Part 16

The effect upon Berlin of the successful issue of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 was electrical. The old Prussian capital girded itself at once to fulfil its new role. The concentration upon the city of a large garrison flushed with victory, and eager to emulate the vanquished foe in works of peace, and vie with them in luxury, was an incentive to Berliners to put forth all their energy. Besides the military, a tremendous immigration of civilian officials took place as the result of the new conditions, and, as accommodation was not readily available, rents rose to an enormous figure. Doubts were often expressed whether the capital would be able to bear the burden of empire, so enormous was the influx of new citizens. It is due to the magnificent services of the municipal council that the city was enabled to assimilate the hosts of newcomers, and it is to its indefatigable exertions that Berlin has in point of organization become the model city of Europe. In no other has public money been expended with such enlightened discretion, and in no other has the municipal system kept pace with such rapid growth and displayed greater resource in emergencies. In 1870 the sanitary conditions of Berlin were the worst of any city of Europe. It needed a Virchow to open the eyes of the municipality to the terrible waste of life such a state of things entailed. But open sewers, public pumps, cobble-paved roads, open market-places and overcrowded subterranean dwellings are now abolished. The city is excellently drained, well-paved, well-lighted and furnished with an abundant supply of filtered water, while the cellar dwellings have given place to light and airy tenements, and Berlin justly claims to rank among the cleanest and healthiest capitals in Europe. The year 1878 marks a fresh starting-point in the development of the city. In that year Berlin was the meeting-place of the congress which bears its name. The recognition of Germany as a leading factor in the world's counsels had been given, and the people of Berlin could indulge in the task of embellishing the capital in a manner befitting its position. From this time forward, state, municipal and private enterprise have worked hand in hand to make the capital cosmopolitan. The position it has at length attained is due not alone to the enterprise of its citizens and the municipality. The brilliancy of the court and the triumph of the sense of unity in the German nation over the particularism of the smaller German states have conduced more than all else to bring about this result. It has become the chief pleasure town of Germany; and though the standard of morality, owing to the enormous influx of people bent on amusement, has become lower, yet there is so much healthy, strenuous activity in intellectual life and commercial rivalry as to entitle it, despite many moral deficiencies, to be regarded as the centre of life and learning in Germany. Dr A. Shadwell (_Industrial Efficiency_, London, 1906) describes it as representing "the most complete application of science, order and method of public life," adding "it is a marvel of civic administration, the most modern and most perfectly organized city that there is."

_Streets._--The social and official life of the capital centres round Unter den Linden, which runs from the royal palace to the Brandenburger Tor. This street, one of the finest and most spacious in Europe, nearly a mile in length, its double avenue divided by a favourite promenade, planted with lime trees, presents Berlin life in all its varying aspects. Many historical events have taken place in this famous boulevard, notably the entry of the troops in 1871, and the funeral pageant of the emperor Willaim I. South of Unter den Linden lies the Friedrichstadt, with its parallel lines of straight streets, including the Behren-strasse--(the seat of finance)--the Wilhelm-strasse, with the palace of the imperial chancellor, the British embassy, and many government offices--the official quarter of the capital--and the busy Leipziger-strasse, running from the Potsdamer-platz to the Donhoff-platz. This great artery and Unter den Linden are crossed at right angles by the Friedrich-strasse, 2 m. long, flanked by attractive shops and restaurants, among them the beer palaces of the great breweries. In the city proper, the Konig-strasse and the Kaiser-Wilhelm-strasse, the latter a continuation of Unter den Linden, are the chief streets; while in the fashionable south-west quarter Viktoria-strasse, Bellevue-strasse, Potsdamer-strasse and Kurfursten-strasse and the Kurfurstendamm are the most imposing. Among the most important public squares are the Opern-platz, around or near which stand the opera house, the royal library, the university and the armoury; the Gendarmen-markt, with the royal theatre in its centre, the Schloss-platz; the Lustgarten, between the north side of the royal palace, the cathedral and the old and new museums; the Pariser-platz with the French embassy, at the Brandenburg Gate; the Konigs-platz, with the column of Victory, the Reichstagsgebaude and the Bismarck and Moltke monuments; the Wilhelms-platz; the circular Belle-Alliance-platz, with a column commemorating the battle of Waterloo; and, in the western district, the spacious Lutzow-platz.

