BADEN (bad'en), one of the more important states of Germany, situated in the S. W. of Germany, to the W. of Wiirttemberg. It is divided into four districts, Constance, Freiburg, Karlsruhe, and Mannheim; has an area of 5,823 square and pop. about 2,200,000.
is mountainous, being traversed to a considerable extent by the lofty plateau of the Schwarzwald, or Black Forest, which attains its highest point in the Feldberg (4,904 feet). The whole of Baden, except a small portion in the S. E., in which the Danube takes its rise, belongs to the basin of the Rhine, which bounds it on the S. and W. Numer ous tributaries of the Rhine intersect it, the chief being the Neckar. Lakes are numerous, and include a considerable part of the Lake of Constance. The principal minerals worked are coal, salt, iron, zinc, and nickel. The number of mineral springs is remarkably great, and of these not a few are of great celebrity. The vegetation is peculiarly rich, and there are magnificent forests. The cereals Comprise wheat, oats, barley, and rye. Potatoes, hemp, tobacco, wine, and sugar beet are largely produced. Several of the wines, both white and red, rank in the first class. Baden has long been famous for its fruits, also. The manu factures are important. Among them are textiles, tobacco and cigars, chemicals, machinery, pottery ware, jewelry (espe cially at Pforzheim), wooden clocks, con fined chiefly to the districts of the Black Forest, musical boxes and other musical toys. The capital is Karlsruhe, about 5
miles from the Rhine; the other chief towns are Mannheim, Freiburg-im-Breis gau, with a Roman Catholic university; Pforzheim, Constanz, Baden-Baden, and Heidelberg. Baden-Baden has warm mineral springs, which were known and used in the time of the Romans. Heidel berg has a university (Protestant), founded in 1386. There are about 1,500 miles of railways, mostly owned by the state.
the time of the Roman Empire, southern Baden belonged to the Roman province of Rhwtia. Under the old German empire it was a margravate, which in 1533 was divided into Baden Baden and Baden-Durlach, but reunited in 1771. The title of Grand-Duke was conferred by Napoleon in 1806, and in the same year Baden was extended to its present limits. The executive power was vested in the Grand-Duke, the legislative in a House of Legislature, consisting of an Upper and a Lower Chamber. In November, 1918, a resolution forced the -4.0dication of the Grand-Duke Frederick II. who had succeeded to the throne in 1907. Baden was declared a republic Nov. 13, 1918, and in January, 1919, the National Assembly adopted a new con stitution.