GERMANY 



179 



were 397 inemtters. The Reichstag must be con- 

 v.-iif.l iiiiiiiiallv, 1'iit c.-ininit IKS assembled unleHH 

 tin' Htimlesrath is also in session. Its proceedings 

 are public ; the members are unpaid, hut enjoy 

 various pri\ ileges ami immnnitieH. A dissolution 

 of the. Reichstag before the end of three veins 



rei|iiin'- 1 1 list-lit of the Bundesrath ; and tlie 



new election must take place within sixty days, 

 ami tin- mci'iing of the new Reichstag within 

 ninety days after the dissolution. By a law passed 

 in 1888, to come into force in 1890, the legislative 

 neriod has IMM-II increased to five years. The 

 Reichstag elects its own president. The members 

 of tlie Bnodwath may claim a right to speak in 

 the Reichstag; but no one can le a member of 

 both assemblies at once. All imperial laws must 

 receive the votes of an absolute majority of liotli 

 1>< ><lics, and, to be valid, must, in addition, have 

 the assent of the emperor, and be countersigned 

 when promulgated by the Rcicltshanzler, or chan- 

 cellor of the empire, who is appointed by the 

 emperor, and is ex officio president of the Bundes- 

 ratti. 



The votes in the two assemblies are apportioned 

 as follows : Prussia has 17 votes in the Bundesrath 

 and 236 in the Reichstag ; Bavaria has respectively 

 6 and 48 ; Wiirtemberg, 4 and 17 ; Saxony, 4 and 

 23 ; Baden, 3 and 14 ; Mecklenburg-Schwerin, 2 

 and 6 ; Hesse, 3 and 9 ; Oldenburg, Saxe- Weimar, 

 and Hamburg, each 1 and 3 ; Brunswick, 2 and 3 ; 

 Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and Anhalt, 

 1 and 2 ; and the remainder 1 vote in each assembly. 

 Alsace-Lorraine has 15 votes in the Reichstag, but 

 in the Bundesrath is represented only by 4 commis- 

 sioners (Kommissiire) without votes, appointed by 

 the Statthalter. To assist the ReichsKanzler in 

 managing imperial affairs, a number of offices (not 

 ministries) have developed in the course of time 

 for the different departments of state. 



According to the eleventh article of the constitu- 

 tion, the German emperor, with the consent of the 

 Bundesrath, can declare war, make peace, enter 

 into treaties with foreign nations, and appoint and 

 receive ambassadors. If, however, the territory of 

 the empire is attacked, he does not require the 

 consent of tlie Bundesrath to declare war, but can 

 act independently. Changes in the constitution 

 can be effected onlv by imperial law, and they are 

 held to be rejected if 14 votes are given against 

 them in the Bundesrath. 



Political Parties. There is no imperial respon- 

 sible ministry in Germany, and the government 

 is independent of changes in the relative strength 

 of the various parties in the Reichstag. For years 

 Prince Bismarck formed alliances now with this, 

 now with that party, according to the aim he 

 had in view ; and his opponents, even when they 

 defeated his measures, had no thought of supersed- 

 ing him in the chancellorship. The chief political 

 parties in the Reichstag may be roughly grouped 

 under the names Liberal, Conservative, and 

 Clerical. Of the first, the National Liberals, a 

 party dating from the crisis of 1866, whose object 

 is a united Germany on constitutional lines, were 

 long the most influential supporters of Bismarck. 

 In 1879, however, they differed from him on the 

 questions of the new protectionist and military 

 policies ; and in consequence they suffered a severe 

 defeat at the next election. The advanced wing of 

 the Liberal party, known as the farfeeArittlparim, 

 formed a coalition in 1884 with a considerable 

 number of ' Secessionists ' from the National Libe- 

 rals, and founded the present Deutsch-Fn'isiiinnif- 

 partei, under the leadership of Eugen Richter, 

 with a radical programme including demands for 

 a responsible ministry, annual budgets, freedom 

 of speech, meeting, and press, and payment of 

 m em hers. The reorganised National Liberal party 



once more approached Bismarck, and, having in 1888 

 joined the Conservatives in support of the govern- 

 ment meonures, now forms part of the so-called 

 t'lii-titlfiartei, or Coalition party. The Cotuerva- 

 ti\i-s include the /Jeutuc/ie Kontervativen, a dis- 

 tinctly reactionary group, and the Deutitrhe Reich*- 

 partei or Frei- Km, .s. n-nttren, bent perhajw dexcrilied 

 as Litaral-Conservatives, aiming at a fair imperial 

 government as the first necessity of their country. 

