Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/583

 BERLIN 563 Francis I., and penetrated into France as far as Chateau-Thierry. After the declaration of peace he retired again to his castle, Hornberg, and there lived quietly until his death. He was buried in the cloister of Schonthal, where his monument is still shown. He wrote the history of his own life, which was first pub- lished at Nuremberg in 1731, and gives an ad- mirable description of the life of his time. Goethe made him the subject of the first of his dramas. BERLIN, the capital of Prussia and of the German empire, in the province of Branden- burg, in lat, 52 30' N., Ion. 13 24' E., on the Spree, an affluent of the Elbe, 330 m. N". N. W. of Vienna; pop. in 1871, 825,389; in 1867, 702,437, of whom 42,420 were Roman Cath- olics and 27,607 Jews. In the latter year there were 33,963 buildings, of which 700 were public. The city stands on a dreary plain of sand, on a deep and still growing deposit of infusoria, 130 feet above the level of the sea. The walls, now partly torn down, are about 12 m. in circuit and pierced with numerous gates, of which the Brandenburg gate is the most cele- brated, its architecture being modelled after that of the Propylsea in the acropolis of Athens. The city comprises the two former towns of Berlin and Kolln, and was in 1872 divided into 16 precincts, viz. : Old Berlin, Old and New Kolln (on an island of the Spree), Luisenstadt (on the left bank), Friedrichsstadt, Friedrichs- werder, Dorotheenstadt, Friedrich-Wilhelm- stadt, Spandauer Revier and Stralauer Vier- tel, Konigsstadt, and the suburbs of Wedding (Oranienburger Vorstadt), Moabit (Voigtland), Aeussere Friedrichsstadt, Aeusseres Spandauer Revier, Schoneberger Revier, and Tempelhofer General View of Berlin. Revier. The villas S. W. of Charlottenburg near the chateau of Grunewald, partly built and partly in course of construction, are called the West-end ; and Charlottenburg promises to be- come part of Berlin, the city being constantly extended westward, while its central part is in- tended to be in future for Berlin what the City is for the British metropolis. With the exception of the most ancient districts, Ber- lin is remarkable for the general beauty of its streets and buildings. The excessive reg- ularity and capaciousness of many streets, and the multiplicity of palatial buildings and institutions, produce a grand though rather monotonous impression. Unter den Linden, however, is a lively, imposing, and elegant thoroughfare, full of palaces and fine man- sions, inferior to the boulevards of Paris in brilliancy, but superior to the Regent street of London in stateliness and in the fine ap- pearance of the trees from which the street derives its name. This is the fashionable city promenade. The Friedrichsstrasse is the longest, the Leipziger Strasse the most ani- mated ; the Konigsstrasse, in the centre of the city, the most crowded business street ; the Wilhelmsstrasse contains many palaces and public buildings ; the Luisenstrasse has numer- ous elegant mansions ; and in the Oranienbur- ger Strasse resided Alexander von Humboldt. Prominent among the newer streets are those stretching from the Potsdam gate to the Thier- garten. The aggregate length of all the streets of Berlin is over 160 m. The largest square is the Gensdarmenmarkt in the Friedrichsstadt, with the principal theatre and two churches. Other fine squares are the Lustgarten and the Schlossplatz, divided by the royal palace ; the Wilhelms, Opernhaus, Donhofs, Alexander, and Pariser squares (the last named at the