GER′MANY. An empire which takes in the central part of Europe. The main highways between the north and south and the east and west of Europe pass through it. It is in closer touch with most of the leading nations of Europe than any other country; for it is bordered by Russia, Austria-Hungary, Switzerland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Denmark, and is within a day's sail, across the North Sea, of Great Britain. Besides the land boundaries formed by the seven countries above mentioned, it has a a sea frontage of 1200 miles on the North and Baltic seas—one-third of the entire frontier. The country extends east and west through 17 degrees of longitude, or 750 miles; north and south through nearly 9 degrees of latitude, 47° to 56° N., or about 600 miles. Its area is 208,830 square miles. The German Empire embraces the territory of the German Confederation of 1815-66, with the exception of those portions which belonged to Austria (in a great part of which the German language predominates), as well as of Luxemburg and Liechtenstein; but with the addition of the three Prussian provinces of East Prussia, West Prussia, and Posen (not included in the old German Empire), Schleswig, and Alsace-Lorraine. Capital, Berlin.
Topography. The southern two-thirds of Germany is highland; the northern third is lowland, a part of the low plain of Europe. Three topographic forms predominate in Central Europe. The most southern is the high Alps of Switzerland. North of the high Alps are the Mittelgebirge (secondary mountains) or highlands of Germany. North of the highlands is the German low plain. The highlands consist in part of high plains, rolling or hilly areas, and, in part, of short mountain chains or groups of mountains, which extend from southwest to northeast or from southeast to northwest, seldom from south to north. Only a few summits among these mountains exceed 3500 feet in height. The mountain systems inclose high plains, as, for example, the plains of Bavaria and of the Middle Rhine basin. This division of the southern part of Germany by natural barriers was a powerful influence in separating the German people into many different States, each having its own government.
The most northern system of these mountain chains has a general east and west direction, roughly at right angles with the more southerly mountains. It extends through the middle of Germany, and forms the boundary between North and South Germany or, in other words, between the highlands and the low plain. This zigzag boundary wall begins in the east with the Sudetic Mountains (including the Giant Mountains, or Riesengebirge), and is extended farther west by the Erzgebirge, the Fichtelgebirge, and the Thuringian Forest. The valley of the Elbe is the only break in these 390 miles of boundary mountains. Then comes the wide gap formed by the Hessian upland, broken only by the volcanic uplifts of the Rhön Mountains and the Vogelsberg. Through this break in the barrier mountains flows the Weser to the north. Tn the west the boundary wall rises again in the Taunus, around which is one of the finest wine regions of Germany and, across the Rhine Valley, in the Hunsrück. Outlying elevations to the north of this wall in the Middle Weser and Rhine basins push the highlands a little farther north in that region, and the low plain in front of them is correspondingly contracted. The culminating feature of these outliers is the Harz Mountains. The more southerly of the highlands mountains comprise among other chains or ridges the Schwarzwald, or Black Forest, the Swabian and Franconian Jura, and the Bavarian Forest. The Alps enter in the extreme south. A dominant mountain mass west of the Rhine is constituted by the Vosges. Physiographically interesting is the volcanic region, north of the Moselle, known as the Eifel. The highest point of land in the Empire is the Zugspitze, in Bavaria, 9725 feet in elevation.
In sharp contrast with the broken and divided character of the lands of South Germany is the nearly uniform low plain of the north, which merges on one side without any distinct natural boundary into the plain of Russia, and on the other into the lowlands of the Netherlands. As the course of the chief rivers shows, the whole country slopes gradually north to the Baltic, and northwest to the North Sea.
On the sea frontage there are many inlets, but few good harbors. The shore waters are quite shallow, and large vessels are usually unable to approach the land except where the rivers have worn a channel. Most of the harbors therefore are at the mouths of rivers or some distance inland on their banks. Wherever the sand-dunes along the low North Sea do not prevent the sea from breaking in, dikes have to be built for the protection of the coast. The shores of the Baltic are higher, but the commercial facilities they afford are much impaired by a series of very shallow lagoons, called Haffs, which extend parallel with the coast in front of them for long distances. The islands are not important. Rügen, in the Baltic, is the largest. Sand-dunes run along the Baltic coast in place of marsh-lands, but the North Sea dunes are now represented only by the line of the Frisian Islands, all that is left of the former coast-line, which once extended farther out into the sea. The most important North Sea ports are Hamburg, on the Elbe, and Bremen, on the Weser, together with the subsidiary ports of Bremen, Bremerhaven. and Geestemünde. The principal Baltic ports are Stettin, Danzig, Kiel, and Lübeck.
Hydrography. With the exception of the
southeastern part of Germany, through which
the Danube flows to the east, all the rivers
belong to the Baltic and the North Sea basins.
The Rhine is the only river which binds together
the three great topographic forms—the High
Alps, the German highlands, and the low plain.
It belongs to three countries—Switzerland,
Germany, and the Netherlands. Commercially, it is
the most important river in Germany, small
river steamers being able to ascend to Basel,
and small sea-going steamers to Mannheim. The
Weser and the Elbe, the latter rising in Austria,
bind together the German highlands and low
plain. The Elbe is second only to the Rhine in
commercial importance, being navigable throughout
the whole of its course in Germany. Along its
course are some of the most important silver
and coal mines, salt-fields, sheep-pastures, and
beet-root areas in the Empire. Besides being
the greatest water commerce carrier through
Central Germany from the south border to the
North Sea, it links Berlin, the capital and business
centre, with Hamburg, the chief port, by
the canals of the Havel and Spree river systems.
The Weser is also of great importance in its
lower course. The Oder and the Vistula are the
chief Baltic rivers. Both rise in Austria, have
only a short course in the highlands, and flow
mainly through the lowland. The Oder is the
great waterway of the rich mining and manufacturing
district of Silesia, and of the wide farming
area around Frankfort-on-the-Oder; with the
canal leading to the Spree it is a highway for
Berlin's commerce from Southeast Prussia to the
port of Stettin. The lower part of the Vistula
is German, but it carries a great deal of Russian
timber, grain, and fibres to Danzig for export.
Among other important streams are the Ems,
flowing into the North Sea, the Main and the
Moselle, affluents of the Rhine, the Pregel and
Memel, flowing into the Baltic, and the Saale, an
affluent of the Elbe. The rivers of Germany
are naturally navigable for nearly 6000 miles;
are canalized for nearly 1400 miles; and there
are nearly 1500 miles of canals. Among the
most important of the canals are the Ludwigskanal
in Bavaria, uniting the Danube with
the Main, and thus supplying a continuous
waterway from the North to the Black Sea;
the system connecting the Memel with the
Pregel; that joining the Oder with the Elbe; the
Plauen Canal, connecting the Elbe with the
Havel; the Eider Canal, connecting the Eider
with Kiel; the Rhine-Rhône, and the Rhine-Marne,
in Alsace-Lorraine; the great Baltic Sea
or Kaiser Wilhelm Canal, begun in 1887 and
opened for traffic in 1895, saving two days' time
by steamer between Hamburg and all the Baltic
ports of Germany; and several canals in process
of construction.
The lakes of Germany are chiefly in two groups, of which the smaller is in the southern section, in the Alpine Foreland. These lakes are found only in regions once covered by glacier ice, and their existence is closely connected with the ice sheet that descended from the Alps during the Great Ice Age. The larger group extends over the northern lowland, with the greatest number of lakes east of the Elbe, on the Baltic lake plain, where there are hundreds of them of glacial origin.
Climate. The temperature differences between the north and the south are not so great as might be expected, because the elevation of the south is much higher than that of the north, and counteracts the effect of the difference in latitude. The differences are greater between the west and the east. The Rhine lands are the warmest and the Baltic Sea lands the coldest parts of Germany. The business of the Baltic ports is much impeded by ice in winter, while the North Sea ports are less affected by this impediment, though not quite free from it. A line drawn from Bremen to Munich divides Germany into two sections climatologically. On the west the climate is much like that of France, and mild winters and not excessively hot summers are the rule; but on the east the temperature assumes rapidly a more continental character, tempered by the close proximity to the sea at the north, but rigorous in the interior. The rainfall, owing to the nearness of the sea, is usually sufficient for all forms of agriculture. The Harz Mountains, far enough north to catch the wet winds from the North Sea, have the heaviest rainfall. The annual rainfall is from 25 to 30 inches for most of Northern Germany, but in the extreme south and west it exceeds 30 inches. In the neighborhood of some of the mountain ranges there are local increases of precipitation to 40 inches and upward.
Flora. In early days Germany was full of swamps and largely covered with forests. Most of the swamps have now been turned into fields and pastures; but a fourth of the Empire is still covered with forests which are cared for as assiduously as any field crop. A third of the forests are in leaf trees, the beech being most prominent. Two-thirds are in coniferous trees, particularly pines and firs. As the temperature decreases from west to east, the leaf trees predominate in the west excepting in the sandy low plain, and the coniferæ in the east. The crowning glory of the German flora is these wood lands.
Germany has in the north the Baltic flora and in the south the Alpine. The two mingle in the interior. The elevation of the land also has a strong influence on the local flora; so that the Alpine flora extends far to the north on the mountain tops, and the Baltic flora penetrates to the south in the valleys. Moreover, on the east the steppe flora penetrates from Russia, and on the west the West European flora penetrates from France. Upward of 2200 flowering plants, 60 cryptogams, and 750 mosses are found in German territory. In the south and west the vine grows luxuriantly and grasses flourish in the lowlands.
The best farming lands are in the warm, well-sheltered Rhine Valley, with its rich alluvial soil, where the vine is brought to an unusual degree of perfection. Many of the hill slopes throughout the highland are terraced and cultivated, but the mountains are forest-clad, and cultivation is chiefly confined to the plains and valleys. The soils differ in natural fertility, but are better than those of the low plain of the north, and all deficiencies in plain food are artificially supplied. The soil of most of the low plain is poor and sandy, particularly in the centre and east, and is kept in a state of high productivity only by scientific tillage and fertilization.
Fauna. Germany, by its northerly situation, exposed to cold airs of the north and cut off from the south by lofty mountains, has a decidedly northern fauna, and the fastnesses of the Harz and the mountains of Bavaria, Saxony, and Silesia have preserved several wild forms extinct or nearly so elsewhere in Europe. Thus there may still be found there bears, wolves (occasionally, along the Russian border), foxes, martens, weasels, badgers, otters, and rarely a wildcat. Fallow deer are known only in a few parks, but the roe and wild boar are obtainable in many forests, and the elk still exists along the Polish border. All these, together with the Alpine chamois, are ‘preserved.’ The birds are those of Europe, with the absence of several semi-tropical species common south of the Alps. Most of them are migratory, and traverse the Empire along two great ‘highways.’ One leads to and from Africa along the Rhine-Rhône Valley, and thence east in spring and west in winter along the Baltic shore to and from Northern Russia; the other follows the Danube Valley to and from Asia Minor and India. Of the resident birds the most remarkable is the great capercailzie of the eastern districts. Reptiles are not as well represented in Germany as in warmer and more diversified France and Italy; and the adder is nowhere common. One of its frogs, called the ‘fire-bellied,’ is well known. Germany shares in the fish and fisheries of the North Sea, and possesses the larger part of the south shore of the Baltic. This inland sea seems some thousands of years ago to have admitted the ocean more freely, and then, as is shown by prehistoric shell-heaps, marine fishes, oysters, and edible mollusks generally abounded in its waters. Now there are no sea fisheries of consequence in any part of the Baltic, which seems to be growing steadily shallower and fresher, with consequent alteration of its biological character. The rivers of Germany abound in fishes of large variety, among which the salmon and trout that ascend the larger streams from the Baltic are prominent. The carp family is largely represented; and the catfishes (Siluridæ) of Germany are especially big, numerous, and edible. Insects are numerous, and bees are raised in some provinces to an extent hardly equaled elsewhere in Europe.
Geology. The surface geological formations of the northern plain are mainly Quaternary sands and clays of alluvial glacial deposit, with an occasional patch of firm Tertiary formation emerging from it. The great central highland is represented by all the formations, but is chiefly Mesozoic. On the southern border of the Quaternary plain where the highlands begin, there are in the region of the Weser highland narrow transition bands of the Cretaceous and Jura formations, which are replaced a little farther south by the great central area of Triassic rocks. On the west of the Weser highland the Quaternary formation of the north is replaced on the south by a broader Cretaceous zone, somewhat interrupted by the Quaternary, and south of the Lippe in the region of the Ruhr is a narrow belt of Dyassic and coal formation which in the Sauerland highlands is replaced by the extensive Devonian and Silurian areas of the middle Rhine, and which extends far to the westward into France. These formations are interrupted by patches of eruptive rocks and Tertiary formations, and are bordered on the south directly on the Rhine by Tertiary formations, which, however, are soon replaced by the Quaternary, which characterizes the upper middle Rhine Valley, and which interrupts the great Triassic area of Central and Southern Germany. West of the Rhine the Quaternary formations of the northern plain extend much farther south than cast of the Rhine, and with progress southward are replaced, after slight interruptions, by Tertiary and Triassic formations, by the extensive Devonian and Silurian areas, which are separated from the extensive Triassic area of the south by the Dyassic and coal formations in the Oldenburg region. In the region of the Black Forest on the east and of the Vosges Mountains on the west of the Rhine Valley are extensive areas of old crystalline rocks. In the Harz Mountains the central area of Devonian and Silurian formations is surrounded by a narrow strip of Dyassic formation which on the south is replaced by the Triassic, until interrupted by the Thuringian Forest by recurring Dyassic. Devonian, and Silurian formations. The great central Triassic area is bordered on the south by the long Jurassic chain consisting of the Swiss, Swabian, and Franconian Juras, which extend on the north side of the Rhône, the Aar, and the Danube from the Rhône to the Main. Parallel to this chain and south of the Aar and the Danube is the extended Tertiary area of the Alpine Foreland and the Chalk Alps, which is separated from the central Alpine region of old crystalline rocks by a narrow border of Jurassic formation. Germany has been glacier-covered as far south as latitude 51½° in the western and 50½° in the eastern part.
Mining. The mining interests are of great importance, giving employment to over 570,000 persons annually. Germany is the third largest coal and iron producing country in the world, standing next to the United States and Great Britain. The export coal trade is steadily increasing. The total yield of the mines, exclusive of lignite, for 1900, was 109,000,000 tons, valued at $230,000,000. Of this amount, 93 per cent. was produced in the Prussian provinces of Westphalia, Silesia, and the Rhine. About 5 per cent. came from Saxony and the remainder from Bavaria and Alsace-Lorraine. More than 16,000,000 tons, or about 15 per cent., were produced in Government mines. The steadily growing demand for fuel has greatly increased the mining of brown coal (lignite), in spite of its inferior quality, especially since the device of making it up into briquettes has enhanced its heating qualities and rendered it more convenient for storing and transportation than before. Of the total output of 40,000,000 tons of brown coal in 1900, 34,000,000 tons were produced in the Prussian provinces of Brandenburg, Saxony, and Hesse-Nassau. The following table shows the growth of the coal industry during the last three decades of the nineteenth century:
| YEAR | Anthracite and Bituminous |
Lignite |
| 1871 | 29,400,000 | 8,500,000 |
| 1881 | 48,700,000 | 12,800,000 |
| 1891 | 73,715,700 | 20,536,600 |
| 1895 | 79,169,300 | 24,788,400 |
| 1900 | 109,225,000 | 40,279,300 |
The total production in the year 1900 was nearly 150,000,000 tons, as compared with 242,000,000 for the United States. The annual output of iron has been steadily growing (as the figures below will show), owing to the constantly increasing demand for raw material from the iron and steel works of Germany. The output of iron ore in 1900 was 12,793,065 tons, 4,268,069, or about one-third, of which was obtained in Prussia, and 7,742,315, or over 60 per cent., in Alsace-Lorraine. The output of iron ore in 1891 was 7,555,461 tons; in 1895, 8,436,523. Germany is rich in other ores, such as copper, zinc, lead, bismuth, nickel, cobalt, etc., the bulk of which is produced in Prussia. The quantity of gold is very small, but the silver-mines are perhaps the richest in Europe, yielding 6,243,326 troy ounces in 1900. There are large deposits of rock and other salt and an abundance of potash salts, which have contributed greatly to the development of the chemical industry in Germany. Small quantities of petroleum are found. For a more detailed description, see Geology and Mining under special divisions.
Fisheries. The German fisheries are not of very great importance so far as the number of people engaged in them is concerned. Among the fishes of Germany the most generally distributed are carp, salmon, trout, and eels. The rivers contain crayfish, pearl-bearing mussels, and leeches. Cod and herring are taken in the North Sea, and the Baltic fisheries have some value. The exports of fresh fish are insignificant. About $18,000,000 worth of fresh fish, salted herrings, and other preserved and dried fish are imported annually.
Agriculture. Germany is no longer the essentially agricultural country that it was in the middle of the nineteenth century. At that time fully 65 per cent. of the people were engaged in agriculture. In 1882 that industry supported 42 per cent. of the total population of the Empire, and but 35 per cent. in 1895. The one-third of the population engaged in agriculture is no longer able to supply the home demand, Germany having become a heavy importer of food products and raw material. Of the total area of 208,830 square miles, 86,662,721 acres, or 64.8 per cent., were devoted in 1900 to agriculture proper; 34,582,912, or 25.9 per cent., were under forests; the remaining 9.3 per cent. of the land was either unproductive or under dwellings, in streets, or used for other non-agricultural purposes. The two-thirds of the country devoted to agriculture were divided among the various branches of that industry as follows: 48.6 per cent. was under tillage, 16 per cent. under meadows and pastures, and 0.2 per cent. under vineyards.