 The Centre or Ultramontane party, organised by 

 Windthorst since 1871, is essentially tlie Roman 

 Catholic clerical party, and has offered the most 

 determined and best-organised resistance to Bis- 

 marck. A temporary alliance, however, with this 

 party enabled the chancellor to carry his pro- 

 tectionist proposals in 1889. The Elsasser, the 

 French party of Alsace, generally vote with the 

 ''in if. Among the smaller parties the most 

 significant is that of the Social Democrats, who, 

 in spite of all the hostile socialist legislation, rose 

 from 2 votes in 1871 to 48 in 1897. The smaller 

 parties, with special and more private views, are 

 Known as Particularisten ; they include the Poles, 

 aiming at the separation of Polish Prussia from 

 Germany, Wei fen, or Hanoverian royalists, and 

 some individual members. In 1884 the Conserva- 

 tives had 76 votes; in 1887, 129; the National 

 Liberals, 45 and 99 ; the Freisinnige, 104 and 32 ; 

 the Centre, 109 and 98 ; the Social Democrats, 24 

 and 11. 



See Statistik des Deutschen Reichs, published periodi- 

 cally by the Imperial Statistical Office, and the Statit- 

 tisches Jahrbuch (annually since 1880). Tlie Jabrbuch 

 for 1889 contains an index to the Statistik since 1871. 

 Kutzen, Dag Deutsche Land (3d ed. 1880); Berghaus, 

 Deutschland und seine Bewohner (2 vols. 1860) ; Daniel, 

 D. nach seinen pkysiscken und politischen Verhaltnisten 

 (2 vols. 5th ed. 1878); Delitech, Forschungeti zur D. 

 Landes- u. Vulkskunde (1885); Neumann, Das Deutuche 

 Reich in Gfeog,, Statist., und Topoyraph. Bfziehuiig (1872- 

 74), and Geog. Lexikon des D. Reichs (1883) ; S. Baring- 

 Gould, Germany, Past and Present (2 vols. 1881); 

 Baedeker's Travellers' Handbooks ; and the Handbucli 

 fiir dus Deutsche Reich, Kurschner's StaatshandbucA, the 

 Statesman's Year-book, and the Almanack de Gotha for 

 the current year. On the Constitution, Stork's Hand- 

 buck der Deutschen Verfassung (1884). 



History. The earliest information we have of 

 the Germans, the peoples and trilies who dwelt 

 among the dense forests that stretched from the 

 Rhine to the Vistula and from the Danube to 

 the Baltic Sea, comes to us from the Romans, the 

 principal authority being Tacitus. The term 

 Germans is of Celtic origin, though its meaning 

 is not precisely known. It \vas in all probability 

 borrowed by the Romans from the Gauls. The 

 Germans were not one homogeneous nation, but 

 a multitude of separate and independent tribes, 

 who had racial ougin, language, and similarity in 

 their mode of life for their only links of connec- 

 tion. The fiiut tribes of Germanic race to come 

 into collision with the arms of Rome were the 

 Cimbri and Teutones, who in 113 B.C. had invaded 

 Styria, and there met with defeat from the troops 

 of the consul Papirius. The next Roman general 

 who made trial of their prowess was Civsar. When 

 in 58 B.C. he began his campaigns in Gaul, he 

 found several hordes of Germans, mostly Marco- 

 manni and Suevi, settled between the Rhine and 

 the Vosges, and even on the western side of these 

 hills. Appealed to by the Gauls of those regions 

 to free them from their German oppressors, Citsar, 

 in spite of the redoubtable stature and strength 

 of his enemies, and of their personal valour, inflicted 

 a crushing defeat upon their ambitious chieftain, 

 Ariovistus, and chased him and his followers across 

 the Rhine. Then, continuing his campaign, he 

 drove back (55 B.C.) behind tlie same nver those 

 tribes that had settled on its western side in 



