 |
|
Related Topics:
Ghana, Gibraltar, Glorioso Islands, Great Britain, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guatemala, Guernsey, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Heard Island And Mcdonald Islands, Holy See, Vatican City, Honduras, Hong Kong,
Sub Topics:
|
 |
|
Bundesrepublik Deutschland
Federal Republic of Germany
|
|
| Motto: Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit
(German: Unity and Justice and Freedom)
|
| Anthem: Das Lied der Deutschen |
|
| Capital |
Berlin
52°31′ N 13°24′ E |
| Largest city |
Berlin |
| Official languages |
German |
| Government
Chancellor
President |
Federal republic
Gerhard Schröder
Horst Köhler |
| Formation
- Division
- Reunification |
18 January 1871
23 May 1949
October 3, 1990 |
| Area
• Total
• Water (%) |
357,026 km² (61st)
2.416 |
| Population
• 2005 est.
• 2000 census
• Density |
82,443,000 (14th)
N/A
230/km² (34th) |
| GDP (PPP)
• Total
• Per capita |
2005 estimate
$2,498,471,000,000 (5th)
$30,150 (17th) |
| Currency |
Euro (€) (EUR) |
| Time zone
• Summer (DST) |
CET (UTC1)
CEST (UTC2) |
| Internet TLD |
.de |
| Calling code |
49 |
| 1Danish, Low German, Sorbian, Romany and Frisian are officially recognised and protected as minority languages per the ECRML.
2 Prior to 1999: Deutsche Mark |
Germany (or Travel Germany The Federal Republic of Germany, German: Deutschland or Bundesrepublik Deutschland listen?) is one of the world's leading industrialised countries, located in the heart of Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea, to the south by Austria and Switzerland, to the west by France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, and to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic.
Germany is a democratic federal parliamentary nation, made up of 16 federal states (Länder or, more commonly, Bundesländer), which in certain spheres act independently of the Federation.
The Federal Republic of Germany is a member state of the United Nations, NATO, the G8 and the G4 nations, and is a founding member of what is now the European Union.
History
History of Germany
The prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire. From Bildatlas der Deutschen Geschichte by Dr Paul Knötel (1895)
The state now known as Germany was unified as a modern nation-state only in 1871, when the German Empire, dominated by the Kingdom of Prussia, was forged. This was the second German Reich, usually translated as "empire", but also meaning "realm".
The "Holy Roman Empire" (843–1806)
The medieval empire—known for much of its existence as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation—stemmed from a division of the Carolingian Empire in 843, which was founded by Charlemagne on 25 December 800, and existed in varying forms until 1806, its territory stretching from the river Eider Germany in the north to the mediterranean coast in the south. During this period of almost a thousand years, the Germans expanded their influence successfully with the help of the Catholic Church, the Teutonic Order and the Hanseatic League. In 1530, the attempt of the Protestant Reformation of Catholicism turned out to have failed, and a separate Protestant church was acknowledged as new state religion in many states of Germany. This led to inter-German strife, the Thirty Years War (1618) and finally the Peace of Westphalia (1648), that resulted in a drastically enfeebled and politically disunited Germany, unable to resist the stroke of the Napoleonic Wars, during which the imperium was overrun and dissolved (1806). The lasting effect of the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire came to be the division between Austria, formerly the leading state of Germany, from the more western and northern parts.
Restoration and revolution (1814–1871)
Frankfurt Parliament in 1848/49
Following Napoleon's fall, the Congress of Vienna convened in 1814 in order to restructure Europe. In Germany, the German Confederation was founded, a loose league of 39 sovereign states. Disagreement with the restoration politics partly led to the lifestyle called Biedermeier and to intellectual liberal movements, which demanded unity and freedom during the Vormärz epoch each followed by a measure of Metternich repressing the liberal agitation. The Zollverein Map Of Germany , a tariff union, profoundly furthered economic unity in the German states.
