BADEN, bi'den, a grand duchy in the German empire. The Rhine separates it from Alsace on the east and Wiirtemberg bounds it on the west. It has an area of 5,823 square miles, with a population of 2,142,833 in 1910: The country is mountainous, being traversed by the lofty plateau of the Schwarzwald, or Black Forest, which attains its highest point in the Feldberg (4,904 feet). The nucleus of this plateau consists of gneiss and granite. In the north it sinks down toward the Oden wald, which is, however, of different geological structure, being composed for the most part of red sandstone. The whole of Baden, except a small portion in the southeast, in which the Danube takes its rise, belongs to the basin of the Rhine, which bounds it on the south and west. Numerous tributaries of the Rhine in tersect it, the chief being the Neckar. Lakes are numerous and include a considerable part of the lake of Constance. The climate varies much. The hilly parts, especially in the east, are cold and have a long winter, while the val ley of the Rhine enjoys the finest climate of Germany. 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 mag nificent 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. Of the total area, 42 per cent is under cultivation, 37 per cent under forest and 17 per cent under meadows and pas tures. The farms are mostly quite small. The manufactures are important. Among them are textiles, tobacco and cigars, chemicals, ma chinery, pottery ware, jewelry (especially at Pforzheim), wooden clocks, confined chiefly to the districts of the Black Forest, musical boxes and other musical toys. The mineral
production is comparatively unimportant; the chief products are salt and building stone. The capital is Karlsruhe (pop. 135,000), about five miles from the Rhine; the other chief towns are Mannheim, Freiburg-im-Breisgau, with a Roman Catholic university, Baden and Heidel berg. Heidelberg has a university (Protes tant), founded in 1386, the oldest in the present German empire. The railways have a length of 1,450 miles and are nearly all state property.
In the time of the Roman empire, southern Baden belonged to the Roman province of Rhatia. 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 dulce was conferred by Napoleon in 1806 and in the same year Baden was extended to its present limits. The Constitution dates from 22 Aug. 1818 and was modified in 1904. Baden entered the North German Confederation for the founding of the Gertnan empire by treaty of 15 Nov. 1870. The executive power is vested in the grand duke, the legislative in a house of legisla ture, consisting of an upper and a lower chamber. The former consists partly of hered itary members, eight members elected for eight years by the landed nobility, the archbishop of Freiburg and the Protestant prelate and two representatives of state universities; the latter consists of elected representatives of the peo ple. The revenue is mainly derived from taxes on land and incomes and the produce of crown-lands, forests and mines. The revenue in 1912 was 105,146,683 marks. Baden sends three members to the. German Bundesrath, or Federal Council, and 14 deputies to the Reich stag. Two-thirds of the population are Roman Catholics, the rest Protestants.