The land is cultivated with great care and intelligence, both in the rich and fertile river valleys of the south and west as well as on the less favored plains of the north and east, and produces every variety of grain and fruit common to a moderate climate. Wheat, rye, barley, and oats are raised in all sections of the country; corn is raised exclusively in the south; while potatoes, as well as peas and beans, thrive best in the north. Flax and hemp succeed best in the middle regions; and this is also true of the oleaginous seeds, rape, poppy, and caraway. Hops, with the exception of those produced in the Prussian Province of Posen, are raised mainly in the south, in Bavaria, Württemberg, and Baden; and beet-root is grown in Prussian Saxony, Silesia, and Hanover, as well as in Brunswick and Anhalt. (For further details, see the articles on those countries.) The cultivation of cereals and potatoes is the most important branch of agriculture. Among the cereals rye predominates, holding the place in Germany that wheat does in the United States. In 1900, 14,714,738 acres were devoted to the culture of rye, as compared with 10,187,483 acres under oats, 7,953,588 acres under potatoes, 5,063,474 acres under wheat, and 4,126,652 acres under barley. The progress of agriculture and the relative importance of the various products are shown in the following table:
| CROPS | Tons Yield 1880 |
Tons Yield 1895-99 |
Area under crops (acres), 1895-99 |
| Rye | 4,952,000 | 8,427,000 | 14,657,972 |
| Wheat | 2,059,000 | 3,502,000 | 4,779,186 |
| Barley | 2,076,000 | 2,780,000 | 4,069,731 |
| Oats | 3,700,000 | 6,314,000 | 9,886,471 |
| Potatoes | 19,400,000 | 35,820,000 | 7,600,796 |
| Hay | 29,142,000 | 23,482,000 | 14,588,668 |
Thus, while a great part of the agricultural population was diverted to manufacturing and commercial pursuits, the output of cereals was increased during the last twenty years of the century by from fifty to over one hundred per cent. Still, Germany is obliged to import increasing quantities of grain, especially wheat and corn, for its own use. Germany produces large quantities of beets, hops, and tobacco, the production of sugar-beets having made greater progress there than in any other country, the activity of the Government in granting bonuses and otherwise encouraging the industry being accountable for this growth. From 547,631 acres in 1882, the area under that crop increased to 737,742 acres in 1890, and to 1,078,752 acres in 1900, as compared with 837,669 acres in Austria-Hungary, and 630,105 in France, the next largest beet producers in the world. The principal beet-growing district extends westward from Poland to the region about Brunswick. The production of hops and tobacco is, on the other hand, on the decline. In 1891 the area under hops was 107,835 acres; in 1895 it was only 103,965 acres, and in 1900 it decreased to 91,899 acres. Similarly, the area under tobacco diminished from 59,944 acres in 1880 to 49,702 in 1890, and to 36,114 in 1900. The tobacco crop declined from 52,197 tons in 1880 to 42,372 tons in 1890, and to 30,075 tons in 1900, being valued in the last-mentioned year at about $6,000,000. It is raised principally in the region of the Rhine and in Brandenburg. The vine is grown along the Rhine and Moselle, in the valleys of the Main and the Saale, in Lower Silesia and Swabia. The Rhine wines have a world-wide fame. Germany imports, however, double the quantity of wines that it exports.
The great increase in the productivity of German agriculture is due to improvements in methods of cultivation and the increasing use of machinery. Census investigations show that in 1882 836 farms employed steam plows; in 1895 there were 1696 such farms; similarly, the number of farms employing mowing-machines increased from 19,634 in 1882 to 35,084 in 1895; those using steam threshers increased from 75,690 to 259,364. Of the farms above 12.5 acres in area the majority used machinery. The farms were distributed as follows:
The Distribution of Agricultural Land in Germany
| CLASSES | Number of Farms | Area under farms (acres) | Per cent. of the total | ||
| 1882 | 1895 | 1882 | 1895 | 1895 | |
| Under 5 acres | 3,061,831 | 3,236,367 | 5,335,774 | 5,969,724 | 5.58 |
| From 5 to 12.5 acres | 981,407 | 1,016,318 | 9,471,101 | 10,253,058 | 9.57 |
| From 12.5 to 50 acres | 926,605 | 998,804 | 28,396,774 | 30,980,558 | 28.96 |
| From 50 to 250 acres | 281,510 | 281,767 | 30,678,609 | 32,511,444 | 30.40 |
| 250 acres or more | 24,991 | 25,061 | 25,399,263 | 27,259,815 | 25.49 |
The two census investigations of 1882 and 1895 have thrown much light on economic changes in the Empire during the last two decades of the nineteenth century. In 1882 there were 5,276,344 farms and estates (including garden plots), with a total area of 99,281,521 acres, of which 78,748,230 acres were under actual cultivation. In 1895 the number of farms had increased to 5,558,317, their total area to about 106,970,000 acres, and the area under cultivation to 80,351,832 acres.
The first interesting fact brought out by the above table is the enormous proportion of extremely small farms—less than five acres each—which constitute more than 58 per cent. of the total; almost one-third of these are less than one-half of an acre each. At the other extreme are the farms and estates with an area of more than 250 acres each, which constitute less than one-half of one per cent. of the total. The farms with an area of less than five acres each, though constituting much more than one-half of the total number, cover but little more than one-twentieth of the total area. The large landowners possess about one-fourth of all the agricultural lands, leaving about three-fourths of the total area in the hands of the three classes whose farms range from five to 250 acres. As a considerable number of the owners of the fourth class are peasants, it may be said that about one-half of the agricultural land of the Empire is in their hands, the land parcels of less than five acres being owned by workmen or people of small means, who use them as garden plots. The large estates are the property of nobles and capitalists.
More than 86 per cent. of the entire agricultural land is cultivated by the owners, and less than 14 per cent. by tenants. About 41 per cent. of all the farmers cultivate their own land exclusively; a little over 31 per cent. cultivate rented land, in addition to their own; the remaining 28 per cent. cultivate rented land exclusively; the proportion of tenants has remained about the same since 1882.
The number of independent agricultural producers increased in the thirteen-year period between the two censuses about 12 per cent., from 2,283,033 in 1882 to 2,568,725 in 1895. The number of male agricultural laborers in 1895 was 3,239,640. The use of small farms as an auxiliary source of income is increasing. In 1882 3,119,825 persons, including their families, reported agriculture as a subsidiary occupation; in 1895 their number was 3,648,247, or an increase of 17 per cent.
Stock-Breeding. The rich meadows on the marshy plains of the north, the grassy mountain slopes and valleys of the central regions and the south, all afford excellent means for the rearing of domestic animals, making the stock-breeding industry important. The scientific cultivation of all kinds of fodder grasses has also contributed greatly to the improvement and increase of German live stock. Sheep-raising has been on the decline for several decades, owing to low prices of wool caused by Australian and Argentine competition, but is still important in Saxony, Silesia, and Brandenburg. The best breeds of horses are raised in Mecklenburg, Holstein, Hanover, and West Prussia; the Prussian studs have a high reputation throughout Europe. Cattle are raised chiefly in the rich marsh lands along the North Sea, and in the fertile valleys and mountain slopes of Bavaria, Württemberg, and Alsace-Lorraine. The following table shows the growth of the stock-breeding industry in the last two decades of the nineteenth century:
| YEAR | Horses | Horned cattle | Sheep | Swine | Goats |
| 1882 | 3,114,420 | 15,454,372 | 21,116,957 | 12,174,288 | 2,452,527 |
| 1895 | 3,367,298 | 17,053,642 | 12,592,870 | 13,562,642 | 3,195,251 |
| 1900 | 4,184,099 | 9,001,106 | 9,672,143 | 16,758,436 | 3,206,726 |
Forestry. More than 25 per cent. of the total area of Germany, viz. about 35,000,000 acres, is under forests, the preservation and cultivation of which receives almost as much attention as agriculture, and is scientifically conducted. The local supply of timber, however, does not meet the demands of the home market, and importations are necessary. The larger woods and forests in many of the States belong to the Government, and are under the care of special boards of management, which exercise the right of supervision and control over all forest land, whether public or private. More than a third of all the forests belongs to the various State Governments; about one-sixth is in the hands of the communes; 2.3 per cent. belongs to associations; a less amount to different endowments; and the remainder (about 46 per cent.) to private individuals. The States of Hesse, Baden, Bavaria, Saxony, Württemberg, and Prussia are especially rich in forests. See section on Flora.
Manufactures. The industrial progress of Germany has been so marked in the last quarter of a century as to make that country second only in all Europe to Great Britain as a manufacturing State. In 1895 more than 20,000,000 people, or 39.1 per cent. of the entire population, as compared with 16,000,000, or 35.5 per cent., in 1882, depended directly on manufactures and mining for a livelihood. About 8,000,000 persons, as against 6,000,000 in 1882, were engaged directly in industrial establishments. The census specifies 271 distinct industries, classed in 15 large groups, whose importance according to the numbers of establishments and employees is as shown in the table on the next page.
| INDUSTRY | Number of establishments, 1895 |
Number of persons engaged, 1895 |
Increase per cent. in number of persons since 1882 |
| 1. Mining and smelting | 4,164 | 540,388 | 24.7 |
| 2. Quarries and potteries | 48,229 | 558,286 | 59.9 |
| 3. Metal industry | 158,457 | 635,656 | 39.1 |
| 4. Machine and instrument making | 87,879 | 582,672 | 63.6 |
| 5. Chemical industry | 10,385 | 115,231 | 60.5 |
| 6. Manufacture of lighting material, soap and fats | 6,191 | 57,909 | 35.6 |
| 7. Textile industry | 205,292 | 993,257 | 9.1 |
| 8. Paper industry | 17,631 | 152,909 | 52.7 |
| 9. Leather industry | 47,325 | 160,343 | 31.9 |
| 10. Woodworking | 219,914 | 598,496 | 27.4 |
| 11. Manufacture of food products | 269,971 | 1,021,490 | 37.3 |
| 12. Clothing industry | 848,845 | 1,390,604 | 10.4 |
| 13. Building trades | 198,985 | 1,045,516 | 96.0 |
| 14. Printing and publishing trades | 14,193 | 127,867 | 82.7 |
| 15. Artistic trades | 9,511 | 19,879 | 29.2 |
Thus there was an increase from 1882 to 1895 of nearly 35 per cent. in the number of persons employed, while the increase in population was less than 15 per cent. during the same period. According to the number of persons engaged the most important industry is clothing, the next in order of importance being the building trades and the manufacture of foods, with over a million workers each; if we put the third (metal industry) and fourth (machine and instrument making) together, the combined metal industry ranks second only to the clothing industry; next to these and at the same time the most important feeder of the German export trade is the textile industry, which forms the oldest and most important of the German industrial arts. The chief localities for the cultivation and preparation of flax and the weaving of linen fabrics are the mountain valleys of Silesia, Lusatia, Westphalia, the Harz, and Saxony (for thread laces); while cotton fabrics are made principally in Rhenish Prussia and Saxony. The same districts, together with Pomerania and Bavaria, manufacture the choicest woolen fabrics, including damasks and carpets. Since the formation of the Empire, the textile industries have made remarkable progress, and the German manufactures now practically hold the home market, and export to South America, Australia, the East, and even to England. The growth of the cotton industry can be judged best from the increase of imports of raw cotton, which amounted to about 10,000 tons in 1840, 71,000 tons in 1871, and exceeded 313,000 tons (about 1,250,000 bales) in 1900. The silk industry and the manufacture of velvet thrive especially in Krefeld, Barmen, and Elberfeld, besides Berlin, Baden, and Aix-la-Chapelle. Great progress has been made both in the quality and the quantity of the output, although in the higher grades France still remains unexcelled.
The iron and steel manufactures of Germany are among the most important in the world. The chief seats of this industry are Westphalia and Alsace-Lorraine, the Pennsylvania of Germany; next in importance are the district of Aix-la-Chapelle, and isolated districts in Saxony, Württemberg, Bavaria, and Hanover. Iron and steel furnaces, steel-mills for the manufacture of billets, rails, bars, plates, wire, and other kinds of structural and railroad material turn out their products in enormous and constantly increasing quantities, not only for the domestic markets, but also for distant countries, in competition with Great Britain and the United States. The number of workmen thus employed increased from 164,000 in 1880 to 330,000 in 1900, or more than 100 per cent., producing 2,571,000 tons in the former year and nearly four times as much in the latter. While Germany turns out nearly all kinds of iron and steel products, it is, on the whole, behind the United States and Great Britain, both in quantity and cheapness of its products. In certain branches, however, of the iron industry, Germany excels the rest of the world. In the hardware industry, the words ‘Made in Germany’ branded on on article are universally accepted as a guaranty of excellence. This applies chiefly to knives, scissors, needles, weapons, and instruments of all kinds. German scientific instruments set the standard for precision and workmanship. The famous Krupp works, employing more than 40,000 workers, are the largest establishment in the world engaged in the manufacture of armor-plates, heavy artillery pieces and projectiles, boilers, engines, and all kinds of half-finished products required in their manufacturing. The shipyards of Danzig, Kiel, Stettin, Hamburg, Bremen, and other seaports furnish a supply of merchant and navy vessels which occupy the highest place among the mercantile navies of the world for speed, durability, and model equipment. Germany is the largest beet-sugar producing country in the world, its share of the world produce exceeding 35 per cent. The principal seats of this industry are in Prussia, Brunswick, and Anhalt. The number of sugar manufactories increased from 311 in 1871 to 399 in 1900, while the output increased from 263,000 tons in 1871, when it was but little over one-half of that of France, to 1,790,000 tons in 1900, more than double the output of that country for the same year. The brewing industry is another in which Germany stands unrivaled. The best beer is made in Bavaria; numerous breweries, however, are to be found all over the Empire. Although the number of breweries has been on the decrease, 11,564 in 1880, 8969 in 1890, and 7083 in 1899, the production increased more than 100 per cent. during the same period, being 556,500,000 gallons in 1880, 848,000.000 in 1890, and 1,139,500,000 in 1900. The distilling of alcohol is also increasing, the output having risen from 78,678,500 gallons in 1890 to 97,202,000 in 1900.
In silver, gold, and jewelry work Augsburg and Nuremberg dispute with Munich and Berlin for preëminence, the manufacture of scientific and musical instruments being also important in these cities; while Berlin and Leipzig are among the leading cities of Europe in respect to type-foundries, printing, and lithography. In the manufacture of rubber and gutta-percha goods, glass and pottery ware, clocks, and carved wooden specialties, Germany occupies a leading position. The chemical industry excels that of all other countries, and the same may be said of dyeing and bleaching works. Just as the technical progress made by German industries in the last three decades of the nineteenth century can be compared only with that of the United States, so do the economic aspects of the industrial developments of Germany resemble most closely those of the United States. The chief feature in common is the growing concentration of industry. In no other country save the United States are the number nnd power of large industrial organizations so great. While the census does not take notice of these forms of industrial and financial organizations, it brings out other facts which illustrate the tendency toward concentration. For instance, it divides the manufacturing establishments of the country into three principal classes (besides a larger number of subclasses), viz. small establishments employing five persons or less; those of medium size employing from six to 50 persons; and, finally, large establishments with 50 or more employees. The following table (which includes mercantile as well as industrial establishments) illustrates the growth of each:
| CLASS | Number of establishments | Number of persons employed | Increase per cent. in | |||
| 1882 | 1895 | 1882 | 1895 | Number of establishments |
Number of persons employed | |
| Small estab | 2,882,768 | 2,934,723 | 4,335,822 | 4,770,669 | 1.8 | 10. |
| Medium-size estab | 112,715 | 191,299 | 1,391,720 | 2,454,257 | 69.7 | 76.3 |
| Large estab | 9,974 | 18,955 | 1,613,247 | 3,044,343 | 90.0 | 88.7 |
| Total | 3,005,457 | 3,144,977 | 7,340,789 | 10,269,269 | 4.6 | 39.9 |
The figures show that both in the number of establishments and in number of people employed the progress was in proportion to the size of the establishments. Thus, while the total number of establishments increased less than 5 per cent., the higher group increased as much as 90 per cent., the middle group nearly 70 per cent., the lowest barely holding its own. The same tendency is observed in the number of persons employed in each group. With all that, the figures show the preponderance of small industries, the largest number of people being employed in the lowest group. Moreover, considerably more than one-half (nearly 60 per cent.) of those establishments employed no help. But while the number of persons engaged in that group constituted an absolute majority in 1882, it was only about 45 per cent. in 1895. On the other hand, the highest group, which employed between one-fourth and one-fifth of the total number of industrial workers in 1882, absorbed nearly one-third of the total number in 1895. The number of women and minors employed constituted 18.4 per cent. and 6.1 per cent. respectively of the total number of persons employed in 1895. The increased use of machinery is shown by the following figures: In 1882 only 4.7 per cent. of all the industrial establishments employed motive power outside of human labor; in 1895 the percentage rose to 5.9. The prevalence of the small house industry is shown by the fact that in the textile industry not more than 5 per cent. of all the establishments employed motive power, although that figure represented an increase of 100 per cent. as compared with 1882.
