Germany in 1912: Images 1 to 10

A soldier like all the Hohenzollern and supreme commander of the army, William II holds the constantly sharpened German sword, following his own word, so threatening to world peace.

The Royal Castle is a vast rectangular building with four floors. Its main facade extends along the Spree and is decorated with a monumental entrance surmounted by a 70 metre dome.

The Cathedral is in the Italian Renaissance style. The German taste for the "colossal" has unfortunately spoiled it, in decking it out with a 114-metre dome, out of proportion to the building.

On the Linden. -- The Emperor, on return from the parades of Tempelhof and Spandau, always returns to the Royal Palace by the great Linden road, a kilometre-long avenue in the centre of Berlin. To the left, the palace of the Crown Prince; to the right, the Arsenal, the royal guard, the University, etc.

The Brandenburg Gate is inspired by the Propylaea and its Doric columns support the famous Quadriga of Victory that Napoleon had had brought to Paris and which the Prussians brought back to Berlin in 1814.

The Siegesallee, or Victory Avenue, goes through the Tiergarten (animal garden) from north to south. Its side-alleys are adorned with statues of 32 German sovereigns, erected from 1898 to 1901, at the expense of William II.

Berlin viewed from a dirigible. -- This reduced panorama, viewed from the gondola of a dirigible, shows us the centre of the city. In the foreground is the Tiergarten (animal garden) with, on the left, the Reichstag and the Statue of Victory; on the right, the Brandenburg Gate and the Linden, with their double row of trees.

A Session in the Reichstag. -- On the left sit the Conservatives, the Free Conservatives, the Catholics and the National Liberals; the middle is occupied by the Radicals and Socialists, and the right, on the top, by the members of the Bundesrat.

Old Berlin. -- Behind the proud front of its new streets, Berlin, like Paris, has its flaws, its shameful corners, its leprous streets, its rickety houses where teems an ambiguous and miserable population.

Berlin. -- On top, on the left, the statue of Goethe, the famous poet who wrote Faust and Werther. On the right: a corner market in Berlin. Bottom: Leipzigerstrasse, one of the most animated roads in the capital.