GERMANY. 



343 



The Army. Service in the army is eompul- 



s(.r\ "it every aMe-bodied (ionium citizen be- 

 tween tin- au'es of seventeen and forty-five. 

 Every young German, aftor finishing his twen- 

 tieth \enr, i> called u{>on to present himself for 

 tin- medical examination, which is held twice a 

 vear, and those who are found fit for active serv- 

 ice are assigned to a regiment in any part of the 

 country to which they thenceforward belong. 

 The recruits report for active duty in the fall of 

 tin- year, and have to serve with the colors for 

 three years, except those who by superior educa- 

 tion have been able to pass a rigid examination, 

 and these are called volunteers, because they 

 may choose the regiment in which they desire 

 to serve, their service lasting only one year. 

 Owing to the limited amount of money granted 

 by the Reichstag for the army a large number 

 of able-bodied recruits can not be received in 

 the active army, and they are therefore placed 

 among the Ersatztruppen, in which the term of 

 service is twelve years. Having served three 

 years in the active army, or where proficiency 

 has been gained in two years, the men are trans- 

 ferred to the reserve, where they remain for four 

 more years. The active troops together with the 

 reserve form the standing army. Passing out of 

 the standing army, the men belong to the first 

 ban of the Landwehr for another five years, and 

 to the second ban of the Landwehr until they 

 have reached the age of thirty-nine years. All 

 men not belonging to any of the above branches 

 of the army between the ages of seventeen and 

 forty-five form part of the Landsturm ; those 

 between the ages of seventeen and thirty-nine 

 belong to the first ban, and those from thirty- 

 nine to forty-five years of age to the second ban 

 of the Landsturm. 



According to the laws of Jan. 27 and July 15, 

 1890, the army is composed of 20 army corps, of 

 which Prussia has 15, Bavaria 2, Saxony 1, Wtir- 

 temberg 1, and 1 corps, the guards, is common 

 to all states. Each army corps consists of 2 di- 

 visions of infantry and cavalry, 1 brigade of 

 field artillery, 1 regiment or 1 battalion of foot 

 artillery, 1 battalion of pioneers, and 1 battalion 

 of train. Every division is composed of 2 bri- 

 gades of infantry and 1 brigade of cavalry. Each 

 brigade has 2 regiments; a regiment has 3 bat- 

 talions, and a battalion has 4 companies of 134 

 men each in time of peace, which number is in- 

 creased to 250 in time of war. The peace effect- 

 ive for 1893 was as follows : 173 regiments of in- 

 fantry, numbering 10,574 officers and 317,354 

 men ; 19 battalions of rifles, numbering 410 offi- 

 cers and 11,164 men; 277 Bezirkskommandos, 

 numbering 570 officers and 5,211 men; 2,192 

 surgeons, instructors, etc. ; 93 regiments of cav- 

 alry, numbering 2,350 officers and 66,145 men, 

 with 63,620 horses; 43 regiments of field artil- 

 lery, numbering 2,369 officers and 49,109 men, 

 with 26,104 horses; 14 regiments and 8 battal- 

 ions of foot artillery, numbering 728 officers and 

 17,256 men, with 30 horses; 20 battalions of pio- 

 neers; 2 railroad regiments, consisting of 1 bal- 

 loon detachment, 1 railroad battalion, and 2 rail- 

 road companies, numbering in all 588 officers 

 and 12,821 men ; 21 battalions of train, number- 

 ing 299 officers and 6.905 men, with 3.906 horses ; 

 and 2,636 officers and 3,113 men in special for- 

 mations and unattached ; giving the grand total 



of 20,524 officers, 491,220 men, and 93,750 horses. 

 The war strength of the Gorman army is e*- 

 t minted at 2,234,681 men, 3,858 guns, and 439,- 

 7">!) IIOTM-S. Adding the men of the Lund-t urru, 

 alK.iit 700,000, Germany could put nearly 8,000,- 

 000 men into the field. 



The Navy. The German navy, on April 1, 

 1892, consisted of 15 seagoing ironclads, 17 

 coast-defense ironclads, 3 frigate cruiwrH, 9 cor- 

 vette cruisers, 6 cruisers, 8 gunboats, 8 avisos, 9 

 schoolships and boats, 8 vessels for miscellaneous 

 purposes, 6 torpedo gunboats, 8 torpedo dispatch 

 vessels, 1 torpedo ship, 1 tender, and 116 torjx-do 

 boats. The navy was commanded in 1892 by 12 

 admiral* and 960 officers; the noncommissioned 

 officers, marines, and sailors numbered 17.290. 



Posts and Telegraphs. The imperial post- 

 office and the separately administereu royal post- 

 offices of Bavaria and Wurternberg in 1891 car- 

 ried together 1,146,939,460 letters, 376,847,420 

 postal cards, 457,211,140 pieces of printed mat- 

 ter, 28,564,880 samples, and 861,449,999 news- 

 papers. The money remittances amounted to 

 22,555,537,807 marks. The receipts of the united 

 postal and telegraph offices in 1892 amounted to 

 265,464,036 marks, and the expenses to 246,423.- 

 643 marks, leaving a surplus of 19,040,398 marks. 



The length of the telegraph lines of the em- 

 pire, in 1891, was 67,536 miles, with 238,355 miles 

 of wire. There were transmitted over the wires 

 28,114,373 messages, of which 19,461.174 were 

 inland telegrams and 8,653,199 were foreign. 

 There were 147.303 persons employed in the 

 united postal and telegraph offices in 1891. 



Commerce. The general commerce for 1891 

 was valued at 4,970,754,000 marks for imports 

 and 3,731,759,000 marks for exports. The value 

 of the special commerce was 4,403,404,000 marks 

 for imports and 3,339,755,000 marks for exports. 



The following table shows the imports and ex- 

 ports of the special commerce for 1891 of the 

 various classes of merchandise, in marks : 



Total j 4,408,104,000 | 8,889,7^000 



The value of horses imported in 1891 was 73.- 

 525,000 marks; of swine, 71,996.000 marks; of 

 wheat. 10:5.412.000 marks; of rye, 187,156,000 

 marks: of barley, 108,916,000 marks; of coffee, 

 219,820,000 marks; of petroleum, 65,891.000 

 marks; of raw hides, 98,890,000 marks; of raw 

 cotton, 234,006,000 marks ; of wool, 245.. r >07.000 

 marks : of woolen yarn, 85.857,000 marks : of raw 

 silk. 94.492,000 marks. The value of hops ex- 

 ported in the same year was 26,228,000 marks; of 



