GERMERSHEIM, a fortified town of Germany in Rhenish Bavaria, at the confluence of the Queich and the Rhine, 8 m. S.W. of Speyer. Pop. (1905) 5914. It possesses a Roman Catholic and an Evangelical church, a synagogue, a progymnasium and a hospital. The industries include fishing, shipbuilding and brewing. Germersheim existed as a Roman stronghold under the name of _Vicus Julius_. The citadel was rebuilt by the emperor Conrad II., but the town itself was founded in 1276 by the emperor Rudolph I., who granted it the rights of a free imperial city. From 1330 to 1622, when it was conquered by Austria, the town formed part of the Palatinate of the Rhine. From 1644 to 1650 it was in the possession of France; but on the conclusion of the peace of Westphalia it was again joined to the Palatinate. In 1674 it was captured and devastated by the French under Turenne, and after the death of the elector Charles (1685) it was claimed by the French as a dependency of Alsace. As a consequence there ensued the disastrous Germersheim war of succession, which lasted till the peace of Ryswick in 1697. Through the intervention of the pope in 1702, the French, on payment of a large sum, agreed to vacate the town, and in 1715 its fortifications were rebuilt. On the 3rd of July 1744 the French were defeated there by the imperial troops, and on the 19th and 22nd of July 1793 by the Austrians. In 1835 the new town was built, and the present fortifications begun. See Probst, _Geschichte der Stadt und Festung Germersheim_ (Speyer, 1898). GERMISTON, a town of the Transvaal, 9 m. E. of Johannesburg. Pop. of the municipality (1904) 29,477, of whom 9123 were whites. It lies 5478 ft. above the sea, in the heart of the Witwatersrand gold-mining district, and is an important railway junction. The station, formerly called Elandsfontein Junction, is the meeting-point of lines from the ports of the Cape and Natal, and from Johannesburg, Pretoria and Delagoa Bay. Though possessing a separate municipality, Germiston is practically a suburb of Johannesburg (q.v.). GERMONIUS, ANASTASIUS [ANASTASE GERMON] (1551-1627), canon lawyer, diplomatist and archbishop of Tarantaise, belonged to the family of the marquises of Ceve, in Piedmont, where he was born. As archdeacon at Turin he was a member of the commission appointed by Pope Clement VIII. to edit the _Liber septimus decretalium_; and he also wrote _Paratitla_ on the five books of the _Decretals of Gregory IX._ He represented the duke of Savoy at the court of Rome under Clement VIII. and Paul V., and was ambassador to Spain under Kings Philip III. and IV. He died on the 4th of August 1627. Germonius is best known for his treatise on ambassadors, _De legatis principum et populorum libri tres_ (Rome, 1627). The book is diffuse, pedantic and somewhat heavy in style, but valuable historically as written by a theorist who was also an expert man of affairs. (See DIPLOMACY.)