Railways. Germany has the largest railway system in Europe, the total length in 1900 exceeding 30,447 miles, as against 21,748 in the United Kingdom and 26,222 in France, its railway density being second to that of the United Kingdom. The railroad industry is among the most important in Germany, employing half a million persons and representing a capital investment of over $3,000,000,000. The first railway built in Germany was the Ludwigsbahn, connecting the cities of Nuremberg and Fürth in Bavaria (a distance of about four miles), and opened for traffic in December, 1835. Trains began running on the Leipzig-Dresden line in 1837, and Prussia built the Berlin-Potsdam line in 1838. By 1846 only the minor States had no lines. The railways at that time were, however, distributed over the country in closely knit groups, each centring around some large city; only in the north were the lines connected. During the next thirty years railway construction was pushed with great energy, with a view to covering the old trade routes and important high ways. The following table shows the growth of railways from the year of their inception until the end of the century:
| YEAR | Total Length of railways |
State lines. Length in miles |
Private lines operated by the State |
Private lines privately operated |
Per c. of State lines to total |
| 1835 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| 1840 | 341 | 29 | 0 | 312 | 8.5 |
| 1850 | 3,753 | 1,299 | 311 | 2,143 | 34.6 |
| 1860 | 7,241 | 3,247 | 849 | 43,145 | 44.9 |
| 1870 | 12,230 | 5,339 | 1,861 | 95,029 | 43.7 |
| 1880 | 20,627 | 1,040 | 2,634 | 7,591 | 50.4 |
| 1890 | 25,450 | 22,719 | 65 | 2,667 | 89.3 |
| 1895 | 27,428 | 25,013 | 65 | 2,350 | 91.2 |
| 1900 | 30,454 | 28,052 | 92.1 | ||
The table shows the growth of the railway system as a whole, and of the Government lines in particular. It will be seen that railway construction, which was pushed with great vigor until 1880, went on with a slackened pace after that year, for the great trunk lines of the country had been laid and railway-builders turned to extending the existing systems by means of branch lines to outlying territory. The other interesting fact brought out by the table is the increasing activity of the State in German railway industry. The German Empire as such does not own, however, any railways outside of the Imperial Province of Alsace-Lorraine, the rest of the State lines being owned separately by the various States. (For more detailed information on this point, see the articles on the separate countries, especially Prussia.) Attempts to put the Imperial Government in possession of the entire railway system have not been lacking, but thus far they have all failed because of the separatist sentiment, especially in the smaller southern States. The last attempt made by Bismarck in 1874, in the shape of a bill introduced in the Imperial Parliament, failed. After that the Prussians took the initiative by passing a bill in the Prussian Legislature offering to turn over their entire railway system to the Imperial Government. As the acceptance of the offer would have necessarily required a similar procedure on the part of the other German States, no action was taken. At present each of the twenty-six German States has a railway system of its own, largely owned and operated by the respective governments, a small portion remaining in private hands. Prussia is the most important railway owner; besides the Kingdom of Prussia only seven other States own more than 1000 kilometers (621 miles), their respective lengths in the closing year of the century being as follows: Prussia, 17,990 miles; Bavaria, 4013 miles; Saxony, 1497 miles; Baden, 1081 miles; Alsace-Lorraine, 989 miles; Württemberg, 979 miles; Hesse, 705 miles; Mecklenburg-Schwerin, 700 miles. Thus Prussia controls the railway situation by holding three-fifths of the entire system, and the eight largest States of the country have more than 93 per cent. of all the railway lines.
Shipping and Navigation. The shipping interests of Germany are second only to those of Great Britain and the United States. In the opening year of the twentieth century the strength of the respective merchant marines of the three countries was as follows: United Kingdom, 9,395,207 tons; United States, 5,524,218 tons; Germany, 1,941,045 tons. The shipping facilities of Germany in 1901 were represented by 1390 steamers of 1,347,875 tons net tonnage, and 2493 sailing vessels, with an aggregate capacity of 573,770 tons. In 1891 there were only 941 steamers of 764,711 tons, and 2698 sailing vessels of 704,274 tons capacity, making a total of 1,468,985 tons. Thus, while the total tonnage increased about 30 per cent., that of the steamers increased more than 76 per cent., while the tonnage of the sailing vessels declined by about one-sixth of its former strength. The number of vessels entering and clearing German ports exceeded 89,000 with more than 18,000,000 tons in 1899, as compared with 10,000,000 tons in 1889, or an increase of about 80 per cent. In 1899 more than 10,000,000 tons, or over 55 per cent. of the total shipping, were carried in German bottoms, while ten years before only about 32 per cent. of the total shipping was in German hands.
The principal countries participating in the shipping of the German Empire are: Great Britain, with about 56 per cent. of the total foreign shipping of the country; Sweden, with about 12½ per cent.; Denmark, with over 11 per cent.; Norway, over 9 per cent.; the Netherlands, less than 4 per cent.; and Russia, with 3 per cent. The principal ports in the order of their importance are Hamburg, Bremen, Stettin, Danzig, Lübeck, Kiel, and Königsberg, the first of these ranking close to London and New York in the amount of its shipping. The merchant marine of the Empire employed nearly 45,000 persons in 1900—a small increase over the 40,400 persons in 1891, and 39,600 in 1881.
Commerce. The foreign commerce of the German Empire is subject to the regulations of the federal authorities, all of the States of the Empire together with Luxemburg joining in the so-called Zollverein or Customs Union. Absolute free trade exists between the members of the Union and a uniform tariff is applied to all goods coming to any of the States from foreign countries. In fact, the commercial regulations governing the Customs Union are exactly like those applying to the commercial relations of the individual States of the United States, and of each of those to the Federal Government, with the single exception that in the United States all customs duties collected enter the Federal Treasury to be used solely by the Federal Government, while in the German Empire the surplus over a certain sum is distributed among the members of the Customs Union in proportion to their population.
Germany is second only to Great Britain in the volume of foreign trade. In 1901 the combined imports and exports of each of the three principal commercial countries of the world were: Great Britain, $4,353,000,000; Germany, $2,553,000,000; the United States, $2,284,000,000. Unlike the United States, Germany imports more goods than it exports. In considering statistics of German commerce it is necessary to distinguish between ‘general commerce,’ which includes all imports and exports entering or leaving Germany, and ‘special commerce,’ which includes only imports from foreign countries for consumption in Germany and exports of German products. The geographical position of Germany in the middle of Europe favors a large transit trade, which swells the difference between ‘general’ and ‘special’ commerce to considerably more than a quarter of a billion dollars a year. The following table shows the growth of special commerce since the formation of the Empire:
| YEAR | Imports | Exports |
| 1872 | $ 824,670,000 | $ 593,096,000 |
| 1880 | 676,872,000 | 708,288,000 |
| 1890 | 1,016,974,000 | 811,580,000 |
| 1895 | 1,010,548,000 | 814,912,000 |
| 1897 | 1,157,870,000 | 901,068,000 |
| 1899 | 1,376,592,000 | 1,039,584,000 |
| 1900 | 1,438,234,000 | 1,131,214,000 |
| 1901 | 1,420,146,000 | 1,132,642,000 |
Thus the imports constitute about 56 per cent. of the total commerce and the exports 44 per cent. Owing to the enormous industrial progress in the last few decades, Germany has become an importer of foodstuffs and raw material, and an exporter of manufactured products. More than one-fourth of the total imports consist of foodstuffs and other articles of consumption; raw and manufactured textile materials, nearly two-thirds of which is raw, constitute another fourth; manufacturing metals, one-third; and metal ore, less than 8 per cent.; the remainder is made up of fuel, fertilizers, and crude chemicals, fats and oils, lumber, leather, machinery, and live animals. The principal articles of export are textiles, 20 per cent. of the total; half finished and finished metals, manufactured food products, chemicals, machines, tools, and apparatus, coal and leather goods.
The history of the commercial relations of the German Empire with other countries may be divided into three periods: (1) that of free trade, (2) the tariff period, and (3) the treaty period. During the first period, which lasted from the foundation of the Empire to 1879, there was a strong tendency to free trade, and duties so far as levied affected only a small number of articles, and that very slightly, being raised mainly for revenue purposes. In 1879 a new customs tariff went into effect as the result of prolonged agitation on the part of the joint agricultural and industrial forces, who were clamoring for the protection of home industries. That tariff has undergone numerous changes since the year of its promulgation, but the most important change—the one which marks the third period, since 1891—is that it has come to serve merely as an abstract basis for German foreign commercial relations, the real controlling factor being the tariff treaty or convention with respective foreign countries. The general tariff is called autonomous to distinguish it from the special or treaty tariff. According to existing methods every country which has a commercial treaty with Germany—and this is the case of nearly all countries of importance—enjoys the privilege of a much lower tariff than the autonomous one, in consideration of reciprocal concessions made to German goods; but those countries which make any discrimination against German goods may be subjected to an additional tariff, which may amount to as much as 100 per cent. of the autonomous tariff on all products enumerated therein and a 20 per cent. ad valorem duty on all goods on the free list. With such a weapon in hand Germany has had little difficulty in making commercial treaties with all other nations. The growing divergence of interests between the manufacturers and the landowners has, however, made the renewal of the treaties from 1904 an extremely difficult undertaking to German statesmen. See Germany in the article Political Parties. The chief countries participating in German trade are:
| COUNTRY | Per cent. of total imports into Germany from |
COUNTRY | Per cent. of total exports from Germany to | |||
| 1900 | 1890 | 1900 | 1890 | |||
| 1. United States | 16.9 | 9.5 | 1. Great Britain | 19.2 | 20.7 | |
| 2. Great Britain | 13.9 | 15.0 | 2. Austria-Hungary | 10.7 | 10.3 | |
| 3. Russia | 12.1 | 12.7 | 3. United States | 9.3 | 12.2 | |
| 4. Austria-Hungary | 12.0 | 14. | 4. Netherlands | 8.3 | 7.6 | |
| 5. France | 5.6 | 6.2 | 5. Russia | 7.6 | 6.1 | |
| 6. Argentina | 3.9 | 1.8 | 6. Switzerland | 6.2 | 5.3 | |
| 7. British India | 3.7 | 3.0 | 7. France | 5.9 | 6.8 | |
| 8. Belgium | 3.6 | 7.4 | 8. Belgium | 5.3 | 4.4 | |
| 9. Netherlands | 3.6 | 7.3 | 9. Sweden | 2.9 | 2.7 | |
| 10. Italy | 3.1 | 3.3 | 10. Italy | 2.7 | 2.8 | |
| 11. Switzerland | 2.8 | 4.1 | 11. Denmark | 2.6 | 2.2 | |
One of the most significant facts brought out by the above table is the preëminence of the United States in the import trade of Germany. In 1880 the United States occupied the seventh place among the countries exporting into Germany; in 1890 it moved up to the fourth, overtaking France, Belgium, and the Netherlands; in 1900 it assumed the first place, outstripping Great Britain, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. In the export trade of Germany, however, the United States occupies only third place, whereas in 1890 it occupied the second. In our own commerce Germany stands next to Great Britain, occupying the second place both in imports and exports, sending 11.4 per cent. of all our imports and taking 13.4 per cent. of our exports. But while the imports from Germany to the United States remained practically stationary throughout the closing decade of the nineteenth century, our exports to Germany increased more than 100 per cent. during that period, as the following table shows:
| Imports into Germany from the United States |
Exports from Germany to the United States | |
| 1891 | $92,795,000 | $97,316,000 |
| 1893 | 83,579,000 | 96,210,000 |
| 1895 | 92,054,000 | 81,014,000 |
| 1897 | 125,246,000 | 111,211,000 |
| 1899 | 155,772,000 | 84,226,000 |
| 1900 | 187,348,000 | 97,375,000 |
Cotton constitutes the most important of the American exports to Germany, the annual value fluctuating greatly, with a rising tendency, the value in 1900, $63,576,825, exceeding that of any earlier year. The annual export of corn was three times as great in the last half of the decade 1891 to 1900 as in the first half, reaching the maximum value of $18,776,736 in 1900. Lard, copper, and oil are the next largest items of export, the first two having increased enormously from 1890 to 1900. The phenomenal increase also in the importation of American meats and fruits has served to add fuel to the fire of German agrarian agitation against the encroachments of the United States. Grouping American exports into five large classes, the increase in the last seven years of the nineteenth century is shown as follows:
| 1893 | 1899 | |
| 1. Food products | $43,000,000 | $101,000,000 |
| 2. Raw materials (cotton, timber, metals, etc.) | 39,000,000 | 80,000,000 |
| 3. Petroleum, lubricating oils | 12,000,000 | 18,000,000 |
| 4. Vegetable and animal oils | 2,000,000 | 6,000,000 |
| 5. Iron and iron products | .......... | 7,000,000 |
(In considering the above table it should be remembered that the American trade for 1893 was below normal.)
The stationary state of German exports to the United States is seen from the following table of the ten principal articles sent to this country:
| 1893 | 1899 | |
| Textiles | $26,703,600 | $20,206,200 |
| Leather and leather goods | 4,974,200 | 5,569,200 |
| Paper and paper goods | 2,142,000 | 1,523,200 |
| Books and other printed matter | 4,641,000 | 3,379,600 |
| Chemicals | 5,331,200 | 9,781,800 |
| Cement and porcelain | 2,142,000 | 5,045,600 |
| Toys | 1,594,600 | 2,475,200 |
| Machinery and other iron products | 2,189,600 | 1,594,600 |
| Glassware and instruments | 1,761,200 | 904,400 |
| Ornamental goods | 856,800 | 1,689,800 |
| Total of the above | $52,336,200 | $52,169,600 |
For an account of the colonial commerce of Germany, see Colonies, in this article.
Banking. At the head of the German banking system is the Imperial Bank (the Reichsbank). Founded in 1875 by an act of the German Reichstag, it has been ever since the leading bank of issue, and, in addition to other banking operations, has served as the depository of the Imperial Treasury. The bank is under a stricter Government control than even the Bank of England or the Banque de France. Although practically a private stock company, its management is vested in a board of directors appointed by the Government and subject to the orders of the Chancellor of the Empire. The stockholders are represented by a general assembly, electing in turn a central committee, which makes monthly examinations of the affairs of the bank, and whose consent or advice is asked in certain matters by the board of directors. The bank keeps on deposit all moneys intrusted to it by the Imperial Treasury, and attends to all collections and disbursements on its account without any compensation. Nor are the financial advantages derived by the Government from the operations of the bank limited to that alone. The profits of the bank are distributed as follows: First, an annual dividend of 4½ per cent. on the capital stock of 120,000,000 marks (nearly $29,000,000) is distributed among the stockholders; second, 20 per cent. of the remaining surplus is added to the reserve fund, so long as the latter does not exceed one-fourth of the capital stock; third, the remaining surplus is divided equally between the shareholders and the Imperial Government, but the half of the surplus is allowed the stockholders only so long as it does not raise their dividends from the above sources to more than 8 per cent. Beyond that, the surplus is divided in the proportion of one-fourth to the stockholders and three-fourths to the Government. Under that arrangement, the stockholders received a dividend of nearly 11 per cent. in 1900.
Unlike the Bank of England or the Banque de France, the Imperial Bunk of Germany is not the sole bank of issue in the country. At the time of the enactment of the new bank regulations for the Empire, in 1875, thirty-one other banks were authorized to issue bank notes, the total uncovered note circulation having then been fixed at $91,630,000, of which $59,500,000 were allotted to the Imperial Bank, and the remainder apportioned among the rest according to their capital stock. Since then the number of these banks has gradually diminished, the allotment of the bank-note issue of all such being transferred to the Imperial Bank. In the closing year of the century only the following eight banks still retained the right of issue:
| Capital stock |
Authorized note issue | |
| Imperial Bank | $28,560,000 | $69,829,200 |
| Bank of Frankfort | 4,284,000 | 2,380,000 |
| Bavarian Bank of Issue | 1,785,000 | 7,616,000 |
| Saxon Bank | 7,140,000 | 3,991,498 |
| Württemberg Bank of Issue | 2,142,000 | 2,380,000 |
| Bank of Baden | 2,142,000 | 2,380,000 |
| South German Bank | 3,729,936 | 2,380,000 |
| Bank of Brunswick | 2,499,000 | 673,302 |
| Total | $52,281,936 | $91,630,000 |
These banks may issue notes also in excess of the allotments indicated above, but all such amounts are subject to a tax of 5 per cent. The growth of the business of the Imperial Bank from the time of its foundation may be seen from the following figures: The total amount of all kinds of transactions had increased from $8,734,600,000 in 1876 to $18,207,000,000 in 1886, to $31,297,000,000 in 1896, and exceeded $44,982,000,000 in 1900, while its loans on securities increased from $111,140,000 in 1876 to more than $209,440,000 in 1900.
An important business carried on by the Imperial Bank is that in connection with its clearing-house department. The latter was founded in 1883, and the volume of clearings is behind only those of the London and New York houses, exceeding $4,760,000,000 per annum at the close of the century. Since its organization several other clearing houses have been established in other cities of Germany, the more important being in Frankfort, Stuttgart, Cologne, Leipzig, Dresden, Hamburg, and Bremen. In addition to the banks of issue and the branch banks mentioned above, there are about 150 other banks organized as stock companies, whose total capital stock in 1900 exceeded $428,400,000, as compared with $302,736,000 in 1885. That does not include the still more numerous private banks, some of which, like the Rothschilds or Bleichröder, are among the foremost banking institutions of the world. There are also several mortgage banks (Hypothekenbanken—crédit foncier) to minister to the wants of the agricultural population, people's banks (Volksbanken) or coöperative loan associations which lend small amounts to needy artisans and owners of workshops, and finally the Prussian Maritime Association, for a description of which, as well as of the most important Berlin banks, the reader is referred to the paragraph on Banking, under Prussia.
