and Prussian Saxony on the north. The former portion is known as the Oberland and the latter as the Unterland. Owing to the fertility of the Unterland, quite one-quarter of the people are supported by agricultural pursuits, although there is also much industrial activity. The chief industrial product consists of woollen goods, and the manufacture centres in the capital Gera, the largest of the six towns of the principality. Other industries are jute-spinning, dyeing and brewing, and the manufacture of musical instruments, chemicals, tobacco, cigars, porcelain and machinery. A considerable trade is carried on in these goods and also in timber, cattle and slate. Iron is mined in the Oberland, and large quantities of salt are yielded by the brine springs of Heinrichshall. In 1905 Reuss-Schleiz contained 144,584 inhabitants. Its annual revenue and expenditure amount to about £129,OOO, and in 1908 it had a public debt of £52,027. The constitution, which rests on laws of 1852 and 1856, provides for a representative assembly of 16 members which possesses limited legislative powers, the administrative duties being discharged by a cabinet of three members. The reigning prince is Henry XIV. (b. 1832), but since 1892 his duties have been undertaken by a regent. The states of Reuss return one member each to the Bundesrat, and one each to the Reichstag of the German empire.
History.―The history of Reuss stretches back to the times when the German kings appointed vogts, or bailiifs (advocati imperii), to administer their lands. One of these vogts was a certain Henry, who died about 1120, after having been entrusted emperor Henry IV. with the vogtship of Gera and of Weida, and he is generally recognized as the ancestor of the princes of Reuss. His descendants called themselves. lords of Weida, and some of them were men of note in their day, serving the emperors and German kings and distinguishing themselves in the ranks of the Teutonic order. The land under their rule gradually increased in size, and it is said that the name of Reuss was applied to it owing to the fact that one of its princes married a Russian princess, their son being called “der Russe,” or the Russian. Another version is that the prince received this sobriquet because he passed many years in Russia. The district thus called Reuss was at one time much more extensive than it is at present, and for some years its rulers were margraves of Meissen. In 1564 the family was divided into three branches by the sons of Henry XVI. (d. 1535). One of these became extinct in 1616, but the remaining ones are those of Reuss-Greiz and Reuss-Schleiz-Gera, which are flourishing to-day. Although there have been further divisions these have not been lasting, and the lands of the former family have been undivided since 1768 and those of the latter since 1848. The lords of Reuss took the title of count in 1673; and the head of the elder line became a prince of the Empire in 1778, and the head of the younger line in 1806. In 1807 the two princes joined the Confederation of the Rhine and in 1815 the German confederation. In 1866 Reuss-Greiz was compelled to atone for its active sympathy with Austria by the payment of a fine. In 1871 both principalities became members of the new German empire. The princes of Reuss are very wealthy, their private domain including a great part of the territory over which they rule. In the event of either line becoming extinct, its possessions will fall to the other.
A curious custom prevails in the house of Reuss. The male members of both branches of the family all bear the name of Henry (Heinrich), the individuals being distinguished by numbers. In the elder line, according to an arrangement made in 1701, the enumeration continues until the number one hundred is reached when it begins again. In the younger line the first prince born in a new century is numbered I., and the numbers follow on until the end of the century when they begin again. Thus Henry XIV. of Reuss younger line, who was born in 1832, was the son of Henry LXVII. (1789-1867), the former being the 14th prince born in the 19th century, and the latter the 67th prince born in the 18th.
REUTER, FRITZ (1810-1874), German novelist, was born
on the 7th of November 1810, at Stavenhagen, in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, a small country town where his father was burgomaster
and sheriff (Stadtfichter), and in addition to his official
duties carried on the work of a farmer. He was educated at
home by private tutors and subsequently at the gymnasiums
of Friedland in Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and of Parchim. In
1831 he began to attend lectures on jurisprudence at the university
of Rostock, and in the following year went to the university
of jena. Here he was a member of the political students' club,
or German Burschenschaft, and in 1833 was arrested in Berlin
by the Prussian government; although the only charge which
could be proved against him was that he had been seen wearing
its colours, he was condemned to death for high treason. This
monstrous sentence was commuted by King Frederick William III.
of Prussia to imprisonment for thirty years in a Prussian
fortress. In 1838, through the personal intervention of the
grand-duke 'of Mecklenburg, he was delivered over to the
authorities of his native state, and the next two years he spent
in the fortress of Domitz, but in 1840 was set free, an amnesty
having been proclaimed after the accession of Frederick William
IV. to the Prussian throne.
Although Reuter was now thirty years of age, he went to Heidelberg to resume his legal studies; but he soon found it necessary to return to Stavenhagen, where he aided in the management of his father's farm. After his father's death, however, he abandoned farming, and in 185O settled as a private tutor at the little town of Treptow in Pomerania. Here he married Luise Kunze, the daughter of a Mecklenburg pastor. Reuter's first publication was a collection of miscellanies, written in Plattdeutsch, and entitled Ldnschen un Riemels (“ anecdotes and rhymes, ” 1853; a second collection followed in 1858). The book, which was received with encouraging favour, was followed by Polterabendgedichte (1855), and De Reis' nah Belligen (1855), the latter a humorous poem describing the adventures of some Mecklenburg peasants who resolve to go to Belgium (which they never reach) to learn the secrets of an advanced civilization. In 1856 Reuter left Treptow and established himself at Neubrandenburg, resolving to devote his whole time to literary work. ~ His next book (published in 1858) was Kein H tisung, an epic in which he presents with great force and vividness some of the least attractive aspects of village life in Mecklenburg. This was followed, in 1860, by Hanne Nnte un de latte Pndel, the best of the works written by Reuter in verse. In 1861 Reuter's popularity was largely increased by Schnrr-Muff, a collection of tales, some of which are in High German, but this work is of slight importance in comparison with the series of stories, entitled Olle Kamellen (“ old stories of bygone days ”). The first volume, published in 1860, contained Woans ick tau'ne Fru kam and Ut de Franzosentid. Ut mine Festungstid (1861) formed the second volume; Ut mine Stromtid (1864) the third, fourth and fifth volumes; and Dzirchlduchting (1866) the sixth volume—all written in the Plattdeutsch dialect of the author's home. Woans tok tau 'ne Fm kafm is a bright little tale, in which Reuter tells, in a half serious half bantering tone, how he wooed the lady who became his wife. In Ut de Franzosentid the scene is laid in and neal Stavenhagen in the year 1813, and the characters of the story are associated with the great events which then stirred the heart of Germany to its depths. Ut mine Festnngstid is of less general interest than Ut de Franzosentid, a narrative of Reuter's hardships during the term of his imprisonment, but it is not less vigorous either in conception or in style. Ut mine Stromtid is by far the greatest of Reuter's writings. The men and women he describes are the men and women he knew in the villages and farmhouses of Mecklenburg, and the circumstances in which he places them are the circumstances by which they were surrounded in actual life. As in Ut de Franzosentid he describes the deep national impulse in obedience to which Germany rose against
