Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/615

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BERLIN
597

feet long, by 170 feet wide and Gl feet high. The back and side walls of the portico are covered with frescoes, from designs by Schinkel, executed under the direction of Cor nelius, and representing, in mythical and symbolical figures, the world s progress from shapeless and chaotic to organic and developed life. The sides of the flight of steps support the well-known equestrian bronze groups of the Amazon by Kiss, and the Lion-slayer by Albert Wolff. Under the portico are monuments of the sculptors Rauch and Schadow, the architect Schinkel, and the art critic Winckel- mann. The interior consists of a souterrain, containing the collection of antiquities, and of a first floor, entered from the portico through bronze doors of artistic merit, made after designs by Stiller, weighing 7| tons, and executed at a cost of 3600. This floor consists of a rotunda, and of halls and cabinets of sculpture. The second floor, in a series of cabinets running round the entire building, con tains the national collection of paintings. These are divided into three classes, the Italian, French, and Spanish ; the Dutch, Flemish, and German ; and the Byzantine, Italian, Dutch, and German pictures down to the end of the 15th century each of the classes being chronologically arranged. The gallery, then containing 1300 paintings, was enriched in 1874 by the valuable pictures of the Suerniondt gallery, purchased by the nation at a cost of .51,000. The Suennondt gallery was rich in pictures of the old Nether- land and German schools, and of the Dutch and Flemish schools. It also contained a few Spanish, Italian, and

French pictures.

The New Museum is connected with the Old Museum by a covered corridor. In its interior arrangements and decoration it is undoubtedly the most splendid structure in the city. Lik e the Old Museum, it has three floors. The lowest of these contains the Ethnographical and Egyp tian Museums and the Museum of Northern Antiquities. In the first floor, plaster casts of ancient, mediaeval, and modern sculpture are found in thirteen halls and in three departments. On the walls of the grand marble staircase, which rises to the full height of the building, Kaulbach s renowned cyclus of stereochromic pictures is painted, re presenting the six great epochs of human progress, from the confusion of tongues at the Tower of Babel and the dispersion of the nations to the Reformation of the IGth century. The uppermost story contains the collection of engravings and the gallery of curiosities.

The National Gallery is an elegant building, after de signs by Stiller, situated between the New Museum and the Spree, and is intended to receive the collection of mo dern paintings now exhibited provisionally in the apart ments of the Academy.

The public monuments are the equestrian statues of the GreatElector on theLangeBriicke, erected in 1703 ; Rauch s celebrated statue of Frederick the Great, " probably the grandest monument in Europe," opposite the emperor s palace, Unter den Linden ; and the statue of Frederick William III. in the Lustgarten. In the Thiergarten is Drake s marble monument of Frederick William III. ; and in the neighbouring Chaiiottenburg, Rauch s figures of the same king and the Queen Louise in the mausoleum in the Park. A second group of monuments on the Wilhelm s Platz commemorates the generals of the Seven Years War ; and a third, in the neighbourhood of the Opera, the generals who fought against Napoleon I. On the Kreuz- berg, the highest spot in the neighbourhood of Berlin, a Gothic monument in bronze was erected by Frederick William III. to commemorate the victories of 1813-15; and in the Konigsplatz the present emperor has erected a column of victory in honour of the triumphs of 1864, 1866, and 1870. This monument rises to the height of 197 feet, the gilded figure of Victory on the top being 40 feet high. Literature, science, and art are represented in different parts of the city by statues and busts of Rauch, Schinkel, Thaer, Beuth, Schadow, Winckelmann, Schiller, Hegel, Jahn ; while the monuments in the cemeteries and churches bear the names of distinguished men iu all departments of political, military, and scientific life.

Next to Leipsic, Berlin is the largest publishing centre in Germany. In the year 1872 there were 1540 works published in Berlin, of which 20 per cent, had to do with literature, 15 per cent, with philology and pedagogy, 14 per cent, with law and politics, 7 per cent, with history, 6 per cent, were military works, 5 per cent, theological, 5 per cent, had to do with agriculture, and 4 per cent, with medi cine. Turning to journals and periodical literature, 265 newspapers and magazines, daily, weekly, or monthly, ap peared in the same year. The political journals in Berlin do not, however, sustain the same relation to the political life of Germany as do the political journals of London and Paris to that of England and France.|1}}

Berlin is not only a centre of intelligence, but is also an important centre of manufacture and trade. Its trade tures.

and manufactures appear to be at present in a transition state old branches are dying out, and new branches are springing into existence. Direct railway communica tion between the corn lands of north-eastern Germany, Poland, and Russia on the one hand, and the states of Central and Western Germany on the other, have deprived Berlin of much of its importance as a centre of trade in corn and flour. In like manner the spirit trade and manu facture have suffered. The 20,892,493 litres exported in 1870 had sunk to 9,737,597 litres in 1872. On the other, hand, for petroleum, Berlin has become an emporium for the supply of the Mark of Brandenburg, part of Posen, Silesia, Saxony, and Bohemia. Silk and cotton manufac ture, which in former times constituted a principal branch of Berlin manufacture, has died out. As late as 1849 Berlin had 2147 silk looms; now it has few or none. Woollen manufacture maintained its ground for a time, occupying about 8000 looms and 11,404 workmen as late as 1861. In 1874 the number of hands employed in spinning and weaving in all branches had sunk to 2918. The chief articles of manufacture and commerce are locomotives and machinery ; carriages ; copper, brass, and bronze wares ; porcelain ; and the requisites for building of every descrip tion. The manufacture of sewing-machines has assumed large proportions, from 70,000 to 75,000 being manufac tured annually. According to the report of the Govern ment inspector of factories for the city of Berlin, presented to the minister of trade and commerce, the number of persons employed in all the Berlin factories in the year 1874 was 64,466. By a " factory " was understood any wholesale manufacturing establishment employing more than 10 persons. In 1874 there were 1906 such factories at work, employing 51,464 males and 11,004 females above 16 years of age; 1137 males and 760 females under 16 and above 14 years of age; and 66 male and 14 female children under 14 years of age. The manufacture of steam- engines and machinery occupied 14,737 persons; brass- founding, metallic belt and lamp manufacture, 9074 ; car pentry, joinery, and wood-carving, 4548; printing, 3620; spinning and weaving, 2918; sewing-machines and tele graphic apparatus, 2788; the finer qualities of paper, 2585 ; porcelain and ware, 1741 ; dyeing, 1712 ; gas works, 1518; tobacco and cigars, 1477; manufacture of linen garments, 1355; pianos and harmoniums, 1198; dressmaking and artificial flowers, 1127; brewing, 1061. None of the other branches found occupation for 1000 persons. The value of the annual exports to the United States of articles of Berlin manufacture has risen to about 1,000,000 sterling.

The exports to the Brazils, the Argentine Republic, and