GERMANY 



3493 



GERMANY 



GERMANY : PEOPLE, HISTORY & LITERATURE 



HAMILTON FYFE, Prof. J. O. ROBERTSON, and A. W. HOLLAND 



Germany is dealt with as are the other great countries of the world. In addition to this sketch, see the 

 articles on its cities, rivers, mountains, etc. ; its rulers and statesmen ; its scholars and men of letters. 

 See also the articles on Bavaria; Mecklenburg; Prussia, and the other states of the federation ; Empire, 

 Roman ; Hanseatic League ; Hohenzollern ; Reformation 



Germany is the largest and most 

 powerful state of Central Europe. 

 It occupies the middle of the Great 



._ European Plain 



as well as parts 

 of the Alpine fore- 

 lands, and con- 

 nects Eastern Eu- 

 rope, Russia, with 

 Western Europe, 

 France. 



The chief lines 

 of communica- 

 tion, both from 

 north to south and from east to 

 west, run through it. Its frontiers 

 are mostly on land, the longest 

 being that which divides it from 

 Poland ; it also borders on France, 

 Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, 

 Denmark, and Czecho-SIovakia. 

 Its sea coast frontier of 1,200m. is 

 partly on the North Sea, partly on 

 the Baltic. Its area, as fixed by the 

 treaty of Versailles, is 171,910 sq.m. 

 PHYSICAL FEATURES. The 

 greater part of the country is flat. 

 Throughout the northern districts 

 the plain is scarcely broken ; in the 

 south there are several systems of 

 hills and regions of great beauty. 

 The most northerly range is the 

 Harz, consisting of very pretty 

 valleys and small heights well 

 wooded and easy to climb, which 

 make it a favourite holiday ground. 

 Of much the same character are 

 the Black Forest and Bavarian 

 highlands. The former does not 

 run to summits much over 4,000 ft., 

 but these afford charming views, 

 and on the slopes flowers of Alpine 

 and sub-Alpine species bloom in 

 large variety. On the Bavarian 

 border the highest point is 9,710 

 ft., and there are many peaks 

 between 4,000 and 8,000 ft. 



Wealth in Timber 



Forestry is treated as a branch, 

 and a very important branch, of 

 agriculture. About one quarter of 

 the country before the Great War 

 (53,000 sq. m.) was forest land, 

 many of the woods belonging to the 

 state or to local authorities ; less 

 than half were private property. 

 Great care was taken to keep the 

 forests in order, and to replant 

 regularly as the trees were cut down. 

 Private owners were compelled to 

 do this. Thus four-fifths of the 

 forest area, systematically culti- 

 vated, became a source of large 

 public and private revenue. 



The Swabian and Franconian 

 Jura, considered to be a continua- 

 tion of the Swiss mountains, are 



not so attractive. The slopes and 

 summits are dreary, the valleys 

 boggy, the lakes uninteresting, the 

 winds cold. Far pleasanter is the 

 hilly region between the rivers 

 Neckar and Main. The Spessart 

 range, N. of the Main, is remark- 

 able for its forests of oak and beech, 

 vast in extent ; it connects with the 

 Vogelsberg and so S.W. with the 

 Taunus, famous for its water cures, 

 including those of Homburg and 

 Wiesbaden. The Thuringian Alps, 

 which are well wooded, extend for 

 about 150 m. In Saxony there are 

 several hilly districts, which are 

 dignified by the name of the Saxon 

 Switzerland. 



RIVERS AND CANALS. The 

 rivers, in order of importance, are 

 the Rhine, the Elbe, the Weser 

 with the port of Bremen, the Vis- 

 tula running in from Poland, and 

 the Oder. Hamburg, near the 

 mouth of the Elbe, was Germany's 

 greatest port, but it suffered so 

 severely during the Great War 

 that it became merely a shadow of 

 its former prosperous self. Bre- 

 men, its chief rival, was hit almost 

 as hard. Other ports, which had a 

 flourishing trade before the war, are 

 Liibeck, Stettin, Danzig, now a free 

 port, Elbing, and Kiel. 



Lakes as Holiday Resorts 



The canals are numerous and 

 well used. Of the 8,646 m. of water 

 ways suitable for transport, 1,446 

 m. are canals and 1,374 m. canalised 

 rivers. The most ambitious work 

 of this kind is the Kiel Canal, 

 connecting the North Sea with the 

 Baltic. There are many lakes. 

 The largest is the Bodensee (lake 

 of Constance), which is between 

 Bavaria and Switzerland. Many 

 of them have summer resorts on 

 their banks; of these Tegernsee, 

 Schleiersee, and Konigsee in Ba- 

 varia are the most frequented. 

 There is a lake near Berlin which 

 thousands of holiday-makers visit 

 every summer. Another favourite 

 resort is the island of Riigen, in 

 the Baltic, where are a number of 

 hotels and boarding-houses, full all 

 the hot weather. 



CLIMATE. As a rule, the German 

 summers are warmer and more 

 settled than in the British Isles ; 

 the winters are colder. The rain- 

 fall varies from 66 ins. a year on 

 the Brocken in the Harz to 20 on 

 the Silesian plains. Abundant rain 

 in the hilly districts accounts for 

 the rapid-spreading undergrowth. 

 Any piece of land which is left un- 



cultivated and unsown is likely to 

 bear trees, chiefly firs or pines, 

 which grow so quickly that in less 

 than ten years a 

 respectable plan- 

 tation can be 

 seen. In the for- 

 ests are to be 

 found here and 

 there wolves and 

 wild boar; wild 

 cats badgers, and German ^epublic 

 martens abound. arms 



A large amount of the soil is 

 sandy, and, for other reasons, un- 

 productive ; yet so hard have the 

 peasants worked, and so skilful is 

 the application of knowledge to 

 agriculture, that as a producer of 

 varied crops Germany stands high 

 among the nations. Rye is the 

 cereal chiefly grown ; most of the 

 people eat rye bread. Some 

 15,000,000 acres are under rye, 

 some 5,000,000 under wheat. Pota- 

 toes are produced in enormous 

 quantities and sugar beets also. 

 Fruit is plentiful; many of the 

 country roads are lined with cherry, 

 apple, or pear trees. Vines are 

 grown in many parts, and wines are 

 made that have a world- wide fame. 



The peasantry are a particularly 

 sturdy race everywhere, indus- 

 trious, simple in character and in 

 their ways of life. In the more 

 southerly regions their manners 

 are agreeable, they sing and dance 

 well, they welcome strangers hos- 

 pitably. The northern peasants 

 are more gruff in their demeanour, 

 more calculating in their dealings. 

 When they went to live in cities 

 they very often became socialists, 

 but as long as they remained on the 

 soil they supported the monarchy 

 with unwavering stolidity. 



POPULATION. The drift from the 

 country into the towns was steady 

 from the date of the establishment 

 of the empire in 1871. At that 

 time, half of the population de- 

 pended upon the soil for their 

 livelihood. In 1895 that propor- 

 tion had dropped to 35 p.c. ; fif- 

 teen years after it was only 28 p.c. 

 In that period of thirty years the 

 population engaged in mining and 

 other industries rose from 35 p.c. 

 to 42 p.c., and the population en- 

 gaged in trade and transport from 

 10 to 13 p.c. Just before the war 

 trade and industry occupied more 

 than half the population, while not 

 more than a quarter were wholly en- 

 gaged in agriculture. There were, 