The states also started to be shaped by the Industrial Revolution, which was the initial step of the growing industrialization and contributed to a wave of pennilessness in Europe causing social uprisings. In the light of a series of revolutionary movements in Europe, which in France successfully established a republic, intellectuals and common people started the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states. The monarchs initially yielded to the revolutionaries' liberal demands and an intellectual National Assembly was elected to draw up a constitution for the new Germany, completed in 1849. However, the Prussian king Frederick William IV, who was offered to become Emperor but lose power, rejected crown and constitution. This prompted violent rollbacks by the monarchs, and the demise of the national assembly along with most merits of the revolution.
In 1862, conflict between the Prussian King Wilhelm I and the increasingly liberal parliament erupted over military reforms. The king appointed Otto von Bismarck the new Prime Minister of Prussia, who used the desire for national unification to further the interests of the Prussian monarchy. He successfully waged war on Denmark, on Austria and, finally, on France.
German Empire (1871–1918)
Foundation of modern Germany, Versailles, 1871. Bismarck is in white in the middle
After the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, the German Empire (Kaiserreich) was proclaimed in Versailles on 18 January 1871. Virtually a result of the wars, the Empire was a unification of the scattered parts of Germany but without Austria—Kleindeutschland. Later, colonies were established. After 1888, the Year of Three Emperors, Bismarck was forced to quit by the young new Emperor William II in 1890 due to political and personal differences. The Emperor's foreign policy was opposed to that of Bismarck, who had established a system of alliances in the era called Gründerzeit Carey Germany Mariah securing Germany's position as a great nation and avoiding war for decades. Under Wilhelm II Germany took an imperialistic course, not unlike other powers, but it led to friction with neighbouring countries. Most alliances in which Germany had been involved were not renewed and new alliances excluded the Reich. Austria and Germany became increasingly isolated.
Although not one of the main causes, the assassination of Austria's crown prince triggered World War I on 28 July 1914, which saw Germany as part of the unsuccessful Central Powers in the second-bloodiest conflict of all time against the Allied Powers. In November 1918, the German Revolution broke out (starting with a mutiny at Kiel), and Emperor William II and all German ruling princes abdicated. An armistice was signed on November 11 putting an end to the war. Germany was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, whose unexpectedly high demands and humiliating aspects were perceived in Germany as a continuation of the war by other means.
Weimar Republic (1919–1933)
The German Revolution of 1918–1919 ended the Monarchy
After the German Revolution in November 1918, a Republic was proclaimed. That year, the German Communist Party was established, and in January 1919 the German Workers Party, later known as the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei (National Socialist German Workers Party, NSDAP). On 11 August 1919, the Weimar Constitution came into effect. 1920s Berlin was a vibrant and exciting city that flourished during the Weimar Republic; many considered it to be the cultural capital of Europe during this time.
The democracy was made unpopular in part because of the economic hardship due to both the world wide Great Depression and the harsh peace conditions dictated by the Treaty of Versailles. The German voters increasingly supported anti-democratic parties, both right- and left-wing. In the two extraordinary elections of 1932, the anti-democratic Nazis got 37.2% and 33.0%.
A series of dramatic events marked the end of the Weimar Republic. On 30 January 1933, President von Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler Chancellor of Germany. On 27 February, the Reichstag was set on fire. Basic rights were abrogated under an emergency decree. An Enabling Act gave Hitler's government full legislative power. A centralised totalitarian state was established, no longer based on the rule of law.
Third Reich (1933–1945)
Nazi party's Nürnberg (Nuremberg) Rally, 1936
The new regime quickly dissolved all trade unions, made Germany a one-party state, and repressed all opposition. From 1933 onwards, 412 concentration camps were set up for groups and people perceived as threats. Open persecution of Jews began, culminating in the so called Reichskristallnacht on 9 November 1938. In 1934, the Nazi Party was purged of internal opposition during the Night of the Long Knives. In 1935 the Nürnberger Rassengesetze Frankfurt Germany (Nuremberg race laws) came into force: Jews were deprived of their German citizenship, banned from marrying Germans, and locked out from most of society.
In 1936, German troops entered the demilitarised Rhineland in an attempt to rebuild national self-esteem. Emboldened, Hitler followed from 1938 onwards a policy of expansionism. It started with the annexation of Austria and the Sudetes region in Czechoslovakia. In 1939, Bohemia and Moravia were annexed and a Slovakian independent state was created. To avoid a two-front war, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was concluded with the Soviet Union. Then Germany launched a Blitzkrieg against Poland, which, following British and French war declarations, ultimately led to World War II.
