river. The proximity of the rich wheatfields of the north-west, and the extensive timber forests, have made Minneapolis the greatest lumber and flour centre in the world. The importance of the flour manufacturing industry was originally due to the excellent water-power available, and dates from the introduction of improved roller-mill methods in the early ’seventies, although there were successful mills in operation twenty years earlier. The enormous flour-mills of Minneapolis (22 in 1907) are perhaps the most interesting sights of the city. Their aggregate daily capacity is over 80,000 barrels, the largest of them having a capacity of 15,000 to 16,500 daily. In 1905 the value of the city’s flour and grist mill products was $62,754,446, 51·6% of the total value of the city’s factory product, and 8·8% of the value of the flour and grist mill products of the entire United States. Food preparations were valued in 1905 at $1,361,492. Minneapolis is also the greatest primary wheat market in the world, its 40 or more elevators (of which those of the Washburn-Crosby Company, erected in 1907, are the largest) having a net capacity of about 35,000,000 bushels, and handling more than 90,000,000 bushels in 1908. Its commerce in other grains is also extensive; in the amount of barley received and shipped Minneapolis surpasses any other city in the United States, and in receipts and shipments of rye is second only to Chicago. The Mississippi river above Minneapolis is made to serve, by means of a series of extensive log-booms, as the principal source of supply to the great saw-mills, of which there are here some of the largest in the world, with a combined capacity of 3,500,000 ft. a day, and with an average annual cut of 575,000,000 ft. The total value of the lumber products in 1905 was $9,960,842 (lumber and timber, $5,816,726; planing-mill products, including sash, doors and blinds, $4,144,116). Other important manufactures with the product-value of each in 1905 were malt liquors ($1,185,525), foundry and machine shop products ($2,820,697), structural iron-work ($1,991,771), steam railway car construction and repairing ($2,027,248), patent medicines ($1,715,889), furniture ($1,238,324), cooperage ($1,415,360), and hosiery and knit goods ($957,455). The total value of the factory product was $94,407,774 in 1900, and $121,593,120 in 1905, an increase of 28·8%; in 1905 the value of the factory product was 39·5% of that of the entire state.
Minneapolis is governed under a charter adopted in 1872 (when St Anthony and Minneapolis were consolidated) and frequently amended. It provides for the election of a mayor, treasurer and comptroller for two-years terms; for elected boards of control for library, parks and education, and for a unicameral city council, half of which is chosen every two years for a term of four years. The mayor, whose veto may be nullified by an adverse vote of two-thirds of the council, has very limited appointing powers, the head of the police department being the most important of his appointees. The city council elects the city clerk, city attorney, city engineer, chief of the fire department and most of the minor officers. Under a provision of the charter adopted in 1887 saloons are not permitted outside the “patrol limits of the business district”; so that there are no saloons in the residential districts of the city. The municipality owns the waterworks system, the water supply being obtained from the Mississippi river.
History.—The first recorded visit of a European to the site of Minneapolis was that of Father Louis Hennepin, the French Jesuit missionary, who discovered and, named the Falls of St Anthony in 1680; but it is almost certain that he was preceded by some of the adventurous coureurs des bois, few of whom left records of their extensive wanderings, and Radisson and Groseilliers seem to have visited this region two decades before Hennepin. The land on which the city lies, being divided by the Mississippi river, was for many years under different sovereignties, the east side becoming United States territory at the close of the War of Independence, while the west side, after being under Spanish and French rule, did not become a part of the United States until the purchase of Louisiana in 1803. In 1766 the site was visited by the American traveller, Jonathan Carver, and in 1805 by Lieut. Zebulon M. Pike; the military reserve which Pike bought from the Indians included a greater portion of the west side of the present city. After the erection of Fort St Anthony (1819; later called Fort Snelling), a water-power saw-mill was erected (1822) to saw lumber for the fort on the east bank of the river at the Falls of St Anthony. Later flour was also ground in this mill, which thus became the forerunner of the greatest of the city’s industries. Gradually as the Indian land titles became extinguished the east bank was settled. The first settlement on the west bank was made by Colonel John H. Stevens in 1850, but the land was not opened to settlers until 1855. The village of St Anthony, on the east side of the river, was incorporated in 1855; Minneapolis, on the west bank, was incorporated in 1856. St Anthony became a city in 1860, and Minneapolis, which then had only 2564 inhabitants, soon outstripped its neighbour after the Civil War, and received a city charter in 1867. In 1870 Minneapolis alone had 13,066 inhabitants (18,079 with St Anthony), and in 1872 the two cities were united under the name of Minneapolis. The Republican National Convention met in Minneapolis in 1892 and renominated President Benjamin Harrison.
Authorities.—Isaac Atwater, History of the City of Minneapolis (2 vols., New York, 1893); G. E. Warner and C. M. Foote, History of Hennepin County and the City of Minneapolis (Minneapolis, 1881); Hudson’s Dictionary of Minneapolis and Vicinity (Minneapolis, annually); A. Morrison, The Industries of Minneapolis (Minneapolis, 1885); S. P. Snyder and H. K. Macfarlane, Historical Sketch of St Anthony and Minneapolis (Philadelphia, 1856); and C. B. Elliott’s “Minneapolis-St Paul” in L. P. Powell’s Historic Towns of the Western States (New York, 1901).
MINNESINGERS (Ger. Minnesänger from Minne, love), the name given to the German lyric poets of the 12th and 13th centuries. The term Minnesang, strictly applicable to the poems expressing the homage (Minnedienst) rendered by the knight to his mistress, is applied to the whole body of lyric poetry of the period, whether dealing with love, religion or politics. The idea of amour courtois, with its excessive worship of woman, its minute etiquette and its artificial sentiment, was introduced into German poetry from Provençal literature; but the German Minnesang was no slavish imitation of the poetry of the troubadours. Its tone was, on the whole, far healthier and more sincere, reflecting the difference between the simple conditions of German life and the older and corrupt civilization of Provence. The minnesinger usually belonged to the lower ranks of the nobility, and his verses were addressed to a married woman, often above him in rank; consequently the commonest lyric themes are the lover’s hopeless devotion and complaints of the lady’s cruelty, expressed with a somewhat wearisome iteration. That real passion was sometimes present may be safely assumed, but it was not within the rules of the game, which corresponded fairly closely to the later sonneteering conventions. The poet was not permitted to give the lady’s name, or to betray her identity; and a direct expression of passion would also have contravened the rules. The poems were from the first sung in open court to a melody (Weise) of the poet’s own composing, with the accompaniment of a fiddle or small harp. That the minnesinger was no improvisatore is evident from the complicated forms of his verse, which were partly borrowed from the Provençal, but possibly owed something to the Latin rhymed verse[1] of the wandering scholars. The older songs consisted of a single strophe cast in three divisions, two (known as Stollen or doorposts) identical in form, stating and developing the argument, the third (Abgesang) of different form, giving the conclusion. Later on, two or more strophes were used in a single poem, but the principle of their structure was retained. In this form were cast the Tagelied, a dialogue describing the parting of lovers at dawn; and the crusading song. Side by side with these existed the Spruch, written in a single undivided stanza, destined for recitation and often cast in the form of a fable. The lay (Leich) was written in unequal strophes, each formed of two equal divisions. It was applied in the first instance to sacred lyrics,
- ↑ See the Carmina Burana, ed. J. A. Schmeller, 4th ed., Breslau, 1904.