Government. In 1815 the Congress of Vienna, which met to reorganize Europe after the Napoleonic wars, formed the thirty-nine component States of Germany (kingdoms, duchies, free cities, and principalities) into a confederation or Bund, leaving to each its complete autonomy except in a few matters of common concern. Its only organ of government was a Diet (Bundestag), composed of ambassadors from the several members of the Confederation, who voted according to instructions given by their governments. Almost the only powers of the Diet were to declare foreign war and make peace, organize the Federal force made up of the various contingents, and settle interstate disputes. To Austria belonged the presidency of the Confederation, in which she had a predominating influence. As time passed the feeble government of the Confederation fell more and more into disrepute. In 1848 the Liberals throughout Germany united in a revolutionary movement to overthrow the Confederation, and establish in its stead a closer and more efficient union of the German States; and although they failed in this particular, their uprising led to the establishment of constitutional government generally throughout Germany between 1848 and 1851. The war of 1866 between Prussia and Austria was followed by the dissolution of the Confederation. Prussia drew about her the States of North Germany, and formed the North German Confederation, the connection of Austria with the Germanic body being severed, while the States south of the Main concluded offensive and defensive alliances with the new Confederation. The war with France in 1870-71 consummated the union of all the German States into an empire.
The Constitution of the Empire bears the date of April 16, 1871. It is a written instrument, and enumerates with considerable detail the powers and relations of the different organs of government. It may be amended by the Imperial Legislature, according to the usual processes of legislation, except that fourteen negative votes in the Federal Council will defeat an amendment, and that those provisions which guarantee specific rights to individual States are unamendable. The empire which this, the new Constitution, created, consists of four kingdoms, six grand duchies, five duchies, seven principalities, three free cities, and one territory, all under the presidency of the King of Prussia, who bears the title of German Emperor (art. ii.). It is not, however, a union of equals, for some of the States refused to join except upon their own terms. It thus happens that certain members enjoy specific privileges which do not belong to others. Of these, Prussia is the most highly favored. She has the hereditary right to the presidency of the Union; her representation in the Federal Council is large enough to prevent changes in the Constitution without her consent; she has the casting vote in case of a tie in the Federal Council, and the chairmanship of all the standing committees except one in that body. Among the States upon whom special privileges were bestowed as inducement to enter the Union are Bavaria, Württemberg, and Baden. They are all exempt from Imperial excises on domestic liquors and beer, while Bavaria and Württemberg have their own postal and telegraph systems, and, with certain restrictions, their own military systems. Bavaria, moreover, is exempt from the operation of the Imperial laws for the regulation of railroads except for purposes of military defense, and from the Imperial law of residence and settlement. Bavaria, Württemberg, and Saxony are entitled to seats in the standing committees of the Federal Council on Foreign Affairs and on Army and Fortifications, the chairmanship of the first mentioned committee belonging to Bavaria. The Constitution contains a guarantee that no State so privileged shall be deprived of its rights without its consent (art. lxxviii.). The German Imperial Government may be described as a federal representative system, containing democratic and elective elements on the one hand, and monarchic and hereditary elements on the other. Its federal feature is shown in the constitutional division of the powers of government between the Central Government and the State Governments, and the marking out of a sphere of activity for each. The elective and democratic elements appear in the structure of the Reichstag or National Diet, while the presidency of the Empire furnishes the monarchic and hereditary features. In regard to the methods of governing, the Imperial rule is not parliamentary in the sense of parliamentary government in England, as there is no provision for a responsible Ministry.
For the purposes of legislation the Constitution provides for a National Parliament, the Reichstag, representing the nation as a whole, and the Federal Council, or Bundesrat, representing the individual States. The latter is, to a certain extent, modeled after the old Diet of the Confederation. It is composed of delegates chosen by the governments of the several States that compose the Empire. They are without definite tenure, and are apportioned without much regard to population, but according to the artificial plan of the old Confederation. The Constitution fixes the number of votes in the Federal Council at fifty-eight, of which Prussia has seventeen, Bavaria six, Saxony and Württemberg four each. Baden and Hesse three each, Brunswick and Mecklenburg-Sehwerin two each, and the other States one each. The members have the character of ambassadors, and are entitled to the same privileges that are accorded the diplomatic representatives of foreign States. They vote according to instructions from their governments, and uninstructed votes are not counted. In case a State has more than one vote, the delegation from the State must vote as a unit, but the entire vote to which the State is entitled may be cast by a portion of its representatives. It is left to each State to prescribe the qualifications of its representatives in the Federal Council. The Imperial Constitution and the statutes, however, prescribe a number of disqualifications, most of which relate to the holding of other incompatible offices at the same time.
The Reichstag consists of representatives chosen for a term of five years by direct universal suffrage and secret ballot. By universal suffrage is meant the suffrage of all male citizens who have attained the age of twenty-five years. Those who are in active military or naval service, those who are subject to guardianship, or who are bankrupt or insolvent, or in receipt of poor relief, or condemned to the loss of civil or political rights are disqualified from the exercise of the suffrage. There are at present 397 members of the Diet, and they are distributed among the States on the basis of one representative to every 131,000 of the population. Of these Prussia has 236, or about three-fifths of the whole number. They are chosen by single district ticket, receive no pay, and are uninstructed. No qualifications are provided by the Constitution for membership in the Diet, but by statute the qualifications are fixed at citizenship for a year previous to the election, male sex, and completion of the twenty-fifth year. The constitutional privileges of members consist in exemption from arrest except by consent of the Diet unless the member be taken in the act, exemption from legal responsibility for words spoken in the Diet, and immunity from insult. In addition to these, members of the Federal Council enjoy the privilege of exterritoriality, and have the right to champion the measures of their governments in the Reichstag. The power of calling, opening, adjourning, and proroguing both the Diet and the Federal Council and of dissolving the Diet (with the consent of the Federal Council) is a prerogative of the Emperor. He must, however, call them annually, and in case of a dissolution of the Diet he is bound to order the elections within sixty days, and call the new Diet together within ninety days. The Diet, moreover, cannot be adjourned without its consent more than once during the same session or for a longer period than thirty days. The Constitution fixes the quorum of the Diet at a majority, while the presence of the Imperial Chancellor in the Federal Council seems to be sufficient to enable it to proceed with business. The Diet is the judge of the elections and qualifications of its members, and has power over its own internal organization and procedure, except that its sessions must be public. There are constitutional limitations, however, on the power of the Federal Council in this respect; for the president is designated by the Constitution, and the membership of some of its important standing committees is determined by the same authority. So far as the initiation of legislative measures is concerned, the two representative bodies are theoretically on an equality. In the Federal Council each government represented may introduce measures, and it is made the constitutional duty of the president to submit them to deliberation. In the Diet the initiation of measures is regulated by a rule of the House.
Unlike the French Parliament, the powers of the German Imperial Legislature are enumerated in the Constitution. They include the ratification of treaties, the regulation of foreign and interstate commerce, with certain exceptions in the case of Bavaria and Württemberg; the regulation of the monetary system; the regulation of the criminal law, private law and judicial organization and procedure throughout the Empire; the regulation of citizenship, medical and veterinary practice; the regulation of the customs and the excise upon tobacco, salt, spirituous liquors, beer, sugar, etc.; the regulation of the military and naval systems; the enactment of measures for the execution of the laws; and the settlement of constitutional conflicts within a State in certain contingencies. It will be seen from the enumeration that the power of the German Legislature extends to many subjects which in other States having the federal system of government are left to the regulation of the individual States. As a general thing the power of the Imperial Legislature over these subjects is not exclusive, but they may be regulated by the States in the absence of Imperial legislation. Moreover, in the domain of interstate and foreign relations, the individual States may conclude treaties among themselves for the regulation of their postal and telegraph communication, and even with foreign countries for the regulation of matters of local concern, and to that end may send and receive ambassadors.
The Imperial executive power is vested in the King of Prussia, who is president of the Union, and who bears the title of German Emperor (art. ii.). The succession is regulated by the Prussian Constitution, which makes the crown hereditary in the male branch of the royal house by right of primogeniture and agnatic lineal succession. During the minority of the King the regency is held by the nearest agnate; or, if there be no such agnate, then the Diet shall choose a regent. The King attains his majority at eighteen, and is irresponsible and inviolable. As Emperor he is vested with the power of appointing and receiving ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls; of negotiating treaties; of waging defensive war, and with the consent of the Federal Council, offensive war; of commanding the army and navy; of promulgating the laws and supervising their execution. His powers in legislation have already been enumerated in another connection. In promulgating the laws he seems to have the power to determine whether they have been constitutionally enacted, and to refuse promulgation if in his opinion they have not; but otherwise he has no veto on Imperial legislation. In supervising the execution of the Imperial laws, which are, for the most part, administered by the State governments at their own expense, he addresses himself, through the Chancellor, to the State executives; and in case of their refusal to carry out the Imperial will, resort is had to federal execution—that is, force is brought to bear upon the recalcitrant State (art. xix.). In the enforcement of the laws, however, for the collection of the Imperial taxes and for the regulation of postal and telegraphic administration, the Emperor does not rely upon the States, but acts through Imperial officials. He appoints all the officials in the Imperial service, and may dismiss them. There is an exception, however, in the case of the Imperial judicial officers, who are appointed by the Emperor upon the nomination of the Federal Council, and who cannot be removed by the Emperor. In addition to these powers, which belong to the president of the Federal Union as Emperor, he has a series of important functions as King of Prussia.
The Constitution requires that all the official acts of the Emperor except those which relate to the command of the army shall be countersigned by an officer called the Imperial Chancellor, appointed by the Emperor and removable at his pleasure (art. xvii.). By this act the Chancellor assumes responsibility for the measure, thus insuring the irresponsibility of the Emperor. The Chancellor's responsibility, however, is not to the Legislature, but to the Emperor, for the parliamentary system of government does not exist in the Empire. If, therefore, the Diet refuses to pass his measures or votes a resolution of censure against him, he does not resign, but continues to hold his office, and if he thinks the action of the Diet is not the will of the people he may request the Emperor to dissolve it and order a new election. He is president of the Federal Council, and has a seat in the Diet, where he appears as the chief defender of the policy of the Government and the champion of its measures. He is also the head of the Imperial administration, and supervises in the name of the Emperor the execution of the Imperial laws. To aid him there are at present eleven departments of administration, each under the control of a secretary. They are not his colleagues, but his subordinates; for there is no Imperial Cabinet in the sense in which the term is usually understood. A law of 1878 authorizes the Chancellor to appoint a responsible Vice-Chancellor to aid him when, from pressure of business or other cause, he is unable to discharge his duties. It should also be noted that another important organ of administration is the Federal Council; in fact, the German commentators on the Imperial Constitution treat it as an organ of administration rather than as a chamber of the Legislature. Its most important administrative functions are the formulation of rules for the guidance of the administration, the preparation of the ordinances necessary for the execution of the laws, the issuing of decrees for the coercion of recalcitrant States of the Empire, and a wide participation in the appointment of Imperial officials. Under the last head may be mentioned the nomination of the judges of the Supreme Court of the Empire (Reichsgericht) and the election of the members of the Imperial Court of Accounts.
When we turn to the judicial system of the Empire we find few provisions in the Constitution which bear upon the subject—no provision for a Supreme Court or inferior courts, no apportionment of judicial power between the Empire on the one hand and the States on the other, according to the federal system of government, and no guarantees of judicial procedure such as constitute so notable a feature in the Constitution of the United States. The only judicial tribunal in the Empire which has a constitutional basis is the Federal Council, which is designated as a court for the settlement of public-law controversies between States and of constitutional conflicts within States, in both cases when appealed to by one of the parties. With these exceptions everything relating to the organization, jurisdiction, and procedure of the German courts is left to the regulation of the Legislature, thus making the judicial system a purely statutory creation. It was not until 1877 that the Imperial Legislature passed an act for the organization of the courts (Gerichtsverfassungsgesetz). At the same time Imperial codes of civil and criminal procedure were completed and, with the Imperial Judiciary Act for the organization of the courts, went into effect October 1, 1879. An Imperial code of criminal law was completed in 1870, and revised in 1871 and 1876, and more recently (1900) an Imperial civil code was put in force.
The result of all this legislation was the creation for the Empire of a uniform system of courts organized upon Imperial plan, and applying the law, which is not uniform throughout the Empire, according to a uniform system of procedure, an achievement which has done much to bring about the unification of the German States. The Imperial Judiciary Act of 1877 created a system of courts of four grades, the lowest being the district court (Amtsgerichte). This is a court of first instance for the trial of petty civil and criminal cases. When hearing civil cases, the court is held by a single judge; in criminal cases the judge associates with himself two laymen called Schöffen. At present there are over 1900 such courts in the Empire. Next above the districts courts are the territorial courts (Landesgerichte) consisting of from three to five judges, and divided into civil and criminal chambers. They hear appeals from the lower courts, and have a more extensive original jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters. For the trial of important criminal cases jury courts are constituted periodically in connection with the territorial courts. They consist of a bench of three judges and twelve jurors. At present there are over 170 Landesgerichte in the Empire. Next in the hierarchy are the superior courts (Oberlandesgerichte), likewise divided into civil and criminal senates, the usual number of judges in a criminal senate being seven. They have no original jurisdiction, being exclusively courts of appeal from the territorial courts. At present there are 28 superior courts in the Empire, 15 of which are in Prussia. As a result of a special provision Bavaria alone has an Oberstes Landesgericht of 15 judges, which has its seat at Munich. Standing at the top of the judicial hierarchy is the Imperial Court (Reichsgericht), which has its seat at Leipzig in Saxony. It is composed of four criminal senates and six civil senates, with an aggregate membership of over 90 judges. The judges are appointed by the Emperor, upon the nomination of the Federal Council. Their tenure is for life, and they are irremovable by any authority except the court itself acting as a disciplinary tribunal. The Imperial Court has no original jurisdiction in civil matters. Its appellate jurisdiction in civil matters extends to cases appealed from the Superior Courts, the Consular Courts, and the Imperial Patent Office Administrative Court. The criminal jurisdiction of the Imperial Court extends in first and last instance to all cases of high treason against the Emperor or the Empire, to appeals in certain cases from the decisions of the territorial courts and the jury courts, and to appeals from decisions of the Consular Courts.
The position of the judiciary is one of absolute independence of the administration. The judges can neither be removed, transferred to less desirable judicial stations, nor retired on pension against their will. All the judges (except those of the Imperial Court), about 8000 in number, are appointed and paid by the governments of the States in which they discharge their functions, and they are regarded as State judges, although their positions are created by Imperial law, and their qualifications and duties are prescribed by the same authority.
The Germans, like the French, from whom they have borrowed many legal institutions, have attempted to separate the spheres of justice and administration, and have accordingly intrusted the decisions of administrative controversies, not to the regular judicial courts, as is done in the United States and England, but to special tribunals called administrative courts, composed partly of trained jurists and partly of active administrators. The judges of the German administrative courts, unlike those of France, however, have a position of independence, and cannot be removed at the pleasure of the Emperor, by whom they are appointed. The most important Imperial administrative courts are the poor-law board, the railway court, the patent-office court, and the marine office. If conflicts of jurisdiction occur between the administrative and judicial courts, the proper forum is determined by the Imperial Court, there being no provision for a tribunal of conflicts as in France.
Finally, it should be said that there is little or no Imperial local government in Germany, since the Imperial laws are, for the most part, administered by the State Governments under the supervision of the Emperor. The chief local administrative activity of the Empire, therefore, consists of such supervisory service as may be necessary to insure the strict enforcement of the Imperial laws by the State authorities. For local government in Germany, see Prussia.
Finances. The finances of the Empire resemble, in a general way, those of the United States in that they embrace comparatively few items of revenue and expenditure. The Imperial Government cannot levy any taxes except customs and excise duties. The bulk of its revenues is, therefore, derived from these two sources. Excise duties are levied on tobacco, beer, liquors, salt, and sugar. The post and telegraph, both of which are owned and operated by the Government, the railways of Alsace-Lorraine, and stamp taxes bring in some additional revenue, which is, however, insufficient to cover the expenditures of the Empire. The deficit is covered by contributions from the several States called ‘Matricular Beiträge,’ and levied on each State in proportion to its population. Prussia is assessed more than 60 per cent. of the entire Federal contribution.
The chief items of expenditure are those for the army and navy, which together absorb more than a third of the entire expenditure. The Imperial treasury spends another third of the budget, and for the service of the debt of the Empire stands the next largest item, exceeding $20,944,000 per annum, or more than 4½ per cent. of the budget. The growth of the budget of the Empire from its foundation is shown in the following table:
| YEAR | Budget | State contributions |
| 1872 | $83,530,860 | $23,002,224 |
| 1882 | 141,217,776 | 24,582,782 |
| 1892 | 266,303,198 | 77,762,692 |
| 1900 | 520,362,010 | 116,609,052 |
| 1902 | 559,238,596 | 135,882,054 |
The total funded debt of the Empire amounted to $547,043,000 in the closing year of the nineteenth century. Of this, $295,120,000 bears 3½ per cent. interest, and the remaining portion 3 per cent. The first loan raised by the Imperial Government was for more than $3,808,000 in 1877. The growth of the debt since then has been as follows: 1880, $51,897,804; 1890, $266,079,716; 1900, $547,043,000. In addition to the funded debt, there is an interest-bearing debt of $28,560,000 in the form of treasury bills of denominations smaller than 100 marks.
