This section is from the book "Chambers's Concise Gazetteer Of The World", by David Patrick. Also available from Amazon: Chambers's Concise Gazetteer Of The World.
Brunswick, Duchy of (Ger. Braunschweig), a state of Northern Germany, consisting of three larger and five smaller distinct parts, with a total area of 1423 sq. m. Pop. (1875) 327,493; (1900) 464,333, mostly Lutherans, and (in the country) speakers of Platt-Deutsch. Of the three larger parts, the principal one, forming the circle of Wolfenbuttel, and including the capital, lies between Prussia and Hanover; the second, extending westward from Prussia to the Weser, divides Hanover into two parts; and the third, forming the Blankenburg district, lies to the southeast, between Hanover, Anhalt, and Prussia. Brunswick belongs mostly to the basin of the Weser, which serves as a boundary on the west. Its surface is mostly mountainous, particularly in the southern portions of the country, but it has nevertheless level tracts of considerable extent. The climate in the lowlands resembles the general climate of Northern Germany; but in the Harz district it is so much colder that harvest is generally a month later than in the plains. Brunswick in 1235, with Luneburg, was made a duchy. In 1884, at the death of the childless Duke William, the succession passed to the Duke of Cumberland, son of George V., the dethroned king of Hanover. As he refused to recognise the new constitution of the German empire, the imperial government declined to allow the succession to take place, and an interregnum occurred.
Brunswick, the capital, stands on the Oker, 143 miles WSW. of Berlin. In the 13th century Brunswick became a member of the Hanseatic League, and soon attained considerable commercial prosperity, but its importance declined with the decay of the League. Most irregularly built, with narrow and crooked streets, it has a cathedral (1173-1469), the church of St Andrew with a steeple 341 feet high, and a fine Gothic Rathhaus. The manufactures include jute, woollen and linen, leather, sewing-machines, etc. A fine avenue of linden-trees leads to the ducal palace, which, destroyed by fire in 1830 and 1865, is now an imposing edifice of 1869. Pop. (1871) 57,833; (1900) 128,226.
Brunswick, (1) a port of entry, Georgia, on St Simon Sound, an inlet of the Atlantic, 186 miles SE. of Macon by rail. Population, about 10,000. - (2) A town of Maine, 29 miles NE. of Portland by rail, at the head of navigation on the Androscoggin River, whose falls or rapids supply water-power for cotton, paper, and other mills. It is the seat of Bowdoin College (1794), a Congregational institution of high standing, at which Nathaniel Hawthorne and Longfellow graduated. Pop. 7012.
Brunswick, New. See New Brunswick.
 
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