The most infamous atrocity that Nazi Germany regime had initiated was the persecution and genocide of the Jews and other minorities as gypsies, homosexuals and political prisoners throughout occupied Nazi Europe. Between 1939 and 1945, the Nazis and their assistants murdered about twelve million people in ghettos, death camps, concentration camps and other methods in what is now called The Holocaust.
In 1940, most of Western Europe was under Axis control, and Germany continued its invasions (disputed) through 1941, conquering Yugoslavia and Greece, engaging in the Battle of Britain over London, and then breaking the pact with the Soviet Union by opening the Eastern Front. When war was also declared on the United States after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, Hitler had engaged too many enemies. The Soviet Union started to push Germany back and German cities increasingly became targets of Allied air attacks. On 8 May 1945, Germany surrendered after the Red Army occupied Berlin, where Hitler committed suicide.
Division and reunification (1945–1990)
The Berlin Wall that had partitioned Berlin in front of the Brandenburg Gate shortly after the reunification
The war resulted in the death of some 7 million Germans, large territorial losses and the expulsion of millions of ethnic Germans from ancient German provinces like Silesia, East Prussia and Pomerania, as well as from Bohemia and Moravia, in which more than 2 million German civilians, mostly women and children, were killed Germany Hotel . Germany and Berlin were occupied and partitioned by the Allies, with West Germany (Federal Republic of Germany) and West Berlin being controlled by the Western allies and East Germany (German Democratic Republic - GDR) and East Berlin by the Soviet Union. When the Soviet Union cut off supplies to West Berlin, Western forces airlifted food and supplies.
West Germany benefitted from the American Marshall Plan for the reconstruction of Europe after the war and was a founding state of the European Union. Its economy bloomed and democracy was stabilised by successive governments in Bonn.
The Soviet-supported East Germany, by contrast, became one of the most repressive of the communist satellite states of the Warsaw Pact under rulers in East Berlin. The flight of growing numbers of East Germans to non-communist countries via West Berlin led on 13 August 1961, to East Germany erecting the Berlin Wall and a fortified border to West Germany.
Relations between East Germany and West Germany remained icy until the Western chancellor Willy Brandt launched a highly controversial rapproachment with East Berlin and Moscow (Ostpolitik) in the 1970s.
During the summer of 1989, following growed unrest, large numbers of East German citizens took refuge in West German embassies in Central and Eastern European countries in the hope of emigrating into the West. The East German governments confusion grew and on 9 November 1989, East German authorities unexpectedly allowed East German citizens to enter West Berlin and West Germany. Hundreds of thousands of people took advantage of the opportunity; new crossing points were opened in the Berlin Wall and along the border with West Germany. This led to the acceleration of the process of reforms in East Germany that ended with the reunification of East and West Germany that came into force on 3 October 1990.
Politics
National government
Politics of Germany
Germany is a constitutional federal republic, whose political system is laid out in the 1949 constitution called Grundgesetz (Basic Law). It has a parliamentary system in which the head of government, the Chancellor, is elected by the parliament.
Head of state Munich Germany - The function of head of state is performed by the Federal President. He is elected every five years by the Federal Assembly (Bundesversammlung), which is made up by the members of the Parliament plus the corresponding number of state representatives. The powers of the Federal President are mostly limited to ceremonial and representative duties, but the signature of the President is required for laws to become effective.
The Bundestag, the lower house of German Parliament, in the historic Reichstag building
Prussian House of Lords in Leipziger Straße, seat of the Bundesrat, the upper house of German Parliament
Parliament - The German legislature consists of the Bundestag and the Bundesrat. The supreme legislative body is the Bundestag (Federal Diet), the lower house of Parliament, which is elected every four years. It in turn elects the Chancellor. The Bundesrat (Federal Council), the upper house of Parliament, represents the 16 federal states and cooperates in law-making and administering the federation. Its members are appointed by the individual states. Lately, there has been much concern about the Bundestag and the Bundesrat blocking each other, especially with majorities differing in the two bodies, making effective legislation very difficult.
