BADEN, a Land lying in the south-west corner of Ger many, bounded on the north by Bavaria and Hesse; on the west by the Rhine with France and the Bavarian palatinate beyond; on the south by Switzerland; and on the east by Wurttemberg and part of Bavaria. The country consists of the eastern half of the fertile Rhine valley and of the adjoining mountains, especially the Schwarzwald (see BLACK FOREST) which fills the great angle made by the river between Schaffhausen and Strasbourg. The highest areas are south of the deep Kinzig valley which opens on to that of the Rhine south-east of Strasbourg. The Feldberg, the highest summit of the southern Schwarzwald, reaches nearly 5,00o feet. Westwards the hills are faulted steeply over the plain, which is broken only by the conspicuous Kaiserstuhl (1,800ft.), a volcanic group north-west of Freiburg. To the north and north east, beyond the Neckar, is the Odenwald range ; while between that river and the northern end of the Black Forest the State includes a belt of lower land stretching from Pforzheim to Heidel berg. The greater part of Baden thus belongs to the basin of the Rhine, which receives upwards of 20 tributaries from its high lands. A part, however, of the eastern slope of the Black Forest belongs to the basin of the Danube, which there takes its rise in a number of mountain streams.
There are great physical contrasts within the Land, e.g., the Rhine valley is the warmest district in Germany but the higher parts of the Black Forest record the greatest degrees of cold experienced in the south. The mean temperature of the Rhine valley is approximately 5o° and that of the high table-land, Many minerals are found in small quantities, but little is worked save salt and building stone. Cultivable land including forests oc cupies 94% of the total area. Mineral springs are very numerous and famous, those of Baden-Baden, Badenweiler, Antogast, Gries bach, Freiersbach and Petersthal being the most frequented. In the valleys the soil is particularly fertile, yielding rye, wheat, barley, potatoes, hemp, hops, beetroot, turnips, chicory and tobacco. Cattle are reared in large quantities, and sheep, horses, pigs and goats. The culture of the vine increases; the wines are characterized by a mildness of flavour. Fruit-growing and bee keeping are widespread. Forests, in which the predominant trees are fir, pine and chestnut, cover 39% of the total area; they have profoundly influenced life in the hills, and form a source of considerable wealth.
At the beginning of the 19th century Baden was only a margra vate, with an area little exceeding I,3oosq.m., and a population of 210,000. Area and population progressively increased until the respective figures amounted to 5819 sq.m. and 2,413,324 inhab itants. The religious division in 1925 was 1,350,000 Roman Cath olics, 910,000 Protestants, and 19,000 Jews.
The capital of the Land is Karlsruhe, and important towns other than the above are Rastatt, Baden-Baden, Bruchsal Dur lach, Offenburg and Lahr. The population is greatest in the north and in the neighbourhood of the Swiss town of Basle.
The principal manufactures are machinery, cotton tissues, silk ribbons, paper, cigars, leather, clocks, jewellery, musical instru ments, woodwork, brushes and chemicals. Beet sugar is also largely manufactured. The inhabitants of the Black Forest have long been celebrated for their dexterity in the manufacture of wooden ornaments, toys and musical instruments. The railways of Baden reach a total length of 2,IIO.6km., and transit trade is an important element. Mannheim is the great Rhine emporium, the chief manufacturing town and the seat of administrative govern ment for the northern portion of the country.
Education is free and compulsory : schools are under State authority. There are two universities, the Protestant at Heidel berg and the Roman Catholic at Freiburg and a commercial high school at Mannheim, a technical high school and an academy of arts. The Roman Catholic Church has an archbishop at Freiburg; the Protestant Church is governed by a synod.
The constitution of the original republic of Baden was made by the National Assembly and is dated March 21, 1919. By it all privileges of birth, religion and caste were abolished. There was only one chamber (Landtag), the members of which were elected for four years. The suffrage was granted to all males and females over 20 years of age. The cabinet included four ministers and two State councillors ; the president (officially styled "State Presi dent") was elected by the Landtag. There are, since 1924, 4o "Amtsbezirke" for general administrative purposes and I 1 circles (Kreise) for local government. (X.) History.—The history of Baden as a state began in I112 when Hermann, grandson of Bertold, duke of Carinthia and count of Zahringen, assumed the title of margrave of Baden. Ninety years later his descendants divided up their territories and formed two houses: Baden-Baden and Baden-Hochberg. A century later a new house of Baden-Sausenberg came into being as an offshoot of that of Baden-Hochberg. This latter line failed in 1418, and that of Baden-Sausenberg in 1503, when the whole of Baden passed under the rule of the margrave Christopher I. of Baden-Baden. This prince combined in 1512 with the Elector Palatine, duke of Wurttemberg, bishop of Wurzburg, and in 1515 with Frederick the Wise of Saxony, to set up a counter-alliance to the Swabian League, an action that was instrumental in preventing any effective organi zation of the Empire as a single unit. Christopher was also a pro moter of discord within his own family by partitioning his estates between his three sons. Throughout the 16th century Baden suf fered severely from the internecine warfare of its rulers, and the Reformation only served to add religious bitterness to territorial rivalries. The Thirty Years' War further accentuated these dis putes and it was not until after the signature in 1648 of the Treaty of Westphalia that the family feuds finally disappeared. Nor was it until the Baden-Baden line failed in 1771, and their land passed to Charles Frederick of Baden-Durlach, that Baden came to play a conspicuous part in German history.
