Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Prussia, Rhenish
PRUSSIA, Rhenish (German, Rheinpreussen, Rheinprovinz, Rheinland), the most westerly province of the kingdom of Prussia, is bounded on the N. by Holland, on the E. by Westphalia, Hesse-Nassau, and Hesse-Darmstadt, on the S.E. by the Rhenish Palatinate, on the S. and S.W. by Lorraine, and on the W. by Luxemburg, Belgium, and Holland. The small district of Wetzlar in the midst of the province of Hesse also belongs to Rhenish Prussia, which, on the other hand, surrounds the Oldenburg principality of Birkenfeld. The extent of the province is 10,420 square miles, or nearly twice that of the kingdom of Saxony; its extreme length, from north to south, is nearly 200 miles and its greatest breadth is just under 90. It includes about 200 miles of the course of the Rhine, which forms the eastern frontier of the province from Bingen to Coblentz and then flows through it in a north-westerly direction.
The southern and larger half of Rhenish Prussia, belonging geologically to the Devonian formations of the lower Rhine, is hilly. On the left bank are the elevated plateaus of the Hundsrück and the Eifel, separated from each other by the deep valley of the Moselle, while on the right bank are the spurs of the Westerwald and the Sauerland, the former reaching the river in the picturesque group known as the Seven Mountains. The highest hill in the province is the Walderbeskopf (2670 feet) in the Hochwald, and there are several other summits above 2000 feet on the left bank, while on the right there are few which attain a height of 1600 feet. Most of the hills are covered with trees, but the Eifel is a barren and bleak plateau, with numerous traces of volcanic agency, and is continued towards the north-west by the moorlands of the Hohe Venn. To the north of a line drawn from Aix-la-Chapelle to Bonn the province is flat, and marshy districts occur near the Dutch frontier. The climate varies considerably with the configuration of the surface. That of the northern lowlands and of the sheltered valleys is the mildest and most equable in Prussia, with a mean annual temperature of 50° Fahr., while on the hills of the Eifel the mean does not exceed 44°. The annual rainfall varies in the different districts from 18 to 32 inches. Almost the whole province belongs to the basin of the Rhine, but a small district in the north-west is drained by affluents of the Meuse. Of the numerous tributaries which join the Rhine within the province, the most important are the Nahe, the Moselle, and the Ahr on the left bank, and the Sieg, the Wupper, the Ruhr, and the Lippe on the right. The only lake of any size is the Laacher See, the largest of the “maare” or extinct crater lakes of the Eifel.
Of the total area of the Rhenish province about 46.5 per cent. is occupied by arable land, 17 per cent. by meadows and pastures, and 31 per cent. by forests. Little except oats and potatoes can be raised on the high-lying plateaus in the south of the province, but the river-valleys and the northern lowlands are extremely fertile. The great bulk of the soil is in the hands of small proprietors, and this is alleged to have had the effect of somewhat retarding the progress of scientific agriculture. The usual cereal crops are, however, all grown with success, and tobacco, hops, flax, rape, hemp, and beetroot (for sugar) are cultivated for commercial purposes. Large quantities of fruit are also produced. The vine-culture occupies a space of 30,000 acres, about half of which are in the valley of the Moselle, a third in that of the Rhine itself, and the rest mainly on the Nahe and the Ahr. The choicest varieties of Rhine wine, however, such as Johannisberger and Steinberger, are produced higher up the river, beyond the limits of the Rhenish province. In the hilly districts more than half the surface is sometimes occupied by forests, and large plantations of oak are formed for the use of the bark in tanning. Considerable herds of cattle are reared on the rich pastures of the lower Rhine, but the number of sheep in the province is comparatively small, and is, indeed, not greatly in excess of that of the goats. The wooded hills are well stocked with deer, and a stray wolf occasionally finds its way from the forests of the Ardennes into those of the Hundsrück. The salmon fishery of the Rhine is very productive and trout abound in the mountain streams. (Compare the agricultural tables under Prussia, p. 14 supra.)
The great mineral wealth of the Rhenish province probably furnishes its most substantial claim to the title of the “richest jewel in the crown of Prussia.” Besides parts of the Carboniferous measures of the Saar and the Ruhr, it also contains important deposits of coal near Aix-la-Chapelle. Iron occurs abundantly near Coblentz, the Bleiberg in the Eifel possesses an apparently inexhaustible supply of lead, and zinc is found near Cologne and Aix-la-Chapelle. The mineral products of the district also include lignite, copper, manganese, vitriol, lime, gypsum, volcanic stones (used for mill-stones), and slates. In 1882 the total value of the minerals raised in the province was £5,460,000, or nearly one-third of the produce of Prussia; by far the most important item is coal, the output of which was upwards of 15,000,000 tons, valued at £4,400,000. Of the numerous mineral springs the best known are those of Aix-la-Chapelle and Kreuznach.
The mineral resources of Rhenish Prussia, coupled with its favourable situation and the facilities of transit afforded by its great waterway, have made it the most important manufacturing district in Germany. The industry is mainly concentrated round two chief centres, Aix-la-Chapelle and Düsseldorf (with the valley of the Wupper), while there are naturally few manufactures in the hilly districts of the south or the marshy flats of the north. In the forefront stand the metallic industries, the total produce of which was valued in 1882 at £5,200,000. The foundries produced upwards of a million tons of iron, besides zinc, lead, copper, and other metals. The largest iron and steel works are at Essen (including Krupp's cannon-foundry), Oberhausen, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, and Cologne, while cutlery and other small metallic wares are extensively made at Solingen, Remscheid, and Aix-la-Chapelle. The cloth of Aix-la-Chapelle and the silk of Crefeld form important articles of export. The chief industries of Elberfeld-Barmen and the valley of the Wupper are cotton-weaving, calico-printing, and the manufacture of turkey red and other dyes. Linen is largely made at Gladbach, leather at Malmedy, glass in the Saar district, and beetroot sugar near Cologne. Though the Rhineland is par excellence the country of the vine, no less than 52,000,000 gallons of beer were brewed in the province in 1882-83, equivalent to an annual consumption of fifty-one quarts per head of population; distilleries are also numerous, and large quantities of sparkling Moselle are made at Coblentz, chiefly for exportation to England. Commerce is greatly aided by the navigable rivers, a very extensive network of railways, and the excellent roads constructed during the French régime. The imports consist mainly of raw material for working up in the factories of the district, while the principal exports are coal, fruit, wine, dyes, cloth, silk, and other manufactured articles of various descriptions.
