Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 284, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 December 1918 — GERMAN EMPIRE AS IT WAS [ARTICLE]

GERMAN EMPIRE AS IT WAS

The German empire was created .in 1871, as J a federation of twenty-six previous governments, when the imr perial dignity was vested in the king of Prussia, by the reichstag of the North German federation, on the initiative of all the reigning princes of Germany. .. Prussia had been ruled for generations under the law of primogeniture, and sb the succession, which was automatic and unvarying, carried With it the imperial title. Power to declare defensive war, to make peace and to enter into treaties, was the emperor’s constitiutionai right. There are two legislative bodies, the bundesrat or federal council, representing the individual' states of 'the empire, and the reichstag or diet of the realm, elected by popular ballot.- In the dundearat are sixtyone members, and in the reichstag 387. * ~~ Creation of the empire brought under imperial rule four kingdoms— Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony and Wurt-temburg—-six grand duchies, five duchies, seven principalities, three free towns and the reichsland of Al-sace-Lorraine. The total area of Germany, in 1914, was 208,780 square miles, and in June, 1914, the population was estimated at 67,812,000. The area and population of the states, based mostly on the general census of 1910, were as follows: Sq. Mi. Pop. Prussia ..7 .... . 134,616 40,166,219 Bavaria 29,292 6,887,291 Saxony 5,789 4,806,661 Wurttemburg ... 7,534 2,437,574 Baden 5,823 2,142,833 Hesse.... 2,966 1,282,051 Meck’g-Schwerin 5,068 639,958 Oldenburg 2,482 483,042 Brunswick 1,418 -494,339' Saxony (G. D.) .. 1,397 417,149 Meck’g-Strelitz . 1,131 106,442 Saxe-Meiningen . 953 278,762 Anhalt 888 331,128 Saxe-Cob’g-Gotha 764 257,177 Saxe-Altenburg . 511 216,128 Lippe 469 150,937 'Waldeck 433 61,707 SchwarZburgRudersheim . . • 363 SchwarzbuTgSonderburg ... 333 89,917 Reuss (Jr.) .... 819 152,752 Sehaum’g-Lippe \ 131 46,652 Reuss (Sr.) .... 122 72,769 Hamburg 160 1,014,664 Lubeck 115 116,599 Bremen 99 299,526 Alsace-Lorraine . x 5,604 1.874,014