partly by new machinery devised to meet the new obligation imposed. The sick-funds (Krankenkassen) are thus of seven kinds: (1) free assistance funds (Freie Hilfskassen), either registered under the law of 1876, as modified in 1884 (Eingeschriebene Hilfskassen), or established under the law of the separate states (landesrechtliche Hilfskassen); (2) Betriebs- or Fabrikkrankenkassen, funds established by individual factory-owners; (3) Baukrankenkasse, a fund established for workmen engaged on the construction (Bau) of particular engineering works (canal-digging, &c.), by individual contractors; (4) gild sick funds (Innungskrankenkassen), established by the gilds for the workmen and apprentices of their members; (5) miners' sick fund (Knappschaftskasse); (6) local sick fund (Ortskrankenkasse), established by the commune for particular crafts or classes of workmen; (7) Gemeindekrankenversicherung, ie. insurance of members of the commune as such, in the event of their not subscribing to any of the other funds. Of these, 2, 3, 6 and 7 were created under the above-mentioned laws. The number of such funds amounted in 1903 to 23,271, and included 10,224,297 workmen. The Ortskrankenkassen, with 4,975,322 members, had the greatest, and the Baukrankenkassen, with 16,459, the smallest number of members. The Ortskrankenkassen, which endeavour to include workmen of a like trade, have to a great extent, especially in Saxony, fallen under the control of the Social Democrats. The appointment of permanent doctors (Kassenärzte) at a fixed salary has given rise to much difference between the medical profession and this local sick fund; and the insistence on "freedom of choice" in doctors, which has been made by the members and threatens to militate against the interest of the profession, has been met on the part of the medical body by the appointment of a commission to investigate cases of undue influence in the selection. According to the statistics furnished in the Vierteljahreshefte zur Statistik des deutschen Reiches for 1905, the receipts amounted to upwards of £10,000,000 for 1903, and the expenditure to somewhat less than this sum. Administrative changes were credited with nearly £600,000, and the invested funds totalled £9,000,000. The workmen contribute at the rate of two-thirds and the employers at the rate of one-third; the sum payable in respect of each worker varying from 14-3% of the earnings in the "communal sick fund " to at most 13-4% in the others. 2. Insurance against old age and invalidity comprehends all persons who have entered upon their 17th year, and who belong to one of the following classes of wage-earners: artisans, apprentices, domestic servants, dressmakers, charwomen, laundresses, seamstresses, housekeepers, foremen, engineers, journeymen, clerks and apprentices in shops (excepting assistants and apprentices in chemists' shops), schoolmasters, schoolmistresses, teachers and governesses, provided the earnings do not exceed £100 per annum. The insured are arranged in five classes, according to the amount of their yearly earnings: viz. £17, 10s.; £27, 10s.; £47, 10s.; £57, 10s.; and £100. The contributions, affixed to a pension book" in stamps, are payable each week, and amount, in English money, to 1-45d., 2.34d., 2-82d., 3.30d. and 4.23d. Of the contribution one hall is paid by the employer and the other by the employee, whose duty it is to see that the amount has been properly entered in the pension book. The pensions, in case of invalidity, amount (including a state subsidy of £2, 10s. for each) respectively to £8, 8s.; £11, 5s.: £13, 10s.; £15, 15s.; and £18. The old-age pensions (beginning at 70 years) amount to £5, 10s.; £7; £8, 10s.; £10; and £11, 10s. The old-age and invalid insurance is carried out by thirty-one large territorial offices, to which must be added nine special unions. The income of the forty establishments was, in 1903, £8,500,000 (including £1,700,000 imperial subsidy). The capital collected was upwards of £50,000,000. It may be added that employees in mercantile and trading houses, who have not exceeded the age of 40 years and whose income is below £150, are allowed voluntarily to share in the benefits of this insurance. 3. Accident Insurance (Unfallversicherung).-The insurance of workmen and the lesser officials against the risks of accident is effected not through the state or the commune, but through associations formed ad hoc. These associations are composed of members following the same or allied occupations (e.g. foresters, seamen, smiths, &c.), and hence are called "professional associations (Berufsgenossenschaften). They are empowered, subject to the limits set by the law, to regulate their own business by means of a general meeting and of elected committees. The greater number of these associations cover a very wide field, generally the whole empire; in such cases they are empowered to divide their spheres into sections, and to establish agents in different centres to inquire into cases of accident, and to see to the carrying out of the rules prescribed by the association for the avoidance of accidents. Those associations, of which the area of operations extends beyond any single state, are subordinate to the control of the imperial insurance bureau (Reichsversicherungsamt) at Berlin; those that are confined to a single state (as generally in the case of foresters and husbandmen) are under the control of the state insurance bureau (Landesversicherungsamt). So far as their earnings do not exceed £150 per annum, the following classes are under the legal