National Defense. All able-bodied men are liable to military service between the ages of seventeen and forty-five years. Three years' active service is required of cavalrymen and artillerymen and two years of others, the enlistment generally being at the age of twenty. Students passing a State examination may have the term of active service reduced to one year. The German military force is divided into four armies (Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, and Württemberg), but there is a uniform plan of organization and administration. In the three States last named each king has a limited power of appointment, and the King of Bavaria of administration. (For particulars concerning the organization of the army, see article on Armies.) In 1901 the rank and file of the German army, including special officers, amounted to 580,023 men; while the officers numbered 24,145. The greatest war strength of the army is estimated at over 3,000,000 men. Service in the navy instead of the army may be made obligatory upon the maritime population. Numerous additions have been made to the German navy in recent years, giving Germany great strength as a naval power. See Navies.
Germany is particularly well fortified on the side looking toward France. In this section are situated the strong fortresses of Metz, Strassburg, Ulm, Rastatt, Mainz, Cologne, and Coblenz, and the minor fortifications of Diedenhofen, Saarlouis, New Breisach, Germersheim, Ingolstadt, Hamm, and Wesel. The other large German fortresses are in Eastern or Central Prussia, namely Danzig, Königsberg, Posen, Küstrin, Sandau, Magdeburg, and Neisse. The minor fortresses in the interior are Thorn, Dirschau, Glogau, Glatz, and Königstein. On the coast toward the north are the fortifications of Wilhelmshafen, Kiel, Friedsrichsort, Cuxhaven, Geesdemünde, Sonderburg, Stralsund, Swinemünde, Pillau, and Memel.
Money, Weight, and Measures. Gold is the single standard of value, silver being legal tender only for amounts not exceeding 20 marks (less than five dollars). The coining of money is in the hands of the Imperial Government. The standard unit is the mark, equal to 24¼ cents United States gold money. The mark has one hundred pfennigs. The old thaler is equivalent to three marks. The prevailing coins are the gold 5, 10 and 20 mark pieces, called the half-crown, crown, and double crown respectively; the silver 1, 2 and 5 mark pieces; and bronze coins of smaller denominations.
The metric system has been in vogue since 1872.
Colonies. The colonies and dependencies of the German Empire comprise German East Africa, German Southwest Africa, Kamerun, Togo, part of New Guinea (Kaiser Wilhelm's Land), the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Solomon Islands, the Caroline Islands, the Ladrones (Marianne Islands), the Marshall Islands, part of the Samoan Islands, and Kiao-chau (on the Chinese coast). The total area is estimated at a little over 1,000,000 square miles, and the population at about 12,000,000. The German colonial system is that of a pure absolutism administered through a centralized bureaucracy. Neither the natives nor the white inhabitants of the colonies have any voice in the fiscal or political administration of the territories. The laws for the colonies are framed by the Imperial Parliament, and German citizens residing in the colonies enjoy the same civil rights as in the mother country. The natives are not regarded as German citizens, but are allowed to acquire citizenship by naturalization in accordance with the general laws regulating such procedure. A fundamental law in respect to the administration of colonies was laid down by the Reichstag in 1886, and subsequently amended in 1887 and 1888. The only exception, whereby the native element is recognized in the administration of colonial affairs, is in the case of some of the districts where it was thought advisable to placate the native chiefs by making them the medium of communication between the Imperial Government and the native population.
The decision as to the budget for the colonies is nominally vested in the Emperor, though virtually it is in the hands of the Governor of the colony and his immediate subordinates. The revenue is derived from taxation, sale or lease of public property, fees, and subventions from the home Government. Direct taxes form as yet but a small item in the revenues; but having been recently introduced, they will, no doubt, yield a greater share in the near future. A house tax has recently been established, applicable both to Europeans and natives. The rate of the tax is expressed in money, but the natives are allowed to offer produce or labor as the equivalent of the tax. The determination of the value of labor and natural products is left, however, to the local authorities, thus permitting the exercise of a good deal of arbitrary power by the colonial officers. Moreover, “measures are provided for the enforcement of the tax, and for this purpose forced labor is permitted.” Experience has shown that the system is productive of excessive hardships for the natives, and affords opportunity for the display of great cruelty by the local officers. The revenues derived from the various sources in the colonies are far, however, from being sufficient to cover the necessary expenses, and the home Government finds it necessary to grant large subventions from year to year. Thus, the amounts allowed by the Reichstag for the expenses of colonial administration increased from $2,261,000 in 1896-97 to over $7,378,000 in 1901. As will be seen from the following table, the Government subvention forms about 58 per cent. of the revenue in Kamerun; 61 per cent. in Togo; 87 per cent. in New Guinea:
| Imperial subvention | Colonial revenue | |||
| 1894-95 | 1901 | 1894-95 | 1901 | |
| German East Africa | $802,060 | $1,693,846 | $511,700 | $1,245,216 |
| German Southwest Africa | 238,000 | 2,231,964 | 6,426 | 321,300 |
| Kamerun | ............ | 521,934 | 145,418 | 379,848 |
| Togo | ............ | 210,392 | 44,268 | 134,232 |
| New Guinea | ............ | 168,742 | ............ | 23,800 |
| Kiao-chau | ............ | 2,558,500 | ............ | 71,400 |
| Carolines and Ladrones | ............ | 68,068 | ............ | 5,950 |
Colonial Commerce. In 1899, out of a total of $8,364,986 of imports brought into the German colonies, Germany contributed $3,754,212, or less than 45 per cent., while of the total exports from the colonies, valued at $3,620,932, Germany took $1,198,330, or one-third. As the total amount granted in subventions by the Imperial Government was near $7,872,000, it will be seen to have exceeded the value of the total colonial trade of Germany. If we take into account the fact that the greater part of German imports into the colonies represents supplies sent there by the Government for the use of its troops, officials, and public works, the value of the German colonial trade becomes insignificant. Thus the colonial system does not seem to have proved commercially profitable, but rather a burden.
Population. The population of the German Empire numbered 56,367,178 in December, 1900, distributed among the several States of the Empire as follows:
| STATES OF THE EMPIRE | Area square miles |
Population 1890 |
Population 1900 |
Population per square mile, 1900 |
| Prussia | 134,623 | 29,957,367 | 34,472,509 | 256.1 |
| Bavaria | 29,282 | 5,584,982 | 6,176,057 | 210.9 |
| Württemberg | 7,528 | 2,036,522 | 2,169,480 | 288.2 |
| Baden | 5,821 | 1,657,867 | 1,867,944 | 320.9 |
| Saxony | 5,787 | 3,502,684 | 4,202,216 | 726.1 |
| Mecklenburg-Schwerin | 5,135 | 578,342 | 607,770 | 118.3 |
| Hesse | 2,965 | 992,883 | 1,119,893 | 377.7 |
| Oldenburg | 2,479 | 354,968 | 399,180 | 161.0 |
| Brunswick | 1,424 | 403,773 | 464,333 | 326.0 |
| Saxe-Weimar | 1,388 | 326,091 | 362,873 | 261.4 |
| Mecklenburg-Strelitz | 1,131 | 97,978 | 102,602 | 90.7 |
| Saxe-Meiningen | 953 | 223,832 | 250,731 | 263.0 |
| Anhalt | 906 | 271,963 | 316,085 | 348.8 |
| Saxe-Coburg-Gotha | 755 | 206,513 | 229,550 | 304.0 |
| Saxe-Altenburg | 511 | 170,864 | 194,914 | 381.4 |
| Lippe | 469 | 128,495 | 138,952 | 296.2 |
| Waldeck | 433 | 57,281 | 57,918 | 133.9 |
| Scharzburg-Rudolstadt | 363 | 85,863 | 93,059 | 256.3 |
| Scharzburg-Sondershausen | 333 | 75,510 | 80,898 | 242.3 |
| Reuss Younger Line | 319 | 119,811 | 139,210 | 436.3 |
| Schaumburg-Lippe | 131 | 39,163 | 43,132 | 329.3 |
| Reuss Elder Line | 122 | 62,754 | 68,396 | 559.7 |
| Hamburg | 158 | 622,530 | 768,349 | 4,862.9 |
| Lübeck | 115 | 76,485 | 96,775 | 841.5 |
| Bremen | 99 | 180,443 | 224,882 | 2,271.5 |
| Alsace-Lorraine | 5,600 | 1,603,506 | 1,719,470 | 306.7 |
| Total | 208,830 | 49,428,470 | 56,367,178 | 269.9 |
Thus there was an increase of 6,938,708 people in the last decade of the century, equal to 14 per cent.; the increase for the United States for the same period having been 20.7 per cent. Germany ranks next to Russia in population among the countries of Europe. The growth of the population of the German Empire since its formation has been as follows: 1871, 41,058,804; 1880, 45,234,001; 1890, 49,428,470; 1900, 56,307,178.
The number of inhabitants to the square mile in 1900 was 270. The density varies greatly in different sections of the Empire, being lowest in agricultural Mecklenburg-Strelitz, 90.7 per square mile; and highest in industrial Saxony, 743.4 per square mile.
Growth Of Cities. The increase in the density of population is, to a great extent, due to the increase in the number and size of cities. One-half of the people lived in towns of more than 2000 population in 1895. In 1900 there were 33 cities with a population of more than 100,000 each, as compared with 28 such cities in 1890. The German census divides the cities of the Empire into four groups of large, medium, small, and country towns, the respective populations of which are 100,000 and over; 20,000 to 100,000; 5000 to 20,000; and 2000 to 5000 people. The increase in the number of cities in each group and the proportion of the total population contained in each at various times since the foundation of the Empire are as follows:
| Year | Number of towns |
Total population | |
| Towns with a population of 2,000 to 5,000 | 1871 | 1,716 | 12.4% |
| 1890 | 1,997 | 12.0 | |
| 1895 | 2,068 | 12.2 | |
| Towns with a population of 5,000 to 20,000 | 1871 | 529 | 11.2 |
| 1890 | 733 | 13.1 | |
| 1895 | 796 | 13.6 | |
| Towns with a population of 20,000 to 100,000 | 1871 | 75 | 7.7 |
| 1890 | 135 | 9.8 | |
| 1895 | 150 | 10.4 | |
| Towns with a population of more than 100,000 | 1871 | 8 | 4.8 |
| 1890 | 26 | 12.1 | |
| 1895 | 28 | 13.6 | |
| Urban population | 1871 | 2,328 | 36.1 |
| 1890 | 2,891 | 47.0 | |
| 1895 | 3,042 | 49.9 | |
| Rural population | 1871 | ...... | 63.9 |
| 1890 | ...... | 53.0 | |
| 1895 | ...... | 50.1 | |
The figures show a marked decline in the rural population, which constituted nearly two-thirds of the total population in 1871, and was less than one-half at the opening of the twentieth century. The table following shows the fourteen largest German cities, each having a population exceeding 200,000, according to the census of 1900.
| 1900 | 1880 | |
| Berlin | 1,888,326 | 1,122,330 |
| Hamburg | 705,738 | 410,127 |
| Munich | 499,959 | 230,023 |
| Leipzig | 455,089 | 149,081 |
| Breslau | 422,738 | 272,912 |
| Dresden | 395,349 | 220,818 |
| Cologne | 372,229 | 144,772 |
| Frankfort | 288,489 | 136,819 |
| Nuremberg | 261,022 | 99,519 |
| Hanover | 235,666 | 122,843 |
| Magdeburg | 229,663 | 97,539 |
| Düsseldorf | 213,767 | 95,458 |
| Stettin | 210,680 | 91,756 |
| Chemnitz | 206,584 | 95,123 |
Sex and Conjugal Conditions. In Germany, as in most other civilized countries, the number of females exceeds that of males, although more boys are born every year than girls, the fact being explained by the greater mortality and emigration among men. In 1900 there were 27,731,007 men and 28,013,947 women, the excess of women being 882,880, or 103.2 women to 100 men; the proportion of births is 106 boys to 100 girls. These proportions have remained about the same for the last few decades.
The marriage rate has remained fairly stationary since the foundation of the Empire, being 8.2 per 1000 inhabitants in 1871, 7.5 in 1881, 8 in 1895, 8.2 in 1896, 8.4 in 1897, 8.4 in 1898, 8.6 in 1899. Unlike France, Germany has an increasing surplus of births over deaths. While the birth-rate remains practically stationary, the death-rate is steadily declining, as is shown by the following table:
| YEAR | Per 1,000 inhabitants | ||
| Birth-rate | Death-rate | Excess of births over deaths | |
| 1870 | 40.1 | 29.0 | 11.1 |
| 1880 | 39.1 | 27.5 | 11.6 |
| 1890 | 37.0 | 25.6 | 11.4 |
| 1895 | 37.3 | 23.4 | 13.9 |
| 1899 | 37.1 | 22.7 | 14.4 |
The non-German inhabitants of the Empire exceed 4,000,000, including Poles, Czechs, Wends, Lithuanians, French, Danes, Dutch, Frisians, etc. The most numerous are the Poles (about 3,000,000), who are found exclusively in the east and northeast of Prussia (mainly in Posen and Silesia); the Czechs are found in Silesia, about Oppeln and Breslau; the Wends in Silesia, Brandenburg, and Saxony; the Lithuanians in East Prussia; the French in Alsace-Lorraine; the Danes in Schleswig. The Poles are prominent as a hostile element in the Empire. (See German Language.) Although the Jews (570,000) are scattered over every part of Germany, they are most numerous in the Prussian territories. There were less than 500,000 foreigners residing in Germany at the end of the century; nearly half of them were citizens of Austria-Hungary.
Emigration. Germany has always sent out a considerable number of people willing to seek their fortune beyond the seas. During the eighteenth and the early part of the nineteenth century Russia took great pains to attract German emigrants by granting them various privileges, giving them large tracts of land, and advancing pecuniary aid during the first years of settlement. In the nineteenth century the United States served as the chief field for the ambitious German who did not find room for advancement at home. During that century it is estimated that over 6,000,000 people emigrated from Germany. The high-water mark in the tide of emigration was reached in 1881, when nearly 221,000 Germans left the Fatherland; since that year the number has steadily diminished, as is shown by the following figures:
| YEAR | No. of emigrants |
Per cent. of total population |
No. of emigrants to the U.S. |
| 1881 | 220,902 | 4.86 | |
| 1885 | 110,119 | 2.36 | |
| 1890 | 97,103 | 1.97 | 85,112 |
| 1891 | 120,089 | 2.41 | 108,611 |
| 1895 | 37,498 | 0.72 | 30,692 |
| 1900 | 22,309 | 0.40 | 19,338 |
The fluctuations observable are the result of increasing or decreasing prosperity at home or abroad. Nearly 90 per cent. of all the emigrants go to the United States, less than 5 per cent. to Brazil, Argentina, and other American countries, and the remainder to Australia, Africa, and Asia. There was a great drop in the emigration to the United States in the years 1893 and 1894 as a result of the commercial depression in the United States in those years.
Religion. Germany is generally considered a strongly Protestant nation, though the Protestant element numbers somewhat less than two thirds of the total population. The number of Protestants in 1900 was 35,231,000, or about 63 per cent., as against 20,321,000 Catholics, or about 36 per cent. The proportionate distribution of these religious bodies has changed but little since the religious wars of the seventeenth century, and is characterized by a decided grouping within definite limits, corresponding to the States, or to smaller political divisions, so that in most localities one or the other religion is strongly predominant. Some change in the relative proportions of the two sects has been effected in the large cities as a result of the movement of population, accompanying their recent growth. Central Germany is, generally speaking, the stronghold of Protestantism, and the Rhine and Danube regions of Catholicism. More thnn one-third of the population of Prussia consists of Roman Catholics, who are especially numerous in Posen, Silesia, Westphalia, and the Rhine Province. In Bavaria, Alsace-Lorraine, and Baden the Catholics far outnumber the Protestants. In Saxony, together with the eighteen minor States, there are only 31 Catholics per 1000 of the population, and they but little exceed this proportion throughout the greater part of Central Prussia. In Württemberg and Hesse the Catholics form nearly one-third of the population.
The Protestant Church in Germany contrasts with that of America and England in that it is not split up into numerous rival factions. The adherents of the Church are divided between the two confessions, the Lutheran and the Reformed, and the United Evangelical Church (dating from 1817, and at first established only in Prussia), formed by a union of the Lutheran and Reformed bodies under State auspices. The largest Protestant denomination outside of the Lutheran and Reformed bodies, that of the Baptists, numbers only about 30,000 members. This Evangelical Church is the most numerous body. By its latitudinarianism, the Protestant Church has retained within its fold the followers of many widely different schools of thought, from extreme orthodoxy to rationalism. At the end of the nineteenth century the tendency toward rationalism in theology, which had long been so prominent in Germany, was apparently on the decline. In the last quarter of the century a considerable element of the laboring class in the large centres of population had become divorced from any Church through the rise of the socialistic propaganda, the defection varying in intensity from passive indifference, growing out of the belief that the Church was in league with the present political order, to a radical opposition to all religion. The Protestant body has suffered much more severely from this movement than has the Catholic, the priesthood of the latter organization having been largely successful in checking the movement through their activity in establishing Catholic organizations for laboring men. The most recent statistics show that the relative numbers of Catholics and Protestants remain very nearly constant, the slight difference in favor of the Protestants being attributable partly to the greater increase of the population in the Protestant provinces, and in part, also, to the fact that there is a greater defection of Catholics to the Protestant Church than vice versa. The seceders from the Catholic Church after the Vatican Council of 1870 assumed the name of Old Catholics, and this faction now numbers about 50,000. The Roman Catholics have concentrated their forces until they have become politically the strongest party in the Empire, and have consequently obtained certain advantageous concessions. The severe Prussian laws of 1873 directed against Ultramontanism, by attempting especially to limit and to control Catholic education, were repealed in 1887, and religious congregations—the Jesuits excepted—existing for charitable or contemplative purposes, are allowed. The different branches of the Christian faith are subsidized by the individual States, and in some the Jews are also supported.