Legal system
Judiciary of Germany
Germany has a civil or statute law system based ultimately on Roman law. Legislative power is divided between the Federation and the individual federated states. While criminal law and private law have seen codifications on the national level (in the Strafgesetzbuch and the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch respectively), no such unifying codification exists in administrative law where a lot of the fundamental matters remain in the jurisdiction of the individual federated states. There are a series of specialist supreme courts; for civil and criminal cases the highest court of appeal is the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Court of Justice). The courtroom style is inquisitorial.
The Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht Berlin Germany ), located in Karlsruhe, is the German Supreme Court responsible for constitutional matters, with power of judicial review. It acts as the highest legal authority and ensures that legislative and judicial practice conforms with the Basic Law. It acts independently of the other state bodies but cannot act on its own behalf.
Foreign relations
Foreign relations of Germany
Chancellor Gerhard Schröder together with French President Jacques Chirac (left)
Together with France, Germany plays a leading role in the European Union. Germany is at the forefront of European states seeking to advance the creation of a more unified and capable European political, defence and security apparatus.
Since its establishment on 23 May 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany kept a notably low profile in international relations. In 1999, however, on the occasion of the NATO war against Yugoslavia, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's government broke convention by sending German troops into combat for the first time since World War II.
In 2003, Germany and France were leaders in the coalition of nations opposing the US-led war in Iraq. Nevertheless, the German government has offered help to the reconstruction efforts in Iraq, but only outside of the war-torn country. In 2004, German troops stationed in the United Arab Emirates trained 122 Iraqi soldiers to drive and maintain military trucks. In April 2005, the German military sent around 50 German soldiers and 19 translators to Abu Dhabi to show 85 Iraqis how to build bridges and streets.
Together with Japan, India, and Brazil, Germany is currently seeking a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
Armed Forces
German troops (with red berets in the front row) are part of the EUFOR peace-keeping force in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Germany's military, the Bundeswehr, is a defence force with Heer (Army), Deutsche Marine (Navy), Luftwaffe (Air Force), Zentraler Sanitätsdienst (Central Medical Services) and Streitkräftebasis Germany Vacation (Joint Service Support Command) branches. It employs some 250,000 personnel, 50,000 of whom are 18-23-year-old men on national duty for currently at least 9 months. In peacetime, the Bundeswehr is commanded by the Minister of Defence, currently Peter Struck (since 2002). If Germany is at war, the Chancellor becomes commander in chief of the German 'Bundeswehr'.
The military budget has not kept up with the Bundeswehr's mission, which has changed dramatically from protecting Germany's borders against a Soviet invasion into a mobile unit deployed around the world. The funding levels for the Bundeswehr have actually been falling since 1990, when military spending amounted to about 3.5 per cent of gross domestic product. Today, defence spending equals about 1.6 per cent of German GDP, compared to the NATO average of 2.1 per cent and the United States' 3 per cent. Critics argue that the current budget of €24.4 billion is too small to finance the necessary transformation of the Bundeswehr into a well-equipped force ready for NATO and UN led missions abroad.
Currently, the German military has about 1,180 troops stationed in Bosnia-Herzegovina; 2,650 Bundeswehr soldiers are serving in Kosovo; 3,900 Bundeswehr troops are assisting the US anti-terrorism operation called Enduring Freedom off the Horn of Africa. In Afghanistan, 4,500 German troops currently make up the largest contingent of the NATO-led ISAF force.
Energy policy
Nuclear power phase-out and nuclear energy policy) Car Rental Germany
In 2000, the German SPD-led government along with Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (Alliance '90/The Greens), officially announced its intention to phase out the use of nuclear energy. Jürgen Trittin (from the German Greens) as the Minister of Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, reached an agreement with energy companies on the gradual shut down of the country's nineteen nuclear power plants and a cessation of civil usage of nuclear power by 2020. As of 2005, the CDU is predicted to win the German federal election, 2005 with candidate Angela Merkel and it has been speculated she will cancel the phase-out (compare [1]).
