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Bundesrepublik Deutschland Federal Republic of Germany
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit (German: "Unity and Justice and Freedom" )
Anthem: The third stanza of "Das Lied der Deutschen"
Capitaland largest city	Berlin
Official languages	German
Government	Federal Republic
Formation
• Water (%)	2.416
Population
• 2005 estimate	82,515,988 (14th)
• 2000 census	N/A
GDP (PPP)	2005 estimate
• Total	$2.446 trillion (5th)
• Per capita	$29,700 (25th)
HDI (2003)	0.930 very high (20th)
Currency	Euro (€) (EUR)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Calling code	49
ISO 3166 code	DE
Internet TLD	.de www.deutschland.de
Danish, Low German, Sorbian, Romany and Frisian are officially recognised and protected as minority languages by the ECRML. Prior to 2002: Deutsche Mark

The Federal Republic of Germany (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , Audio file "De-Bundesrepublik_Deutschland-pronunciation.ogg" not found) is one of the world's leading industrialised countries. Hitler Hitler Hitler Located in Central Europe, it is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea, to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic, to the south by Austria and Switzerland, and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Germany is a democratic parliamentary federal republic, made up of 16 states called Länder, which in certain spheres act independently of the federation. Historically consisting of several sovereign nations with their own history, culture as well as religion, Germany was unified as a nation state during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870/1871.

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 the European Union. It is the European Union's most populous and economically most powerful member state. Germany also plays a role as one of the world's major powers.

History

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Climate

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

The climate is affected among other things by the gulf stream, which arranges the climatic values unusually mild.

In the north-west and the north the climate is oceanic and rain falls all year round. Winters there are relatively mild and summers tend to be comparatively cool, even though temperatures can reach above 28 degrees Celsius (82°F) for prolonged periods of time. Average temperatures: Hamburg: January 0.3°C (33°F) / July 17.1°C (63°F); Essen: January 1.5°C (35°F) / July 17.5°C (64°F)

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. Average temperatures: Berlin: January -0.9°C (30°F) / July 18.6°C (65°F)

In the central part and the south there is a transitional climate which varies from moderately oceanic to continental, depending on the location. Hot summers with temperatures about 30 degrees (86°F) are possible. Average temperatures: Munich: January -2.2°C (28°F) / July 17.6°C (64°F); Freiburg: January 1.2°C (34°F) / July 19.4°C (67°F)

Demographics

Due to the country's federal and decentralized structure Germany has a number of larger cities. The most populous cities of Germany are Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt and Dortmund. By far the largest conurbation is the Rhine-Ruhr region, including the Düsseldorf-Cologne district and the cities of Dortmund, Duisburg and Bochum. The federal structure has kept the population oriented towards a number of large cities, and has precluded the growth of any single city that would rival such European capitals as London, Paris or Moscow for size.

As of 2004, about 7.5 million foreign citizen residents were living in Germany. By far the largest number came from Turkey, followed by Italy, Greece, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Netherlands, Albania, Serbia and Montenegro, Spain, Austria, Portugal, Vietnam, Morocco, Poland, Macedonia, Lebanon and France. Thanks to reform of German nationality law, many of these immigrants are eligible for naturalisation (). 9% of the population is not ethnically German.

Germany is still a primary destination for political and economic refugees from many less industrialized countries, especially Turkey and southern/southeastern Europe, but the number of annual asylum seekers has been declining in recent years, reaching about 50,000+ in 2003.

An ethnic Danish minority of about 50,000 people lives in Schleswig, most of them 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 German is widely spoken. The North-Rhine Westphalian border is a transitional area between German and Dutch.

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 non-ethnic German immigrants, they have been settled by the government almost evenly spread throughout Germany.

Economy

Germany is the largest European economy and the third largest economy in the world in real terms, placed behind the United States, and Japan. According to the World Trade Organization, 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. Germany is the largest trading partner of most European countries. A major issue of concern remains the persistently high unemployment rate 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. Domestic demand has stagnated for many years due to wage stagnation and zealous cost-cutting of the federal state. The missing demand has caused many of the prevalent economic problems, such as rising unemployment, high social security costs, and, ironically, high state debt as tax revenues plummeted and social security cost rose. The complex tax system (Taxation in Germany) allowes companies to drastically reduce the amount of profit that is subject to corporate taxes, so that in 2001 the German state in sum had to pay the companies 0.4 billion € in the combined corporate taxes instead of receiving anything. While problematic in the domestic economy, this tax feature boosts exports.

Exports

As mentioned above the exporting of goods is an essential part of the German economy and one of the most relevant reasons for Germany's wealth. Like many other export oriented countries, Germany itself does not have the climate or the natural resources necessary to support a high living standard. These shortages have long made international trade completely indispensable to the German economy. Considering these economical forces it should not come as a surprise that Germany is the world's largest exporting country, with exports for 2005 totaling $1.016 trillion.

