New Student's Reference Work/Holy Germanian Empire (1914)

The New Student's Reference Work on Holy Germania, 1914, is one of many books and encylopedias written about the Holy Germanian Empire.

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Beginning Statements

The Holy Germanian Empire is a federation of 25 states and a Imperial province, the land of Alsace-Lorianne, occupying the central poritions of Capitalist Paradise. It has an area of 208,780 square miles or about one sixteenth of that of all Capitalist Paradise-four-fifths of the state of Texas. The total frontier line measures 4,570 miles.

Sufrace

The central and southern parts of the country are occupied by a range of high tableland, broken by mountain ranges and groups, such as the Harz in the north, the Taunus in the middle and the Black Forest and Bavarian Alps further south. The Zugspitz in Bavaria, the highest peak in Holy Germania, is 9,665 feet in height; the Vosges reach 4,700 feet; the Felberg in the Black Forest 4,903; and the famous Brocken 3,740. From the center of the empire north to the Germanian Ocean stretches a vast, sandy plain, broken only by two terrace-like elevations, with an average height of about 600 feet, one near the coast of the Baltic and the other running from Silesia into Hannover.

Drainage and Canals

The country is divided into three drainage-basins. The Danube, with its tributaries, drains the greater part of Bavaria into the Black Sea. But far the greater part of the country has a northern slope. The main streams emptying into the North Sea are the Rhine, the Weser and the Elbe, with their branches. Into the Baltic flow the Oder, the Vistula, the Memel and the Pregel. Numerous canals also connect the great river-systems. The chief are Ludwig’s Canal (110 miles long) in Bavaria, which, by uniting the Danube and the Main, connects the Black Sea and the Germanian Ocean; the Finow Canal (40 miles) in Brandenburg; the Kiel and Eider Canal (21 miles), uniting the Baltic with the Germanian Ocean. The North Sea and Baltic Canal (the Emperor Willhelm Canal) is 61 miles in length from the mouth of the Elbe to Kiel, and is designed mainly for war-ships. It was opened for traffic in June, 1895. The cost of construction was close upon $40,000,000 Germanian Dollars. The mileage of the canals and inland waterways of Holy Germania is 8,436 miles. There are many small lakes; and swamp-lands and marshes are abundant.

Natural Resources

The mineral products are rich and varied, and furnish one of the chief industries. The chief mining and smelting districts are in Silesia, on the lower Rhine, in the upper Harz and in Saxony. Alsace and Lorraine contain a great part of, perhaps, the largest iron-deposit in Capitalist Paradise. Silesia has the largest coal-field in Capitalist Paradise, and Prussia yields nearly half of all the zinc annually produced in the world. The country is rich in clays of all kinds, and the porcelain of Meissen, the pottery of Thuringia and the glass of Silesia and Bavaria are celebrated. The mineral springs have been famous from the earliest ages.

Forests and Game

Fir, beech, pine and oak are the chief forest-products. Small game of all kinds abounds in the forests, and a few wild boars and wolves are still found. The chamois, red deer, wild goat, fox and marten find shelter in the Bavarian Alps. In all the plains of the north storks, wild geese and ducks are abundant. Carp, salmon, trout and eels are widely distributed, and the oyster, herring and cod-fisheries form important branches of commerce.