In 1999, electricity production in Germany was made up by coal (47%), nuclear power (30%), natural gas (%14), renewable sources (including hydro) (6%), and oil (2%) ([2]). As for energy consumption, oil accounted for 41% of the total. The German government declaring climate protection as a key policy issue, announced a carbon dioxide reduction target by the year 2005 compared to 1990 by 25% ([3], pdf).
Geography
Geography of Germany
States
States of Germany
Germany is divided into sixteen states (in German called Bundesländer, singular Bundesland; though the correct constitutional term is Länder, singular Land). It is further subdivided into 439 districts (Kreise) and cities (kreisfreie Städte) (2004).
States of Germany
In English
In German
State
Capital
State
Capital
| 1 Baden-Württemberg |
Stuttgart |
Baden-Württemberg |
Stuttgart |
| 2 Bavaria |
Munich |
(Freistaat) Bayern |
München |
| 3 Berlin |
Berlin |
Berlin |
Berlin |
| 4 Brandenburg |
Potsdam |
Brandenburg |
Potsdam |
| 5 Bremen |
Bremen |
(Freie Hansestadt) Bremen |
Bremen |
| 6 Hamburg |
Hamburg |
(Freie und Hansestadt) Hamburg |
Hamburg |
| 7 Hesse |
Wiesbaden |
Hessen |
Wiesbaden |
| 8 Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania |
Schwerin |
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern |
Schwerin |
| 9 Lower Saxony |
Hanover |
Niedersachsen |
Hannover |
| 10 North Rhine-Westphalia |
Düsseldorf |
Nordrhein-Westfalen |
Düsseldorf |
| 11 Rhineland-Palatinate |
Mainz |
Rheinland-Pfalz |
Mainz |
| 12 Saarland |
Heidelberg Germany Saarbrücken |
Saarland |
Saarbrücken |
| 13 Saxony |
Dresden |
(Freistaat) Sachsen |
Dresden |
| 14 Saxony-Anhalt |
Magdeburg |
Sachsen-Anhalt |
Magdeburg |
| 15 Schleswig-Holstein |
Kiel |
Schleswig-Holstein |
Kiel |
| 16 Thuringia |
Erfurt |
(Freistaat) Thüringen |
Erfurt |
Territory
Since reunification Germany has resumed its role as a major centre between Scandinavia in the north and the Mediterranean region in the south, as well as between the Atlantic west and the countries of central and eastern Europe.
The territory of Germany stretches from the high mountains of the Alps (highest point: the Zugspitze at 2,962 m) in the south to the shores of the North Sea in the north-west and the Baltic Sea in the north-east. In between are found the forested uplands of central Germany and the low-lying lands of northern Germany (lowest point: Neuendorfer/Wilstermarsch at 3.54 meters below sea level), traversed by some of Europe's major rivers such as the Rhine, Danube and Elbe.
Thanks to its central situation Germany has more neighbours than any other European country; these are Denmark in the north, Poland and the Czech Republic in the east, Austria and Switzerland in the south, France and Luxembourg in the south-west and Belgium and the Netherlands in the north-west.
Climate
The greater part of Germany lies in the cool/temperate climatic zone in which humid westerly winds predominate.
In the north-west and the north the climate is extremely oceanic and rain falls all the year round. Winters there are relatively mild and summers comparatively cool.
In the east the climate shows clear continental features; winters can be very cold for long periods, and summers can become very warm. Here, too, long dry periods are often recorded.
In the centre and the south Germany Tour there is a transitional climate which may be predominantly oceanic or continental, according to the general weather situation.
Economy
Economy of Germany Hamburg Germany
Frankfurt is Germany's commercial centre
A 50 euro cent coin featuring the Brandenburg Gate, symbol of division and reunification
Germany is the world's third largest economy measured by gross domestic product, placed behind the United States and Japan. According to the World Trade Organisation, Germany is also the world's top exporter, ahead of the United States and China. Its major trading partners include France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy and the Netherlands. A major issue of concern remains the persistently high unemployment rate, especially in the eastern states, and weak domestic demand which slows down economic growth. However, according to Bert Rürup, head of Germany's Council of Economic Advisers, reunification is to blame for two-thirds of Germany's growth lag compared to its EU neighbours. In particular, eastern Germany lacks a solid base of small and medium-sized companies, which provided the foundation for West Germany's economic prosperity.
