64 BERLIN : A STUDY OF 



united action, and in Germany, in and after the Interreg- 

 num, from 1254 to 1272, there were organized three great 

 confederations : that of the Rh ine, the famous Hanseatic 

 league, and the great confederacy of Suabian cities, ex- 

 tending from the foot of the Alps to the mouth of the river 

 Main. Cities, at this period, grew so in power that they 

 obtained representation in the governments throughout Eu- 

 rope, and, with their great wealth and prosperity, they be- 

 came the parents of modern civil ization. In them there 

 first was developed the modern republican form of govern- 

 ment, and in Germany the numerous free cities became in- 

 tegral parts of the empire, on a par with the princely states, 

 and owing allegiance only to the Emperor. Of these, 

 since the annexation of Frankfort by Prussia, in 1866, there 

 now only remain Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck. These 

 three " free cities " are living examples of the way in which 

 cities formerly exercised a domain over considerable tracts 

 of territory frequently not adjacent, but offcen lying at 

 some distance with lands of other states intervening and 

 are, in reality, Republican states in the present Empire. 



The mediseval forms of municipal government survived, 

 to some extent, down to the Reforms of 1808, when a 

 complete reorganization took place. This reform system 

 has only been modified to adapt itself to the changed con- 

 dition of suffrage, etc., prevailing to-day. In it is exhib- 

 ited the working of the German ideas of self-government 

 by the people, which, in the cities, have been exemplified 

 to the füllest extent. 



While throughout the Empire universal manhood suf- 

 frage prevails, in the city governments the suffrage is slight- 

 ly restricted. Every honest iuhabitant obtains the electoral 

 franchise after a year's residence and at the age of twenty- 

 four, if he pays what is called a class tax on an income of 

 about one hundred and fifty dollars. These restrictjons 