obligation to insure: labourers in mines, quarries, dockyards,wharves, manufactories and breweries; bricklayers and navvies; post-office, railway, and naval and military servants and officials; carters, raftsmen and canal hands; cellarmen, warehousemen; stevedores; and agricultural labourers. Each of these groups forms an association, which within a certain district embraces all the industries with which it is connected. The funds for covering the compensation payable in respect of accidents are raised by payments based, in agriculture, on the taxable capital, and in other trades and industries on the earnings of the insured. Compensation in respect of injury or death is not paid if the accident was brought about through the culpable negligence or other delict of the insured. In case of injury, involving incapacity for more than thirteen weeks (for the earlier period the Krankenkassen provide), the weekly sum payable during complete or permanent incapacity is fixed at the ratio of two-thirds of the carnings during the year preceding the accident, and in case of partial disablement, at such a proportion of the carnings as corresponds to the loss through disablement. In certain circumstances (eg. need for paid nursing) the sum may be increased to the full rate of the previous earnings. In case of death, as a consequence of injury, the following payments are made: (1) a sum of at least £2, 10s. to defray the expenses of interment; (2) a monthly allowance of one-fifth of the annual earnings as above to the widow and each child up to the age of 15. Life Insurance.-There were forty-six companies in 1900 for the insurance of life. The number of persons insured was 1,446,249 at the end of that year, the insurances amounting to roughly £320,000,000. Besides these are sixty-one companies-of which forty-six are comprised in the above life insurance companiespaying subsidies in case of death or of military service, endowments, &c. Some of these companies are industrial. The transactions of all these companies included in 1900 over 4,179,000 persons, and the amount of insurances effected was £80,000,000. Religion. So far as the empire as a whole is concerned there is no state religion, each state being left free to maintain its own establishment. Thus while the emperor, as king of Prussia, is summus episcopus of the Prussian Evangelical Church, as emperor he enjoys no such ecclesiastical headship. In the several states the relations of church and state differ fundamentally according as these states are Protestant or Catholic. In the latter these relations are regulated either by concordats between the governments and the Holy See, or by bulls of circumscription The effects of concordats issued by the pope after negotiation. and bulls alike are tempered by the exercise by the civil power of certain traditional reserved rights, c.g. the placetum regium, recursus ab abusu, nominatio regia, and that of vetoing the nomination of personae minus gratae. In the Protestant states the ecclesiastical authority remains purely territorial, and the sovereign remains effective head of the established church. During the 19th century, however, a large measure of ecclesiastical self-government (by means of general synods, &c.) was introduced, pari passu with the growth of constitutional government in the state; and in effect, though the theoretical supremacy of the sovereign survives in the church as in the state, he cannot exercise it save through the general synod, which is the state parliament for ecclesiastical purposes. Where a sovereign rules over a state containing a large proportion of both Catholics and Protestants, which is usually the case, both systems coexist. Thus in Prussia the relations of the Roman Catholic community to the Protestant state are regulated by arrangement between the Prussian government and Rome; while in Bavaria the king, though a Catholic, is legally summus episcopus of the Evangelical Church. According to the religious census of 1900 there were in the German empire 35.231,104 Evangelical Protestants, 20,327,913 Roman Catholics, 6472 Greek Orthodox, 203,678 Christians belonging to other confessions, 586,948 Jews, 11,597 members of other sects and 5938 unclassified. The Christians belonging to other confessions include Moravian Brethren, Mennonites, Baptists, Methodists and Quakers, German Catholics, Old Catholics, &c. The table on following page shows the distribution of the population according to religious beliefs as furnished by the census of 1900. Almost two-thirds of the population belong to the Evangelical Church, and rather more than a third to the Church of Rome; the actual figures (based on the census of 1900) being (%) Evangelical Protestants, 62.5; Roman Catholics, 361; Dissenters and others, 043, and Jews, 10. The Protestants have not increased proportionately in number since 1890, while the Roman Catholics show a small relative increase. Three states in Germany have a decidedly predominant Roman Catholic population, viz. AlsaceLorraine, Bavaria and Baden; and in four states the Protestant element prevails, but with from 24 to 34% of Roman Catholics; viz. Prussia, Württemberg, Hesse and Oldenburg. In Saxony and Waldeck 55,285 1,831 164 637 Reuss-Greiz 66,860 1,043 444 48 135,958 2,579 466 178 Schaumburg-Lippe 41,908 Lippe 132,708 Lübeck 93,671 Bremen 208,815 Hamburg 712,338 Alsace-Lorraine 372,078 670 1,409 17,949 32,379 586,948 Reuss-Schleiz 166 and Hesse, where the Reformed Church had the preponderance, The inhabitants of these countries opposed the introduction of the