In German, Schulthess, "Europaeischer Geschichtskalender," since 1860, the most complete of all.
On the general contemporary history of Europe there are no scientific works except in German. These are of two classes, general histories and collections of special histories.
The general histories are: Gervinus, "Geschichte des XIXten Jahrhunderts," 8 vols., 1855-56, a famous literary work in its day but unreliable, stops before 1830 (translated into French, under the title "Hist. du XIXe Siècle "). C. Bulle, "Geschichte der Neuesten Zeit" (the 1886 edition in four volumes goes as far as 1885), the most exact of the contemporary histories, but without references to authorities and without bibliographies and devoted chiefly to external history. Stern, "Geschichte Europas," vol. i., 1894, promises to be the most scientific history, but the first volume, the only one issued so far, stops at 1820.
There are two collections of contemporary histories. The "Staatengeschichte der Neuesten Zeit" is a series of histories of the different countries in several large volumes (I shall mention each in the special bibliography of each country); this is the most important collection for domestic history.
The Oncken collection of universal history, "Allgemeine Geschichte in Einzeldarstellungen," contains a special series of modern histories since 1789, composed of histories of special periods or events (Revolution, Restoration, Second Empire, Eastern Question, Reign of William I.); it gives special attention to international affairs. In French the modern histories are nothing but school-books.* The Alcan collection, " Bibliothèque d'Histoire Contemporaine," includes several histories of separate countries, most of them general sketches for popular use; they do not form a complete collection.
For political institutions the great Marquardsen collection, "Handbuch des Oeffentlichen Rechts der Gegenwart," since 1883 is a series of monographs on the constitutional law of each of the European states (unfortunately rather juridical than historical). These will be mentioned in the bibliography of each country.
For economic history the "Handwörterbuch der Staatswissenschaften" (six volumes and a supplement, vol. vii, 1890-95) gives, in dictionary form, monographs and detailed bibliographies.
* I have thought it unnecessary to mention the German school-books, such as Jaeger.