During his long reign (1749-1811) Charles Frederick quad rupled the territory of his state and proved himself a wise and humane ruler. Nor was he slow to seize the unequalled opportunity for territorial aggrandisement presented to him by the Napoleonic Wars. Siding first with the Austrians, and subsequently with Napoleon, he obtained benefits from both his allies. In 18o6 he became a member of the Confederation of the Rhine, and adopted the style of a grand-duke. The treaties of Pressburg (18o5) and Vienna (1809) brought him very substantial gains. On his death in 1811 he was succeeded by his grandson, Charles, who was mar ried to Stephanie de Beauharnais, the adopted daughter of Napo leon I. As astute as his grandfather, Charles lost no time in trans ferring his allegiance from the French to the Allied side when once Napoleon's fortunes seemed finally on the wane. Baden had joined the Germanic confederation in 1815, but the vexed question of the succession to the grand-duchy was left unsettled by the Congress of Vienna. A treaty of April 16, 1816, between Austria and Bavaria had guaranteed the succession to Maximilian I., king of Bavaria, in the event of the extinction of the Zahringen line. A year later Charles issued a pragmatic sanction (Hausgesetz) in which he declared that the succession should pass to the issue of a mor ganatic marriage between Charles Frederick and Luise Geyer von Geyersberg (created Countess Hochberg). The subsequent dis pute between Baden and Bavaria over the succession question was finally settled in favour of the Hochbergs by the treaty of Frankfurt of July i o, I 819. One outcome of this dispute was of far-reaching importance. In order to gain popular support for the Hochberg claims Charles in 1818 had granted Baden a liberal con stitution by which two chambers were set up with power over legis lation and taxation. This experiment in constitutional government was watched with deep interest by all the German states, and its eventual failure was hailed with joy in reactionary circles all over Germany.
The July Revolution of 1830 left Baden undisturbed under the liberal rule of Leopold, the first grand-duke of the Hochberg line. But with the first news of the Paris revolution in 1848 the storm burst and the people demanded that a number of resolutions passed in the previous year by a Radical demonstration at Offenburg should be at once enacted. At first the Government obtained some measure of success against the insurgents, who had taken up arms, but in 1849 the storm burst again with redoubled fury. The promulgation of a new constitution on the Frankfurt model had pleased neither the Radicals nor the Conservatives, and the former again sought the arbitrament of arms. The army rose in revolt, and the grand-duke and his government sought safety in flight. Finally, in June, the aid of Prussia having been sought and obtained by the grand-duke, a Prussian army invaded Baden under the command of the future emperor William I. With its coming the revolution was doomed, and by August all show of resistance was at an end. The new diet passed a series of reactionary decrees with the object of strengthening the hands of the government, and the grand-duke returned to his capital. As the price for her assistance Prussia obtained the adhesion of Baden to the League of the Three Kings.
With the crushing of the revolution Baden entered upon a long period of uneventful prosperity that only terminated with the World War. In the war of 1866 her army fought on the side of Austria, although the sympathy of her ruler, the grand-duke Fred erick, who was a son-in-law of the emperor William, was definitely on the side of Prussia. Indeed his was the voice that in 1871 first hailed the king of Prussia as German emperor in the Hall of Mir rors at Versailles. The only event of real interest in the history of Baden after the revolution was the battle that raged there as elsewhere in Germany between Clericals and Liberals for the con trol of education. In Baden this fight was not ended until 1880 when a reconciliation was effected with the Holy See and the arch bishopric of Freiburg, which had been vacant since 1868, was once again filled up. The grand-duke Frederick, who had ruled Baden with wisdom and moderation for half a century and been an authoritative voice in the counsels of the Empire, died in Sept. 1907, and was succeeded by his son, the grand-duke Frederick II.
The World War brought revolution in its train to Baden; and the dynasty that had ruled for Boo years gave place (Nov. 1918) to a democratic Republic. A new constitution established (May 1919) a single legislative chamber with a cabinet responsible to and chosen by that chamber. Further the chamber selects from the cabinet the minister-president, who acts in the dual capacity of prime minister and president of the state, although he is not de facto head of the state. The principle of the referendum was embodied in the constitution, which closely resembles that of the Swiss Confederation, and power was given to the chamber to dismiss at pleasure the whole ministry or any individual mem bers of it. Since 1925 the Government has been in the hands of a coalition ministry composed of Social Democrats and repre sentatives of the Centre Party.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-F. J. Mone, Quellensammlung zur badischen Bibliography.-F. J. Mone, Quellensammlung zur badischen Landesgeschichte (Karlsruhe, 1848-67) ; L. H. Hausser, Denkwurdig keiten zur Geschichte der badischen Revolution (Heidelberg, 1851) ; F. von Weech, Baden unter den Grossherzogen Karl Friedrich, Karl Ludwig (Freiburg, 1863) ; Geschichte der badischen Verfassung (Karls ruhe, 1868) ; Baden in den Jahren 1852 bis 1877 (Karlsruhe, ; Badische Geschichte (Karlsruhe, 189o) ; C. F. Nebenius and F. von Weech, Karl Friedrich von Baden (Karlsruhe, i868) ; Badische Bio graphies, ed. F. von Weech (Karlsruhe, 1875-91) ; Das Grossherzogtum Baden in geographischer . . . Hinsicht dargestellt, (Karlsruhe, 1885) ; Wielandt, Des Staatsrecht des Grossherzogtums Baden (Freiburg, 1895) ; L. Muller, Badische Landtagsgeschichte (Berlin, 1899-1902) E. H. Meyer, Badisches Volksleben im 19. Jahrhundert (Strasbourg, 1900) . (I. F. D. M.)