Germany: Difference between revisions
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== Economy == |
== Economy == |
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Germany has one of the world's largest [[technology|technologically]] powerful [[economy]]. Bringing West and East Germany together and making their economy work is still taking a long time and costing a lot of money.<ref>{{cite book | last = Hesp | first = Patrick | coauthors = McKnight, Tom; Thom, Bruce; Wonders, William | title = Geographica's Worl Reference | publisher = Random House Australia | date = 2008 | pages = 451 | isbn = 0091841194}}</ref> |
Germany has one of the world's largest [[technology|technologically]] powerful [[economy]]. Bringing West and East Germany together and making their economy work is still taking a long time and costing a lot of money.<ref>{{cite book | last = Hesp | first = Patrick | coauthors = McKnight, Tom; Thom, Bruce; Wonders, William | title = Geographica's Worl Reference | publisher = Random House Australia | date = 2008 | pages = 451 | isbn = 0091841194}}</ref> Germany is the largest economy in [[Europe]].<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.economywatch.com/world_economy/germany/ |title=Germany Economy | Economy Watch |first= |last= |work=economywatch.com |year=2012 [last update] |accessdate=20 March 2012}}</ref> In September 2011, the [[inflation|inflation rate]] in Germany was 2.5%. The [[unemployment|unemployment rate]] of Germany was 5.5% as of October 2011.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3997.htm |title=Germany |first= |last= |work=state.gov |year=2012 [last update] |accessdate=20 March 2012}}</ref> |
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Germany is one of the [[G8]] countries. The main industry area is the [[Ruhr area]].<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.mapsofworld.com/germany/german-companies.html |title=Companies in Germany |first= |last= |work=mapsofworld.com |year=2012 [last update] |accessdate=20 March 2012}}</ref> |
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== People == |
== People == |
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Revision as of 21:20, 20 March 2012
- This article is about the modern country named Germany. For other meanings of Germany, see German.
Federal Republic of Germany Bundesrepublik Deutschland | |
|---|---|
| Anthem: The third stanza of [Das Lied der Deutschen] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) The Song of the Germans | |
![Location of Germany (dark green) – on the European continent (green & dark grey) – in the European Union (green) — [Legend]](/wiki/File:EU-Germany.svg) Location of Germany (dark green) – on the European continent (green & dark grey) | |
| Capital and largest city | Berlin |
| Official languages | German[1] |
| Demonym(s) | German |
| Government | Federal parliamentary constitutional republic |
| Joachim Gauck | |
| Angela Merkel | |
| Norbert Lammert | |
| Horst Seehofer | |
| Formation | |
| 2 February 962 | |
| 18 January 1871 | |
| 23 May 1949 | |
| 3 October 1990 | |
| Area | |
• Total | 357,021 km2 (137,847 sq mi) (63rd) |
• Water (%) | 2.416 |
| Population | |
• 2010 estimate | 81,799,600 (15th) |
• Density | 229/km2 (593.1/sq mi) (55th) |
| GDP (PPP) | 2011 estimate |
• Total | $3.089 trillion[1] (5th) |
• Per capita | $37,935[1] (18th) |
| GDP (nominal) | 2011 estimate |
• Total | $3.628 trillion[1] (4th) |
• Per capita | $44,555[1] (19th) |
| Gini (2006) | 27 low |
| HDI (2011) |  0.905[2]Error: Invalid HDI value · 9th |
| Currency | Euro (€)[2](2002 – present) (EUR) |
| Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC+2 (CEST) |
| Driving side | right |
| Calling code | 49 |
| ISO 3166 code | DE |
| Internet TLD | .de [3] |
| |
The Federal Republic of Germany also called Germany (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland[3] also known as Deutschland) is a country in Western Europe. The country's full name is sometimes shortened to the FRG (or the BRD, in German).
To the north of Germany are the North Sea, the Baltic Sea, and the country of Denmark. To the east of Germany are the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. To the south of Germany are the countries of Austria and Switzerland. To the west of Germany are the countries of France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The total area of Germany is 137,847 square miles and has warm weather most of the year. In January 2010, Germany had a population of 81.8 million[4] people.
Before it was called Germany, it was called Germania. In the years A.D. 900 and 1806, Germany was part of the Holy Roman Empire.
