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* BBANDENBTJBG. 119 BRANDES. 1900 miles of railway lines of standard gauge, mostly bcloiif^iiif; to the State. For administriitive purposes, the province is divided into the two districts (Regierungbexirke) of Potsdam and Frankfort. Berlin formin51, showing an increase of 10.14 per cent, for the period of 1895-1900. The population con- sists almost exclusively of German Protestants. Although a considerable number of the inhabi- tants are of French and Dutch extraction, they have been so completely assimilated that no trace is left of their foreign origin. The general ten- dency of the population to leave agriculture for manufacturing pursuits, so strongly marked in all the Prussian provinces, is especially pro- nounced in Brandenburg, where a large falling off in the agricultural population since 1882 is accompanied b_v a still larger increase in the manufacturing population. The seat of the administration is at Potsdam. The various nations of Teutonic origin which inhabited Brandenburg at the beginning of the Christian Era were replaced during the age of migrations by a number of Slavic tribes, whom Charles the Great vainly attempted to subdue. Henry I. succeeded in exacting tribute from them, and Otho I. divided their country into three marks; but the Slavs were not fully over- come till the middle of the Twelfth Century, when Albert the Bear, who styled liimself Mar- grave of Brandenburg (see Bkaxdenbukg, city), about 1140, established tlie supremacy of the Gler- mans by peopling the region with colonists from Westphalia and the Nethei lands. Under the suc- cessors of Albert the feudal authority of Bran- denburg was extended over Pomerania, and terri- torial gains were made at the expense of Bohemia and Poland. Especially prosperous was the joint reign of the brothers .John I. and Otho 111. in the middle of the Thirteenth Century, in whose time the power of the nobles was greatly restrict- ed and many cities were founded. From 1323 to 1411 the ilargraviate was rilcd by princes of the houses of Wittelsbach and Lirxemburg, under whom it drifted into feudal anarchy, and de- clined decidedly in wealth and power. In the Golden Bull of' the Emperor Charles IV. (1356) the Margrave of Brandenburg was recognized as one of the seven Imperial Electors. In 1411 P'rederick of Hohenzollern, Burgrave of Nurem- berg, becan)e Margrave, and in 1415 was invested with the electoral dignity. Frederick and his successors crushed the nobility once for all, re- stored order, and extended the boundaries of their principality. The Reformation was intro- duced about 1540, and in the religious disputes of the succeeding period the Electors of Branden- burg were leading champions of the Protestant cause. The greatness of Brandenburg may bo dated from l(il8, when John Sigismund became, through marriage, Duke of Prussia. In spite of the disasters of the Tliirty Years' War, Branden- burg-Prussia, under the energetic rule of the Great Elector, Frederick William (1040-88), rose to the position of a leading State in northern Europe. In addition to Brandenburg and East Prussia, his dominions embraced the eastern and larger half of Pomerania, and the former Sees of Halbcrsladt, Minden, and Magdeburg (all ac- quired in the Peace of Westphalia, in 1U48), to- gether with C'leves, Mark, and Kavensberg, in the region of the Rhine and Westnhalia. Under his son and successor, the Elector l<'re(lerick III. (King Frederick I. of Prussia), this realm was transformed at the very begimiing of the Eigh- teenth CenUiry (1701) into the Kingdom of Prussia, into whose history the history of Bran- denburg is subsequently merged. Consult : Fon- tane, M'underungen durch die Mark liravdenhurg (4 vols., Berlin, 1892) ; Haake, Brandenburgische PoUtik und Kriegfiihrung (Kassel, 1896). See Prussia. BRANDENBURG (anciently, Brennaborch or lireiiiuibiii; from Slav. Bianibor, Branniy bor, from brani, war, fight -H 6oru, forest). A city in the administrative district of Potsdam, in the Prussian Province of Brandenburg, sitmited on the Berlin and ilagdeburg Railway, about 3" n-.iles west-southwest of Berlin (Map: Prussia, E 2 ) . The river Havel divides it into two parts. Old and New Brandenburg, both surrounded with walls. On an island in the river there is a third quarter, containing the castle, cathedral, and an academy for young noblemen. The cathedral has a fine crypt, dating from the Eleventh Century. Brandenburg has an extensive industry in the manufacture of basket-ware, woolens, linen, ho- siery, paper, leather, beer, etc. Boatbuilding is also carried on to a considerable extent. Popu- lation, in 1890, 37,817: in 1900, 49.263. Bran- denburg became the seat of a bishopric as early as 949. From November 27 to December 5, 1848, Brandenburg was the seat of the National Assem- bly of Prussia. BRANDENBURG, Nett. See Neu-Branden- BURG. BRANDENBURG, Coxfession of. A con- fession of faith lacpared by order of John Sigis- mund, the Elector of Brandenburg, in 1614, with a view to reconciling the tenets of Luther with those of Calvin, and to terminating the disputes provoked by the Augsburg Confession. BRANDES, hriinMes, Carl Edv.usd Cohen (1S47 — ). A Danish writer, bom in Copen- hagen. He has won distinction as a writer on philosophic topics and as a dramatic and literary critic. His best-known works are: Ldgeinidlcr ("Remedy," 1881) ; El Bcsog ("A Visit," 1882) ; and iiidiT Loven ("Under the Law," 1890). BRANDES, Georg Morris Cohen (1842—). The first of Danish critics by genius, and one of the great systematic critics of literature in modem times, worthy to rank with the French- men Sainte-Beuve, Taine, and Bruneti&re. Even his books of travel are books of criticism, but it is with the wide currents of European thought that he concerns himself, rather than with any national achievements or with questions of for- mal aesthetics and technique. So his work, at a time of national segregation and bitterness, has been to preserve for the Danes a cosmopolitan intellectual horizon and a community of higher interest-s with the neighbors and kin from whose politicians Denmark has suffered. He was bom in Copenhagen, of Jewish parents, studied at the university there, traveled for several years, taught at the University of Copenhagen ( 1872-