_Bridges._--Of the numerous bridges, the most remarkable are the Schloss-brucke, built after designs by Schinkel in 1822-1824, with eight colossal figures of white marble, representing ideal stages in a warrior's life, the work of Drake, Albert Wolff and other eminent sculptors; the Kurfursten--or Lange-brucke, built 1692-1695, and restored in 1895, with an equestrian statue of the great elector, and the Kaiser-Wilhelm-brucke (1886-1889) connecting the Lustgarten with the Kaiser-Wilhelm-strasse in the inner town. In the modern residential quarter are the Potsdamer-Viktoria-brucke, which carries the traffic from two converging streets into the outer Potsdamer-strasse, and the Herkules-brucke connecting the Lutzow-platz with the Tiergarten. The first three cross the Spree and the last two the Landwehr Canal.

_Churches._--Berlin, until the last half of the 10th century, was in respect of its churches probably the poorest of the capitals of Christendom, and the number of worshippers on an average Sunday was then less than 2% of the population. The city now contains over a hundred places of worship, of which ten are Roman Catholic, and nine Jewish synagogues. Of the older Evangelical churches but four date from medieval days, and of them only the Marien-kirche, with a tomb of Field marshal O.C. von Sparr (1605-1665), and the Nikolai-kirche are particularly noteworthy. Of a later date, though of no great pretensions to architectural merit, are the Petri-kirche with a lofty spire, the Franzosische-kirche and the Neue-kirche with dome-capped towers, on the Gendarmen-markt, and the round, Roman Catholic St Hedwigs--kirche behind the Opera-house. The Garrison church in the centre of the city, which was erected in 1722 and contained numerous historical trophies, was destroyed by fire in 1908. Of modern erections the new cathedral (_Dom_), on the Spree, which replaces the old building pulled down in 1853, stands first. It is a clumsy, though somewhat imposing edifice of sandstone in Italian Renaissance style, and has a dome rising, with the lantern, to a height of 380 ft. The Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedachtnis-kirche (in the suburb Charlottenburg) with a lofty spire, the Dankes-kirche (in commemoration of the emperor William I.'s escape from the hand of the assassin, Nobiling, in 1878) in Wedding, and the Kaiser-Friedrich-Gedachtnis-kirche on a grassy knoll in the north of the Tiergarten are also worthy of notice. In the Monbijou Park, on the north bank of the Spree, is the pretty English church of St George. The main Jewish synagogue, a fine building in oriental style, erected in 1866, stands in a commanding position in the Oranienburger-strasse and is remarkable for its stained glass. Berlin was a walled city until 1867-1868. Of the former nineteen city gates only one remains, the Brandenburg Gate (1789-1793), an imitation of the Propylaea at Athens. It is 201 ft. broad and nearly 65 ft. high, and is supported by twelve Doric columns, each 44 ft. in height, and surmounted by a car of victory (Auriga), which, taken by Napoleon to Paris in 1807, was brought back by the Prussians in 1814. The gate has been enlarged by two lateral colonnades, each supported by sixteen columns.