Agriculture
For many years now agriculture in Germany has been in a state of decline. Poor earnings and lack of profitability are counted to the main reasons for the failure of many medium and small concerns. The main crops grown are potatoes, wheat, barley, sugar beet and cabbage. Germany ranks among the world's largest producers of milk, milk products and meat. Agricultural support is managed under the EU Common Agricultural Policy
Industrial sector
As in most other large economic nations, Germany's industrial sector has declined in favour of the service sector. Germany is among the world's largest and most technologically advanced producers of iron, steel, cement, chemicals, machinery, motor vehicles, machine tools and electronics, as well as a world leader in the shipbuilding industry. Major car manufacturers like BMW, DaimlerChrysler, Porsche and Volkswagen, and huge international corporations like Siemens AG rank among the world's largest firms.
Service sector
The service sector has grown steadily in recent years and now contributes the largest share of GDP. This sector includes tourism. As of 2004, the largest numbers of foreign visitors to Germany came from the Netherlands, followed by the United States and the United Kingdom ([4]). Germany also has a large (and often underrated) presence in the banking world, lead by Deutsche Bank and the Allianz Group.
Natural resources
Germany is lacking in natural raw materials, if one disregards the hard coal deposits in the Ruhr area, in the Aachen district and in the Saarland, where mining is profitable only thanks to state subsidies. Brown coal from mines in the Leipziger Bucht and the Niederlausitz is still the major energy source in the eastern Bundesländer, while mineral oil enjoys this position in the western "Länder". The current red-Green coalition government is pursuing a long-term strategy of phasing out nuclear power in favour of renewable sources of energy.
Society
Demographics
Demographics of Germany
Hamburg is Germany's second largest city (the photograph shows central Hamburg before the first world war)
Germany has many large cities but only four with a population of one million or more: Berlin with 3.4 million, Hamburg with 1.8 million, Munich with 1.4 million, and Cologne with 1.0 million. Thus, the population is much less centralised and oriented towards a single large city than in most other European countries. The largest cities apart from those are Frankfurt am Main, Stuttgart, Dortmund, Essen, Düsseldorf, Bremen, Duisburg and Hanover (Hannover) Cologne Germany . By far the largest urban conurbation is the Rhine-Ruhr region, including the Düsseldorf-Cologne district.
As of 2004, about 7 million non-citizen residents were living in Germany. By far the largest number came from Turkey, followed by Italy, Greece, Croatia, the Netherlands, Serbia and Montenegro, Spain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria, Portugal, Vietnam, Morocco, Poland, Macedonia, Lebanon and France. [5] Thanks to German citizenship reform, many of these immigrants are eligible for naturalization ([6]). Concerning the ethnic origin, 9% of the population is not German.
Germany is still a primary destination for political and economic refugees from many developing countries, but the number of asylum seekers has been dropping in recent years, reaching about 50,000 in 2003.
An ethnic Danish minority of about 50,000 people lives in Schleswig, mostly close to the Danish border, in the north; a small number of Slavic people known as the Sorbs lives in the states of Saxony (about 40,000) and Brandenburg (about 20,000). The Frisian language is mother tongue to about 12,000 speakers in Germany. In rural areas of Northern Germany, Low Saxon is widely spoken.
There are also a large number of ethnic German immigrants from the former Soviet Union area (1.7 million), Poland (0.7 million) and Romania (0.3 million) (1980–1999 totals), who are automatically granted German citizenship, and thus do not show up in foreign resident statistics; unlike foreigners, they have been settled by the government almost evenly spread throughout Germany.
Religion
Religion in Germany Yahoo Germany
Martin Luther, Father of the German Reformation and reformer of the German language, 1529
Germany is the home of the Reformation launched by Martin Luther in the early 16th century. Today, Protestants (particularly in the north and east) comprise about 33% of the population and Catholics (particularly in the south and west) also 33%. In total more than 55 million people officially belong to a Christian denomination. Most German Protestants are members of the Evangelical Church in Germany. Free churches (as Baptists, Methodists and other independent Protestants are usually called in Germany) exist in all larger towns and many smaller ones, but most such churches are small. The current pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI, is German.
