862

GERMAN EMPIRE

Religion.

The Constitutiou provides for entire liberty of conscience and for complete social equality among all religious confessions. The relation between Church and State varies in different parts of the Empire, The Jesuit order is inter- dicted in all parts of Germany, and all convents and religious orders, except those engaged in nursing the sick and purely contemplative orders, have been suppressed. There are 5 Roman Catholic archbishoprics, 14 suffragan bishoprics, and 6 bishoprics immediately subject to Rome ; there are 3 apostolic vicariates. The ' Old Catholics ' have a bishop at Bonn.

The following are the results of three religious censuses : —

Creed

Protestants Catholics . Other Christians Jews . Others and un-

I 1900

135,231,104

|20,327,913

' 203,793

586,833

Per Ct. of Pop.

62-5

36 1

0-4

1-0

1905

37,646,852

22,109,644

259,717

607,862

I Per Ct. of Pop.

62-1 36-5

0-4

1-0

1910

39,991,421

23,821,453

283,946

615,021

classified

17,535 0-03 j 17,203 0-03 | 214,152

Per Ct. of Pop.

61-6 36-7

0-4

1-0

0-3

Roman Catholics in 1905 were in the majority in only three of the German states, Alsace-Lorraine, Bavaria, Baden ; and formed more than 20 per cent, of the population in only four others, Oldenburg, Wiirttemburg, Hesse, Prussia.

Instruction.

Education is general and compulsory throughout Germany. The laws ui Prussia, which provide for the establishment of elementary schools ( Volb^- schuhn), supported from the local rates, in every town and village, and compel all parents to send their children to these or other schools, ha\e been adopted, with slight modifications, in all the States of the Empire. The school age is from six to fourteen.

The following table shows for the different German States the number of elementary public schools, the teachers employed in them and children attending them, according to a school census taken in 1911 : —

States

Prussia

Bavaria

Saxony

WUrttemberg

Baden

Hesse

Mecklenb. -Sch.

Grand Duchy of Saxony

Mecklenb. -Str.

Oldenburg

Brunswick

Saxe-Meiningen

8axo-Altcnburg

Saxe-Coburg-Gotha .

Anhalt

Teachers

Schools

Pupils

38,684

7,566

2,270

2,250

1,659

981

1,235

476

231

709

439

310

217

242

23S

Males

91,643

13,521

13,385

5,279

4,668

3,246

1,981

1,105

360

1,211

1,348

785

541

698

614

Females

Males

Females

24,660

3,292,877

3,279,263

4,831

521,662

520,014 I

710

378,571

392,532 1

784

170,239

180,701 1

957

166,286

168,978

542

102,563

102,995 i

1,121

48,131

44,530

76

32522

33,124

28

7,807

7,890

246

41,560

40,774 -

246

40,321

38,712 1

118

24,369

24,554

50

18,475

18,9.-3

142

21,072

21,405

294

19,920

20,951 ,

6,572,140

1,041,670

771,103

350,940

335,261

205,558

92,6tn

65,646

15,697

82,334

79,033

48,928

37,458

42,477

40,871