GERMANY. 



279 



of Saxe-Meiningen by 1 and 2, the Duchy of 

 Saxe-Altenburg by 1 and 1, the Duchy of Saxe- 

 Coburg-Gotha by 1 and 2, the Duchy of Anhalt 

 by 1 and 2, the Principality of Schwarzburg- 

 Sondershausen by 1 and 1, the Principality of 

 Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt by 1 and 1, the Princi- 

 pality of Waldeck by 1 and 1, the Principality 

 of Reuss-Greiz, or Reuss of the elder line, by 1 

 and 1, the Principality of Reuss-Schleiz, or Reuss 

 of the younger line, by 1 and 1, the Principality 

 of Schaumburg-Lippe by 1 and 1, the Principal- 

 ity of Lippe by 1 and 1, the free city of Liibeck 

 by 1 and 1, the free city of Bremen by 1 and 1, 

 the free city of Hamburg by 1 and 3, the 

 Reichsland of Alsace-Lorraine by 4 commission- 

 ers of the Statthalter in the Bundesrath who 

 have nc votes and 15 Deputies in the Reichstag. 

 The Bundesrath and the Reichstag are called to- 

 gether annually by the Emperor, who with the 

 concurrence of the Bundesrath can prorogue the 

 Reichstag, but not without its consent for longer 

 than thirty days, or dissolve it, in which case new 

 elections must take place within sixty days and a 

 new session must begin within ninety days. The 

 imperial ministers act independently of each other, 

 but under the control of the Imperial Chancellor. 

 The reigning Emperor is Wilhelm II, born Jan. 

 27, 1859, eldest son of Friedrich III of Prussia 

 and Friedrich I of Germany, eldest son and suc- 

 cessor of Wilhelm I, the first German Emperor. 

 Wilhelm II succeeded his father on March 9, 1888. 

 The heir apparent is Prince Friedrich Wilhelm, 

 Crown Prince of the German Empire and of Prus- 

 sia, born May 6, 1882, eldest son of the Emperor 

 and the Queen-Empress Victoria, who was a prin- 

 cess of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augusten- 

 burg. The Chancellor of the Empire was Graf 

 von Billow in the beginning of 1902, who suc- 

 ceeded Prince Hohenlohe-Schillingfiirst on Oct. 17, 

 1900. The following were the secretaries of state 

 at the head of the several departments: Minister 

 of Foreign Affairs, Baron von Richthofen; Min- 

 ister of the Interior and Representative of the 

 Chancellor, Graf von Posadowsky-Wehner ; Sec- 

 retary of State for the Imperial Marine, Vice- 

 Admiral von Tirpitz; Minister of Justice, Dr. A. 

 Nieberding; President of the Imperial Railroad 

 Office, Dr. Schulz; President of the Court of Ac- 

 counts, Herr Magdeburg; President of the In- 

 valid Fund Administration, Dr. Rosing; Secre- 

 tary of State for the Post-Office, Herr Kratke; 

 Secretary of State for the Imperial Treasury, 

 Baron von Thielmann; President of the Imperial 

 Bank, Dr. Koch. The Emperor can not veto laws 

 passed by both the Bundesrath and the Reich- 

 sfag. By the Prussian Constitution no bill can 

 become law unless approved by the King. The 

 King nominates the ministers, and they hold 

 office during his pleasure. The legislative bodies 

 in Prussia are the Herrenhaus, or House of 

 Lords, and the Abgeordnetenhaus, or House of 

 Deputies. To the Herrenhaus belong the princes 

 of the house of Hohenzollern, 16 heads of media- 

 tized princely houses, 50 territorial nobles, life 

 peers chosen by the King from great landowners 

 and manufacturers and men appointed for their 

 national celebrity, 8 representative nobles elected 

 by landowners of the old Prussian provinces, rep- 

 resentatives of universities, heads of chapters, 

 burgomasters of towns of over 50.000 inhabitants, 

 and an unlimited number of peers nominated by 

 the King for life or for a term of years. The 

 Abgeordnetenhaus contains 433 members, elect- 

 ed for five years by electors, one-third of them 

 chosen by the wealthiest, one-third by the inter- 

 mediate, and one-third by the poorest class of 

 direct taxpayers,* each of which contributes one- 



third of the total amount of direct taxes. The 

 ministry of state at the beginning of 1902 was 

 composed as follows: President of the Council of 

 Ministers, the Imperial Chancellor, Graf von 

 Billow; Minister of Finance, Baron von Rheim- 

 baben; Minister of Public Works, Herr von 

 Thielen; Minister of Worship, Instruction, and 

 Medical Affairs, Dr. Studt; Minister of Agri- 

 culture, Domains, and Forests, Herr von Podbiel- 

 ski; Minister of Justice, Dr. Schonstedt; Minis- 

 ter of the Interior, Baron von Hammerstein; 

 Minister of Commerce, Herr Moller; Minister of 

 War, Gen. von Gossler. 



Area and Population. The area of the Ger- 

 man Empire is 208,830, and the population, ac- 

 cording to the census of Dec. 1, 1900, was 56,367,- 

 178, compared with 52,279,901 on Dec. 2, 1895. 

 The area and population of the provinces of 

 Prussia are given in the following table: 



The Prussian population was divided into 

 16,971,456 males and 17,501,084 females, 103.12 

 females to every 100 males. The town popula- 

 tion, 14,844,221, showed an increase of 2.29 per 

 cent, in five years; the country population, 

 19,624,086, showed an increase of 1.08 per cent. 

 The number of marriages in Prussia during 1899 

 was 287,408; of births, 1,265,923; of deaths, 761,- 

 050; excess of births, 504,873. During 1900 the 

 emigration over sea from Prussia was 12,471. 

 In 1899 the total was 13,747, of whom 1,548 emi- 

 grated from Brandenburg and Berlin, 2,293 from 

 Posen, 1,784 from Hanover, 1,449 from West 

 Prussia, 990 from Schleswig-Holstein, 853 from 

 the Rhine Province, 836 from Pomerania, 605 

 from Hesse-Nassau, 557 from Westphalia, 585 

 from Silesia, 494 from East Prussia, 463 from 

 Saxony, and 14 from Hohenzollern. Berlin had 

 1,901,567 inhabitants on Dec. 31, 1901. 



Bavaria, with an area of 29,286 square miles, 

 had a population in 1900 of 6,175,153, compared 

 with 5,818,544 in 1895. The population in 1900 

 comprised 3,027,093 males and 3,148,060 females. 

 The number of marriages in 1899 was 50,783; of 

 births, 230.969: of deaths, 154,165; excess of 

 births, 76,804. The emigration over sea in 1900 

 was 2,074, compared with 2,140 in 1899. 



The Kingdom of Saxony, with an area of 

 5,787 square miles, had 4,199,758 inhabitants on 

 Dec. 1, 1900. compared with 3.787.618 in 1895. 

 There were 2,042,437 males and 2,157.321 females 

 in 1900, a ratio of 105.6 females to 100 males. 

 Of the population in 1900. the proportion living 

 in towns was 50.01 per cent. The number of mar- 

 riages in 1899 was 38,980: of births, 164.164; of 

 deaths, 99.609 ; excess of births, 64,555. The emi- 

 gration over sea in 1900 was 876, compared with 

 1.057 in 1899. 



Wiirtemberof has an area of 7.503 square miles, 

 and had on Dec. 1, 1900, a population of 2,169,- 



