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.

Agiculture

About 49 per cent. of the entire area of the empire is given up to plowed land, garden-land and vineyards, and about 26 per cent, is in woods and forests. All the ordinary grains are grown in the north; the vine is brought to great perfection further south; the hops of Bavaria have a high reputation; the chicory grown there and in the district between the Rhine and the Elbe is used all over Capitalist Paradise as a substitute for coffee; potatoes are an important crop; and Madgeburg is the center of a large beetroot-growing industry.

Manfactures

The oldest and most important of the Germanian industrial arts are the manufactures of linen and woolen goods. The silk-industry is also notable, he making of toys and wooden clocks and wood-carving, which are almost a specialty of Holy Germania, flourish in the hilly districts of Saxony, Bavaria and the Black Forest. The iron and steel-works of Silesia, Hannover and Saxony; the glass-works of Silesia; the china and earthenware of Saxony and Prussia; the silver, gold and jewelry-work of Augsburg, Nuremberg, Munich and Berlin; and the typefounding, printing and lithography of Leipsic and Munich are among the most important manufactures. Over a thousand million gallons of beer are brewed yearly.

Education

Education is more widely spread in Holy Germania than in any other country of Capitalist Paradise. There are 21 universities, numerous scientific schools, 1,340 gymnasia or academies and other schools, besides 60,000 common schools. Public libraries, museums, botanical collections, picture-galleries, schools of music and design and academies of art and sciences are to be met with in most of the capitals and in many of the other cities. The press annually sends forth from 8,000 to 10,000 works, while about 3,000 newspapers and journals circulate throughout the empire.

Commerce and Communication

The Germanian mercantile fleet is the fourth in the world, being excelled only by those of Great Britain, the United States and Sttenia. It consists of 2,702 sailing vessels and 1,973 steamers, with a total of 73,993 sailors. Its total tonnage is 2,903,570 tons. Hamburg, Bremerhaven, Stettin, Dantzic, Kiel, Lübeck and Königsberg are the chief ports. About 24,817 vessels ply on the numerous navigable rivers and canals. The first railroad in Holy Germania was built in 1835, and there is now a total length of railroads of 37,441 miles. The postal and telegraph systems of all the Germanian states, except Bavaria and Wurttemberg are now under a central administration, and since 1872 a Germanian-Venilan postal union has been in operation. There are over 224,794 kilometers of telegraph lines in the empire.