Education. From almost the beginning of modern times Germany has held the primacy in educational rank. It has been distinguished both for the general diffusion of knowledge and for the superiority of its specialists in the various fields of learning. Many of the names most prominent in the pedagogical world are German. As early as 1642 Weimar had enacted a compulsory educational law, and before the middle of the century other places in Germany had followed the example. At present every child in the Empire must attend school every school day in the year (usually about 42 weeks) for a period which, in most German States, extends from the ages of six to fourteen years. The law is enforced to the letter, and there are scarcely any evasions. As a consequence illiteracy has been practically eliminated.
The early movement for the improvement and extension of education was the result largely of the efforts of the Church, which had almost exclusive charge of educational matters. The first systematic educational effort dates back to the Carlovingian schools attached to monasteries and cathedrals. Their methods prevailed with some modifications through the Middle Ages. By the end of the fifteenth century common schools were widespread in Germany. The ecclesiastical conflicts of the sixteenth century checked for the time educational progress, which was successfully resumed after the cessation of the religious wars. Frederick William I. of Prussia established at his own expense 400 schools for the common people: and his son, Frederick the Great, was very active in furthering educational interests. For the regulation of schools he promulgated in 1763 an order that is considered the basis of the present German system. This order fixed a period for compulsory attendance, supplemented school support from the State funds, and provided for the superintendence of schools and regulations for the selection of teachers. A law of 1794 held that all public schools and educational institutions were under the care of the State, at the same time recognizing religious instruction under the proviso that children trained in one religious faith could not be forced to take instruction in another. The educational system was revised in 1854, and again in 1872. The interest so early manifested has never been relaxed. It was estimated as early as 1840 that the pupils of Prussia numbered one-sixth of the population.
Germany has been free from the bitter religious wrangles that have characterized the educational history of France and of the United Kingdom; for it was agreed almost without question in Germany that there should be religious teaching. Schools are provided for Catholics, Protestants, and Hebrews separately, with teachers of the respective faiths; or, if conditions do not justify the establishment of separate schools, special arrangements are made separately and at the State's expense for instruction on the subject of religion. With the growth of State aid and the centralization of the school system, ecclesiastical authority has been greatly lessened, but a large per cent. of the school inspectors are still the local pastors. Ecclesiastical authorities inspect the religious instruction given in the secondary schools, but their rôle is only advisory.
The educational scheme in Germany is made to conform closely to the existing social order, and is strikingly different in arrangement from the American. The classification resulting from the recognition of religious differences has already been noted; but of still greater moment are the differences due to the distinction made between the sexes, and to the recognition of social classes. There are, therefore, decided differentiations between schools, and a disregard of coördination. There is no clear-cut line of demarcation between primary and secondary education, as in America, and such distinctions as the German recognizes do not correspond with those familiar to Americans. Of the different courses provided in Germany, each leads to a different goal, each confers certain social privileges and rank. The courses which admit to the greatest honors are guarded by their greater cost, and thus are removed beyond the reach of the lower classes.
Primary Education. The schools usually referred to as primary are known as the Volksschulen, which provide for the entire period of compulsory attendance. In recent years tuition charges at these schools have been generally abolished. The course here does not coördinate with the courses in the higher schools which lead to social preferment, and practically none of the pupils who complete it take up the work in the secondary schools. The only further educational provision for these children—except the few selected for normal students—are the Fortbildungsschulen or continuation schools (which offer two or three-year courses on evenings and Sundays, and which in some States are compulsory), and certain other technical classes. A prominent feature in the Fortbildungsschulen are manual training, industrial and trade courses—courses that are wholly omitted in the primary grades. The children who attend the Volksschulen are from the lower masses. Parents who have in view for their children careers which are reached only through the secondary schools generally send them first to schools which prepare for the higher classes, or at least remove them from the Volksschule at the end of the third or fourth year. The Vorschule—a three years' preparatory course to the secondary schools—is sometimes found in connection with those schools. The State supports no kindergarten schools. They are maintained through private agencies, and are sometimes aided by the municipality.
Secondary Education. The secondary system is built up with little regard to the primary system. It takes its form solely with regard to the career for which it is intended to prepare. The secondary course proper begins with the fourth year of the child's school life. The selection made for the child at that time practically determines its life's work, for the different secondary courses are characterized by great rigidity—there is practically no changing from one to another. Only recently, since about 1892, has the attempt been made, on the ‘Frankfurt plan,’ to introduce a system making transference at certain periods possible. In the secondary school system of earlier centuries the ancient classics held a dominant position, and an extensive system of privileges admitting to social rank had been based upon them, and tended to give them a peculiar persistence. The schools in which the classics still constitute the central feature of the course are called the Gymnasien, and it is only by taking this course that admission may be secured to many of the highest Government positions or the highest social recognition reached. But the requirements of a practical age have demanded greater and greater concessions. An entirely different class of schools—the Realschulen—have grown up, in which the modern languages are the centre of the course, special attention being given to mathematics and natural sciences, without offering technical training. Schools of this nature began to be popular as early as the time of Frederick the Great, but it was not until the last half of the nineteenth century that the obstacles in their way were sufficiently removed to allow them a rapid growth. There has naturally been a development along a compromised line, as shown in the Realgymnasien—Latin being retained and practical subjects substituted for the Greek. And, indeed, since 1900, substitutes for Greek are accepted in the Prussian Gymnasien.
Secondary education, therefore, has developed along three lines represented respectively by the Gymnasien, Realschulen, and Realgymnasien. Each of these types embraces two classes of schools, the distinguishing feature being the length of the curriculum—generally either six or nine years. The main factor determining this time-classification is the privilege afforded, to those who have completed six years in the recognized secondary schools, of reducing the period of compulsory military service in the army to one year. The desirability of this reduction, and especially the social prestige which it implies, induce many to complete the six years, after which they are likely to discontinue the course unless they have in view university or other advanced study, and further special privileges. Accordingly many schools give only the first six years of the course. Those which offer the full nine years are the Gymnasien, Realgymnasien, and Oberrealschulen, while the corresponding schools of six years are the Progymnasien, Realprogymnasien, and Realschulen, the Höhere Bürgerschulen belonging also to the latter class. Graduates from the Oberrealschulen are admitted to study in most of the special or technical branches given at the universities, and also in the mathematical and natural science courses; while those who have graduated from the Realgymnasien may take, in addition to the preceding, certain other branches, such as modern languages. The entire university course, including some of the most desirable branches like theology, law, medicine, and ancient philology and history, is open only to the graduates of the Gymnasien, though Prussia since 1900 has thrown open all its faculties, except theology, to graduates of the Realgymnasien and the Oberrealschulen. The relative importance of the different classes of secondary schools in Germany is seen in a statement of their number. In 1897 there were 439 Gymnasien and 92 Progymnasien; 128 Realgymnasien and 93 Real progymnasien; 198 Realschulen and 4 Oberrealschulen, besides 2 Höhere Bürgerschulen, 32 other public schools, and 56 private schools.
As seen above, the secondary course of instruction is definitely planned with reference to a professional career. Since it is not intended that women should follow these caieers, it is not necessary that they take these preparatory courses. Under the prevailing social and military order, the Government demands the most exacting preparation of its men for the service of the State. This consideration, which involves great expense, limits the extent of State support to female secondary education. Most of the secondary schools are limited to a nine years' course (including the Vorschulen) and are not recognized as secondary schools, but as Mittelschulen. The Höhere Mädchenschulen), however, are of secondary rank, although the ancient classics have no place in their curriculum, the modern languages—German, French, and English—taking their place. Very recently three schools offering courses identical with those of the boys' Gymnasien have been established for girls.
Universities. Germany has 21 universities, the largest being Berlin, with about 5500 pupils, Munich, 4500, and Leipzig, 3500 (these figures do not include non-matriculated students). The other universities, arranged in order of the number of students matriculated, are as follows: Bonn, Breslau, Freiburg, Halle, Tübingen, Heidelberg, Göttingen, Marburg, Strassburg, Würzburg, Kiel, Königsberg, Erlangen, Giessen, Greifswald, Münster, Jena, Rostock. The universities of Freiburg, Munich, Münster, and Würzburg have Roman Catholic faculties of theology; Bonn, Breslau, and Tübingen have mixed Catholic and Protestant faculties; and the other universities are all Protestant. University students are allowed an extreme degree of liberty, in striking contrast to the rigid discipline observed in the secondary schools. Indeed, the spirit of freedom pervading the university life, as evidenced especially in the great liberty enjoyed by the university faculties in thought and speech, is an anomaly in a government so strongly military, and making itself so prominently felt in all other phases of life. The universities are of equal rank, and the entrance requirements are the same, namely: The completion of the secondary schools—admission to all university courses being secured only by completing the course at the Gymnasien. While the universities are in theory non-respecters of persons or social classes, they are in reality exclusive, because the expense of university life and of the secondary course preceding it tends to limit the attendance to representatives of the higher social classes.
School Administration. The German States act independently in their school systems. The main important outlines of the respective systems are nevertheless almost uniform. There is much variation in details. The Prussian system is generally described as representative. The control of the Prussian schools is through the Department of Education, subject, to the limitations of the Constitution and of precedent. The head of the department is a Cabinet officer, known as the Minister of Religion, Education, and Medical Affairs. The Minister is aided by a large number of special councilors. There are two divisions in the department, the first having charge mainly of the universities and the secondary schools, the second of other branches of education. In each province there is a school board, of which the president of the province is chairman. The other members are proposed by the Minister of Education and appointed by the King. This board supervises the most general matters, such as questions concerning text-books, etc., and especially matters concerning the secondary schools. The provinces are divided into ‘governments,’ and these again into districts, both the large and small divisions having school boards. These ‘Government’ school boards concern themselves more particularly with the common schools. The district board erects buildings, supervises salaries and pensions, and other local financial matters. Its principal member is the inspector, who is appointed for life. Finally there is the local school board—one for each school—exercising oversight over external matters such as repairs, supplies, etc. Local authorities have nothing to do with the infernal affairs of the schools, the central authority possessing absolute control.
Germany offers ample provisions for every phase of technical instruction. There are a very large number of artisan and trade schools, also special schools for agriculture, forestry, mining, architecture, art and art-industry, and in addition nine technical high schools and polytechnics, these last two being as high in rank as the polytechnical colleges in America.
Teachers. No country is as particular as Germany in the selection and preparation of teachers. The teacher is an officer of the State, and enjoys a prominent social rank. He is sure of his position for life, or, after a period of service, of retirement upon a pension. However, honor is an important part of his compensation, for, especially in the primary schools, the salary is very meagre and occasions much complaint. The qualifications required of teachers are about uniform in the different States, and each recognizes the certificates granted by the others. The process of selecting candidates for primary teaching begins with the children in the primary schools, only the most promising pupils being selected. On leaving the primary school the child takes a three years' course, especially designed for preparation for the normal school (seminary), where one year more of academic work and three years of normal work are demanded, the student, if needy, being financially assisted by the State. By limiting the number of preparatory schools, the State can prevent the creation of any serious overplus of teachers. The feature of religious devotion is prominent in the seminaries—these being either Protestant or Catholic. After finishing the seminary the candidate receives a provisional appointment and is only permanently accepted after demonstrating fitness and passing a final examination.
School Funds. The method of the development of the school system has resulted in a complicated and diversified system of financial support. There are generally local taxes, which if necessary are supplemented by the State. The State fund is the largest source, supplying about one-half of the expenses, while local taxation supplies about one-fourth. The Church and Church societies are often important contributors.
Charities. The different German States, except Bavaria and Alsace-Lorraine, have adopted uniform systems of poor laws, but there is no centralized system of administration. Each poor-law district provides for its own poor, a residence of two years being the requisite time to determine the place of settlement, although relief may be given by the local authorities of the district in which the individual has temporary residence, to be recovered from the community in which the settlement of the individual is fixed. The distinction between public and private charity is not closely drawn.
The Empire has played a very important part in providing for the welfare of the masses and thus checking the possibility of destitution, through the establishment of compulsory insurance against accident, sickness, and old age. None of the other leading nations have made provisions of so comprehensive a nature for the benefit of the laboring classes. Insurance against sickness, the first step taken, was first secured in 1883, followed in 1884 by the insurance against accident, and in 1889 against old age. Numerous benefit societies conducting insurance features, already in existence, were recognized by the Government, and allowed to act as agents in lieu of those appointed by the State, which subjected all such organizations to a uniform system and control. The division of administration necessitates an increased expenditure, and an attempt has been made to centralize the entire administration of the system in the hands of the State. In the insurance against sickness, two-thirds of the premium is contributed by the workmen and one-third by the employer. In the insurance against accident, the employer class is responsible for the burden of contribution, but the relief to the injured laboring man is taken from the sick-fund for the first thirteen weeks, and it is only after the expiration of that period that the employer class becomes liable. Insurance against old age is obligatory upon all laborers whose wages do not exceed 2000 marks a year. The premium paid is divided evenly between the laborer and the employer. The receipt of the pension begins when the one insured reaches the age of seventy. The insurance scheme has stood the test to the satisfaction of both employer and employed. In 1898 the insurance against sickness included over 9,233,000 workmen, while the accident insurance included 18,246,000 persons, and 512,000 received old-age annuities.
HISTORY.
The history of Germany may be said to begin with the year 843, when, by the Treaty of Verdun, the vast Empire of Charles the Great was divided into three parts among his grandsons. (For the earlier periods, see Germania; Franks; Charles The Great; Carolingians, etc.) In the partition of Verdun, Louis the German (843-70) received the eastern portion of the Frankish Empire, which included the purely Germanic peoples. Until 911 legitimate or illegitimate Carolingians held the throne, but their power was comparatively little, and depended almost wholly on their strength in their own possessions. Instead of a united Germany, there were several great German duchies—Swabia, Bavaria, Franconia, Saxony, and sometimes Lotharingia or Lorraine. The last, however, was debatable territory; independent at first, it later was connected with its stronger neighbor, Germany or France, as the case might be. At first the Franconians and Saxons were the strongest nations, and supplied the rulers of the German Kingdom. Charles the Fat (876-87), son of Louis the German, succeeded for a brief time (about 884-87) in reuniting the old Frankish lands under his sway, but they fell apart again after his death, and Germany was ruled by Arnulf till 899. The last Carolingian King, Louis the Child, died in 911, and the German princes elected as his successor Conrad of Franconia (911-18). His reign was a constant struggle to maintain his position against his own nobles, while at the same time he had to contend against the Hungarian invaders. Just before his death he sent the insignia of royalty to his most dangerous subject, Henry the Saxon (919-36), and the latter was chosen King by the Franks and Saxons. After six years of fighting and negotiations, Henry the Fowler (as he was popularly known) was recognized by the Swabians and Bavarians also. Under him for the first time it is possible to speak of a united Germany. He made his power respected by repulsing the invaders who had been devastating the eastern and northern portions of the German duchies. The Slavs and Danes were defeated, Lorraine was conquered, and finally, in 933, a great victory was won on the Unstrut over the Hungarians. His son Otho I. (936-73) succeeded to a strong kingdom. At the coronation banquet he was served by the dukes of Lorraine, Franconia, Swabia, and Bavaria. Otho restricted the power of the dukes, cheeked renewed invasions of the Hungarians, defeating them decisively at the Lech in 955, and organized an efficient administrative system. In 951 he was called to Italy to aid one of the contending factions there; in 961, after wresting Northern Italy from Berengar II., a descendant of Charles the Great, he was crowned King of the Lombards, and in 962 he received the Imperial crown at the hands of the Pope, thus becoming the founder of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, which existed till 1806. (See Holy Roman Empire.) By his coronation Italy and Germany became associated for long centuries to come. The results were in some ways disastrous to both countries, but at the time Otho, as Emperor, was the great power in Western Europe. In order to strengthen his position, he negotiated a marriage for his son with the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor. Otho II. (973-83) died at the age of twenty-eight, and left an heir of three, Otho III. (983-1002). In consequence of the extent to which the Imperial power was enlisted in the affairs of Italy at this time, weakness and disunion were bred in Germany. Henry II. (1002-24) left Italy to itself for some years, and devoted his reign to strengthening the power of the King of Germany. He reformed the Church, and employed its officials in the service of the State. He repressed private wars, and won the support of the nobles by giving them greater privileges. He was the last King of the Saxon House.