Germany's main exports:

• Machinery
• Vehicles
• Chemicals
• Metals and Manufactures
• Foodstuffs
• Consumer electronics
• Textiles
• Electricity

Imports

As a nation that relies heavily on international trade, Germany also imports a wide variety of goods. Germany is the world's second largest importer of goods with a total of $801 billion in imports.

Germany's main imports are:

• Machinery
• Vehicles
• Chemicals
• Foodstuffs
• Textiles
• Metals

CIA Factbook 2005

Agriculture

For many years now agriculture in Germany has been in a state of decline. Poor earnings and lack of profitability are counted as the main reasons for the failure of many medium and small farms. The main crops grown are potatoes, wheat, barley, sugar beet and rapeseed. Germany ranks among the world's largest producers of milk, dairy 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 shipping business. Major car manufacturers like BMW, DaimlerChrysler (Mercedes), Opel (owned by GM), Porsche and Volkswagen AG (including Audi, and more non-German brands) are German. Germany is also home to huge multinational corporations like BASF, Bosch, E.ON, Deutsche Telekom (with its subsidiary T-Mobile) and Siemens AG, which consistently 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 (). Germany also has a large (and possibly underrated) presence in the banking world, lead by Deutsche Bank and Allianz.

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 states, while petroleum enjoys this position in the western "Länder". The previous red-Green (1998-2005) coalition government was pursuing a long-term strategy of phasing out nuclear power in favour of renewable sources of energy. The current coalition has not yet agreed on its nuclear policy.

Politics

Legal system

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), located in Karlsruhe. The courtroom style is inquisitorial.

The Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht), also 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 Constitution. It acts independently of the other state bodies but cannot act on its own behalf.

Foreign Relations

Germany plays a leading role in the European Union, having a strong alliance with France. 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, both because of its recent history as well as its occupied status. 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, France, Germany and Russia 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, mainly by training Iraqi military and police personnel.

Germany and the United States have been close allies since the end of the Second World War. The Marshall plan and continued U.S. support during the rebuilding process after World War II, as well as the significant influence American culture has had on German culture, have crafted a strong bond between Germany and the U.S. that lasts until this day. Not only do the United States and Germany share many cultural similarities but they are also deeply economically interdependent. 8.8% of all German exports are U.S. bound, and U.S.-German trade according to the U.S. Census Bureau totaled $108.2 billion for 2004. An illustration of the strong economic relations between the U.S. and Germany may be the fact that 18.3% of all cars sold in the U.S. were manufactured by German car manufacturers. The largest U.S. community outside the U.S. is Ramstein Airbase, close to the city of Kaiserslautern, Germany.

Together with Japan, India, and Brazil, Germany is currently seeking a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

Armed Forces

Germany's military, the Bundeswehr, is a defence force with Heer (German Army), Deutsche Marine (German Navy), Luftwaffe (German Air Force), Zentraler Sanitätsdienst (Central Medical Services) and Streitkräftebasis (Joint Service Support Command) branches. It employs some 257,000 soldiers (since 2001 also women in active fighting branches) and 125,000 civilians. 50,000 of the soldiers 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 Franz Josef Jung. 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 % of gross domestic product. Today, defence spending equals about 1.2 % of German GDP, compared to the NATO average of 2.3 % and the United States' more than 4 %. 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. Opponents argue that the transformation from a manpower based army securing the Eastern border to a modernized force with less soldiers kept in pay is duly reflected in a lower budget.

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

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 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.

In 1999, electricity production in Germany was made up by coal (47%), nuclear power (30%), natural gas (14%), renewable sources (including hydro, wind and solar power) (6%), and oil (2%) (). As for energy consumption, oil accounted for 41% of the total. The German government declaring climate protection at the World climate conference, announced a carbon dioxide reduction target by the year 2005 compared to 1990 by 25% (, pdf).

In 2005, the German government reached a controversial agreement with Russia in building a gas pipeline at the bottom of the Baltic sea directly from Russia to Germany.

Society

Religion

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%. The current pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI, is German. In total more than 55 million people officially belong to a Christian denomination. The third largest religious identity in Germany is that of non-religious people (including atheists and agnostics), who amount to a total of 28.5% of the population (23.5 million).

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.

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 3.2 million Muslims (Predominantly from Turkey and the former Yugoslavia) live in Germany.

Today's Germany has Western 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. Other cities with significant Jewish populations are Frankfurt and Munich.

In the territory of the former German Democratic Republic, 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 smaller-sized religious bodies chose to administer the collection of 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.

