326 



GERMANY. 



as a suitable locality for a town. The most ancient portion of the town, formerly 

 known as KoUn (Hill?), occupies an island of the Spree. No more secure posi- 

 tion could have been found for a village of fishermen, for the banks of the Spree 

 are high opposite to this island, and offer facilities for the erection of works of 

 defence. Berlin is first mentioned in ihe beginning of the thirteenth century, 

 but is probably very much older. Its name is asserted by some to mean *' ford" 

 or "crossing place," whilst others as positively translate it as "goose-field" or 

 " mud-pond." 



This small village of fishermen, however, would never have acquired the 

 historical fame of Berlin, if, in addition to its defending an important passage 

 over the Spree, it did not likewise occupy the centre of the entire region between 



Fig. 188.— The Havel and Spkee. 

 Scale 1 : 174,000. 



20 Miles. 



the Elbe and the Oder. Both the Havel and the Spree are unimportant rivers, 

 but they are deep and navigable, and, together with artificial canals, form an 

 extensive network of communication. In the fourteenth century Berlin was at 

 the head of a federation of towns, and most of the meetings of the confederates 

 were held in it. 



At the end of the fifteenth century it became the capital of Brandenburg, and 

 its influence grew apace. The geographical advantages of its position contributed 

 towards its commercial development. The high-road which connects Breslau, 

 the commercial centre of the Upper Oder, with Hamburg, at the mouth of the 

 Elbe, runs through Berlin, where it is crossed by the high-road communicating 

 between Leipzig and Stettin. The North Sea was as accessible to the merchants of 



