|the eighteen minor states the number of Roman Catholics is only
from 0.3 to 3.3% of the population.
| States. | Evangelicals. | Catholics. | Other Christians. |
Jews. |
| Prussia | 21,817,577 | 12,113,670 | 139,127 | 392,322 |
| Bavaria | 1,749,206 | 4,363,178 | 7,607 | 54,928 |
| Saxony | 3,972,063 | 198,265 | 19,103 | 12,416 |
| Württemberg | 1,497,299 | 650,392 | 9,426 | 11,916 |
| Baden | 704,058 | 1,131,639 | 5,563 | 26,132 |
| Hesse | 746,201 | 341,570 | 7,368 | 24,486 |
| Mecklenburg-Schwerin | 597,268 | 8,182 | 487 | 1,763 |
| Saxe-Weimar | 347,144 | 14,158 | 361 | 1,188 |
| Mecklenburg-Strelitz | 100,568 | 1,612 | 62 | 331 |
| Oldenburg | 309,510 | 86,920 | 1,334 | 1,359 |
| Brunswick | 436,976 | 24,175 | 1,271 | 1,824 |
| Saxe-Meiningen | 244,810 | 4,170 | 395 | 1,351 |
| Saxe-Altenburg | 189,885 | 4,723 | 206 | 99 |
| Saxe-Coburg-Gotha | 225,074 | 3,330 | 515 | 608 |
| Anhalt | 301,953 | 11,699 | 794 | 1,605 |
| Schwarzburg-Sondershausen | 79,593 | 1,110 | 27 | 166 |
| Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt | 92,298 | 676 | 37 | 48 |
| Waldeck | 55,285 | 1,831 | 164 | 637 |
| Reuss-Greiz | 66,860 | 1,043 | 444 | 48 |
| Reuss-Schleiz | 135,958 | 2,579 | 466 | 178 |
| Schaumburg-Lippe | 41,908 | 785 | 177 | 257 |
| Lippe | 132,708 | 5,157 | 205 | 879 |
| Lübeck | 93,671 | 2,190 | 213 | 670 |
| Bremen | 208,815 | 13,506 | 876 | 1,409 |
| Hamburg | 712,338 | 30,903 | 3,149 | 17,949 |
| Alsace-Lorraine | 372,078 | 1,310,450 | 4,301 | 32,379 |
| Total | 35,231,104 | 20,327,913 | 203,678 | 586,948 |
From the above table little can be inferred as to the geographical distribution of the two chief confessions. On this point it must be borne in mind that the population of the larger towns, on account of the greater mobility of the population since the introduction of railways and the abolition of restrictions upon free settlement, has become more mixed—Berlin, Leipzig, Hamburg, &c., showing proportionally more Roman Catholics, and Cologne, Frankfort-on-Main, Munich more Protestants than formerly. Otherwise the geographical limits of the confessions have been but little altered since the Thirty Years’ War. In the mixed territories those places which formerly belonged to Roman Catholic princes are Roman Catholic still, and vice versa. Hence a religious map of South Germany looks like an historical map of the 17th century. The number of localities where the two confessions exist side by side is small. Generally speaking, South Germany is predominantly Roman Catholic. Some districts along the Danube (province of Bavaria, Upper Palatinate, Swabia), southern Württemberg and Baden, and in Alsace-Lorraine are entirely so. These territories are bordered by a broad stretch of country on the north, where Protestantism has maintained its hold since the time of the Reformation, including Bayreuth or eastern upper Franconia, middle Franconia, the northern half of Württemberg and Baden, with Hesse and the Palatinate. Here the average proportion of Protestants to Roman Catholics is two to one. The basin of the Main is again Roman Catholic from Bamberg to Aschaffenburg (western upper Franconia and lower Franconia). In Prussia the western and south-eastern provinces are mostly Roman Catholic, especially the Rhine province, together with the government districts of Münster and Arnsberg. The territories of the former principality of Cleves and of the countship of Mark (comprising very nearly the basin of the Ruhr), which went to Brandenburg in 1609, must, however, be excepted. North of Münster, Roman Catholicism is still prevalent in the territory of the former bishopric of Osnabrück. In the east, East Prussia (Ermeland excepted) is purely Protestant. Roman Catholicism was predominant a hundred years ago in all the frontier provinces acquired by Prussia in the days of Frederick the Great, but since then the German immigrants have widely propagated the Protestant faith in these districts. A prevailingly Roman Catholic population is still found in the district of Oppeln and the countship of Glatz, in the province of Posen, in the Polish-speaking Kreise of West Prussia, and in Ermeland (East Prussia). In all the remaining territory the Roman Catholic creed is professed only in the Eichsfeld on the southern border of the province of Hanover and around Hildesheim.