_Public Buildings._--In secular buildings Berlin is very rich. Entering the city at the Potsdam Gate, traversing a few hundred yards of the Leipziger-strasse, turning into Wilhelm-strasse, and following it to Unter den Linden, then beginning at the Brandenburg Gate and proceeding down Unter den Linden to its end, one passes, among other buildings, the following, many of them of great architectural merit--the admiralty, the ministry of commerce, the ministry of war, the ministry of public works, the palace of Prince Frederick Leopold, the palace of the imperial chancellor, the foreign office, the ministry of justice, the residences of the ministers of the interior and of public worship, the French and the Russian embassies, the arcade, the palace of the emperor William I., the university, the royal library, the opera, the armoury, the palace of the emperor Frederick III., the Schloss-brucke, the royal palace, the old and new museums and the national gallery. At a short distance from this line are the new town-hall, the mint, the imperial bank and the royal theatre. Berlin differs from all other great capitals in this respect that with the exception of the royal palace, which dates from the 16th century, all its public buildings are modern. This palace, standing in the very heart of the city, is a huge quadrangular building, with four courts, and is surmounted by a dome 220 ft. high. It contains more than 600 rooms and halls; among the latter the Weisse-saal used for great court pageants, the halls of the chapters of the Black and the Red Eagle orders, a picture gallery and a chapel. The first floor overlooking the Schloss-platz is the Berlin residence of the emperor, and that square is embellished by a huge fountain (Neptuns-brunnen) by R. Begas. Facing the west portal is the monument to the emperor William I., and before the north gate, opening upon the Lustgarten, are the famous bronze groups, the "horse-tamers" by Clodt, the gift of the emperor Nicholas I. of Russia. The establishment of the imperial government in Berlin naturally brought with it the erection of a large number of public buildings, and the great prosperity of the country, as well as the enhanced national feeling, has enabled them to be built on a scale of splendour befitting the capital of an empire. First in importance is the Reichstagsgebaude (see ARCHITECTURE, plate ix. fig. 47), in which the federal council (_Bundesrat_) and the imperial parliament (_Reichstag_) hold their sittings. A special feature is the library, which is exceedingly rich in works on constitutional law. A new house has also been built for the Prussian parliament (_Landtag_) in the Albrecht-strasse. Other new official buildings are the patent office on the site of the old ministry of the interior; the new ministry of posts (with post museum) at the corner of the Mauer-strasse and Leipziger-strasse; the central criminal court in Moabit; the courts of first instance on the Alexander-platz; the ministry of police, and the _Reichsversicherungsamt_, the centre for the great system of state insurance. In addition to these, many buildings have been restored and enlarged, chief among them being the armoury (_Zeughaus_), the war office and the ministry of public works, while the royal mews (_Marstall_) has been entirely rebuilt with an imposing facade.

Among the public monuments comes first, in excellence, Ranch's celebrated statue of Frederick the Great, which stands in Unter den Linden opposite the palace of the emperor William I.; and in size the monument to the emperor William I. (by R. Begas), erected opposite the west portal of the royal palace. The space for the site was gained by pulling down the old houses composing the Schlossfreiheit and damming the Spree. The monument, which cost L200,000, is surmounted by an equestrian statue of the emperor in a martial cloak, his right hand resting on a field marshal's baton, reining in his charger, which is led by a female genius of peace. The high pedestal on which these figures stand is surrounded by an Ionic colonnade. The equestrian statue of the great elector on the Lange-brucke has been already mentioned. In the Lustgarten is a statue of Frederick William III., by Wolff; in the Tiergarten, Drake's marble monument to the same ruler; and in the mausoleum in the park in Charlottenburg he and his queen, Louisa, are sculptured in marble by Rauch. Here also lie the emperor William I. and the empress Augusta under marble effigies by Encke. A second group of monuments on the Wilhelms-platz commemorates the generals of the Seven Years' War; and a third in the neighbourhood of the opera-house the generals who fought against Napoleon I. On the Kreuzberg a Gothic monument in bronze was erected by Frederick William III. to commemorate the victories of 1813-1815; and in the centre of the Konigs-platz stands a lofty column in honour of the triumphs of 1864, 1866 and 1870-1871, surmounted by a gilded figure of Victory. Literature, science and art are represented in different parts of the city by statues and busts of Rauch, Schinkel, Thaer, Beuth, Schadow, Winckelmann, Schiller, Hegel and Jahn. On the Konigs-platz between the column of Victory and the Reichstagsgebaude, and immediately facing the western facade of the latter, is the bronze statue of Bismarck, unveiled in 1901, a figure 20 ft. in height standing on a granite base. From the south side of the Konigs-platz crossing the Tiergarten and intersecting the avenue from the Brandenburg Gate to Charlottenburg runs the broad Sieges-allee adorned by thirty-two groups of marble statuary representing famous rulers of the house of Hohenzollern, the gift of the emperor William II. to the city. The Tiergarten, the beautiful west-end park with its thickets of dense undergrowth and winding lanes and lakes has lost somewhat of its sylvan character owing to building encroachments on the north side and the laying out of new rides and drives. It has, in addition to those above enumerated, statues of Queen Louisa, Goethe and Lessing.