union, but could not prevent their being subordinated to the Prussian Oberkirchenrat (high church-council), the supreme court of the state church. A synodal constitution for the Evangelical State Church was introduced in Prussia in 1875. The Oberkirchenrat retains the right of supreme management. The ecclesiastical affairs of the separate provinces are directed by consistorial boards. The parishes (Pfarreien) are grouped into dioceses (Sprengel), presided over by superintendents, who are subordinate to the superintendentgeneral of the province. Prussia has sixteen superintendents-general. The ecclesiastical administration is similarly regulated in the other countries of the Protestant creed. Regarding the number of churches and chapels Germany has no exact statistics. Roman Catholic Church. There are five archbishoprics within the German empire: Gnesen-Posen, Cologne, Freiburg (Baden), Munich-Freising and Bamberg. The twenty bishoprics are: Breslau (where the bishop has the title of "prince-bishop "), Ermeland (seat at Frauenburg, East Prussia). Kulm (seat at Pelplin, West Prussia), Fulda, Hildesheim, Osnabrück, Paderborn, Münster, Limburg, Trier, Metz, Strassburg, Spires, Würzburg, Regensburg, Passau, Eichstätt, Augsburg, Rottenburg (Württemberg) and Mainz. Apostolic vicariates exist in Dresden (for Saxony), and others for Anhalt and the northern missions. The Old Catholics (q.v.), who seceded from the Roman Church in consequence of the definition of the dogma of papal infallibility, number roughly 50,000, with 54 clergy. Jews. It is in the towns that the Jewish element is chiefly to be found. They belong principally to the mercantile class, and are to a very large extent dealers in money. Their wealth has grown to an extraordinary degree. They are increasingly numerous in Hamburg, Berlin, Frankfort-on-Main, Breslau, Königsberg, Posen, Cologne, Nuremberg and Fürth. As a rule their numbers are proportionately greater in Prussia than elsewhere within the empire. But, since 1871, the Jewish population of Germany shows a far smaller increase than that of the Christian confessions, and even in the parts of the country where the Jewish population is densest it has shown a tendency to diminish. It is relatively greatest in the province of Posen, where the numbers have fallen from 61,982 (39-1 per thousand) in 1871 to 35,327 (18-7 per thousand) in 1900. The explanation is twofold-the extraordinary increase (1) in their numbers in Berlin and the province of Brandenburg, and (2) in the number of conversions to the Christian faith. In this last regard it may be remarked that the impulse is less from religious conviction than from a desire to associate on more equal terms with their neighbours. Though still, in fact at least, if not by law, excluded from many public offices, especially from commands in the army, they nevertheless are very powerful in Germany, the press being for the most part in their hands, and they furnish in many cities fully one-half of the lawyers and the members of the corporation. It should be mentioned, as a curious fact, that the numbers of the Jewish persuasion in the kingdom of Saxony increased from 3358 (1.3 per thousand) in 1871 to 12,416 (3 per thousand) in 1900. From the above table little can be inferred as to the geographical distribution of the two chief confessions. On this point it must be borne in mind that the population of the larger towns, on account of the greater mobility of the population since the introduction of railways and the abolition of restrictions upon free settlement, has become more mixed-Berlin, Leipzig, Hamburg, &c., showing proportionally more Roman Catholics, and Cologne, Frankfort-onMain, Munich more Protestants than formerly. Otherwise the geographical limits of the confessions have been but little altered since the Thirty Years' War. In the mixed territories those places which formerly belonged to Roman Catholic princes are Roman Catholic still, and vice versa. Hence a religious map of South Germany looks like an historical map of the 17th century. The number of localities where the two confessions exist side by side is small. Generally speaking, South Germany is predominantly Roman Catholic. Some districts along the Danube (province of Bavaria, Upper Palatinate, Swabia), southern Württemberg and Baden, and in Alsace-Lorraine are entirely so. These territories are bordered by a broad stretch of country on the north, where Protestantism has maintained its hold since the time of the Reformation, including Bayreuth or eastern upper Franconia, middle Franconia, the northern half of Württemberg and Baden, with Hesse and the Palatinate. Here the average proportion of Protestants to Roman Catholics is The basin of the Main is again Roman Catholic from Bamberg to Aschaffenburg (western upper Franconia and lower Franconia). In Prussia the western and south-eastern provinces are mostly Roman Catholic, especially the Rhine province, together with the government districts of Münster and Arnsberg. The territories of the former principality of Cleves and of the countship of Mark (comprising very nearly the basin of the Ruhr), which went to Brandenburg in 1609, must, however, be excepted. North of Münster, Roman Catholicism is still prevalent in the territory of Education. In point of educational culture Germany ranks the former bishopric of Osnabrück. In the east, East Prussia high among all the civilized great nations of the world (see (Ermeland excepted) is purely Protestant. Roman Catholicism was predominant a hundred years ago in all the frontier provinces