Saxony

Saxony, a kingdom of Germany, taking in respect of area the fifth place, but in respect of population the third place, amongst the states of the empire; it is surrounded by Bohemia (on the S.), Silesia (NE. and N.), Prussian Saxony (N. and NW.), and the minor Saxon states (W.). It measures 130 miles from east to west, 90 miles from north to south, and has a total area of 5787 sq. m. (a little smaller than Yorkshire); in shape it roughly resembles a right-angled triangle, the right angle being in the north-west, the hypotenuse in the south, along the Erzgebirge (to 3343 feet). The greater part of the surface is diversified by the spurs (2800 feet) of this mountain-chain, with to the west the outliers (2900 feet) of the Fichtelgebirge and to the east the northern extensions (2600 feet) of the Riesengebirge. The northern districts pass over into the great North German plain. On the whole the surface is therefore elevated (nearly 60 per cent. above 800 feet); in many parts it is studded with isolated peaks of basalt and sandstone (e.g. the fantastic pinnacles of the Saxon Switzerland, skirting the Elbe just above Dresden). It lies almost wholly within the basin of the Elbe, being drained by that river and its tributaries. The climate, owing to the elevation, is somewhat colder and severer than the latitude (50° 10' to 51° 29' N.) would indicate. The population grows fast: (1815) 1,178,802; (1840) 1,706,276; (1864) 2,344,094; (1880) 2,972,805; (1890) 3,500,513. Thus it has doubled since 1840. Saxony, whose area is a little more than half that of Belgium (pop. 6,093,798 in 1890), is more densely inhabited, having 605 inhabitants on the square mile to Belgium's 535. By race the majority of the people are Germanised Slavs, close upon 50,000 being Wends, living in Lusatia; the non-Slavonic remainder are descended from ancient immigrants from Franconia and Thuringia. More than 96 per cent. of the population are Lutherans. The capital is Dresden; the largest towns are Leipzig, Dresden, Chemnitz, Plauen, Zwickau, Freiberg, Zittau, Meerane, and Glauchau, in the order named, the first three having each more than 100,000.

Saxony is essentially a mining and manufacturing country; whilst more than 58 per cent. of the population are engaged in the mines and manufactures, less than 20 per cent. depend upon agriculture. The first place amongst the manufactures is taken by the textile industries, which embrace the making of linen, damask, muslin, hosiery, ribbons, cloth and buckskin, flannel, woollen goods, and waxcloth; to these must be added numerous dye-works and factories for printing and stamping textiles. The other branches of industry deal with machinery, pottery, porcelain and glass, chemicals, beer (83 million gallons annually), spirits, lace, paper, straw-plait, tobacco, artificial flowers, pianofortes, hats, toys, watches, books, musical instruments, ornamental wooden articles, &c. These various industries employ close upon 800,000 persons, a large proportion being women. The principal mineral products are coal, argentiferous lead, zinc, iron, and cobalt. Coal is extracted to the annual value of £2,178,850, the other minerals to £175,000. Nearly 30,000 persons are employed in and about the mines, which, however, have decreased since 1860 in number and consequently now employ fewer people. Building-stones, turf, lime, slates, potter's clay, &c. are extracted in considerable quantities. Freiberg is one of the chief centres in Germany for smelting metals, the annual output for all except iron being valued at £850,000. Iron is smelted, cast, and worked by 6800 workmen to the annual value of £993,000. Less than 56 per cent. of the total area is actually cultivated; but 13 per cent. is meadows and 27½ per cent. forests. In spite of the high state of agriculture in Saxony, grain and fat animals are imported annually to the value of £3,300,000, the home produce being insufficient for the people's wants. The crops grown in largest quantity are potatoes, hay, roots and fodder, oats, rye, and beet-root. Fruit-culture, market-gardening, the breeding and fattening of cattle and sheep, and of geese, and bee-keeping are carried on with much zeal and success. Nearly 83 per cent. of the area of the land in cultivation is divided into farms ranging between 2 and 250 acres. A vast amount of trade is done in all kinds of produce, on the Elbe and on the railways (1575 miles in 1890). Of the ordinary revenue over one-half is derived from domains, forests, and state railways; while the chief expenditure is interest and sinking fund of the public debt. The total income of the population increased from £47,975,000 in 1879 to £89,633,000 in 1896. The educational status is very high: amongst the recruits there is only a proportion of about 1 in 5000 who cannot read and write. Amongst the educational institutions are the university of Leipzig, two famous high schools at Meissen and Grimma, a polytechnique at Dresden, a superior industrial academy at Chemnitz, a mining academy at Freiberg, a forestry school at Tharandt, and numerous inferior mining and technical schools throughout the manufacturing districts. The annual ordinary income and expenditure balances at £5,760,000; the public debt, principally incurred in buying up private railways, amounted in 1890 to £32,394,000. The army, some 33,000 strong, forms the 12th army corps of the imperial forces. The constitution is that of a hereditary constitutional monarchy. The king exercises the supreme executive. There are two legislative chambers. The First Chamber is made up of various ex-officio dignitaries of the kingdom, as chief-magistrates, high officers of the church, the princes of the royal family, &c., together with twelve representatives chosen by the landed proprietors, and ten more selected by the king. The Second Chamber consists of eighty representatives, thirty-five elected by the towns and forty-five by the rural districts.