The population of Rhenish Prussia in 1880 was 4,074,000, including 2,944,186 Roman Catholics, 1,077,173 Protestants, and 43,694 Jews. The Roman Catholics muster strongest on the left bank, while on the right bank about half the population is Protestant. The distribution of the confessions is, however, somewhat sporadic, owing to the varied histories of the constituent parts of the province. The great bulk of the population is of Teutonic stock, and about a quarter of a million are of Flemish blood. On the north-west frontier reside about 12,000 Walloons, who speak French or Walloon as their native tongue. The Rhine province is the most thickly populated part of Prussia, the general average being 390 persons per square mile, while in the government district of Düsseldorf the proportion rises to 754. The province contains a greater number of large towns than any other province in Prussia, and 62.5 of the population is returned as urban. Upwards of half the population are supported by industrial and commercial pursuits, and barely a quarter by agriculture. There is a university of good standing at Bonn, and the success of the elementary education is borne witness to by the fact that in 1883 only 0.19 per cent, of the Rhenish recruits were unable to read and write. For purposes of administration the province is divided into the five districts of Coblentz, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Aix-la-Chapelle, and Treves; Coblentz is the official capital, though Cologne is the largest and most important town. In the greater part of the province the Code Napoléon, introduced under the French régime, is still in force. Being a frontier province the Rhineland is strongly garrisoned, and the Rhine is guarded by the four strong fortresses of Cologne with Deutz, Coblentz with Ehrenbreitstein, Wesel, and Saar-louis. In the Prussian parliament the province of the Rhine is represented by twenty-seven members in the upper house and eighty-two in the lower.
History.—The present province of Rhenish Prussia was formed in 1815 out of the duchies of Cleves, Berg, Upper Guelders, and Jülich, the ecclesiastical principalities of Treves and Cologne, the free cities of Aix-la-Chapelle and Cologne, and nearly a hundred small independent lordships, knightships, and abbeys. It is therefore manifestly impracticable to give more than a broad general sketch of the historical development of a region of which the component parts have had so little of their past in common. At the earliest historical period we find the territories between the Ardennes and the Rhine occupied by the Treviri, Eburones, and other Celtic tribes, who, however, were all more or less modified and influenced by their Teutonic neighbours. On the right bank of the Rhine, between the Main and the Lahn, were the settlements of the Mattiaci, a branch of the Germanic Chatti, while farther to the north were the Usipetes and Tencteri. Julius Cæsar conquered the tribes on the left bank and Augustus established numerous fortified posts on the Rhine, but the Romans never succeeded in gaining a firm footing on the right bank. Under the Romans the districts to the west of the Rhine, forming parts of the provinces of Belgica Prima, Germania Superior, and Germania Inferior, enjoyed great prosperity and reached a high degree of civilization. Several Roman emperors resided and issued their edicts at Treves, the capital of Belgica Prima, and the important Roman remains in this city as well as in other parts of the province give an idea of the material benefits the territory derived from their dominion. As the power of the Roman empire declined the Franks pushed forward along both banks of the Rhine, and by the end of the 5th century had regained all the lands that had formerly been under Teutonic influence. The German conquerors of the Rhenish districts were singularly little affected by the culture of the provincials they subdued, and all traces of Roman civilization were submerged in a new flood of paganism. By the 8th century the Frankish dominion was firmly established in central Germany and northern Gaul; and under the Carlovingian monarchs the Rhineland, and especially Aix-la-Chapelle, plays a rôle of considerable prominence. On the division of the Carlovingian realm the part of the Rhenish province to the east of the river fell to the share of Germany, while that to the west remained with the evanescent middle kingdom of Lotharingia. By the time of Otho I. (936-973) both banks of the Rhine had become German, and the Rhenish territory was divided between the duchies of Upper and Lower Lorraine, the one on the Moselle and the other on the Meuse. Subsequently, as the central power of the German sovereign became weakened, the Rhineland followed the general tendency and split up into numerous small independent principalities, each with its separate vicissitudes and special chronicles. The old Lotharingian divisions passed wholly out of use, and the name of Lorraine became restricted to the district that still bears it. In spite of its dismembered condition, and the sufferings it underwent at the hands of its French neighbours in various periods of warfare, the Rhenish territory prospered greatly and stood in the foremost rank of German culture and progress. Aix-la-Chapelle was fixed upon as the place of coronation of the German emperors, and the ecclesiastical principalities of the Rhine bulk largely in German history. Prussia first set foot on the Rhine in 1609, when it acquired the duchy of Cleves; and about a century later Upper Guelders and Mörs also became Prussian. At the peace of Basel in 1795 the whole of the left bank of the Rhine was resigned to France, and in 1806 the Rhenish princes all joined the Confederation of the Rhine. The congress of Vienna assigned the whole of the lower Rhenish districts to Prussia, which had the tact to leave them in undisturbed possession of the liberal institutions they had become accustomed to under the republican rule of the French. (Compare Rhine.) (J. F. M.)