From 1949 to 1990, Germany was made up of two countries called the Federal Republic of Germany (inf. West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (inf. East Germany). During this time, the capital city of Berlin was divided into a west and an east part. On 13 August 1961, East Germany started to build the Berlin Wall between the two parts of Berlin. West Germany was one of the countries that started the European Union.[5]
History
_workshop_-_Martin_Luther_(Uffizi).jpg)
Germany gained importance as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, which was the first Reich, a word translated as empire. It was started by Charlemagne who became the first Holy Roman Emperor in 800 AD, and it lasted until 1806, the time of the Napoleonic Wars.[6]
The second Reich was started with a treaty in 1871 in Versailles.[7] The biggest state in the new German Empire was Prussia. The Kings of Prussia were also "German Emperors", but they did not call themselves "Emperors of Germany". There were many other kingdoms, duchies and republics in the Empire, but not Austria. Germany stayed an empire for another 50 years.
The treaty of unification was made after Germany won the Franco-Prussian War with France in 1871. In World War I, Germany joined Austria-Hungary, and again declared war on France.[7] The war became slow in the west and was fought in trenches, holes soldiers dug in the ground to protect themselves. Many men were killed on both sides. In the east the soldiers fought battles and the Germans won in the east. The war ended in 1918 because the Germans could not win in the west, and Germany's emperor had to give up his power.[7] Germany became more strict, and France took Alsace from Germany. After a revolution, the Second Reich ended and the democratic Weimar Republic began.
After the war, there were a lot of problems with money in Germany because of the Peace Treaty of Versailles (which made Germany pay for the costs of World War I) and the worldwide Great Depression.[8]
The Third Reich was Nazi Germany; it lasted 12 years, from 1933 to 1945.[9] It started after Adolf Hitler became the head of government. On 23 March 1933, the Reichstag (parliament) passed the Enabling Act, which let Hitler's government make decrees independently of the Reichstag and the presidency. This gave him total control of the country and the government.[10] Hitler in effect became a dictator.
Hitler wanted to unify all Germans in one state, and did this by making places where Germans lived, such as Austria and Czechoslovakia, a part of the German Republic; Hitler also wanted the land in Poland that Germany had owned before 1918. Poland refused to give it to him. The invasion of Poland started World War II on 1 September 1939. In the beginning, Germany was winning. However, Germany attacked the Soviet Union in 1941 and, after the Battle of Kursk, the German Eastern Front began a slow retreat until war's end. On 8 May 1945, Germany gave up after Berlin was captured, Hitler had killed himself a week earlier. Because of the war, Germany lost a lot of German land east of the Oder-Neiße line, and for 45 years, Germany was split into West Germany and East Germany.
In 1989 there was a process of reforms in East Germany, which lead to the opening of the Berlin Wall and to the end of socialist rule in Germany. This events are known as the Wende or the Friedliche Revolution (Peaceful Revolution) in Germany. After that, East Germany joined West Germany in 1990.[11] The new Germany is a part of the European Union.[12]
Politics
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Germany is a constitutional federal democracy.[13] Its political rules come from the 'constitution' called Basic Law (Grundgesetz), written by West Germany in 1949. It has a parliamentary system, and the parliament elects the head of government, the Federal Chancellor (Bundeskanzler). The current Chancellor, Dr Angela Merkel, is a woman who used to live in East Germany.[14]
The people of Germany vote for the parliament, called the Bundestag (Federal Assembly), every four years.[15] Government members of the 16 States of Germany (Bundesländer) work in the Bundesrat (Federal Council). The Bundesrat can help make some laws.[16]
| Office | Name | Party | Since |
|---|---|---|---|
| President | Joachim Gauck | Independent | 18 March 2012 |
| Chancellor | Angela Merkel | CDU | 22 November 2005 |
| Other government parties | FDP, CSU |
The head of state is the Bundespräsident (Federal President). This person has no real powers but can order elections for the Bundestag. The current president is Christian Wulff (CDU).
The judiciary branch (the part of German politics that deals with courts) has a Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court). It can stop any act by the law-makers or other leaders if they feel they go against Germany's constitution.
The opposition parties are the SPD, Alliance '90/The Greens and Die Linke.
Geography
Germany is one of the largest countries in Europe. It stretches from the North Sea and Baltic Sea in the north to the high mountains of the Alps in the south. The highest point is the Zugspitze on the Austrian border, at Template:M to ft.[16]
Germany's northern part is very low and flat (lowest point: Neuendorf-Sachsenbande at Template:M to ft). In the middle, there are low mountain ranges covered in large forests. Between these and the Alps, there is another plain created by glaciers during the ice ages.
