  Generalizing previous quantum gravity results for Schwarzschild black holes
from 4 to D > 3 space-time dimensions yields an energy spectrum E_n = alpha
n^{(D-3)/(D-2)} E_P, n=1,2,..., alpha = O(1), where E_P is the Planck energy in
that space-time. This spectrum means that the quantized area A_{D-2}(n) of the
D-2 dimensional horizon has universally the form A_{D-2} = n a_{D-2}, where
a_{D-2} is essentially the (D-2)th power of the D-dimensional Planck length.
Assuming that the basic area quantum has a Z(2)-degeneracy according to its two
possible orientation degrees of freedom implies a degeneracy d_n = 2^n for the
n-th level. The energy spectrum with such a degeneracy leads to a quantum
canonical partition function which is the same as the classical grand canonical
partition function of a primitive Ising droplet nucleation model for 1st-order
phase transitions in D-2 spatial dimensions. The analogy to this model suggests
that E_n represents the surface energy of a "droplet" of n horizon quanta.
Exploiting the well-known properties of the so-called critical droplets of that
model immediately leads to the Hawking temperature and the Bekenstein-Hawking
entropy of Schwarzschild black holes. The values of temperature and entropy
appear closely related to the imaginary part of the partition function which
describes metastable states
