Facts about Germany

Germany plays a leading role in the European Union, having a strong alliance with France.

Roma people have been in Germany since the Middle Ages.

Important mathematicians were born in Germany such as Dedekind, Bessel, GauЯ, Hilbert, Jacobi, Riemann, Riese, Klein, Cantor, WeierstraЯ, and Weyl.

In between are the forested uplands of central Germany, and the low-lying lands of northern Germany.

The German social market economy helped bring about the "economic miracle" that rebuilt Germany from rubble after World War II to one of the most impressive economies in Europe.

Growing numbers of East Germans migrated to West Germany via Hungary and clandestinely through the border separating East from West Germany.

Regarding himself as the successor of Augustus, Charlemagne, and Otto the Great, he spent most of his reign shuttling between Germany and Italy trying to restore imperial glory in both.

Germany's universities are recognized internationally, indicating the high education standards in the country.

East Germany lost its protected markets, its industry collapsed, and hundreds of thousands lost their jobs.

German is Germany's only official and most widely spoken language.

New medium-sized states were established in southwestern Germany.

Germany is the home of the Protestant Reformation launched by Martin Luther in the early sixteenth century.

Across the border, East Germany was at first occupied by and later (May 1955) allied with the USSR.

Architecture in East Germany reflected the Soviet style in government buildings, apartment blocks, hotels, and public spaces, all notable for sheer vastness and unrelieved monotony.

Charlemagne fought the Slavs south of the Danube, annexed southern Germany, and subdued and converted pagan Saxons in the northwest.

Nowadays, they are spread all over Germany, mostly living in major cities.

Germany and the United States have been close allies since the end of the Second World War.

Germany possesses one of the densest road systems of the world.

Many of the governmental institutions and ministries, as well as embassies, were moved there from the former capital of West Germany, Bonn, in 1999.

People from the eastern Mediterranean began working copper and tin deposits in central Germany, Bohemia, and Austria around 2500 B.C.E.

Like many other export-oriented countries, Germany does not have the climate or the natural resources necessary to support a high standard of living.

In 1999, electricity production in Germany was powered by coal (47 percent), nuclear power (30 percent), natural gas (14 percent), renewable sources (including hydro, wind, and solar power) (6 percent), and oil (2 percent).

Under Wilhelm II, however, Germany took an imperialistic course, not unlike other powers, but it led to friction with neighboring countries.

In 2005, the German government reached an agreement with Russia in building a gas pipeline along the bottom of the Baltic Sea directly from Russia to Germany.

Germany's government runs a restrictive fiscal policy and has cut numerous regular jobs in the public sector.

Germany's military, the Bundeswehr, is a defense force with Heer (German Army), Marine (German Navy), Luftwaffe (German Air Force), Zentraler Sanitдtsdienst (Central Medical Services), and Streitkrдftebasis (Joint Service Support Command) branches.

Low German 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.

Germany is a democratic parliamentary federal republic, historically consisting of several sovereign states with their own history, distinct German tribe dialects, culture, and religious beliefs.

Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, a country in Central Europe, is a modern great power, the world's third largest economy, and the world's largest exporter of goods.

Frederick I Barbarossa (1122–1190) was elected and crowned King of Germany in 1152, crowned King of Italy in 1154, Holy Roman Emperor in 1155, and King of Burgundy in 1178.

At the beginning of the 1930s, Germany was not far from a civil war.

The German head of state is the President of Germany, elected by a federal convention.

Germany's influence on philosophy is historically significant and notable German philosophers have helped shape western philosophy as early as the Middle Ages (Albertus Magnus).

In 2004, twice as many Jews from former Soviet republics settled in Germany as in Israel, bringing the total inflow to more than 200,000 since 1991.

Around 4500 B.C.E., farming peoples from southwest Asia migrated up the Danube Valley into central Germany.

The most important Baroque artist from Germany is Cosmas Damian Asam.

The war was fought principally on the territory of today's Germany, and involved most of the major European continental powers.

Germany and its allies were to accept the sole responsibility of the war, and were to pay financial reparations for all loss and damage suffered by the Allies.

Germany is often known as das Land der Dichter und Denker (the land of poets and thinkers).

Germany is divided into 16 states (in German called Lдnder).

One received West Francia (modern France), another acquired the imperial title and a territory extending from the North Sea to Italy, while the third, Louis the German (804–876), received East Francia (modern Germany).

Important research institutions in Germany are the Max Planck Society, the Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft, and the Fraunhofer Society.

Two-thirds of Germany's citizens have at least basic knowledge of English.

Not only do the United States and Germany share many cultural similarities; they are also deeply economically interdependent.

Around 1350, the Black Death ravaged Germany and most of Europe, killing about one-third of the population.

Most of Germany is covered by either arable land (33 percent) or forest and woodland (31 percent).

Germany quickly gained direct or indirect control of the majority of Europe.

Thousands of Roma living in Germany were killed by the Nazi regime.

The exodus generated demands within East Germany for political change, and mass demonstrations involving eventually hundreds of thousands of people in several cities continued to grow.

After World War II, there was an influx of 14 million ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe who were expelled or fled after Germany lost the war.

Germany has a civil or statute law system based ultimately on Roman law with some references to Germanic law.

The InterCity Express or ICE is a type of high-speed train operated by Deutsche Bahn in Germany and neighboring countries, for example to Zьrich, Switzerland or Vienna, Austria.