Germany also contains parts of Europe's longest rivers, such as the Rhine (which makes up a part of Germany's western border), the Danube and the Elbe.[16]
States
In Germany there are sixteen states (Bundesländer):
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In these states there are 301 Kreise (districts) and 114 independent cities.
Economy
Germany has one of the world's largest technologically powerful economy. Bringing West and East Germany together and making their economy work is still taking a long time and costing a lot of money.[17] Germany is the largest economy in Europe.[18] In September 2011, the inflation rate in Germany was 2.5%. The unemployment rate of Germany was 5.5% as of October 2011.[19]
Germany is one of the G8 countries. The main industry area is the Ruhr area.[20]
People
There are at least seven million people from other countries living in Germany. Some have political asylum, some are guest workers (Gastarbeiter), and some are their families. A lot of people from poor or dangerous countries go to Germany for safety.
About 50,000 ethnic Danish people live in Schleswig-Holstein, in the north. About 60,000 Slavic people, Sorbs, live in Germany too, in Saxony and Brandenburg. About 12,000 people in Germany speak Frisian; this language is the closest living language to English. In northern Germany, people outside towns speak Low Saxon.
Many people have come to Germany from Turkey (about 1.9 million Turks and Kurds). Other small groups of people in Germany are Croats (0.2 million), Italians (0.6 million), Greeks (0.4 million), Russians, and Poles (0.3 million). There are also some ethnic Germans who lived in the old Soviet Union (1.7 million), Poland (0.7 million), and Romania (0.3 million). These people have German passports, so they are not counted as foreigners. A lot of these people do not speak German at home.[16]
Christianity is the biggest religion; Protestants are 38% of the people (mostly in the north) and Catholics are 34% of the people (mostly in the south).[16] There are also many Muslims, while the other people (26.3%) are either not religious, or belong to smaller religious groups.[16] In the eastern regions, the former territory of the GDR (known as the DDR in German), only one fifth of the population is religious.
Germany has one of the world's highest levels of schooling, technology, and businesses. The number of young people who attend universities is now three times more than it was after the end of World War II, and the trade and technical schools of Germany are some of the best in the world. German income is, on average, $25,000 a year, making Germany a highly middle class society. A large social welfare system gives people money when they are ill, unemployed, or similarly disadvantaged. Millions of Germans travel outside of their country each year.
Culture
Germany has been the birthplace of many figures important to world culture: composers such as Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, and Wagner; poets such as Goethe, Schiller, Heine and Lessing or Brecht; philosophers including Kant, Hegel, Marx, Martin Heidegger, and Nietzsche; and scientists including Einstein, Born, Heisenberg and Planck. It was also where the Bauhaus movement started.
The official language of Germany is German. Most of the Germans also speak English as second language. Many important people in history are thought of as "German", because they are at the heart of German culture, although they did not always live in Germany. Some of these people were Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Kafka, Stefan Zweig, and Copernicus.
Sports
Football is the most popular sport in Germany. The national team has won the FIFA World Cup 3 times, and appears in the finals a lot. The team also has had the most Euro titles than any other country. The top football league in Germany is Bundesliga. Also, the German Football Association (Deutscher Fußball-Bund) is the largest in the world. Some of the worlds best Footballers came from Germany. These would include Miroslav Klose, Oliver Kahn, Gerd Müller, Michael Ballack, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Franz Beckenbauer, and so on. Plus, many tournaments have taken place in Germany. The most recent was the 2006 FIFA World Cup, and the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup. The Audi Cup takes place in Germany every year in Munich.
Germany is also known for its motor sports. The country has made companies like the BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, etc.
Lastly, Germany is one of the best countries in the Olympic Games. Germany is the third in the list of the most Olympic Games medals in history (mixed with West and East Germany medals.)! The country finished first place in the 2006 Winter Olympics, and second in the 2010 Winter Olympics. Germany got fifth place in the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Religion
Roman Catholicism was the biggest religion in Germany up to the 15th century, but a major religious change called the Reformation changed this. In 1517, Martin Luther said that the Catholic Church was greedy and that it used religion to make money. Because of what he said, European and world history changed, and Luther started Protestantism, which is as big as the Catholic religion in Germany today. The current Pope, Benedict XVI, was born in Germany.