To understand the history of Saxony it is necessary to go back to the Old Saxons (q.v.), who, before their submission to the Franks, had been accustomed to choose a 'duke' to lead them in war. After the division of the Frankish dominion into an eastern and western kingdom, in which division the Saxons and their territory passed to the eastern half or Austrasia, the Saxons were greatly exposed to the attacks of the Northmen on the north-west and of the Slav tribes on the north and north-east, and so they chose them a duke again, one Otto (880-912), who not only defended his people valiantly but extended their supremacy southwards over Thuringia. His son, Henry (912-936), was in 919 chosen king of the eastern or German kingdom, and thus the Saxon chief ruler became the head of all the peoples in the future Germany. Henry reduced the Slav tribes living beyond the Elbe, and so made himself master of all the territories included in the present kingdom of Saxony, the Prussian province of Saxony, the minor Saxon duchies, and more besides. His son, Otto II., king of the Germans, made Count Hermann Billung duke of the Saxons, and the dignity continued in his family down to 1106. The princes of this house, to whom the Saxon people were greatly attached, were the most difficult enemies of the German emperors, who after 1024 were again men of Frankish race. The power of the Saxon dukes was greatly increased under Henry the Proud of Bavaria, who succeeded to the dignity in 1137, and especially under his son Henry the Lion, who conquered Mecklenburg, Hither Pomerania, and Holstein. This prince was deprived of his possessions by the Emperor Frederick I. (1180), who confined the duchy of the Saxons to the territories lying east of the Elbe, and divided those to the west of it between the Archbishop of Cologne and numerous petty bishops and princes. The dignity of duke of the Saxons was given to Bernard of Ascania, son of the prince of Brandenburg. His descendant, Rudolph II. (1356-70), called himself Elector of Saxony. In 1423 the Emperor Sigismund invested Frederick, Landgrave of Meissen and of Thuringia, with the fief of Saxony. This prince, of the House of Wettin, was the ancestor of the reigning royal family in Saxony and of the various dukes of the minor Saxon states. The princes and nobles of the House of Wettin frequently divided and interchanged their possessions in whole or in part, and all the sons of a deceased elector often ruled in common or in conjunction with uncles, so that the history of the house is extremely complicated down to the beginning of the 19th century. But in 1485 a division was made which has in its broad features continued to hold good down to the present day. The family split into two main branches, called, from the two brothers who divided the territories between them, the (elder) Ernestine and the (younger) Albertine lines. The electoral dignity fell to Ernest, who ruled over Thuringia and the western part of modern Saxony. His son, his grandson, and his great-grandson were all zealous supporters of the Reformation, whilst the heads of the Albertine branch, who ruled in the eastern lands (beyond the Elbe), although they were Protestants, supported the pope and the emperor. In 1547 the emperor, after defeating the Elector of Saxony in battle, deprived him of the dignity and of the greater part of his lands; and gave title and lands to his own ally, the head of the younger line, and with that line they remained, the title being exchanged in 1806 for the higher dignity of king. Only the Thuringian territories (see SAXON DUCHIES) remained with the older line.

