Germany

Germany, constituted an empire in 1871, occupies a commanding position in Central Europe, and stretches from Switzerland in the S. to the German Ocean and Baltic Sea on the N.; Austria lies to the SE., Russia to the NE., while France, Belgium, and the Netherlands flank the W.; is made up of 26 States of widely varying size and importance, comprising four kingdoms (of which Prussia is by far the largest and most influential), six grand-duchies, five duchies, seven principalities, three free towns (Lübeck, Bremen, Hamburg), and one imperial province, Alsace-Lorraine; the main physical divisions are (1) the great lowland plain stretching from the centre to the Baltic and North Sea, well watered by the Ems, Weser, Elbe, Oder, Vistula, and their tributaries, in which, bating large sandy tracts, agriculture employs a large class, and cereals, tobacco, and beetroot are raised; (2) the mountainous district, in the interior of which the Fichtelgebirge is the central knot, in which vast forests abound, and rich deposits of coal, fire-clays, iron, and other metals are worked, giving rise to iron-works and potteries; (3) the basin of the Rhine, on the W., where the vine is largely cultivated, and extensive manufactures of silks, cottons, and hardware are carried on; fine porcelain comes from Saxony and vast quantities of beer from Bavaria; Westphalia is the centre of the steel and iron works; throughout Germany there are 26,000 m. of railway line (chiefly State railways), 57,000 m. of telegraph line, while excellent roads, canals, and navigable rivers facilitate communication; 65 per cent. of the people are Protestants; education is compulsory and more highly developed than in any other European country; the energies of the increasing population have in recent years found scope for their action in their growing colonial possessions; the military system imposes upon every German a term of seven years' service, three in active service, and the remainder in the reserve, and till his forty-sixth year he is liable to be called out on any great emergency; under the emperor the government is carried on by a Federal Council, the members of which are appointed by the governments of the various estates, and the Reichstag, elected by universal suffrage and ballot for three years.

Population (circa 1900) given as 49,428,000.

Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)

Germanicus, Cæsar * Gérôme, Léon
[wait for the fun]
Geraint, Sir
Gérard, Étienne Maurice, Comte
Gérard, François Pascal Simon, Baron
Gerhardt, Karl Friedrich
Gerhardt, Paul
Gerizzim
Germ Theory
German Catholics
German Voltaire
Germanicus, Cæsar
Germany
Gérôme, Léon
Gerry, Elbridge
Gerson, John Charlier de
Gerstäcker, Friedrich
Gervase of Tilbury
Gervinus, Georg Gottfried
Geryon
Gesenius
Gesner, Konrad von
Gessler, Albrecht

Nearby

Antique pictures of Germany

Links here from Chalmers

A Lasco, John
Abbot, George
Abbt, Thomas
Abel, Charles Frederick
Abelard, Peter
Aben-Melek
Achen, John Van
Acidalius, Valens
Ackermann, John Christian Gottlieb
Acrel, Olaus
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