Odin (Wotan) rides on an eight-legged horse into Valhalla, guiding the heroes slain in battle, depicted on a ship, from Tjängvide (Gotland).
With his short-handled, formidable hammer, he may be called the most Germanic of all the gods, the one who in Norse literature received the highest idealization without foreign elements. His name replaced that of Jupiter in the formation of the word corresponding to "Thursday" in all Germanic languages.
In the western and northern territories of Germany proper, Wodan always seems to have held first place among the gods, whom the Romans identified with Mercury. Originally of a demonic character, a leader in stormy nights of the Wild Hunt—that is, the host of souls which he later leads back into the womb of the mountains—he subsequently lost this character and assumed the attributes of a celestial god, lord of war and victory, but also of spiritual life and civilization. In the North, where he became the center of worship and the aristocratic god of courts and the favorite of the skalds, a rich complex of myths developed around his figure, representing him as the universal father and supreme organizer of the world, sovereign of magic art and inventor of the "runes" (the first written characters taken from the Latin alphabet and used as mysterious signs for divination). As lord of war, he reigns in the marvelous Valhalla, or "hall of the slain," a kind of aristocratic paradise where those who have fallen in battle are received and continue their favorite earthly occupations, engaging in martial exercises and sumptuous feasts, enlivened by the Valkyries, a kind of semi-divine handmaidens of Odin, who ride in groups through the sky clad in helmets and armed with shields and spears, their task being to choose, as their name’s etymology suggests, those destined to perish, granting victory to others. In the Edda, he is also credited with creative activity; together with his brothers Vili and Ve, he is said to have created the first man and woman by animating an elm and an ash tree on the seashore. It is superfluous to note that the Germanic myth knows nothing of creation in the sense of our Genesis: it presupposes the eternity of matter, and the gods do not stand at the beginning of the world but at the beginning of history. The name of Odin so-
GERMAN RELIGION - GERMANY
The seed; a new sun shines forth, which will travel the same path. Of the ancient gods, only Baldr and a few others revive; but they have forever lost their ancient sovereignty, which now belongs to a new god, "the omnipotent one who comes from on high to the supreme judgment." In all this, it is easy to isolate what may truly be an ancient Germanic or, more specifically, Nordic conception from what is an imported element, drawn from the stock of classical motifs or Oriental speculations, or from the Judaeo-Christian ideas about the end of the world that reached the North during the Viking raids. One must only be careful not to infer, on the basis of these and other vague yet genuine motifs, unconscious foreshadowings, prophetic voices of Germanic antiquity, or affinities between two religious and moral conceptions that are as distant from one another as truth is from error.
GERMANY. - Germany (Deutschland) comprises the greater part of Central Europe.
OUTLINE:
I. Geography
II. Civil and religious history
III. Legal status of the Church
IV. Literature
V. Archaeology
VI. Art
VII. Educational system.I. GEOGRAPHY.
It is the European state that, in the last eighty years—that is, since achieving political unity (1871)—has undergone the most extensive territorial changes. Reduced by one-seventh after the First World War, it resumed its expansion in 1936 (Saarland plebiscite), which, at the outbreak of the Second World War, had increased its dominion by more than one-sixth compared to 1913 and tripled it in 1942, when, with military victories, its eastern border ran from the Gulf of Finland to the Crimea and its southern border penetrated the Alps as far as Croatia.
| | Area in sq. km | Population (in thousands) | Density per sq. km |
|----------------|----------------|---------------------------|--------------------|
| 1913 | 540,835 | 65,000 | 74 |
| 1929 | 468,768 | 59,177 | 126 |
| 1937 | 470,300 | 69,300 | 147 |
| 1939 (I-IX) | 635,733 | 86,000 | 135 |
| 1942 (I-I) | 1,678,200 | 160,919 | 96 |
| 1950 | 353,300 | 66,500 | 188 |
Following the final defeat, and even before a peace treaty regulated the new territorial delimitation of Germany, the area presumably retained has been divided into four occupation zones, each comprising a certain number of administrative units (Länder), as shown in the accompanying table.
On 23 May 1949, the territory occupied by the Western powers constituted itself into the Federal Republic of Germany (*Bundesrepublik Deutschland*), with a democratic constitution and an elective bicameral representation; while on 7 October of the same year, the Länder of the Soviet zone were united into the German Democratic Republic (*Deutsche Demokratische Republik*), of Soviet type, which accentuated the separation already underway between the two parts of Germany controlled by the two antagonistic occupying groups. The territory of Germany east of the current German-Polish border (Oder-Neisse: 110,000 sq. km with 9.5 million inhabitants before the war, of whom fewer than one million were non-German-speaking) was annexed to the new Poland as compensation for territories previously lost.
