extensive empire of Europe, situated between 5° and 19° E. long. and between 45° and 55° N. lat.; bounded by Denmark and the Baltic sea on the north, by Poland and Hungary on the east, by Switzerland and the Alps on the south, and by France, Holland, &c. on the west.

It is divided into ten circles, three of which lie on the north, viz. Upper and Lower Saxony, and Westphalia; three on the south, viz. Austria, Bavaria, and Swabia; three about the middle, viz. Franconia, and the Upper and Lower Rhine; the tenth, which consisted of the duchy of Burgundy and the seventeen provinces of the Netherlands, have long been detached from the empire.

There are in Germany upwards of three hundred sovereign princes and states, most of them arbitrary in their respective territories.