Besides this there are several hundred thousand Orthodox Christians (mostly Greeks and Serbs), 400,000 New Apostolic Christians, more than 150,000 Jehovah's Witnesses, and numerous other small groups. The highest numbers of members of these denominations in Germany has the Greek Orthodox Church, the Serb Orthodox Church coming fourth.
Approximately 3.7 million Muslims (mostly of Turkish descent) live in Germany.
Today's Germany has Europe's third-largest Jewish population. In 2004, twice as many Jews from former Soviet republics settled in Germany as in Israel, bringing the total influx to more than 200,000 since 1991. About half joined a settled Jewish community, of which there are now more than 100, with a total of 100,000 members—up from 30,000 before reunification. Some German cities have seen a revival of Jewish culture, particularly in Berlin, where there are also 3,000 Israelis. Jews have a voice in German public life through the Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland. See also History of the Jews in Germany.
In the territory of the former East Germany, there is much less religious feeling than in the West. Only 5% attend a mass at least once per week, compared with 14% in the West according to a recent study. About 30% of the total population are officially religiously unaffiliated. In the East this number is considerably higher.
Church and state are separate, but there is cooperation in many fields, most importantly in the social sector. Churches and religious communities, if they are large, stable and loyal to the constitution, can get special status from the state as a corporate body under public law which allows the churches to levy taxes called Kirchensteuer (church tax) on their members on the basis of laws of the Länder, and to apply laws of public service to their ministers. In most cases, the revenue is collected by the state in return for a collection fee, while some minor religious bodies chose to administer the collection the taxes themselves (such as the Jewish Community of Berlin). See Status of religious freedom in Germany and Separation of church and state in Germany.
Education
Education in Germany Germany Tourism
Germany has one of the world's highest levels of education. The most important foreign languages taught at school are English, Latin and French. Russian, Ancient Greek, and Spanish are not taught everywhere. Since the end of World War II, the number of youths entering universities has more than tripled, but university attendance still lags behind many other European nations. In the annual league of top-ranking universities compiled by Shanghai Jiaotong University in 2004, Germany came 4th overall, but with only 7 universities in the top 100 (to compare, the United States had 51). The highest ranking university, at #45, was the TU Munich.
For Germany, the results of the PISA student assessments were a nationwide shock. The comparatively low scores brought on heated debate about how the school system should be changed. Furthermore it was revealed that more than in other countries students with higher-earning parents are better-educated and tend to achieve higher results. There is also some diversity between the schools of the various states, that determine their respective school system independently.
In addition to academic education, Germany also has a elaborate system of vocational education, called the dual system, which combines apprenticeship in enterprises with theoretical teaching in vocational schools.
Germany prohibits home-schooling, however, this is still practised by a number of people; there has been some publicity to government prosecution of this practice.
Social issues
Social issues in Germany
The borough of Kreuzberg in Berlin is sometimes called the "second largest Turkish city after Istanbul"
The German social market economy (German: soziale Marktwirtschaft) helped bring about the "economic miracle" (the german "Wirtschaftswunder Carey Germany In Mariah ") that rebuilt Germany from ashes after World War II to one of the most impressive economies in Europe.
Germany continues to struggle with a number of social issues although problems created by the German Reunification of 1990 have begun to decline. The standard of living is higher in the western half of the country, but easterners now share a reasonably high standard of living. Germans continue to be concerned about a relatively high level of unemployment. They are generally not willing to concede to labour concessions such as longer working hours.
For centuries, a woman's role in German society was summed up by the three words: Kinder (children), Kirche (church), and Küche (kitchen). Throughout the twentieth century, however, women have gradually won victories in their quest for equal rights.
Since World War II, Germany has experienced intermittent turmoil from various extremist groups. In the 1970s the terrorist Red Army Faction engaged in a string of assassinations and kidnappings against political and business figures and there has been a recent surge in right-wing extremist crimes. According to Interior Minister Otto Schily, the number of these crimes rose 8.4% to 12,553 cases in 2004, which the minister attributed to such crimes as the display of illegal Nazi symbols being reported more frequently. The majority of these cases are not violent crimes, although these do exist as well.