| | Area in sq. km | Population (in thousands) | Density per sq. km |
|----------------|----------------|---------------------------|--------------------|
| 1942 | 470,300 | 69,300 | 147 |
| 1943 | 635,733 | 86,000 | 135 |
| 1944 | 1,678,200 | 160,919 | 96 |
| 1950 | 353,300 | 66,500 | 188 |
Northern Rhineland and Westphalia
Lower Saxony
Schleswig-Holstein
Hamburg
British Zone
Bavaria
Württemberg and Baden
Hesse
Bremen
American Zone
Southern Rhineland
Palatinate
Württemberg-Hohenzollern
Southern Baden
Saar Territory
French Zone
Saxony-Anhalt
Brandenburg
Mecklenburg
Saxony
Thuringia
Soviet Zone
Berlin (4 sectors)
Federal Republic of Germany
German Democratic Republic
| | Area in sq. km | Population (in thousands) | Density per sq. km |
|----------------|----------------|---------------------------|--------------------|
| 1942 | 470,300 | 69,300 | 147 |
| 1943 | 635,733 | 86,000 | 135 |
| 1944 | 1,678,200 | 160,919 | 96 |
| 1950 | 353,300 | 66,500 | 188 |
| | Area in sq. km | Population (in thousands) | Density per sq. km |
covered with forests, dotted with lakes, and sparsely populated, except for the Alpine zone, rich in pastures, which culminates in the limestone mass of the Bavarian Alps with the Zugspitze (2,963 m.).
The climate, which is relatively mild, is less influenced by the mitigating effect of ocean winds the closer one gets to the Sarmatic lowland; it therefore becomes increasingly harsh and continental (i.e., with a growing temperature range) more so proceeding from west to east than from south to north. To the south, moreover, the relief becomes more pronounced, with persistent winter snows in the high Alpine areas. Rainfall, generally quite abundant and well distributed throughout the year but with summer or autumn maxima (in the northwest), decreases in the same direction. As a result, the rivers—except for the Danube—all flow from south to north and are generally rich in water and easily navigable.
The landscape of Germany has been profoundly altered by human activity, which has extensively reclaimed marshy and sandy lands and replaced the original forest cover with cultivated fields; forests still cover about one-quarter of the German territory.
The population, ethnically very homogeneous even before the recent territorial contraction, has been steadily increasing, even though the demographic growth rate had been declining before the war. The total (within the 1913 borders) was 24.8 million at the beginning of the 19th century, and despite the two catastrophic wars of our century (over 2 million lives lost in the First World War and 6 million in the Second), it has now almost quadrupled, with an estimated 95 million Germans scattered worldwide (no fewer than 10 million in the U.S.A.). The migratory movement, which had exceeded 220,000 people annually in 1881, declined to modest figures (20,000) after 1930. The percentage of the urban population had surpassed one-quarter of the total by 1939; the terrible destruction wrought by aerial bombing has not prevented Germany, even within its reduced borders today, from having two cities with over one million inhabitants (Berlin and Hamburg), three with over 500,000 (Munich, Leipzig, Essen; though there were eight in 1939 within the current territory), 41 with more than 100,000 (44 in 1939), and 55 with more than 50,000 inhabitants (40 in 1939). To give an idea of the damage suffered, it suffices to recall that in Berlin 34% or more of the buildings were destroyed and about 54% were damaged; after the war, only 12% of the metropolis remained unscathed.
Agriculture and livestock farming employ slightly more than one-quarter of the German population (over one-quarter at the beginning of the century). Arable land accounts for about three-fifths of the territory and is mainly devoted to cereal crops, which, in descending order of production, yield rye (35.2 million quintals in 1947), oats (31 million quintals), wheat (20.3 million quintals), and barley (11.3 million quintals)—all insufficient for domestic consumption, especially after the loss of the eastern territories, which were predominantly agricultural and sparsely populated. Potatoes (248 million quintals), partly used for distilling spirits, sugar beets, hops (for beer), flax, and tobacco are the most widespread industrial crops. Fruit and wine (in southern Germany) are also of considerable importance. Livestock farming, although rationally managed and in extensive forms (14 million cattle; 8.4 million pigs; 3.5 million sheep; 2.2 million horses in 1947), still does not meet domestic demand for fats, meat, and eggs. Significant sources of income are also provided by forestry and fishing (whose pre-war output was around 600,000–750,000 metric tons).
Germany cannot be said to be exceptionally well-endowed with mineral resources; however, the abundance of coal and the presence of metallic and especially ferrous minerals account for the modern development of its industries, which have flourished thanks to advanced technology and increasingly efficient organization. On the eve of the Second World War, more than two-thirds of the German population was employed in industry, and Germany ranked among the countries best equipped and most productive in this regard, alongside the U.S.A. and England. German industry was essentially based on the extraction of hard coal, which provided power, fuel for metallurgy, and raw materials for the chemical industry; its steel production was particularly notable.
