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Germany and Its Southern Section Southern Germany Southern Germany consists of six main bands opening out like the overlapping ribs of a fan from a center in northern Switzerland. The southerly rib, the Alps, extends nearly eastward. Thence we pass northward and westward to the Alpine Foreland, the Jura Upland, the Triassic Depression, the Black Forest with its northern continuation in the Odenwald, and finally the Upper Rhine Valley. A seventh rib including the Vosges and the Palatinate, with the Saar Basin on its flank, lies partly in France and partly in Germany. The natural and the political boundaries in this south German region of fanlike ribs by no means coincide. The German Alps Among the high limestone ranges which border Bavaria on the south, enough are included within Germany to give this country a share of mountain economy including the growingly important tourist trade. Beautiful Alpine lakes and high mountains, snow-covered most of the year, attract the lover of nature as well as the mountain climber, and winter sports are very popular. Clean and attractive villages like Partenkirchen, Berchtesgaden, Hohenschwangau with its picturesque castle, and Oberammergau with its famous Passion Play bear names familiar to tourists all over the western world. Valleys cut deeply into the mountains not only lead to marvelous scenery, but facilitate communication with the Inn Valley and thus with Italy by way of the high Brenner Pass. This pass still affords the best connection between central Europe and the Po Basin. Rapid trains now make the trip in hours where formerly it took days of strenuous traveling. Early Morning View of the German Alps Photographic Print Buy at AllPosters.com Early Morning View of the German Alps Photographic Print Buy at AllPosters.com A Man Reads the Menu at a Restaurant in the German Alps, Garmisch Partenkirchen, Germany Photographic Print Buy at AllPosters.com A Man Hikes Along a Road in the German Alps, Garmisch Partenkirchen, Germany Photographic Print Buy at AllPosters.com The Alpine Foreland The Alpine Foreland is the continuation of the Swiss plateau, the two being separated only by the Lake of Constance. It is much less hilly than its Swiss counterpart, however, and slopes gently from the base of the mountains to the Danube River. The Alpine rivers ( Iller, Lech, Isar, Inn), follow broad, often swampy valleys. Among the typical features of the Foreland are bands of moraine as well as lakes elongated from south to north at right angles to the moraines. Both the moraines and the lakes are products of the former extension of the Alpine glaciers. Extensive moors are typical of the higher southern section. The northern part, although lower, is more hilly and also more fertile because young glacial outwash has been spread amid the Tertiary hills. The challenge of a raw climate (a result of elevation), especially in the south, may be partly responsible for the high cultural standing of the Bavarian population. Pastures and croplands show the successful attack of man on former wasteland. The Alpine Foreland was well occupied in the Roman period, many of the cities having been Roman settlements. In the Middle Ages, when northern Italy was in its glory, the most important city was Augsburg, from which roads continued to Ulm and the Rhine, or crossed the Danube to Nürnberg and Saxony. Numerous little towns flourished in that period, and their medieval character is a great attraction for tourists. Munich, which the Germans call "München," was founded then at the point where the east-west traffic crossed the Isar River. As the Bavarian capital, this great city in due time outdistanced the others, and its pre-eminence has become more firmly established since it became a great railroad junction. Munich is a wonderful center of culture and education as well as the world's most famous beer city. The "Brown House," the old headquarters of Hitler, adds to the city's many attractions. Very different from the rather severe appearance of the Foreland as a whole is that of the sunny southward-facing slopes north of Lake Constance, with their dense cover of crops and fruit trees. Constance itself is an attractive town. The Jura Upland In the Jura region, as we have seen, Meozoic layers dipping southeastward have been eroded so as to form escarpments like those around the Paris Basin. Several of these face the Black Forest, and one of them, the Swabian-Franconian escarpment or Jura cuesta stands out prominently as a great limestone wall, facing toward the northwest. At some points it is 1,200 feet high, and its forested inner (northwestern) rim is crowned here and there by ancient castles like those of Hohenzollern and Hohenstaufen. Southeast of this the limestone surface of the upland dips gently toward the Danube, the only river of this region which keeps its eastward course. The others, like the Neckar between the two escarpments, have been captured by streams which have cut headward from the Triassic Depression and led them off to the Rhine. Stripped of their forest cover and subjected to a raw climate, the poor soils of the upland are generally of inferior quality and support only a scattering population except in a few valleys. Triassic Depression Quite different is the next section of southern Germany. Here the influence of erosion on the generally soft Triassic layers, dipping away from the older mountain mass of the Black Forest, has resulted in a landscape of alternating rounded divides and broad valleys. Sometimes a small escarpment shows the presence of more resistant types of rock. Variety of relief as well as of land utilization gives charm to the landscape. From the walls of ancient cities the view widens over fields and pastures, over apple orchards anti pine forests. Friendly homesteads of attractive half-timbered architecture reflect the fertility of the soil. In the valleys, where once the waterwheel supplied power to small industries, large noisy factories represent modern industrial