Conrad the Franconian, or Salic (1024-39), was an able ruler, who added the dominions of the Arletan realm (see Burgundy) to the Empire. His son and successor, Henry III. (1039-56), extended the boundaries of Germany on the side of Hungary, repressed the insolence and despotism of the temporal and spiritual princes of Germany, and gained the respect of his contemporaries by his zeal for justice and his valor in the field. The minority of his son and successor, Henry IV. (1056-1106), enabled the nobles to recover much of their former power, and to apply a check to the further consolidation of the Imperial authority, which had been considerably extended during the two preceding reigns. Henry's constant quarrels with Pope Gregory VII. entangled him in difficulties and mortifications which ended only with his life, and which plunged Germany into anarchy and disorder. (See Investiture.) With his son and successor, Henry V. (1106-25), the male line of the Franconian Dynasty became extinct, and after the crown had been worn (1125-37) by Lothair of Saxony, Conrad III., Duke of Franconia, inaugurated the Hohenstaufen Dynasty. His reign (1138-52), in which the civil wars of the Guelphs and Ghibellines (q.v.) began, was distracted by the dissensions of the great feudatories of the Empire, while the strength of Germany was wasted in the disastrous Second Crusade, in which Conrad took an active part. Frederick I. (1152-90), surnamed Barbarossa, Duke of Swabia, was, at the recommendation of his uncle, Conrad, chosen his successor, and the splendor of his reign fully warranted the selection. By the force of his character Frederick acquired an influence over the diets which had not been possessed by any of his immediate predecessors, and during his reign many important changes were effected in the mutual relations of the great duchies and principalities of Germany, while we now for the first time hear of the hereditary right possessed by certain princes to exercise the privilege of electing the Emperor. (See Electors, German Imperial.) Unfortunately for Germany, this great monarch suffered his desire to uphold the Imperial authority in Italy to draw him away from the interests of his own country, while his participation in the Crusades, in which both he and the flower of his chivalry perished, was memorable only for the misfortunes which it entailed on the Empire. The interval between the death of Frederick Barbarossa (1190) and the accession of Rudolph I. (1273), the first Emperor of the Hapsburg line, was one of constant struggle, internal dissension, and foreign wars. Individually the princes of the Hohenstaufen Dynasty were popular monarchs, distinguished for their many noble and chivalrous qualities, while one of the race, Frederick II., was, after Charles the Great, perhaps the most remarkable sovereign of the Middle Ages; but their ambitious designs on Italy, and their constant but futile struggles with the Papal power, were a source of misery to Germany. The territory in which the Holy Roman Emperors of the time of Hohenstaufen exercised their sway, or their overlordship, reached on the west to the rivers Rhône, Saône, Meuse, and Scheldt (thus embracing a large strip of modern France, Belgium, and the Netherlands), and extended on the east to the borders of Hungary and Poland, including most of what is now Cisleithan Austria, exclusive of Galicia. On the north it extended as far as the Eider, and in the south nominal limits of the Empire reached down into Italy beyond Rome. Henry VI. (1190-07), son of Frederick Barbarossa, attempted to make the Imperial dignity hereditary in his family. After his death Philip of Swabia (1198-1208) and Otho IV. of Brunswick contended for the Imperial throne, the latter being recognized on the assassination of his rival by Otho of Wittelsbach. With Frederick II. (1215-50), the successor of Otho IV., ended the glory of the Empire, till it was partially revived by the House of Hapsburg. Frederick's son, Conrad IV. (1250-54), the last of the Hohenstaufen (q.v.), after a brief and troubled reign, was succeeded by various princes, who in turn, or in some cases contemporaneously (the Great Interregnum, so called), bore the Imperial title without exercising its legitimate functions or authority—William of Holland (1247-56), Alfonso the Wise of Castile (1257-62), Richard of Cornwall (1257-72). This season of anarchy was terminated at the accession of Rudolph I. (1273-91), of the House of Hapsburg, who, by the destruction of the strongholds of the nobles and the stringent enforcement of the laws, restored order. His chief efforts were, however, directed to the aggrandizement of his house. In 1270 he vanquished Ottokar II. of Bohemia, and forced him to give up the duchies of Austria, Styria, Carinthia, etc. Ottokar, having renewed the struggle, was defeated and slain on the Marchfeld in 1278. (See Austria-Hungary.) For the next two hundred years the history of the Holy Roman Empire presents very few features of interest, and may be briefly passed over. Adolphus of Nassau, who was elected to succeed Rudolph (1292), was attacked in 1298 by the son of the latter, Albert I. of Austria, who coveted the Imperial throne, and the war speedily ended in the triumph of Albert. The reign of this prince (1298-1308) is chiefly memorable as the period in which the three Swiss cantons of Unterwalden, Schwyz, and Uri succeeded in making themselves independent of the Austrian power. After the murder of Albert, the throne was occupied in rapid succession by Henry VII. (1308-13), of the House of Luxemburg (whose dynasty ruled for a century in Bohemia), and by the rival Emperors Frederick of Austria (1314-22) and Louis the Bavarian (1314-47). Charles IV. (1347-78), the successor of Louis, of the House of Luxemburg, was the successful candidate among seven rivals. Although he was engrossed by the interests of his hereditary possessions of Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, and Lusatia, he did not entirely neglect those of the Empire, for which he provided by a written constitution known as the Golden Bull (q.v.), issued in 1356, which regulated the rights, privileges, and duties of the Imperial electors, and the mode of election and coronation of the emperors. The seven princes designated in the Golden Bull as Imperial Electors were the archbishops of Mainz, Treves, and Cologne, the Duke of Saxony, the Margrave of Brandenburg, the Count Palatine of the Rhine, and the King of Bohemia. Charles's son Wenzel, or Wenceslas (1378-1400), who was finally deposed, brought the royal authority into contempt, from which it was scarcely redeemed by Rupert of the Palatinate (1400-10). The reign of Sigismund (1410-37), the brother of Wenceslas, is noteworthy in connection with the councils of Constance and Basel and the Hussite wars. With Sigismund the Luxemburg line of emperors terminated. In the person of Albert II. of Austria (1438-39), the House of Hapsburg once more secured possession of the Imperial throne, which, with slight interruption, was occupied by them to the end, although the crown remained elective. After a brief reign, in which he gave evidence of capacity for governing, Albert was succeeded by his cousin, Frederick III. (1440-93), an accomplished but avaricious and indolent prince, whose chief object seems to have been the aggrandizement of the House of Austria.
Aspirations toward national unity had appeared before this among the people of Germany, but they ran counter to the spirit of feudal anarchy, and to the family policy of the Hapsburgs, who became by their marriage alliances more and more involved in general European affairs and less interested in those of Germany. The emperors could not be made, therefore, the leaders of a national movement, which sought rather to realize itself, first through the Diet, and then in alliance with the Lutheran Reformation. (See Reformation.) Upon this conflict, and upon the religious differences which grew out of the work of Martin Luther and John Calvin, the politics of the Empire turned for 150 years. These tendencies developed fully under Maximilian I. (1493-1519), during whose reign an active agitation was carried on in the Diet for reform (see Aulic Council; Imperial Chamber), while Luther's bold challenge in 1517 set into play giant forces of change which were destined to shape German history for all future. At the same time, the marriages of Maximilian drew the Hapsburgs more than ever into interests outside of Germany. The first of these marriages, with Mary, heiress of Charles the Bold of Burgundy (1477), added to the Hapsburg possessions the great Burgundian territories in the Low Countries; the second, with the daughter of Ludovico il Moro, Duke of Milan (1494), threw the Imperial house into the stormy polities of Italy. The marriage of the son of the Emperor, the Archduke Philip, with Joanna of Spain made that country, then at the summit of its prosperity and power, likewise a Hapsburg possession in the person of Maximilian's grandson, Charles I. of Spain, who was elected Emperor in 1519 as Charles V. (1519-56). The energies of Charles were mainly directed to the prosecution of the war against France. The Austrian possessions of the House of Hapsburg were bestowed on his brother Ferdinand (from whom the present German-Magyar-Slav monarchy of Austria-Hungary may be said to date), the control of affairs in Germany was left largely in the hands of the Imperial chambers, the pressing need for reform received little attention, and the spread of the Reformation was allowed to continue unchecked. Luther, it is true, was placed under the ban of the Empire in 1521; but at Speier, in 1526, the Reformers gained a notable triumph, and it was not until the Diet of Augsburg, in 1530, that the Protestants and the Emperor came to an open breach. Danger from the French King and from the Turks, however, prevented Charles from taking action against the recusant princes, and for some ten years after 1531 the Schmalkaldic League (q.v.) of Protestant princes exercised a preponderating influence in German affairs. Only in 1546 did the Emperor find an opportunity for turning on the Protestants; the power of the Schmalkaldic League was broken in the battle of Mühlberg (1547), and the Protestant leaders, John Frederick, Elector of Saxony, and Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, were made prisoners. Charles was now supreme in Germany, and it seemed for a moment as if he would succeed in winning back the Protestants into the Catholic fold. (See under Interim, section on Augsburg Interim.) But jealousy of his growing power caused Maurice of Saxony, Albert, Duke of Mecklenburg, the Margrave of Brandenburg, and William, the son of Philip of Hesse, to league against him in alliance with the French King, Henry II., who in 1552 wrested from the Empire the bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Verdun. The Treaty of Passau (q.v.), concluded in the same year, confirmed by the Peace of Augsburg in 1555, granted to the Lutheran States the right to establish the Protestant worship. Broken by the uniform ill success of his policy, Charles laid down the government of the Netherlands in 1555, and in the following year abdicated the Spanish and Imperial thrones, being succeeded in the Empire by his brother, Ferdinand I. (1556-64). The reigns of Ferdinand and Maximilian II. (1564-76) witnessed the very rapid growth of the Counter-Reformation (q.v.). Profiting by the dissensions prevailing among the Protestants, Roman Catholicism, issuing in renewed vigor from the Council of Trent (1545-63), boldly challenged the progress of the Reformed religion. Rudolph II. (1570-1612) was under the influence of the Jesuits, and lent himself to the aggressive policy of the Catholic party. In 1608 the Evangelical Union was organized under the leadership of the Elector Palatine, and this was followed by the foundation of the Catholic League in the following year. Matthias (1612-19) was less aggressive than his predecessor, but weak, and let himself be guided by the extreme faction of the Catholic party. The election of his cousin Ferdinand, a bitter enemy of the Protestants, to be King of Bohemia, in 1617, was the signal for the outbreak of a struggle that had long been seen to be inevitable. See Thirty Years' War.
The Thirty Years' War (1618-48), which was terminated in the reign of Ferdinand III. (1637-67), left the rural districts of Germany almost depopulated, its trade and industries crippled, the people burdened with taxes, and the Imperial power weakened by the concessions made in the Peace of Westphalia to the autonomy of the individual States. Austria came to be regarded by the German nationalists as a foreign power, and the recognition of the Lutherans and Calvinists as factors in the Empire broke down the religious unity on which the mediæval Empire rested. Already, under Henry IV., France had adopted an anti-Hapsburg policy, rightly regarding that house, with its vast possessions, as the chief rival of France in European affairs. Richelieu (q.v.) carried on this policy vigorously during the Thirty Years' War, in assisting the Swedes and the Protestant princes against the Imperialists, and the French arms had a great share in forcing the Catholic powers to terms of peace. When the growth of the power of France in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries threatened the balance of power in Europe, the Hapsburgs were naturally drawn into the coalition against France. (See Louis XIV.; Succession Wars, section on the War of the Spanish Succession.) The Imperialist forces under Prince Eugene of Savoy shared in the victories which put an end to the aggressions of Louis XIV., but the Empire derived no substantial advantage, except in the limitation that was put upon the growth of French predominance. The emperors during this period were Leopold I. (1658-1705), Joseph I. (1705-11), and Charles VI. (1711-40).
The rise of Prussia now becomes one of the most striking features in German affairs. Since the time of the Great Elector, Frederick William (1640-88), the Margraviate of Brandenburg had been acquiring increased importance as a leading power among the Protestant German States. In 1701 the Elector Frederick assumed the title of King of Prussia, and was so recognized. Thus, while still a vassal of the Emperor, he took rank by virtue of his royal title with the other independent sovereigns of Europe. Prussia, by reason of its rapidly increasing power, its Protestantism, and the energy infused into its administration, came to be the exponent of the German national spirit and of the enmity to Hapsburg domination. Frederick the Great (1740-86) was the mighty representative of this idea. The long effort of the Emperor Charles VI. to secure the guaranty of the European States for the Pragmatic Sanction (q.v.), which was intended to secure the unquestioned succession of his daughter Maria Theresa in the Hapsburg dominions, did not prevent an active contest which involved Europe in war (1740-48). (See under Succession Wars, the section on the War of the Austrian Succession.) Austria was stripped of the greater part of Silesia by Frederick the Great. After an interregnum, Charles Albert, Elector of Bavaria, was raised to the Imperial throne as Charles VII. in 1742. He died in 1745 in the midst of his unsuccessful war with Austria, and the husband of Maria Theresa, Francis Stephen, of the House of Lorraine, was elected his successor, assuming the title of Francis I. The peace which followed the War of the Austrian Succession was of brief duration. In 1756 Maria Theresa renewed the struggle with Prussia in order to recover Silesia. The historical hostility between England and France, and between Austria and Prussia, developed into a general European war, in which, by a sudden change of alliances, Austria and France, with Russia, were ranged against England and Prussia. (See Seven Years' War.) Prussia came out of this bloody struggle with enhanced prestige, a recognized military power of the first rank in Europe. The well-meant but injudiciously applied reforms of the Emperor Joseph II. (1765-90) did not strengthen the incongruous Austrian State, and his attempts to restore the declining Imperial authority in Germany were frustrated by Prussia.
The French Revolution disturbed all previous adjustments. Austria, under the Emperor Leopold II. (1790-92) and his successor the Emperor Francis II., and Prussia, under Frederick William II. (1786-97), were for a time united in resistance to the revolutionary propaganda which threatened the thrones of Europe, but were defeated by the French armies. The advent of Napoleon played havoc with the Germanic system. He succeeded in partially isolating Austria and Prussia, by inducing many of the Western German princes to form the Confederation of the Rhine, and ally themselves with France (1806). Francis II. in 1806 laid down the title of Holy Roman Emperor, having previously assumed that of Emperor of Austria. This abandonment of a title that represented a system with which the whole history of Germany had been bound up was symbolic of the actual breaking up of the old order and the preparation for a new Germany. When Napoleon had been overthrown, it was found, in spite of the policy of conservative reaction, to be neither possible nor desirable to restore the old system. The more than three hundred semi-independent States which had existed in the eighteenth century had been consolidated by Napoleon into thirty-nine—a fact which was of much service in promoting German unity. Prussia, which had been dismembered by Napoleon and trodden under foot, emerged from the War of Liberation rejuvenated by the patriotism of its people and strengthened by thorough-going reforms, and was prepared again to dispute precedence with Austria in the Germanic body. It was manifestly impossible to restore the old Imperial arrangements, which had become worthless long before they were cast aside. The Congress of Vienna (see Vienna, Congress of), therefore, in 1815 instituted a Germanic Confederation under the guaranty of the European powers. There was to be a Federal Diet, in which Austria was to have the presidency.
All of the German States were now disturbed by agitations for constitutional government, which were fought inch by inch by many of the princes. The dominant spirit among the rulers was that of reaction, and the control of affairs was largely in the hands of the astute Austrian Chancellor, Prince Metternich (q.v.). Three parties represented the contending ideas of government held in Germany after the Restoration—the absolutists, among whom were found most of the reigning families, including those of Austria and Prussia; the party of historic rights, who had no faith in constitutions, but stood on the traditional customs of the German people, such as the assemblies of estates; and the constitutionalists, liberal and more or less democratic, strongest in South Germany, where the French influence had been most felt. This liberalism was especially fostered among the students in the universities (see Burschenschaft), and was closely connected with the spirit of nationalism, which was rapidly gaining strength. The chief obstacle to national unity was now, as it had always been, the obstinacy with which the princes clung to their feudal status and to the independence which had grown therefrom. The problem had been made simpler by the Napoleonic consolidations, but the princes who remained were made stronger by the same means. Only the leadership of some State that should be willing to represent the aspirations of the people, and strong enough to coerce resisting States, could accomplish what the nationalists sought. This rôle was reserved for Prussia. The revolutionary agitation of 1830 was felt in Germany, and gave some impulse to the constitutional movement, strengthened by the establishment of the Zollverein (q.v.) or Customs Union, due to the initiative of Prussia; but it was not until the more stirring year of 1848 that the forces of discontent and progress that had been at work in spite of Metternich's repressive policy really showed themselves in their strength. On March 13th Metternich was driven from power. (See Austria-Hungary.) A few days later a successful popular rising took place in Berlin, and at the same time Louis I. of Bavaria was compelled to abdicate. In April there was a republican insurrection in Baden, which, however, was speedily suppressed. In response to the demand for a National Parliament, such a body was assembled at Frankfort (May 18, 1848-May 13, 1849). A provisional national government was organized under an Imperial administrator, the Archduke John of Austria. The Parliament, however, was divided into factions, and a struggle between the Austrian and Prussian parties ensued. Austria sought to bring its whole Empire into the new organization, with a preponderating voice in affairs, which would have made the new Empire non-German. Prussia and the German nationalists objected, and finally carried the day, choosing the King of Prussia to be Emperor of the Germans (1849). Frederick William IV. was not equal to the great opportunity, and he rejected the proffered crown because it came from the people and not from his peers, the German princes. The desertion of the national cause by Prussia was followed by insurrections in the Palatinate, Saxony, and Baden, which were rigorously put down, mainly by the arms of Prussia, and the opportunity for the erection of a German nation went by until it should be recreated by the ‘blood and iron’ policy of Bismarck (q.v.). The National Parliament having gone to pieces, Austria and Prussia united in 1850 to restore the old Diet. The two powers now proceeded to establish the old order in the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, which had risen in revolt against Denmark. Prussia assumed the leadership in proposing plans for reorganizing the Germanic body, but could not harmonize its own ambitions with those of Austria. In 1858 Prince William became Regent of Prussia, and in 1861 succeeded his brother as William I. Imbued with the conservative spirit of the Hohenzollerns, but possessed of much sound sense, courage, and patriotism, he met the existing situation in a different spirit from that of his weak predecessor. Bismarck early became his chief minister, and remained at his side until his death. The latter saw the futility of all efforts at German organization that had been previously made, and determined that the only way to the attainment of the great object was for Prussia to force a direct issue with Austria, and fight it out as the champion of German nationality. The opportunity was found in the troubled affairs of Schleswig-Holstein (q.v.). By the Convention of Gastein (August 14, 1865), Austria and Prussia arranged a joint occupation of the duchies, against the wishes of the smaller States represented in the Diet. In this common administration, although the sphere of each power was defined, there was ample opportunity for the outbreak of the old rivalry. Austria sought to force the hand of Prussia by referring the settlement of the Schleswig-Holstein question to the Federal Diet. Prussia met this move by sending its forces into Holstein, which had been under Austrian occupation. The Diet now ordered the mobilization of the Federal forces (June 14, 1866). Prussia at once began hostilities, having previously formed an alliance with Italy against Austria. (See Seven Weeks' War.) Prussia's preparedness was shown by her prompt action in each detail. She ordered Hanover, Hesse-Cassel, and Saxony, which had adhered to Austria, to disarm, and at once invaded their territories. The Saxon army retired through Bohemia, to effect a junction with the Austrians; the Hanoverians laid down their arms after a useless show of resistance; and the Prussians, having secured their base, declared war against Austria, and invaded Bohemia in three columns. The rapid movement, efficiency, and thorough equipment of the Prussian Army surprised Europe as much as did the inefficiency and lack of organization of the Austrians. In the vigorous campaign, whose brief duration has given its popular name to the war, Austria met a succession of defeats, culminating in the overwhelming one of Sadowa, or Königgrätz, July 3d. By the Peace of Prague (August 23, 1866) the dissolution of the old Confederation was consummated. Austria ceased to be a member of the Germanic body, and Schleswig-Holstein, Hanover, Electoral Hesse, Nassau, and Frankfort were incorporated with Prussia, which negotiated separate treaties with Baden, Bavaria, the Grand Duchy of Hesse, Saxony, and Württemberg.
