy of Albania and to counter Serbia's plan for an extension of her power in the Adriatic coast -lands. The renewal of the Triple Alliance fol- lowed at the beginning of December.
Meanwhile the struggle between Turkey and the Christian nations of the Balkans had broken out. During the three Balkan wars, fought between Oct. 1912 and Aug. 1913, Berchtold's attitude was a weak one. He repeatedly took steps towards active intervention, but drew back when the Entente Powers used threats and the other members of the Triple Alliance intervened with counsels of moderation in Vienna. His efforts at the close of the third Balkan War to secure a revision of the Treaty of Bucharest (Aug. 10 1913), which was unfavourable to Bulgaria, were as unsuccessful as his attempt to secure an accommodation between Bulgaria and her rivals by way of direct negotiation. The prestige of Austria-Hungary in the Balkans noticeably declined. Serbia's endeavours to extend her power to the Adriatic, and to win recruits for the ideal of Great Serbia among the kindred Slav races of Austria-Hungary, became more and more evident and pressed for a decision. For these reasons, at the conferences at the Ballplatz which followed the murder of the heir to the throne, the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, on June 28 1914, Berchtold maintained the view that a definitive settlement with Serbia was essential, even at the risk of war with Russia and France. He does not seem at that time to have reckoned with the possibility of an active participation of Great Britain on the side of the opponents of the Triple Alliance.
After the outbreak of the World War he directed his efforts to inducing Italy and Rumania to carry out their obligations and to securing new allies for the Central Powers. These efforts were for the most part unsuccessful. Turkey alone joined the Central Powers. Rumania and Italy declared their neutrality; even Bulgaria dragged out the negotiations, though Berchtold offered great concessions in return for her active intervention on the side of Austria-Hungary and Germany. Italy's demands for compensation were indeed acknowledged in principle by Berchtold, under pressure from Germany, but he embarked on the negotiations with hesitation, and down to the day of his resignation he refused to listen to any proposal for the cession of territory which had long been under Austrian rule. In the course of the war Berchtold came into conflict with German statesmen and the German Supreme Army Command. He thought that Germany did not give sufficient support to her ally in the severe struggle against the superior strength of Russia, and protested strongly against the readiness with which Germany had agreed to the territorial and other demands of Rumania and Italy. The reasons of his fall, which took place on Jan. 13 1915, are still obscure, but it is certain that the attitude of Stephen Tisza and his adherents, from the autumn of 1914, in refusing to cooperate with him was a contributory cause. In March 1916 Berchtold was appointed Obersthofmeister (Lord High Steward) to the heir to the throne, Charles Francis Joseph, whom he subsequently served as Oberkammerer (Lord High Chamberlain). After the fall of the dynasty he took no part in politics. (A. F. PR.)
BERENGER, RENÉ (1830-1915), French lawyer and politician (see 3.769), died Aug. 29 1915.
BERESFORD, CHARLES WILLIAM DE LA POER BERESFORD, 1ST BARON (1846-1919), British admiral (see 3.770),
who was raised to the peerage in 1916, died in London Sept. 6 1919.
BERGSON, HENRI LOUIS (1859- ), French philosopher, was born in Paris Oct. 18 1859. Educated at the Lycee Corot,
and the Ecole Normale he was successively professor of phi-
losophy at the Lycee d'Angers 1881-3, at the Lycee de Clermont 1883-8, at the College Rollin 1888-9, at the Lycee Henry IV. 1880-97, at the Ecole Normale Superieure 1897-1900 and at the College de France 1900-21. In 1912 he was Gifford lecturer at Edinburgh. Of the three works which constitute together the full exposition of his interpretation of experience, Les Donnees Immediate! de la Conscience was published in 1889, Matiere et Memoire in 1896, and L'Evolution
Creatrice in 1907. The English translations (Time and Free Will, Matter and Memory and Creative Evolution) all belong
to 1910-1. He had published also Le Rire (1900). With the
exception of a pamphlet, La Significance de la Guerre (1915),
nothing more appeared until L'Energie Spirituelle (1919), with
Eng. trans. Mind-Energy (1920).
For a discussion of his work, see PHILOSOPHY.
BERLIN (see 3.785). Since 1910 the city of Berlin (pop., Greater Berlin 1919 census, 1,902,509; 1910 census 2,071,257) has undergone a very considerable development in respect of
the form of its municipal organization. The rapid growth of the suburbs, which were independent communities, necessitated the adoption of certain main lines of procedure, applicable both to them and to Berlin, in order to prevent conflicting
action on the part of the authorities on one side and the other. This led, in 1911, to the creation of Greater Berlin as, in the first instance, an association of the city with the more important
outlying districts for special objects. It embraced the city of Berlin and the towns of Charlottenburg, Schoneberg, Neukolln,
Wilmersdorf, Lichtenberg and the administrative circles of
Teltow and Niederbarnim. Its objects were to institute a com-
mon control of streets, roadways and the elevated railway,
also of building and street alignment plans, the uniform co-
ordination of police regulations and the acquisition of large tracts
of forest and of land for building. This special union came into
force on April i 1912. It soon became manifest, however,
that beyond cooperation for special purposes, a further co-
ordination of the administrations of these places was requisite.
It was only in the year 1920 that it was possible, after long
negotiations, to form a new municipality of Berlin, embracing
all the suburbs under a single united administration. A law to
this effect was carried Jhrough the Prussian Constituent As-
sembly on April 27 1920 and was put into force on Oct. i of
the same year. This law effected the centralization of Berlin
and all its suburbs into one uniform municipal region (Sladt-bezirk), but nevertheless left large powers of local self-administration to the individual communes (Gemeinden) .
On May 15 1912 the former Secretary of State for the Treasury of the Empire, Wermuth, was elected chief burgomaster of Berlin in place of Kirschner, who had resigned. Under his administration, which lasted till Nov. 25 1920, the city experienced notable developments. The first municipal crematorium was opened in 1912. In June 1914 the ship canal uniting Berlin with Stettin was inaugurated. In the same year the city acquired the estate of Lanke, thus securing extremely valuable land for settlement purposes. In Oct. 1915 the city purchased the Berlin Electrical Works for 128 million marks (pre-war value about 6,400,000). The years of the war necessitated the vigorous intervention of the municipal administration in order to keep the population supplied with food and other necessaries of life. A special commission for food supplies was appointed as early as 1914. In 1915 the supply of meat, vegetables, milk, etc., by the municipality was instituted. The management of all these supplies necessitated the appointment of a host of officials. The establishment of the War Departments of the empire and of Prussia as well as of the city thus entailed an accession of population which by 1917 had caused a great dearth of house accommodation, a scarcity which constantly increased up to 1921, so that special offices for enabling the public to obtain dwellings had to be established under municipal supervision. Even in 1921 it was almost impossible to find a flat. The general necessities arising out of the war demanded vast expenditure on the part of the city, so that its financial position had by 1921 become extremely unfavourable, while municipal taxation had been about trebled.
The city of Berlin suffered severely from the effects of the revolution of Nov. 9 1918. The revolution itself was practically bloodless, so far as Berlin was concerned, although the stormy sittings of the Workmen's and Soldiers' Councils, held in the Reichstag building, occasionally led to minor collisions. It was not till Christmas 1918 that serious fighting took place, when the Independent Socialist party, supported by the Sailors' Division, tried to seize power. After several days of sanguinary combats in the neighbourhood of the castle and the royal stables, where the sailors had established themselves, the division was ultimately compelled to surrender. Early in March 1919 the Spartacist insurrection broke out; it began in the suburb of Lichtenberg and spread over the whole