In September 2004, the right-wing extremist National Democratic Party ("Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschland" - NPD Germany Flag ) gained a new place on the national political stage when they captured 9.2% of the vote in the eastern state of Saxony, compared with 1.9% in 1999. The current German government considers this party to be a threat to the country and has sought repeatedly to ban the party or curtail its activities.
Recent immigrants to Germany face integration issues and other difficulties. In addition to the challenges of adapting to a new language and culture, they may be subject to security-related police inquiries and violence from right-wing extremist groups. The government has attempted to improve immigrant integration by mandating courses on language, culture, politics, and society for some immigrants. Some German states have banned Muslim teachers from wearing headscarves in class, generally by prohibiting the use of all religious symbols by teachers. Unlike France, Germany has not extended this ban to pupils.
Culture
Culture of Germany
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is regarded as a major German poet
Germany's contributions to the world's cultural heritage are numerous, and the country is often known as das Land der Dichter und Denker Ebay Germany (the land of poets and thinkers). German literature can be traced back to the Middle Ages, in particular to such authors as Walther von der Vogelweide and Wolfram von Eschenbach. The Nibelungenlied, whose author is not known, is also a major contribution to German literature. Theologian Luther, who translated the Bible into German, is widely credited for having set the basis for modern "High German" language. The mostly admired German poets and authors are without doubt Goethe and Schiller. Other poets include Heine, and authors of the 20th century includes Nobel prize winners Thomas Mann, Hermann Hesse, Heinrich Böll, and Günter Grass. Other authors include Brecht and Enzensberger. Germany's influence on world philosophy was major as well, as exemplified by Leibniz, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Engels, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Heidegger.
In the field of music, Germany's influence is noted through the works of, among others, Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Orff and Wagner.
In Art, there are several fine German painters such as the Renaissance artist Dürer, the romanticist Friedrich, the surrealist Ernst, the expressionist Marc, the conceptual artist Beuys or the neo expressionist Baselitz. Architecture also flourished in Germany. Several UNESCO World Heritage Sites are scattered throughout Germany (including, for instance, the cathedral of Cologne and the Museum Island in Berlin). Famous architects include neoclassicist Schinkel and Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus.
Germany was also the homeland of scientists like Helmholtz, Fraunhofer, Fahrenheit, Kepler, Haeckel, Humboldt, Einstein, Born, Planck, Heisenberg, Creuzfeldt, Hertz, Koch, Hahn, Leibniz, Liebig and Bunsen; and inventors and engineers such as Gutenberg, Otto, Bosch, Siemens, Braun, Daimler, Benz and Diesel.
Important mathematicians were born in Germany such as Bessel, Gauß, Hilbert, Jacobi, Riemann,Klein and Weierstraß.
Many historical figures, though not citizens of Germany in the modern sense, were important and influential figures in German culture, such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Kafka and Stefan Zweig.
The German language was once the lingua franca of central, eastern and northern Europe, and in Europe it is the second most popular language after English. Within the European Union, German is the most spoken language before English, French, Spanish and Italian. As a foreign language, German is the third most taught worldwide.[7] It is also the second most used language on the Internet. The language has its origin in Old High German. Germany had two languages: High German and Low German, which—from a linguistic standpoint—were two different languages. Whilst High German was subject to the so-called High German consonant shift, Low German was not. Today's standard language is based on High German rather than Low German; the latter has been given the status of a minority language by the European Union, although it is less used today in the traditionally Low German-speaking areas of northern Germany.
Since about 1970 Germany has once again had a thriving popular culture, now increasingly being led by its new old capital Berlin, and a self-confident music and art culture. Germany is also well known for its many opera houses, the most famous of which being located in Bayreuth.
Miscellaneous topics
- Communications in Germany
- GermNews
- Historical Eastern Germany
- List of English exonyms for German toponyms
- List of famous Germans
- List of German districts
- List of German towns
- List of Germans - German people
- List of universities in Germany
- Tourism in Germany
- Taxation in Germany
- Transportation in Germany
- German federal election, 2005
- Nuclear power phase-out Essen Germany
|
|
More Germany Images |