During the Thirty Years' War the reigning elector, John George I. (1611-56), remained neutral until Tilly invaded his territories; this drove him over to the Protestant side (1631). He made his peace however with the emperor in 1635, receiving Lusatia; but in revenge for this desertion the Swedes wrought terrible havoc in his land and amongst his people ten years long. The Elector Frederick Augustus I. (1694-1733), a vain man, fond of magnificence and eager to make a stir in the world, went over to Roman Catholicism and made an eager canvas for the throne of Poland. He was chosen king as Augustus II. (q.v.); after that the headship of the Protestant states of Germany passed to the Elector of Brandenburg (see PRUSSIA), and the court and dynasty of the Protestant kingdom of Saxony have remained Catholic till the present day. Saxony, in consequence of this alliance with Poland, was drawn into the war against Charles XII. of Sweden, and again suffered greatly from the Swedish armies. In the second Silesian war she sided with Austria, was beaten, and had to pay a million thalers indemnity to Prussia. When the Seven Years' War broke out Frederick the Great refused to recognise the neutrality of Saxony, and, capturing her army, treated her as a conquered province, and forced the elector (Frederick Augustus II.) to take refuge in Poland, to the crown of which country he had been elected in succession to his father. Frederick Augustus III. (1763-1827) bent himself energetically to the task of building up his state again and restoring the prosperity of his subjects, matters in which he was eminently successful. He took little part in the early Napoleonic wars, and in 1806 proclaimed himself king of Saxony as Frederick Augustus I. Then he went over entirely to the side of Napoleon, and sent the Saxon army to fight side by side with the French down to the battle of Leipzig (1813). After the rout of the French in that battle Frederick Augustus was taken prisoner, and his land occupied by the allied Germans and Russians. The congress of Vienna deprived him of a large portion of his territories and subjects, namely 7720 sq. m. out of 13,510, and 864,404 inhabitants out of 2,047,148; these formed part of the new province of Prussian Saxony. This separation of lands that for centuries had been ruled over by the House of Wettin encountered the strongest opposition on the part of the people. In 1832 the old machinery of government, consisting of a secret cabinet and the two chambers of the feudal estates, was abolished to give place to a constitutional system. In May 1849 the Russian Bakunin and other democratic socialists stirred up a rising in Dresden, which resulted in a week's severe barricade fighting in the streets. From 1858 to 1866 the ruler de facto of Saxony was Count von Beust (q.v.). In the Austro-Prussian war of 1866 Saxony sided with Austria, but, being along with her ally defeated, she joined the North German Confederation and paid an indemnity of 10 million thalers to Prussia. In the Franco-German war the Saxon army fought of course on the side of Prussia. Since 1871 the country has been peaceful and in a wonderful degree prosperous.

See Zeitschrift des sächsischen statistischen Büreau; Kalender und statistisches Jahrbuch für das Königreich Sachsen; Böhmert, Das sächsische statistische Bureau 1875-90 (1891); Engelhardt, Vaterlandskunde (ed. Flathe, 3d ed. 1877); and Daniel, Handbuch der Geographie (1881) for geography and statistics. The standard history is Böttiger's (ed. Flathe, 3 vols. 1867-73); but consult also Weisse (7 vols. 1802-12), Meynert (2 vols. 1833-35), Gretsche and Von Bülau (1863), and Köhler (1886).