Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/768

 collections, &c. Anatomical and mineralogical museums, zoölogical and botanical gardens, observatories, &c., are connected with most of the universities. The number of associations of scholars in all the different sciences is very great. The fine arts are as carefully fostered as science. Not even Italy is in advance of Germany in musical composition, many of the greatest composers of modern times being Germans, as Handel, Gluck, Mozart, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Weber, Meyerbeer, and Richard Wagner. In the art of painting the members of the two principal German schools, of Munich (Cornelius, Kaulbach, Piloti), and of Düsseldorf (Schadow, Lessing, Bendemann), rival the best artists of all times. In sculpture Rauch, Danneker, and Rietschel take rank with Thorwaldsen and Canova. German literature is exceedingly prolific, and contains a very great number of works of sterling merit. The number of new publications exceeded 9,000 annually from 1860 to 1868, and 10,000 from 1868 to 1873.—Of the earliest history of Germany no records remain. The Romans before the time of Julius Cæsar knew little or nothing of the people living E. of the Rhine and N. of the Danube, though some German tribes had invaded the Roman empire toward the end of the 2d century B. C. At the time of the conquest of Gaul, the Romans learned that the country beyond the Rhine contained a numerous people, who, although barbarians according to the standard of civilization of that time, had fixed settlements and were agriculturists. They were called Germani, either, as Strabo asserts, because they were nearly related (brothers german) to the inhabitants of Gaul, or, which is more probable, from the weapons they carried (ger, spear, mann, man). They were tall, light-haired, blue-eyed, warlike, and fond of independence, intoxicating liquors, and gambling, in which they often staked their personal liberty. Their chief occupations were hunting, care of cattle, and the use of arms. They were divided into nobles, freemen, and serfs. They paid peculiar respect to their women and the aged, and honored chastity not less than valor. They elected their chiefs, whom the Romans often call kings. They had priests, bards, and sacred groves, and worshipped or feared gods, demigods, and giants. Woden and his wife Fria or Frigga, Ziu, and Fro, were among their chief divinities. They believed in the immortality of the soul, or in life in Walhalla. Their sacrifices consisted of domestic animals, including horses, and sometimes of human victims. They had no cities, but mostly lived in hamlets, or small communities, which held several species of property in common. They were divided into more than 50 tribes, of which the following principally (though not simultaneously) figure in the history of the Romans: the Teutons, Ubii, Chauci, Catti, Rugii, Batavi, Usipii or Usipetes, Tencteri, Bructeri, Angrivarii, Tribocci, Cherusci, Longobardi, Suevi, Goths, Marcomanni, Hermunduri, Burgundians, Vandals, Gepidæ, Franks, and Alemanni. These tribes did not all live within the limits of the Germania proper of the Romans, which was bounded by the North sea and the Baltic, the upper Elbe, Danube, and Rhine. The districts S. of the Danube and W. of the Rhine, which became Roman provinces under the names of Rhætia, Vindelicia, and Noricum, and Germania Prima and Secunda (in Gaul), were mostly inhabited by non-German tribes, and often exposed to the incursions of the Germans. One of these incursions was headed by Ariovistus, who was driven from Gaul by Cæsar, in the first year of his Gallic campaigns. Cæsar and the generals of Augustus nominally subjected Germany; but when the Romans attempted to convert their nominal dominion into real possession of the country, they were ignominiously defeated, and Germany was liberated by the chief of the Cheruscan tribe, Arminius, A. D. 9. The subsequent expedition of Germanicus was of little avail. From that time the history of Germany is in part lost in vague traditions and in part connected with the history of the Roman empire for several centuries, until the country, over which the whole torrent of the great migration of nations had swept, became gradually united with the great Frankish empire of Clovis (481-511) and his successors. Among these Charlemagne, or Karl the Great (771-814), consolidated the empire by subjecting the Saxons, the last German tribes who had until then succeeded in maintaining their independence, and was in 800 proclaimed Roman emperor by the pope and the people of Rome. Charlemagne's rule extended from the Ebro in Spain to the Elbe in the northeast, the Raab (Hungary) in the east, and beyond the Po in Italy. He compelled the Saxons to become Christians, and introduced among them a feudal aristocracy and a strong temporal power of the clergy. The contest between these and the imperial power fills the history of Germany for centuries. The feeble successor of Charlemagne was unable to keep the vast empire together. In 843 it was divided between his three sons, Italy falling to the share of Lothaire, France to Charles the Bald, and Germany to Louis. The German kingdom was at that time bounded W. by the Rhine, E. by the Elbe, the Saale, and the Bohemian Forest, and S. by the Danube. The sons of Louis subdivided Germany into three lesser kingdoms, but these were reunited by Charles the Fat, and for a brief time even France was once more joined to Germany (882-887). Arnulf, a nephew of Charles, was elected German king, and was succeeded (899) by his son Louis, surnamed the Child, with whom the Carlovingian dynasty became extinct (911). Germany at that time consisted of a number of great territories (duchies), the rulers of which, together with their most powerful vassals, elected the king, whose power, however, depended very much upon the good will of the dukes. The