GERMANY 



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GERMANY 



Physical Features 



The Surface. Germany has two sharply- 

 contrasted surface regions a northern lowland 

 and a central and southern highland, the lat- 

 ter occupying about two-thirds of the country. 

 The lowland is a part of the great plain of 

 Northern Asia and Europe, and stretches from 

 the borders of Russia to those of Holland. 

 For the most part this plain is level, but there 

 are several elevated tracts which attain in 

 places heights of 1,000 feet or more. Sloping 

 to the north and northwest, to the shores of the 

 North and the Baltic seas, this plain ends in 

 the low-lying coastal flats, with sand dunes 

 and infrequent harbors. Only where a river, 

 as the Elbe or the Weser, finds its way to the 

 sea are their channels wide enough and deep 

 enough for good ports. 



The highland region is much less uniform; 

 indeed, it may be divided into two well-marked 

 sections. In the southeast is the Alpine coun- 

 try, with its spurs or ridges branching out 

 from Switzerland. Here, in Bavaria, is found 

 the highest altitude in Germany, the Zug 



COMPARATIVE AREAS 



The area of the new Germany is 173,690 square 

 miles. It is but little larger than the American 

 states of Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, 

 Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware, a com- 

 pact group whose combined area is 167,218 square 

 miles. Compared with the Canadian province of 

 Alberta, Germany is over 50,000 square miles 

 smaller. 



Spitze, which has an elevation of 9,738 feet. 

 North and west of this limited Alpine district 

 are the highlands proper, a greatly diversified 

 region with high, fertile plains, rolling, hilly 

 sections and numerous scattered mountain 

 ranges with rounded summits, few of which 

 exceed 3,500 feet in height. Of these moun- 

 tains the most important are the Riesen-Ge- 

 birge, or Giant Mountains, the Vosges, the 

 Erzgebirge, or Ore Mountains, so called from 



the copper, iron, silver and other ores which 

 they contain, the Schwarzwald, or Black Forest, 

 about which center so many traditions, and 

 most famous of all, the Harz Mountains, 

 with their culminating peak, the Brocken, 

 which stands shrouded in mist, fairly inviting 

 the wierd and gloomy legends which cluster 

 about it. 



One of the very interesting points in the 

 study of history is the relation- which it bears 

 to the geography of a country, and this is 

 strikingly shown in the case of Germany. Had 

 there been no branching mountains, acting as 

 natural barriers and separating the territory 

 into numerous high plains and valleys, invit- 

 ing century upon century of warfare, separate 

 states might never have been, for with freer 

 intercourse a single nation might have devel- 

 oped far earlier. 



Rivers and Lakes. Germany is rich in 

 rivers, having within its borders about 6,000 

 miles of navigable natural waterways. The 

 central highland region acts as a "great divide," 

 separating the rivers that flow into the North 

 and Baltic seas from those that flow into the 

 Black Sea. Of the latter there is but one of 

 importance, the great Danube, which rises in 

 the Black Forest and drains the greater part 

 of Bavaria. -The chief rivers which empty into 

 the North Sea are^the Rhine, the most impor- 

 tant river of the country, though it has neither 

 its source nor its mouth within Germany; 

 the Ems; the Weser, with its great port of 

 Bremen; and the Elbe, on which is situated 

 Hamburg, the chief port of the country; while 

 those flowing into the Baltic are the Oder, 

 which, like the Weser, is entirely in German 

 territory; and the Vistula, which is chiefly a 

 Russian river and carries down to the sea not 

 only the drainage, but a large portion of the 

 commerce of Russia. Certain tributaries of 

 these larger rivers, as the Main, the Moselle 

 and the Saale, are also of considerable impor- 

 tance. 



One of the lake regions of Germany is in the 

 Alpine district in the southeast, where the 

 glaciers of bygone ages carved deep basins in 

 the rocks. These mountain lakes have the 

 clear, cold water and the same picturesque sur- 

 roundings which have made the Swiss lakes the 

 most famous in the world. Scattered about the 

 northern plain are numerous shallow lakes 

 no fewer than 500 in all ; but these, with their 

 low, swampy shores, have no particular beauty 