_Communications._--Berlin is the centre of the North German network of railways. No fewer than twelve main lines concentrate upon it. Internal communication is provided for by the Ringbahn, or outer circle, which was opened in 1871, and by a well-devised system connects the termini of the various main lines. The through traffic coming from east and west is carried by the Stadtbahn, or city railway, which also connects with and forms an integral part of the outer circle. This line runs through the heart of the city, and was originally a private enterprise. Owing, however, to the failure of the company, the work was taken in hand by the state, and the line opened in 1878. It has four tracks--two for the main-line through traffic, and two for local and suburban service, and is carried at a height of about 20 ft. above the streets. Its length is 12 m., the total cost 3-3/4 millions sterling. The chief stations are Zoologischer Garten, Friedrich-strasse, Alexander-platz and Schlesischer Bahnhof. Lying apart from the system are the Lehrter Bahnhof for Hamburg and Bremen, the Stettiner for Baltic ports, and the Gorlitzer, Anhalter and Potsdamer termini for traffic to the south, of which the last two are fine specimens of railway architecture. Internal communication is also provided for by an excellent system of electric tram-lines, by an overhead electric railway running from the Zoologischer Garten to the Schlesische Tor with a branch to the Potsdam railway station, and by an underground railway laid at a shallow depth under the Leipziger-strasse. Most of the cabs (victorias and broughams) have fare-indicators. Steamboats ply above and below the city.

_Industry, Trade and Commerce._--It is in respect of its manufacture and trade that Berlin has attained its present high pitch of economic prosperity. More than 50% of its working population are engaged in industry, which embraces almost all branches, of which new ones have lately sprung into existence, whilst most of the older have taken a new lease of life. The old wool industry, for example, has become much extended, and now embraces products such as shawls, carpets, hosiery, &c. Its silk manufactures, formerly so important, have, however, gradually gone back. It is particularly in the working of iron, steel and cloth, and in the by-products of these, that Berlin excels. The manufacture of machinery and steam-engines shows an enormous development. No fewer than 100 large firms, many of them of world-wide reputation, are engaged in this branch alone. Among the chief articles of manufacture and production are railway plant, sewing machines, bicycles, steel pens, chronometers, electric and electric-telegraph plant, bronze, chemicals, soap, lamps, linoleum, china, pianofortes, furniture, gloves, buttons, artificial flowers and ladies' mantles, the last of an annual value exceeding L5,000,000. It has extensive breweries and vies in the amount of the output of this production with Munich. Berlin is also the great centre and the chief market for speculation in corn and other cereals which reach it by water from Poland, Austria and South Russia, while in commerce in spirits it rivals Hamburg. It is also a large publishing centre, and has become a serious rival to Leipzig in this regard.

The Borse, where 4000 persons daily do business, is the chief market in Germany for stocks and shares, and its dealings are of great influence upon the gold market of the world. Numerous banks of world-wide reputation, doing an extensive international business, have their seats in Berlin, chief among them, in addition to the Reichs-bank, being the Berliner Kassen-Verein, the Diskonto-Gesellschaft, the Deutsche Bank, and the Boden-Kredit Bank.