The adherents of Protestantism are divided by their confessions into Reformed and Lutheran. To unite these the “church union” has been introduced in several Protestant states, as for example in Prussia and Nassau in 1817, in the Palatinate in 1818 and in Baden in 1822. Since 1817 the distinction Protestant Church. has accordingly been ignored in Prussia, and Christians are there enumerated only as Evangelical or Roman Catholic. The union, however, has not remained wholly unopposed—a section of the more rigid Lutherans who separated themselves from the state church being now known as Old Lutherans. In 1866 Prussia annexed Hanover and Schleswig-Holstein, where the Protestants were Lutherans, and Hesse, where the Reformed Church had the preponderance. The inhabitants of these countries opposed the introduction of the union, but could not prevent their being subordinated to the Prussian Oberkirchenrat (high church-council), the supreme court of the state church. A synodal constitution for the Evangelical State Church was introduced in Prussia in 1875. The Oberkirchenrat retains the right of supreme management. The ecclesiastical affairs of the separate provinces are directed by consistorial boards. The parishes (Pfarreien) are grouped into dioceses (Sprengel), presided over by superintendents, who are subordinate to the superintendent-general of the province. Prussia has sixteen superintendents-general. The ecclesiastical administration is similarly regulated in the other countries of the Protestant creed. Regarding the number of churches and chapels Germany has no exact statistics.
There are five archbishoprics within the German empire: Gnesen-Posen, Cologne, Freiburg (Baden), Munich-Freising and Bamberg. The twenty bishoprics are: Breslau (where the bishop has the title of “prince-bishop”), Ermeland (seat at Frauenburg, East Prussia), Kulm (seat at Pelplin, West Prussia), Fulda, Roman Catholic Church. Hildesheim, Osnabrück, Paderborn, Münster, Limburg, Trier, Metz, Strassburg, Spires, Würzburg, Regensburg, Passau, Eichstätt, Augsburg, Rottenburg (Württemberg) and Mainz. Apostolic vicariates exist in Dresden (for Saxony), and others for Anhalt and the northern missions.
The Old Catholics (q.v.), who seceded from the Roman Church in consequence of the definition of the dogma of papal infallibility, number roughly 50,000, with 54 clergy.
It is in the towns that the Jewish element is chiefly to be found. They belong principally to the mercantile class, and are to a very large extent dealers in money. Their wealth has grown to an extraordinary degree. They are increasingly numerous in Hamburg, Berlin, Frankfort-on-Main, Breslau, Königsberg, Jews. Posen, Cologne, Nuremberg and Fürth. As a rule their numbers are proportionately greater in Prussia than elsewhere within the empire. But, since 1871, the Jewish population of Germany shows a far smaller increase than that of the Christian confessions, and even in the parts of the country where the Jewish population is densest it has shown a tendency to diminish. It is relatively greatest in the province of Posen, where the numbers have fallen from 61,982 (39.1 per thousand) in 1871 to 35,327 (18.7 per thousand) in 1900. The explanation is twofold—the extraordinary increase (1) in their numbers in Berlin and the province of Brandenburg, and (2) in the number of conversions to the Christian faith. In this last regard it may be remarked that the impulse is less from religious conviction than from a desire to associate on more equal terms with their neighbours. Though still, in fact at least, if not by law, excluded from many public offices, especially from commands in the army, they nevertheless are very powerful in Germany, the press being for the most part in their hands, and they furnish in many cities fully one-half of the lawyers and the members of the corporation. It should be mentioned, as a curious fact, that the numbers of the Jewish persuasion in the kingdom of Saxony increased from 3358 (1.3 per thousand) in 1871 to 12,416 (3 per thousand) in 1900.
Education.—In point of educational culture Germany ranks high among all the civilized great nations of the world (see Education: Germany). Education is general and compulsory throughout the empire, and all the states composing it have, with minor modifications, adopted the Prussian system providing for the establishment of elementary schools—Volksschulen—in every town and village. The school age is from six to fourteen, and parents can be compelled to send their children to a Volksschule, unless, to the satisfaction of the authorities, they are receiving adequate instruction in some other recognized school or institution.
The total number of primary schools was 60,584 in 1906–1907; teachers, 166,597; pupils, 9,737,262—an average of about one Volksschule to every 900 inhabitants. The annual expenditure was over £26,000,000, of which sum £7,500,000 was provided by state subvention. There were also in Germany in the same year 643 private schools, giving instruction similar to that of the elementary schools, with 41,000 pupils. A good criterion of the progress of education is obtained from the diminishing number of illiterate army recruits, as shown by the following