development. Two cities, Stuttgart and Nürnberg, rise above the general level of the many urban settlements. Stuttgart, the capital of Würtemburg, lies in a cramped location near the Neckar River, and its suburbs climb the surrounding slopes. It has become the industrial and commercial, as well as cultural center of the western part of the Triassic Depression. In the cast Nürnberg, with the adjacent city of Fürth, has profited from its strategic location at the gateway where the escarpment breaks down and gives easy access from the valley of the Main to that of the Danube. The romantic past lives today in the medieval part of Nürnberg which preserves the aspect of the Middle Ages perhaps more perfectly than any larger German city. Nevertheless, manifold industries put the city in line with other important industrial centers. The Black Forest and Odenwald Rising to an elevation of almost 5,000 feet, the Black Forest, as the name indicates, is a typical forested mountain region. With its steep but deeply dissected western escarpment, it constitutes a barrier between the Rhine on one side and the Neckar Basin on the other. It is a district of isolation where a sparse mountain population is supported by timber and by the proceeds of stony fields and mountain meadows. Long winters have encouraged the development of home industries such as wood carving and the making of cuckoo clocks. Railroads now invade the Black Forest from all directions, and it has become a favorite center of recreation. Thousands come from the surrounding crowded cities and industrial regions to wander through the forests, swim in the mountain lakes, or in wintertime ski down the bare higher slopes where trees cannot withstand the raw, windy climate. Separated from the Black Forest by a depression which connects the Rift Valley with the Triassic Depression, the Odenwald in a smaller way offers the same picture, although it lacks the elevation and consequently the attractiveness of mountain scenery. The Upper Rhine Valley This valley, already described as a rift between the Black Forest and the Vosges, is one of the best-defined geographic features of Europe. The bordering mountains break off along more or less straight lines. The broad, alluvial valley bottom is level except in the south where it is interrupted by a volcanic neck, the Kaiser Stuhl. The climate reflects the protected location. A mild winter, an early spring, and a long, rather warm summer allow plants and crops of southern Europe, such as corn and the vine, to profit from the fertile soils. The rather narrow floodplain in which the Rhine meanders is swampy and covered with brush. On both sides, however, wide terraces indicating earlier levels of the river afford excellent opportunities for farming. Agricultural advantages are not the only asset of this region. Its main significance has always been commercial and cultural, and lately also industrial. Here the great trade route from the Rhone-Saône Valley, after passing northward through the Gate of Burgundy, divides into branches running in various directions. Here the Rhine River can be used as a natural waterway, and here is the junction where Roman and Teutonic culture once met, and where those of France and Germany now come into close contact. Because of these advantages cities long ago grew up in the Rhine Graben. They were located in protected situations, where commercial routes enter the main valley and markets could develop. Finally in later years modern manufacturing has developed along the Rhine and its tributaries. The advantages of transportation and location offset the absence of power. Some of the cities deserve special mention. Starting in the south at the Swiss town of Basel, the German side of the plain is comparatively narrow. Freiburg, well located near the Black Forest, is a local center. Baden-Baden, a little farther north in one of the Black Forest valleys, is a famous old summer resort. Karlsruhe, capital of the former state of Baden, is a residential city, slowly coming under the influence of manufacturing industries. Heidelberg, the famous university town where the Neckar enters the Rhine Valley, and Darmstadt farther north are built on the line of contact between plain and mountains. A more important community is Mannheim which, with Ludwigs- hafen on the other side of the Rhine, forms one of Germany's greater urban centers. Advantageously located near the coalfields of the Saar Basin, it presents a most intensive development of manufacturing, especially chemical works. In some years the Rhine traffic of Mannheim comprises nearly nine million tons of imports, mostly raw materials, and two million tons of exports, chiefly finished products, making this the greatest harbor of the Upper Rhine. Mainz, an old Roman settlement, is located at the confluence of the Rhine and Main. Wiesbaden, on the edge of the central Rhine Uplands, is a tourist resort. Where the Main Valley touches the Upper Rhine plain, and the Hessian Depression offers good trade routes to the north, Frankfurt-onMain has developed into the leading town of the Upper Rhine Valley, a great financial and manufacturing center. The Palatinate and Saar Basin The Palatinate, forming the northwestern border of the Rhine Graben, is an upland area, consisting mainly of sandstone. The eastern border is characterized by the Rhine Valley economy with vineyards covering the slopes, but the plateau itself is a rather monotonous region of quite different appearance. Most of it is forested, and the population is sparse except in a few river valleys. On the west of the Palatinate the Saar Basin presents still another type of contrast. Being lower and far more dissected by erosion than is the Palatinate, it offers a happy mixture of forested hills and cultivated, open, rolling lowlands. Its rich coal deposits, which placed it on the world's front page for some years after the World War, are its main asset. They form the basis for an intensive industrial development which causes the population to be very dense.