_Learning and Art._--Berlin is becoming the centre of the intellectual life of the nation. The Friedrich Wilhelm University, although young in point of foundation, has long outstripped its great rival Leipzig in numbers, and can point with pride to the fact that its teaching staff has yielded to none in the number of illustrious names. It was founded in 1810, when Prussia had lost her celebrated university of Halle, which Napoleon had included in his newly created kingdom of Westphalia. It was as a weapon of war, as well as a nursery of learning, that Frederick William III. and the great men who are associated with its origin, called it into existence. Wilhelm von Humboldt was at that time at the head of the educational department of the kingdom, and men like Fichte and Schleiermacher worked on the popular mind. Within the first ten years of its existence it counted among its professors such names as Neander, Savigny, Eichhorn, Bockh, Bekker, Hegel, Raumer, Niebuhr and Buttmann. Later followed men like Hengstenberg, Homeyer, Bethmann-Hollweg, Puchta, Stahl and Heffter; Schelling, Trendelenburg, Bopp, the brothers Grimm, Zumpt, Carl Richter; later still, Twesten and Dorner, Gneist and Hinschius; Langenbeck, Bardeleben, Virchow, Du-Bois Reymond; von Ranke, Curtius, Lipsius, Hofmann the chemist, Kiepert the geographer; Helmholtz, van't Hoff, Koch, E. Fischer, Waldeyer and von Bergmann among scientists and surgeons; Mommsen, Treitschke and Sybel among historians, Harnack among theologians, Brunner among jurists. Taking ordinary, honorary, extraordinary professors and licensed lecturers (_Privat-docenten_) together, its professorial strength consisted, in 1904-1905, of 23 teachers in the faculty of theology, 32 in that of law, 175 in that of medicine and 227 in that of philosophy--altogether 457. The number of matriculated students during the same period was 7154, as against 5488 in the preceding summer term. The number of matriculated students is usually greater in winter than in summer; the reason of the disproportion being that in the summer university towns having pleasant surroundings, such as Bonn, Heidelberg, Kiel and Jena, are more frequented. Berlin is essentially a Prussian university--of students from non-German states, Russia sends most, then the United States of America, while Great Britain is credited with comparatively few. It is, however, in the ugly palace of Prince Henry of Prussia, which was given for the purpose in the days of Prussian poverty and distress, that the university is still housed, and although some internal rearrangement has been effected, no substantial alterations have been made to meet the ever-increasing demand for lecture-room accommodation. The garden towards Unter den Linden is adorned by a bronze statue of Helmholtz; the marble statues of Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt, which were formerly placed on either side of the gate, have been removed to the adjacent garden. Technical education is provided in the magnificent buildings erected at a cost of L100,000 in Charlottenburg, which are equipped with all the apparatus for the teaching of science. Among other institutions of university rank and affiliated to it are the school of mines, the agricultural college, the veterinary college, the new seminary for oriental languages, and the high school for music. The geodetic institute has been removed to Potsdam. The university is, moreover, rich in institutions for the promotion of medical and chemical science, for the most part housed in buildings belonging to the governing body. There should also be mentioned the Royal Academy of Sciences, founded in 1700. The name of Leibnitz is associated with its foundation, and it was raised to the rank of a royal academy by Frederick the Great in 1743. The Royal Academy of Arts is under the immediate protection of the king, and is governed by a director and senate. There is also an academy of vocal music.

_Schools._--Berlin possesses fifteen _Gymnasia_ (classical schools, for the highest branches of the learned professions), of which four are under the direct supervision of the provincial authorities and have the prefix _koniglich_ (royal), while the remaining eleven are municipal and under the control of the civic authorities. They are attended by about 7000 scholars, of whom a fourth are Jews. There are also eight _Real-gymnasia_ (or "modern" schools), numerous _Real-schulen_ (commercial schools), public high schools for girls, and commodious and excellently organized elementary schools.

_Museums._--The buildings of the royal museum are divided into the old and new museums. The former is an imposing edifice situated on the north-east side of the Lustgarten, facing the royal palace. It was built in the reign of Frederick William III. from designs by Schinkel. Its portico supported by eighteen colossal Ionic columns is reached by a wide flight of steps. The back and side walls of the portico are covered with frescoes, from designs by Schinkel, representing the world's progress from chaos to organic and developed life. The sides of the flight of steps support equestrian bronze groups of the Amazon by Kiss, and the Lion-slayer by Albert Wolff. Under the portico are monuments of the sculptors Rauch and Schadow, the architect Schinkel, and the art critic Winckelmann. The interior consists of a souterrain, and of a first floor, entered from the portico through bronze doors, after designs by Stiller, weighing 7-1/2 tons, and executed at a cost of L3600. This floor consists of a rotunda, and of halls and cabinets of sculpture. The second floor, which formerly contained the national gallery of paintings, is occupied by a collection of northern antiquities and by the Schliemann treasures.

The new museum, connected with the old museum by a covered corridor, is, in its internal arrangements and decorations, one of the finest structures in the capital. The lowest of its three floors contains the Egyptian museum; on the first floor plaster casts of ancient, medieval and modern sculpture are found, while the second contains a cabinet of engravings. On the walls of the grand marble staircase, which rises to the full height of the building, Kaulbach's cyclus of stereochromic pictures is painted, representing the six great epochs of human progress, from the confusion of tongues at the Tower of Babel and the dispersion of the nations to the Reformation.