ac- EDUCATION: Germany). Education is general and compulsory quired by Prussia in the days of Frederick the Great, but since then throughout the empire, and all the states composing it have, with the German immigrants have widely propagated the Protestant minor modifications, adopted the Prussian system providing faith in these districts. A prevailingly Roman Catholic population for the establishment of elementary schools-Volksschulen-in is still found in the district of Oppeln and the countship of Glatz, in the province of Posen, in the Polish-speaking Kreise of West every town and village. The school age is from six to fourteen, Prussia, and in Ermeland (East Prussia). In all the remaining and parents can be compelled to send their children to a Volksterritory the Roman Catholic creed is professed only in the Eichsfeldschule, unless, to the satisfaction of the authorities, they are on the southern border of the province of Hanover and around receiving adequate instruction in some other recognized school or institution. two to one. Hildesheim. The total number of primary schools was 60,584 in 19061907; teachers, 166,597; pupils, 9,737,262-an average of about one Volksschule to every 900 inhabitants. The annual expenditure was over £26,000,000, of which sum £7,500,000 was pro The adherents of Protestantism are divided by their confessions into Reformed and Lutheran. To unite these the "church union" has been introduced in several Protestant states, as for Protestant example in Prussia and Nassau in 1817, in the Palatinate Church, in 1818 and in Baden in 1822. Since 1817 the distinction has accordingly been ignored in Prussia, and Christians are there enumerated only as Evangelical or Roman Catholic. The union, how-vided by state subvention. There were also in Germany in ever, has not remained wholly unopposed-a section of the more rigid Lutherans who separated themselves from the state church being now known as Old Lutherans. In 1866 Prussia annexed Hanover and Schleswig-Holstein, where the Protestants were Lutherans, the same year 643 private schools, giving instruction similar to that of the elementary schools, with 41,000 pupils. A good criterion of the progress of education is obtained from the diminishing number of illiterate army recruits, as shown by the following Of the above 131 illiterates in 1900-1901, 114 were in East and West Prussia, Posen and Silesia. Universities and Higher Technical Schools.-Germany owes its large number of universities, and its widely diffused higher education to its former subdivision into many separate states. Only a few of the universities date their existence from the 19th century; the majority of them are very much older. Each of the larger provinces, except Posen, has at least one university, the entire number being 21. All have four faculties except Münster, which has no faculty of medicine. As regards theology, Bonn, Breslau and Tübingen have both a Protestant and a Catholic faculty; Freiburg, Munich, Münster and Würzburg are exclusively Catholic; and all the rest are Protestant. The following table gives the names of the 21 universities, the dates of their respective foundations, the number of their professors and other teachers for the winter half-year 1908-1909, and of the students attending their lectures during the winter half-year of 1907-1908: Professors and addition to 424 commercial schools of a lesser degree, 100 schools for textile manufactures and numerous schools for special metal industries, wood-working, ceramic industries, naval architecture and engineering and navigation. For military science there are the academies of war (Kriegsakademien) in Berlin and Munich, a naval academy in Kiel, and various cadet and non-commissioned officers' schools. Libraries.-Mental culture and a general diffusion of knowledge are extensively promoted by means of numerous public libraries established in the capital, the university towns and other places. The most celebrated public libraries are those of Berlin (1,000,000 volumes and 30,000 MSS.); Munich (1,000,000 volumes, 40,000 MSS.); Heidelberg (563,000 volumes, 8000 MSS.); Göttingen (503,000 volumes, 6000 MSS.); Strassburg (760,000 volumes); Dresden (500,000 volumes, 6000 MSS.); Hamburg (municipal library, 600,000 volumes, 5000 MSS.); Stuttgart (400,000 volumes, 3500 MSS.); Leipzig (university library, 500,000 volumes, 5000 MSS.); Würzburg (350,000 volumes); Tübingen (340,000 volumes); Rostock (318,000 volumes); Breslau (university library, 300,000 volumes, 7000 MSS.); Freiburg-im-Breisgau (250,000 volumes); Bonn (265,000 volumes); and Königsberg (230,000 volumes, 1100 MSS.). There are also famous libraries at Gotha, Wolfenbüttel and Celle. Learned Societies.-There are numerous societies and unions, some of an exclusively scientific character and others designed for the popular diffusion of useful knowledge. Foremost among German academies is the Academy of Sciences (Akademie der Wissenschaften) in Berlin, founded in 1700 on Leibnitz's great plan and opened in Frederick the Great on the French model and received its present 1711. After undergoing various vicissitudes, it was reorganized by constitution in 1812. It has four sections: physical, mathematical, philosophical and historical. The members are (1) ordinary (50 in number, each receiving a yearly dotation of £30), and (2) extraordinary, consisting of honorary and corresponding (foreign) members. It has published since 1811 a selection of treatises furnished by its most eminent men, Students. among whom must be reckoned Schleiermacher, the brothers Humboldt, Grimm, Savigny, Bockh, Ritter and Lachmann, and has promoted philo logical and historical research by helping the production of such works as Corpus inscriptionum Graecarum; Corpus inscriptionum Lalinarum; Monumenta Germaniae historica, the works of Aristotle, Frederick the Great's works and Kant's collected works. Next in order come (1) the Academy of Sciences at Munich, founded in 1759, divided into three classes, philosophical, historical and physical, and especially famous Total. 