Under the terms of the treaty between West and East Germany, Berlin again became the capital of the reunited Germany.

Germany is a leading nation in scientific research and the production of innovative technological products.

German-Americans are the largest ethnic group in the US, and the status of Ramstein Air Base, close to the city of Kaiserslautern, Germany, has the largest US community outside the US.

West Germany joined NATO in 1955 and was a founding member of the European Economic Community in 1958.

Germany is also bordered to the north by the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.

The overall life expectancy in Germany at birth is 80.19 years (77.93 years for males and 82.58 years for females).

Germany was to cede Alsace-Lorraine, Eupen-Malmйdy, North Schleswig, and the Memel area.

Despite the tense situation in eastern Germany, total government employment in Germany remains lower than in other states such as the United Kingdom or Canada.

By 100 C.E., the time of Tacitus' Germania, Germanic tribes settled along the Rhine and the Danube (the Limes Germanicus), occupying most of the area of modern Germany.

Germany hosts many large rock music festivals annually.

The other two most popular sports in Germany are marksmanship and tennis represented by the German Marksmen’s Federation and the German Tennis Federation respectively, both including more than a million members.

Class relations reshuffled upon reunification, sending many from eastern Germany westward for work, and bringing many east to take up leading roles in government and corporations.

Germany was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.

Modern Germany, as far as the Rhine and the Danube, thus remained outside the Roman Empire.

The Rock am Ring festival is the largest music festival in Germany, and among the largest in the world.

A centralized totalitarian state was established by a series of moves and decrees making Germany a single-party state.

According to the World Trade Organization, Germany is also the world's top exporter, ahead of the United States and number two in imports.

The Bell-Beaker people, who were skilled metalworkers, moved east from Spain and Portugal about the year 2000 B.C.E., and developed a thriving Bronze Age culture in Germany.

Around 2300 B.C.E., battleaxe-wielding Indo-Europeans, probably from southern Russia, settled in northern and central Germany, while Slavic peoples settled in the east, and Celts in the south and west.

Germany is a federal parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Chancellor is the head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system.

Germany sells nearly twice as many such products per capita than the United States, significantly more than Japan, and nearly the same as the United Kingdom.

The third highest official is the chancellor as the head of government recommended by the President of Germany, and is elected by an absolute majority of the Bundestag for a four-year term.

Subsequently, the German army commenced retreating on the Eastern front, followed by the eventual defeat of Germany.

Germany depended on imports of food and raw materials, which were stopped by the British Naval blockade of Germany.

After a succession of unsuccessful cabinets, on January 29, 1933, President von Hindenburg, seeing little alternative and pushed by advisors, appointed Adolf Hitler Chancellor of Germany.

Germany is also the main exporter of wind turbines, the demand greatly exceeding capacity.

More and more people in Germany distrust the sense and direction of the reforms over the last years.

Germany is at the forefront of European states seeking to advance the creation of a more unified and capable European political, defense, and security apparatus.

Germany has a per capita income of about $30,579 in 2005, a rank of nineteenth out of 179 countries.

Nationalist groups revolted in Hungary, Bohemia, Moravia, Galicia, Lombardy, Bavaria, Prussia, and southwest Germany.

Germany was unified as a nation state amidst the Franco-Prussian War in 1871.

Germany is a federal parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Chancellor is the head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system.

On May 8, 1945, Germany surrendered after the Red Army occupied Berlin.

Responsibility for education, in Germany, lies primarily with the federal states.

Emboldened, Hitler followed from 1938 onwards a policy of expansionism to establish Greater Germany.

After the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig, in October 1813, Germany was liberated from French rule, and the Confederation of the Rhine was dissolved.

Due in part to generous subsidies, Germany leads Europe by having the greatest capacity on the continent to generate electricity from sun and wind.

Known as a land of poets and thinkers, Germany has occupied a central position in the history of western civilization, as the location of the Holy Roman Empire, and the Protestant Reformation.

All other religious communities in Germany have fewer than 50,000 (or less than 0.05 percent) adherents.

Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, a country in Central Europe, is a modern great power, the world's third largest economy, and the world's largest exporter of goods.

West Germany, established as a liberal parliamentary republic with a "social market economy," was allied with the United States, the UK, and France.

Henry returned to Germany to continue the civil war against a new rival king, since Rudolf had died in 1080.

The Judiciary of Germany is independent of the executive and the legislature.

The greater part of Germany lies in the cool/temperate climatic zone in which humid westerly winds predominate.

Germany and Berlin were occupied and partitioned by the Allies into four military occupation zones controlled by France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union.

Germany has historically been one of the strongest contenders in the Olympic Games.

Important psychologists born in Germany were Wundt, von Helmholtz, Charlotte Bьhler, Karl Bьhler, and Heckhausen.

Christianity is the largest religion in Germany with 53 million adherents.

When the five new federal states of East Germany joined the Federal Republic of Germany in 1990, unemployment worsened.

Shortly after Japan attacked the American base at Pearl Harbor, Germany declared war on the United States.

Most alliances in which Germany had been previously involved were not renewed, and new alliances excluded the country.

Relations between East Germany and West Germany remained icy until the West German Chancellor Willy Brandt launched a highly controversial approachment policy with the East European communist states (Ostpolitik) in the early 1970s.

Germany's second important international airport is Munich International Airport.

Months after the Siege of Paris was lifted, the Peace Treaty of Frankfurt was signed: France was obliged to cede what became known as Alsace-Lorraine to Germany.