Before World War II, about two-thirds of the German people were Protestant and one-thirds were Roman Catholic. In the north and northeast of Germany, there were a lot more Protestants than Catholics. About one percent were German Jews.
Germany's constitution says that all people can believe in any religion they want to, and that no one is allowed to step on another person's rights because of the person's religion.
Today, Germany has the fastest-growing group of Jewish people in the world. Many of them are in Berlin. Ten thousand Jews have moved to Germany since the fall of the Berlin Wall; many came from countries that were in the Soviet Union. Schools teaching about the horrible things that happened when the Nazis were in power, as well as teaching against the ideas of the Nazis, has helped to make Germany very tolerant towards other people and cultures, and now many people move there from countries that may not be so tolerant.
Today, about two-thirds of the German people (more than 55 million people) belong to a Christian church, but most of them take no part in church life. About half of them are Protestants and about half are Roman Catholics. Most German Protestants are members of the Evangelical Church in Germany. About three million Muslims, 3.7% of the total, live in Germany.[21][22]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "World Economic Outlook Database". International Monetary Fund. September 2011. Retrieved 17-November-2011.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ↑ "Human development index" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme. 2011. Retrieved 5 November 2011.
- ↑ Grundgesetz, Preamble and Article 20 (1) Die Bundesrepublik Deutschland ist ein demokratischer und sozialer Bundesstaat.
- ↑ "First demographic estimates for 2009". Eurostat. Retrieved 2010-01-31.
- ↑ "History of the European Union". Retrieved 2008-02-26.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|Publisher=ignored (|publisher=suggested) (help) - ↑ "The foundation of the first German emipre". Retrieved 26-06-2009.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 "A timeline of German — The second German empire". Retrieved 26-06-2009.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ↑ "A timeline of German — The Third Reich". Retrieved 27-06-2009.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ↑ "History of Nazi Germany". Retrieved 20-07-2009.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ↑ "Adolf Hitler by britannica.com". Retrieved 27-06-2009.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ↑ http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=2441
- ↑ http://www.statcan.gc.ca/subjects-sujets/standard-norme/sgc-cgt/eu-ue-eng.htm
- ↑ "Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland" (in German and English). The German Bundestag. Retrieved 2008-02-26.
Artikel 20(1) Die Bundesrepublik Deutschland ist ein demokratischer und sozialer Bundesstaat.
- ↑ "Biography of Angela Merkel". Retrieved 17-05-2009.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ↑ "Homepage of the German Bundestag - Basic Law of Germany". Retrieved 17-05-2009.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5 Hesp, Patrick (2008). Geographica's World Reference. Random House Australia. p. 446. ISBN 0091841194.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) Cite error: Invalid<ref>tag; name "de-book" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ Hesp, Patrick (2008). Geographica's Worl Reference. Random House Australia. p. 451. ISBN 0091841194.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ↑ "Germany Economy | Economy Watch". economywatch.com. 2012 [last update]. Retrieved 20 March 2012.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|year=(help) - ↑ "Germany". state.gov. 2012 [last update]. Retrieved 20 March 2012.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|year=(help) - ↑ "Companies in Germany". mapsofworld.com. 2012 [last update]. Retrieved 20 March 2012.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|year=(help) - ↑ "Ilaam.net". Retrieved 2009-05-18.
- ↑ "CIA Factbook: Germany". Retrieved 2009-09-01.
Other websites
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Definitions from Wiktionary |
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Media from Commons |
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News stories from Wikinews |
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Quotations from Wikiquote |
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Source texts from Wikisource |
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Textbooks from Wikibooks |
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Learning resources from Wikiversity |
- Deutschland.de - Official German portal
- Statistikportal.de - Website statistical data
- Bundesregierung Deutschland - Website of the German Federal Government
- Bundespräsident - Website of the German President
- Bundeskanzlerin.de - Ofiicial Website of the first female Bundeskanzler, Angela Merkel (German)
- Bundeskanzlerin.de - Ofiicial Website of the first female Bundeskanzler, Angela Merkel (English)
- Bundestag - Website of the German Parliament
- City Panoramas - Panoramic Views and Virtual Tours of German Cities and Towns
- The Border - View of German Border Sign
- Wide pictures of many German places and buildings
- Information & pictures Travel information on cities, sights, National Parks, World Heritages etc. of Germany
- Germany Travel Guide
- Axel Boldt, A Subjective Comparison of Germany and the United States
- Allemagne in easy French
- WorldFlicks in Germany: photos and interesting places on Google Maps
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