3209 Date of Foundation. Teachers. Theology. Law. Medicine. Philosophy. 2747 1153 3934 8220 833 282 1699 Erlangen 1058 580 Giessen. Göttingen 188 1126 1857 803 Heidelberg 357 385 879 1676 Jena 1558 116 48 Not included in the above list is the little academy-Lyceum | Hosianum-at Braunsberg in Prussia, having faculties of theology (Roman Catholic) and philosophy, with 13 teachers and 150 students. In all the universities the number of matriculated students in 19071908 was 46,471, including 320 women, 2 of whom studied theology, 14 law, 150 philosophy and 154 medicine. There were also, within the same period, 5653 non-matriculated Hörer (hearers), including 2486 women. Ten schools, technical high schools, or Polytechnica, rank with the universities, and have the power of granting certain degrees. They have departments of architecture, building, civil engineering, chemistry, metallurgy and, in some cases, anatomy. These schools are as follows: Berlin (Charlottenburg), Munich, Darmstadt, Karlsruhe, Hanover, Dresden, Stuttgart, Aix-la-Chapelle, Brunswick and Danzig; in 1908 they were attended by 14,149 students (2531 foreigners), and had a teaching staff of 753. Among the remaining higher technical schools may be mentioned the three mining academies of Berlin, Clausthal, in the Harz, and Freiberg in Saxony, For instruction in agriculture there are agricultural schools attached to several universities-notably Berlin, Halle, Göttingen, Königsberg, Jena, Poppelsdorf near Bonn, Munich and Leipzig. Noted academies of forestry are those of Tharandt (in Saxony), for its historical research; (2) the Society of Sciences (Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften) in Göttingen, founded in 1742; (3) that of Erfurt, founded 1758; (4) Görlitz (1779) and (5) the "Royal Saxon Society of Sciences" (Königliche sächsische Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften), founded in Leipzig in 1846. Ample provision is made for scientific collections of all kinds in almost all places of any importance, either at the public expense or through private munificence. Observatories. These have in recent years been considerably augmented. There are 19 leading observatories in the empire, viz, at Bamberg, Berlin (2), Bonn, Bothkamp in Schleswig, Breslau, Düsseldorf, Gotha, Göttingen, Hamburg, Heidelberg, Jena, Kiel, Königsberg, Leipzig, Munich, Potsdam, Strassburg and Wilhelmshaven. Book Trade. This branch of industry, from the important position it has gradually acquired since the time of the Reformation, is to be regarded as at once a cause and a result of the mental culture of Germany. Leipzig, Berlin and Stuttgart are the chief centres of the trade. The number of booksellers in Germany was not less than 10,000 in 1907, among whom were approximately 6000 publishers. The following figures will show the recent progress of German literary production, in so far as published works are concerned: Eberswalde, Münden on the Weser, Hohenheim Year 1570 1600 1618 1650 1700 1750 1800 1840 1884 1902 near Stuttgart, Brunswick, Eisenach, Giessen and Books 229 Karlsruhe. Other technical schools are again the five veterinary academies of Berlin, Hanover, Munich, Dresden and Stuttgart, the commercial colleges (Handelshochschulen) of Leipzig, Aix-la-Chapelle, Hanover, Frankfort-on-Main and Cologne, in Some large cities, notably Berlin, Cologne, Hamburg, Dresden, Leipzig and Munich, have, however, newspapers with a daily circulation of over 100,000 copies, and in the case of some papers in Berlin a million copies is reached. Most readers receive their newspapers through the post office or at their clubs, which may help to explain the smaller number of copies sold. Fine Arts.-Perhaps the chief advantage which Germany has derived from the survival of separate territorial sovereignties within the empire has been the decentralization of culture. Patronage of art is among the cherished traditions of the German princes; and even where-as for instance at Cassel-there is no longer a court, the artistic impetus given by the former sovereigns has survived their fall. The result has been that there is in Germany no such concentration of the institutions for the encouragement and study of the fine arts as there is in France or England. Berlin has no practical monopoly, such as is possessed by London or Paris, of the celebrated museums and galleries of the country. The picture galleries of Dresden, Munich and Cassel still rival that at Berlin, though the latter is rapidly becoming one of the richest in the world in works of the great masters, largely at the cost of the private collections of England. For the same reason the country is very well provided with excellent schools of painting and music. Of the art schools the most famous are those of Munich, Dusseldorf, Dresden and Berlin, but there are others, e.g. at Karlsruhe, Weimar and Königsberg. These schools are in close touch with the sovereigns and the governments, and the more promising pupils are thus from the first assured of a career, especially in connexion with the decoration