The North German Confederation was now constituted under Prussian leadership. Bavaria, Württemberg, and Baden allied themselves with the new body, though they did not enter it. Their treaties with Prussia provided for an offensive and defensive alliance, and acceptance of Prussian leadership in case of war. The Constituent Diet of the new Confederation met February 24, 1867, and proceeded to frame a constitution, which forms the basis of that of the present Empire. The aspirations of Prussia looked to the completion of German unity and the establishment of the paramount influence of the new German State in European affairs. Bismarck was well aware that the consolidation of Germany meant eventual war with Germany's ancient enemy, and he prepared for it as thoroughly as he had for the conflict with Austria. War was narrowly averted in 1867, when France sought to occupy Luxemburg as a compensation for the territorial acquisitions of Prussia, and in 1869, when France showed unequivocally her desire to annex Belgium. The intention of Spain to seat a Hohenzollern prince on the vacant throne offered an opportunity for her quarrel which France was now seeking, and the injudicious conduct of Benedetti, the French Minister at Berlin, the fatuous insistence of the French Foreign Minister, Gramont, upon an impossible apology from King William, and the shrewd and unscrupulous use made by Bismarck of the dispatch relating thereto, stirred a feeling in both countries that could only result in war, which was declared by France July 19, 1870. The French, not realizing that the day of Napoleonic conquests had passed, still less that the day of United Germany had come, expected to invade Germany, win over the Southern German States, and to march straight on Berlin. Instead, they found the German Army mobilized on the frontier, and the South German States loyal to their alliance. A quick succession of German victories was followed by the surrender of MacMahon's army and the capture of Napoleon himself at Sedan (September 2, 1870), the investment of Paris, and the capitulation of Bazaine at Metz (October 27th). While the united armies of Germany were still besieging Paris, King William, at Versailles, in the Galerie des Glaces, amid a brilliant assemblage of princes and officers, received from the people of Germany, in pursuance of the decree of the North German Diet of December 10, 1870, the title of German Emperor, hereditary in the Prussian Dynasty (January 18, 1871). On the 16th of April the Constitution of the Empire, which was substantially that of the North German Confederation, with the addition of certain special provisions for the South German States, was promulgated. By the treaty of peace with France, signed on the 10th day of May, at Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany received the provinces of Alsace, with the exception of Belfort, and the German-speaking part of Lorraine, including Metz and Thionville, and an indemnity of five milliards of francs ($1,000,000,000). See Franco-German War.
The southern States had entered the new Empire, and the King of Bavaria, the largest German State outside of Prussia, had acted as spokesman in proffering the crown of United Germany to King William. The military preponderance of France on the Continent of Europe was at an end. Secure in its position as a dominant power, the new Germany was free to develop its national genius. But Bismarck's internal policy during the first years of the Empire was not as successful as his State-building process had been. He became involved in a conflict with the Roman Church, and this became the leading issue in Imperial politics for six years, from 1873 to 1879. (See Kulturkampf.) The preponderating position of Germany in the affairs of Europe was asserted at the time of the Russo-Turkish War (1877-78), when the Congress of Berlin was convened for the settlement of the Eastern Question. After the attempts upon the life of the Emperor in 1878, attributed to Socialist fanatics, vigorous legislative measures were taken to suppress Socialism as an organized force, while at the same time the Government undertook legislation for the benefit of the working classes, such as compulsory State insurance. An extensive system of canals was begun in 1886, including the great Kaiser Wilhelm Canal, connecting the North Sea and the Baltic, which was opened June 19, 1895, with imposing ceremonies. As soon as Austria had been expelled from the Germanic body it became Bismarck's policy to cultivate friendly relations with that country, as Germany's closest neighbor and kin, and in 1883 the Triple Alliance (q.v.), comprising Austria, Germany, and Italy, was formed, with the object of maintaining the balance against France and Russia. In 1884 Germany embarked upon her career as a colonizing power. (See German East Africa; German Southwest Africa; Kamerun.) Emperor William I. died in 1888, and was succeeded by his son, Frederick III., who was then suffering from cancer of the throat, and died in a few months. He was succeeded by his son, William II. The history of Germany since his accession has been characterized by the social and economic movements common to all of the Western nations at the close of the nineteenth and at the opening of the twentieth century, while as a growing world power Germany has become one of the chief factors in the questions arising from the colonial enterprises of the nations of the West and the increasing solidarity of mankind. Differences very early developed between the Kaiser and the great Chancellor, and an issue having been made on the Government's policy toward the Socialists, Bismarck was ordered to resign, and his resignation was accepted March 20, 1890. He was succeeded by General von Caprivi (q.v.). The Emperor himself, after his plan of an international labor conference had failed, became a bitter opponent of the Socialists. After 1879 Germany maintained a protective tariff, and duties were considerably increased in several directions, though the operation of the fixed tariff was much modified by tariffs based upon reciprocity treaties. The steady development of German industry and commerce checked the stream of emigration, and the population has continued to increase at an undiminished rate. Caprivi retired from the Chancellorship in 1894, giving place to Prince Hohenlohe. Of recent years very active interest has been taken in the development of the merchant marine and navy. The Naval Bill of 1898 pointed in its preamble to the increased volume of imports and exports, colonial expansion, increasing population, and the investment of large amounts of capital abroad as indications of the need of a strong navy. The bill (passed March 28, 1898) provided for an expenditure of an amount equivalent to $102,000,000, of which $89,000,000 was to be expended on fleets and armament. This was expected to bring the strength of the navy up to 19 battle-ships, 8 coast-defense vessels, 9 large and 26 small cruisers, and numerous smaller craft. A bill passed with some difficulty in June, 1900, practically doubled this programme, extending the period of operation over twenty years, and providing for 38 battle-ships and a corresponding complement of cruisers and smaller vessels. As in all the constitutional countries of Continental Europe, strong party organization is made impossible in Germany by the numerous factions and the lack of a responsible Ministry. (See Political Parties, paragraph on Germany.) Prince Bismarck had been reluctantly forced into a colonial policy by the growth of German commercial interests, and William II. actively promoted this development in various parts of the world. In 1898 he seized the pretext of the murder of two German missionaries in China to exact from that country the cession of the port of Kiao-chau and 200 square miles of adjacent territory, and to establish a sphere of influence in Shan-tung, one of the richest Chinese provinces. He then attempted, during the outbreak of 1900 and in the events which followed the Boxer movement, to claim for Germany in the Far East the same predominant role that Bismarck had sought to win for her in Europe. (See Chinese Empire.) Prince Hohenlohe resigned the Chancellorship in 1900, partly because of disagreement with the Emperor's Chinese policy, and was succeeded by Count von Bülow. German commercial and industrial activities are now world-wide. The actual territorial possessions of the Empire outside of its own borders are in Africa, in the partition of which Germany has had a large share (see Africa), and a few islands in the Pacific; but German settlements, merchants, and factories are found in Mexico, Central and South America, and in Asiatic Turkey, and German banks in many parts of the world are the stable foundation of activity in trade and industry. German colonization and commercial societies, well supported financially and managed with skill and energy, support these enterprises, and are actively fostered by the home Government. Such associations are found operating in Central and South America, in Senegambia, on the Gold Coast, in Australia, Tahiti, and Sumatra, as well as in the countries under the German flag. Parallel with this activity in the world's industrial competition has been a very intelligent policy of subsidizing steamship lines to Oriental and African ports, intended to make Germany independent in its carrying trade. In every way the German Government supports its citizens in spreading German influence, and it has never failed to defend the interest of German merchants where these have been threatened by disorder or revolution in weakly governed countries, as in Haiti at the end of 1902, or in Venezuela (q.v.), in conjunction with Great Britain and Italy, in the early part of 1903.
Bibliography. Neumann, Das deutsche Reich in geographischer, statistischer und topographischer Beziehung (Berlin, 1878); Lehmann and Kirchhoff (editors), Forschungen sur deutschen Landes- und Volkskunde (Leipzig, 1885 et seq.); Daniel, Deutschland nach seinen physischen und politischen Verhältnissen (Leipzig, 1893-95); Trinius, All-Deutschland in Wort und Bild (Berlin, 1893-95); Richter, Das deutsche Reich (Leipzig, 1895); id., Biblioteca Geographica Gertnaniæ (ib., 1896-97); Daniel and Volz, Geographische Charakterbilder, vol. i. (ib., 1898); Ratzel, Deutschland (ib., 1898); Kutzen, Das deutsche Land, revised by Steinecke (Breslau, 1900); Kirchhoff and Hassert, Bericht über die neuere Litteratur zur deutschen Landeskunde (Berlin, 1901); Delitsch, Deutschlands Oberflachenform (Breslau, 1880); Lepsius, Geologie von Deutschland (Stuttgart, 1887 et seq.); Senft, Geognostische Wanderungen in Deutschland (Leipzig, 1894); Foss, Das norddeutsche Tiefland (Berlin, 1894); id., Das deutsche Gebirgsland (ib., 1895); Thiele, Deutschlands landicirtschaftliche Klimatographie (Bonn, 1895); Drude, Deutschlands Pflanzengeographie (Stuttgart, 1898).
There is an immense literature on the German ethnology, which must be studied in the writings of Virchow, Andree, and many others, especially G. Hervé, “Les Germains,” in Revue Mensuelle de L'Ecole d'Anthropologie (Paris, 1897). This literature is well catalogued in the supplement to Ripley's Races of Europe (New York, 1899), and more minutely in the German serials Archiv für Anthropologie (Brunswick, 1861 et seq.); Mittheilungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien (Vienna, 1878 et seq.); and Zeitschrift für Ethnologie (Berlin, 1869 et seq.), with its appendixes. Consult, also: Hugo E. Meyer, Deutsche Volkskunde (Strassburg, 1898), and Hans Meyer, Das deutsche Volkstum (Leipzig, 1898); Ballod, “Deutschlands wirtschaftliche Entwickelung seit 1870,” in Jahrbücher für Gesetzgebung, Verwaltung und Volkswirtltschaft im deutschen Reich (Leipzig, 1900); Die deutsche Volkswirthschaft am Schlusse des 19. Jahrhunderts (Berlin, 1900), a concise summary of the 18 volumes of the census of occupations taken in Germany in 1895, published for the general reader by the Imperial Statistical Bureau; Asbach, Deutschlands gesellnchaftliche und wirtschaftliche Entwickelung (Berlin, 1900); Rauchberg, “Die Landwirthschaft im deutschen Reich,” in vol. xv. of the Archiv für soziale Gesetzgebung und Statistik (Berlin, 1900), based on the census of 1895; Leisewitz, “Die landwirtschaftliche Produktion im deutschen Reiche und ihr Verhältniss zum Stande des bezüglichen inländischen Bedarfs,” in vol. xxii. of Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik (Jena, 1902); Huber, Deutschland als Industriestaat (Stuttgard, 1900); Blondel, L'essor industriel et commercial du peuple allemand (Paris, 1900), a popular presentation of the industrial progress of Germany, with comparisons with French conditions; Kollmann, “Die gewerbliche Entfaltung im deutschen Reiche nach der Gewerbezählung, vom 14. Juni 1895,” in vol. xxiv. of Jahrbücher für Gesetzgebung, Verwaltung und Volkswirthschaft im deutschen Reich (Leipzig, 1900); Rauchberg, “Die Berufs- und Gewerbezählung im deutschen Reich vom Juni 1895,” in vols. xiv. and xv. of the Archiv für soziale Gesetzgebung und Statistik (Berlin, 1899-1900), a scholarly study of the social and economic grouping of the population of the German Empire, based on the last German census; Zimmermann, Die Handelspolitik des deutschen Reiches vom Frankfurter Frieden bis zur Gegenwart (Breslau, 1901); Lotz, Verkehrsentwicklung in Deutschland, 1800-1900 (Leipzig, 1900), a popular presentation of the growth of railways and the part they play in Germany's industrial development, preceded by a brief sketch of the transportation system of the Middle Ages; Wirth, “Banking in Germany,” in vol. iv. of A History of Banking in All the Leading Nations (New York, 1896); Eberstadt, Der deutsche Kapitalmarkt (Leipzig, 1901), a very thorough survey of the capitalization of the entire German industry and of the money market in its relations to every field of industry, commerce, banking, transportation, etc.; Loeb, “The German Colonial Fiscal System,” Publication of the American Economic Association, 3d series, vol. i. (New York, 1900); Ballod, “Die deutsch-amerikanischen Handelsheziehungen,” in vol. xci. of the Beiträge zur neutsten Handelspolitik Deutschlands (Leipzig, 1901); Lair, L'imperialisme allemand (Paris, 1902), a history of the extraordinary commercial and industrial development of Germany during the last twenty years, based upon conscientious study of the most important documents; Mohl, Das deutsche Reichsstaatsrecht (Tübingen, 1873); Schulze, System des deutschen Staatsrechts (Leipzig, 1875); Labaud, Das Staatsrecht des deutschen Reichs (Freiburg, 1870); Lowell, Governments and Parties in Continental Europe (New York, 1896).
History. For brief treatments of German history, consult: Henderson, A Short History of Germany (New York, 1901), a product of modern critical scholarship. Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire (New York and London, 1892), is a luminous essay that must be studied to understand the political development of Germany and its relations with the Holy Roman Empire. The history of Germany in mediæval times is adequately treated by Henderson, History of Germany in the Middle Ages (London and New York, 1894); Lamprecht, Deutsche Geschichte (Berlin, 1891-94); Giesebrecht, Geschichte der deutschen Kaiserzeit (Brunswick, 1881-90). The following are standard works by some of the foremost of German historians on the modern period: Marcks, Germany and England: Their Relations in the Great Crises of European History, 1500-1900, trans. (London, 1900); Sybel, Die Begründung des deutschen Reichs (Munich, 1890-94), trans. by Perrin and Bradford as The Foundation of the German Empire (New York, 1890-98); Treitschke, Deutsche Geschichte im neunzehnten Jahrhundert (Leipzig, 1879-94); Maurenbrecher, Gründung des deutschen Reichs 1859-71 (Leipzig, 1892); Oncken, Das Zeitalter der Revolution, des Kaiserreiches und der Befreiungskriege (Berlin, 1890-92); Bulle, Geschichte der neuesten Zeit, 1815-71 (Leipzig, 1880-87); Erdmannsdörffer, Deutsche Geschichte vom westphalischen Frieden bis zum Regierungsantritt Friedrichs des Grossen, 1648-1740 (Berlin, 1892-94). Useful available books in English are: Malleson, The Refounding of the German Empire, 1848-71 (London, 1893); Müller, Political History of Recent Times, 1816-75 (New York, 1882), translated and brought down to 1881 by Peters, a compact and useful volume, written with special reference to Germany; Murdock, The Reconstruction of Europe (Boston, 1889); Baring-Gould, Germany, Past and Present (London, 1881). For an account of German diplomacy during the critical period of its history in the nineteenth century, consult Debidour, Histoire diplomatique de l'Europe, 1814-78, vols. i. and ii. (Paris. 1891). For detailed references on German history, consult the bibliographies in Lavisse and Rambaud, Histoire générale (Paris, 1893-1900); Seignobos, Political History of Europe Since 1814 (New York, 1900), and especially Dahlmann-Waitz, Quellenkunde der deutschen Geschichte, edited by Steindorff (Göttingen, 1894). See, also, authorities referred to under the names of persons, parties, and places noted in the text, as Bismarck-Schönhausen; Calvin; Frederick II.; Thirty Years' War; etc.