The decorative frieze arranged around the room bore, between laurel wreaths, the name of the most illustrious French physicians or electricians from the eighteenth century to this date.
The French exhibit in the Palace of Agriculture occupied an area of nearly 2,800 square meters. It was located in the northern corner and next to one of the main gates, fronting the French National Palace.
The French exhibit extended along the front of the palace on the northern and eastern sides.
The French exhibit of social economy occupied an area of 700 square meters in the Palace of Education. The main entrance formed one of the largest avenues in that palace, giving access to a main hall 50 meters in length by 12 meters in width, both front sides of which were subdivided into a score of small rooms 3 by 5 meters. The front sides of these small rooms were made up of partitions 4 meters high, decorated with mural paintings, and topped with a decorative frieze that bore the titles and subtitles belonging to the group of exhibits represented in the room. A shelf 0.50 meter wide, with a ledge, was arranged all along the rooms at the height of 1 meter from the ground, and supported all pamphlets, books, and other documents that supplemented the information supplied by the exhibits on the walls.
A show case and bookcase were put in the center of each room, containing the documents placed in view by the several exhibitors who were represented through publications only.
The individuality of each of the several groups was evident by titles or medallions of a decorative character, which also included a subtitle and index, arranged with as many particulars and in as methodical manner as possible, of all exhibitors, in order that the visitor might be saved as much labor as possible in his inquiries.
GERMANY.
Members of commission.—Dr. Theodor Lewald (privy councilor), imperial German commissioner-general; Dr. Eugene Wagner (superior Government councilor), vice-commissioner; Mr. Otto Zippel (imperial councilor), treasurer; Mr. Heinrich Albert, assistant commissioner; Mr. Paul A. Zilling, commercial attaché, department of arts and crafts; Dr. Fritz Kestner, attaché; Dr. Hugo Hardy, attaché; Fritz Von Bardeleben, attaché; Dr. F.C. Rieloff, imperial consul; Baron von Reden, imperial vice-consul; Count Limburg-Stirum, general commissioner education department; Dr. Leopold Bahlsen (professor), substitute to the general commissioner education department; Mr. Herman Albert, commissioner mining department; Mr. Alard Scheck, commissioner of forestry department; Dr. Ludwig Wittmark (privy councilor), agricultural department; Dr. Hugo Kruss, scientific instruments; Dr. Johannes Breger, hygienic department; Dr. Otto Zwingenberger, chemical exhibits.
By order of the German Emperor, the German House (das Deutsche Haus) was erected on a prominence in the center of the World's Fair near the Cascades. It was a replica of one of the German castles most celebrated in history and art, and the most prominent German architects reproduced it in St. Louis and equipped it with the best products of modern art industry.
In the year 1902 the great question arose as to what kind of style and which building should be erected in America as a symbol of Germany. The Emperor decided that Charlottenburg Castle should be used for this purpose, as one of the most aristocratic and characteristic monuments of the first epoch of the Prussian Kingdom. The location of the German House on a towering hill and its purpose called for a different architecture from that of the Charlottenburg Castle, which is situated in a plain and which at the same time serves as a dwelling house. So the two wings of the Charlottenburg Castle were omitted, one of them to give room to the Pergola and the German Wine Restaurant. The place of a court of honor was here taken by the massive stairway and there were new ideas produced in the cupola, the exterior ornamentation, and in some of the interior apartments. The erection of the building was awarded to Prof. Bruno Schmitz, of Berlin, who in Germany has built some great monuments, and who is no stranger to the American public.