of public buildings and monuments. To this fact is largely due the excellence of the Germans in grandiose decorative painting and sculpture, a talent for the exercise of which plenty of scope has been given them by the numerous public buildings and memorials raised since the war of 1870. Perhaps for this very reason, however, the German art schools have had no such cosmopolitan influence as that exercised by the schools of Paris, the number of foreign students attending them being comparatively small. It is otherwise with the schools of music, which exercise a profound influence far beyond the borders of Germany. Of these the most important are the conservatoires of Leipzig, Dresden, Berlin, Munich and Frankforton-Main. The fame of Weimar as a seat of musical education, though it possesses an excellent conservatoire, is based mainly on the tradition of the abbé Liszt, who gathered about him here a number of distinguished pupils, some of whom have continued to make it their centre. Music in Germany also receives a great stimulus from the existence, in almost every important town, of opera-houses partly supported by the sovereigns or by the civic authorities. Good music being thus brought within the reach of all, appreciation of it is very wide-spread in all classes of the population. The imperial government maintains institutes at Rome and Athens which have done much for the advancement of archacology. (P. A. A.) Army. The system of the "nation in arms "owes its existence to the reforms in the Prussian army that followed Jena. The "nation in arms " itself was the product of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, but it was in Prussia that was seen the systematization and the economical and effective application of the immense forces of which the revolutionary period had demonstrated the existence (see also ARMY; CONSCRIPTION; FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY WARS, &c.). It was with an army and a military system that fully represented the idea of the "nation in arms" that Prussia created the powerful Germany of later days, and the same system was extended by degrees over all the other states of the new empire. But these very successes contained in themselves the germ of new troubles. Increased prosperity, a still greater increase in population and the social and economic disturbances incidental to the conversion of an agricultural into a manufacturing community, led to the practical abandonment of the principle of universal service. More men came before the recruiting officer than there was money to train; and in 1895 the period of service with the colours was reduced from three to two years-a step since followed by other military powers, the idea being that with the same peace effective and financial grants half as many men again could be passed through the ranks as before. In 1907 the recruiting statistics were as follows: Number of young men attaining service age (including those who had voluntarily enlisted before their time). Men belonging to previous years who had been put back for re-examination. &c., still borne on the lists Deduct-Physically unfit, &c. Struck off. 556,772 657.753 Thus only half the men on whom the government has an effective hold go to the colours in the end. Morcover few of the men “ put back, &c.," who figure on both sides of the account for any one year, and seem to average 660,000, are really "put back." They are in the main those who have failed or fail to present themselves, and whose names are retained on the liability lists against the day of their return. Many of these have emigrated. By the constitution of the 16th of April 1871 every German is liable to service and no substitution is allowed. Liability begins at the age of seventeen, and actual service, as a rule, from the age of twenty. The men serve in the active army and army reserve for seven years, of which two years (three in the case of cavalry and horse artillery recruits) are spent with the colours. During his four or five years in the reserve, the soldier is called out for training with his corps twice, for a maximum of eight weeks (in practice usually for six). After quitting the reserve the soldier is drafted into the first ban of the Landwehr for five years more, in which (except in the cavalry, which is not called out in peace time) he undergoes two trainings of from eight to fourteen days. Thence he passes into the second ban and remains in it until he has completed his thirty-ninth year-i.e from six to seven years more, the whole period of army and Landwehr service being thus nineteen years. Finally, all soldiers are passed into the Landsturm, in the first ban of which they remain until the completion of their forty-fifth year. The second ban consists of untrained men between the ages of thirty-nine and forty-five. Young men who reach a certain standard of education, however, are only obliged to serve for one year in the active army. They are called One-Year Volunteers (Einjährig-Freiwilligen), defray their own expenses and are the chief source of supply of reserve and Landwehr officers. That proportion of the annual contingents which is dismissed untrained goes either to the Ersatz-Reserve or to the 1st ban of the Landsturm (the Landwehr, it will be observed, contains only men who have served with the colours). The Ersatz consists exclusively of young men, who would in war time be drafted to the regimental depots and thence sent, with what training circumstances had in the meantime allowed, to the front. Some men of the Ersatz receive a short preliminary training in peace time. In 1907 the average height of the private soldiers was 5 ft. 6 in., that of the non-commissioned officers 5 ft. 6 in., and that of the one-year volunteers 5 ft. 9 in. A much greater proportion of the country recruits were accepted as "fit" than of those coming from the towns. Voluntary enlistments of men who desired to become non-commissioned officers were most frequent in the provinces of the old Prussian monarchy, but in Berlin itself and in Westphalia the enlistments fell far short of the number of non-commissioned officers required for the territorial regiments of the respective districts. Above all, in Alsace Lorraine one-eighth only of the required numbers were obtained. every five years; thus a law of April 1905 fixes the strength and Peace and War Strengths.-German military policy is revised establishments to be attained on March 31, 1910, the necessary augmentations, &c., being carried out gradually in the intervening years. The peace strength for the latter date was fixed at 505.839 men (not including officers, non-commissioned officers and one-year volunteers), forming 633 battalions infantry. 510 squadrons cavalry. 574 batteries field and horse artillery. 40 battalions foot artillery. 29 battalions pioneers. 12 battalions communication troops. 23 train battalions, &c. ARMY] The addition of about 25,000 officers and 85,000 non-commissioned | regiments or 12 battalions), 2 regiments of field artillery (comprising officers, one-year men, &c., brings the peace footing of the German 9 batteries of field-guns and 3 of field howitzers, 72 pieces in all). 3 squadrons of cavalry, 1 or 2 companies of pioneers, a bridge train army in 1910 to a total of about 615,000 of all ranks. and 1 or 2 bearer companies; (c) corps troops, I battalion rifles, telegraph troops, bridge train, ammunition columns, train (supply) battalion, field bakeries, bearer companies and field hospitals, &c., with, as a rule, one or two batteries of heavy field howitzers or mortars and a machine-gun group. The remainder of the cavalry and horse artillery attached to the army corps in peace goes in war to form the cavalry divisions. Certain corps have an increased effective; thus the Guard has a whole cavalry division, and the I. corps (Königsberg) has three divisions. Several corps possess an extra infantry brigade of two 2-battalion regiments, but these, unless stationed on the frontiers, are gradually absorbed into new divisions and army corps. In war several army corps, cavalry divisions and reserve divisions are grouped in two or more" armies," and in peace the army corps are divided for purposes of superior control amongst several army inspections." As for war, the total fighting strength of the German nation From 5 contingents of Landwehr (1st ban) One-year volunteers recalled to the colours or 100,000 1,200,000 400,000 2,400,000 These again would divide into a first line army of 1,350,000 and a second of 1,050,000. It is calculated that the field army would consist, in the third week of a great war, of 633 battalions, 410 squadrons and 574 batteries, with technical, departmental and medical troops (say 630,000 bayonets, 60,000 sabres and 3444 guns, or 750,000 men), and that these could be reinforced in three or four weeks by 350 fresh battalions. Behind these forces there would shortly become available for secondary operations about 460 battalions of the Ist ban Landwehr, and 200 squadrons and about 220 batteries of the reserve and Landwehr. In addition, each would leave behind depot troops to form the nucleus on which the 2nd ban Landwehr and the Landsturm would eventually be built up. The total number of units of the three arms in all branches may be stated approximately at 2200 battalions, 780 squadrons and 950 batteries. Command and Organization.-By the articles of the constitution the whole of the land forces of the empire form a united army in war and peace under the orders of the emperor. The sovereigns of the chief states are entitled to nominate the lower grades of officers, and the king of Bavaria has reserved to himself the special privilege of superintending the general administration of the three Bavarian army corps; but all appointments are made subject to the emperor's approval. The emperor is empowered to erect fortresses in any part of the empire. It is the almost invariable practice of the kings of Prussia to command their forces in person, and the army commands, too, are generally held by leaders of royal or princely rank. The natural corollary to this is the assignment of special advisory duties to a responsible chief of staff. The officers are recruited either from the Cadet Corps at Berlin or from amongst those men, of avantageurs sufficient social standing, who join the ranks as Reserve and Landwehr with a view to obtaining commissions. officers are drawn from among officers and selected non-commissioned officers retired from the active army, and one-year volunteers who have passed a special examination. All candidates, from whatever source they come, are subject to approval or rejection by their Promotion brother officers before being definitively commissioned. " in the German army is excessively slow, the senior subalterns having eighteen to twenty years' commissioned service and the senior captains sometimes thirty. The number of officers on the active list is about 25,000. The under-officers number about 84,000. The German army is organized in twenty-three army corps, stationed and recruited in the various provinces and: tates as follows: Guard, Berlin (general recruiting); 1. Königsberg (East Prussia): II. Stettin (Pomerania); III. Berlin (Brandenburg); IV. Magdeburg (Prussian Saxony); V. Posen (Poland and part of Silesia); VI. VIII. Coblenz Breslau (Silesia); VII. Münster (Westphalia); (Rhinelana); IX. Altona (Hanse Towns and Schleswig-Holstein); X. Hanover (Hanover); XI. Cassel (Hesse-Cassel); XII. Dresden (Saxony); XIII. Stuttgart (Württemberg); XIV. Karlsruhe (Baden); XV. Strassburg (Alsace); XVI. Metz (Lorraine); XVII. Danzig (West Prussia); XVIII. Frankfurt-am-Main (Hesse Darmstadt, Main country); XIX. Leipzig (Saxony); 1. Bavarian Corps, Munich; II. Bavarian Corps, Würzburg; III. Bavarian Corps, Nuremberg. The formation of a XX. army corps out of the extra division of the XIV. corps at Colmar in Alsace, with the addition of two regiments from Westphalia and drafts of the XV. and XVI. corps, was announced in 1908 as the final step of the programme for the period 1906-1910. The normal composition of an army corps on war is (a) staff, (b) 2 infantry divisions, each of 2 brigades (4 1 Actually between 1883 and 1908 over five million recruits passed through the drill sergeant's hands, as well as perhaps 210,000 one-year volunteers. The cavalry is organized in regiments of cuirassiers, dragoons, lancers, hussars and mounted rifles, the regiments having four service and one depot squadrons. Troopers are armed with lance, sword and carbine (for which in 1908 the substitution of a short rifle with bayonet was suggested). In peace time the highest permanent organization is the brigade of two regiments or eight squadrons, but in war and at manœuvres divisions of three brigades, with horse artillery attached, are formed. The infantry consists of 216 regiments, mostly of three battalions cach. These are numbered, apart from the eight Guard regiments and the Bavarians, serially throughout the army. Certain regiments are styled grenadiers and fusiliers. In addition there are eighteen chasseur or rifle battalions (Jager). The battalion has always four companies, each, at war strength, 250 strong. The armament of the infantry is the model 1898 magazine rifle and bayonet (see RIFLE). The field (including horse) artillery consists in peace of 94 regiments subdivided into two or three groups (Abteilungen), each of two or three 6-gun batteries. The field gun in use is the quickfiring gun 96/N.A. (see ORDNANCE: Field Equipments). The foot artillery is intended for siege and fortress warfare, and to furnish the heavy artillery of the field army. It consists of forty battalions. Machine gun detachments, resembling 4-gun batteries and horsed as artillery, were formed to the number of sixteen in 1904-1906. These are intended to work with the cavalry divisions. Afterwards it was decided to form additional small groups of two guns each, less fully horsed, to assist the infantry, and a certain number of these were created in 1906-1908. The engineers are a technical body, not concerned with field warfare or with the command of troops. On the other hand, the pioneers (29 battalions) are assigned to the field army, with duties corresponding roughly to those of field companies R.E. in the British service. Other branches represented in Great Britain by the Royal Engineers are known in Germany by the title "communication troops, " and comprise railway, telegraph and airship and balloon battalions. The Train is charged with the duties of supply and transport. There is one battalion to each army corps. Remounts. The peace establishment in horses is approximately 100,000. Horses serve eight to nine years in the artillery and nine to ten in the cavalry, after which, in the autumn of each year, they are sold, and their places taken by remounts. The latter are bought at horse-fairs and private sales, unbroken, and sent to the 25 remount depots, whence, when fit for the service, they are sent to the various units, as a rule in the early summer. Most of the cavalry and artillery riding horses come from Prussia proper. The Polish districts produce swift Hussar horses of a semi-castern type. Hanover is second only to East Prussia in output of horses. Bavaria, Saxony and Württemberg do not produce enough horses for their own armies and have to draw on Prussia. Thirteen thousand four hundred and forty-five young horses were bought by the army authorities during 1907. The average price was about £51 for field artillery draught horses, £65 for heavy draught horses, and £46 for riding horses. The military expenditure of Germany, according to a comparative table furnished to the House of Commons by the British war office in 1907, varied between £36,000,000 and £44,000,000 per annum in the period 1899-1902, and between £42,000,000 and £51,000,000 per annum in that of 1905-1909. Colonial Troops.-In 1906 these, irrespective of the brigade of occupation then maintained in north China and of special reinforce ments sent to S.W. Africa during the Herrero war, consisted of the German East Africa troops, 220 Europeans and 1470 natives; the Cameroon troops, 145 European and 1170 natives; S. W. African troops, entirely European and normally consisting of 606 officers 2 These last have a curious history. They were formed from about 1890 onwards, by individual squadrons, two or three being voted each year. Ostensibly raised for the duties of mounted orderlies, at a time when it would have been impolitic to ask openly for more cavalry, they were little by little trained in real cavalry work, then combined in provisional regiments for disciplinary purposes and at last frankly classed as cavalry. |