Also of note is that Germany hosts one of only seven Bahá'í Houses of Worship in the world. Completed in 1964, it is located at the foot of the Taunus Mountains in the village of Langenhain, approximately 25 kilometers (15.5 mi) west of Frankfurt.

Social issues

The German social market economy (German: soziale Marktwirtschaft) helped bring about the "economic miracle" (the German "Wirtschaftswunder") that rebuilt Germany from ashes after World War II to one of the most impressive economies in Europe. Still today, Ludwig Erhard, minister of economics in the Adenauer administration (1949-1963) and later federal chancellor (1963-1966), is widely recognized as having been the "father" of this profound rise in the country's economic and social wealth.

Germany continues to struggle with a number of social issues although problems created by the German Reunification of 1990 have begun to diminish. 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. Germany has passed several reforms to curb unemployment. Some of these reforms will require people in the labour force to work harder and more efficiently.

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. Despite significant gains, discrimination remains in united Germany. Women are noticeably absent in the top tiers of German business. They only hold 9.2 % of jobs in Germany's upper and middle management positions, according to 2002 figures from the Hoppenstedt business databank. Since 2001 women are in active duty in the Bundeswehr.

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 former 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.

Germany is also burdened with an extremely low fertility/birthrate. Obviously, this has and will continue to cause many economic and social problems. For instance, the low birthrate has caused a shortage of young workers to replace the aging ones. This is expected to cause trouble in Germany's generous social welfare system, due less taxpayers and more elderly who will receive benefits. There is much debate as to what should be done to curb this trend. More daycare centers, paying cash to mothers for babies that are born, and incentives for men or women to stay home with the children have all been offered as solutions to this problem. So far none have been fully implemented.

Germany has failed to implement EU laws prohibiting racial discrimination. The European Court of Justice ruled on 29 April 2005, that Germany had breached EU law by failing to transpose fully the 'Racial Equality Directive' prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of race or ethnic origin (Directive 2000/43/EC). The deadline for EU Member States to transpose this Directive was 19 July 2003 – except for the 10 new Member States, who had to ensure that their legislation complied with the Directives by their accession to the EU on 1 May 2004. Immigrants to Germany may generally 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 and all states have banned crosses from the classroom as well, generally by prohibiting the use of all religious symbols by teachers. This is legitimate by combining the German states' privilege of educational laws with the principle of separation of church and state, both provided for in the German federal constitution: According to this legal view, teachers in their vocational function within a state administered educational system are obliged to maintain and publicly exhibit religious neutrality when on duty. As this status of employment does not hold for pupils, whose constitutional right to religious freedom thus remains unencumbered by these provisions, this ban cannot legally be extended to them as it is in France. The question of headscarves and crosses in schools has been heavily discussed politically throughout Germany in recent years, but could only be solved by a decision of the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court) in 2003.

Education

Germany has one of the world's highest levels of education and many famous universities. The most important foreign languages taught at school are English, French, Latin, Italian and Ancient Greek. Russian, Turkish, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and Arabic 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. Most German universities are state-owned and free of charge. Additionally university students are often supported by the so called BAFÖG, a federal subsidy, running as high as €290 as interest free credit plus €290 as direct payment.

German educational ideals differ considerably from anglo-saxon educational ideals, emphasizing socialisation, debate, vocal participation in class and critical faculties. Consequently the results of the PISA student assessments, that revealed comprehension of the respective subject matters only, were a shock to the German public but no surprise to many educational experts. 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. Failing integration of foreigners also proved to be a big educational obstacle, as in many urban schools teachers are more occupied teaching their numerous foreign students basic German instead of algebra or physics.

Germany prohibits home-schooling; however, this is still practiced by a number of people. There has been some publicity to government prosecution of this practice.

The German school system consists of an elementary school (Grundschule) where pupils go for 4 years (1st-4th grade, in some German states to the 6th grade) after that, in some states, they go to a secondary school where they learn English, French or Latin as their first foreign language (erste Fremdsprache). In the 5th grade (the 7th in states with secondary schools) they have to decide whether they will go to a Hauptschule (5th or 7th-9th grade), where they only have English as a foreign language and have less chance to get a job, or a Realschule (7th-10th grade), where they can learn both English and French but also have less chance to get a job, or a Gymnasium (5th or 7th-12th or 5th or 7th-13th grade), where they learn English and French or Latin. In some schools (Humanistisches Gymnasium) they may learn (Ancient) Greek beginning in the 9th grade. In the 11th grade in a Gymnasium, they may learn Spanish, (Ancient) Greek or Russian (not available at every school). In some states one can learn Chinese, Arabic and Japanese beginning from the 11th grade (e.g. Bremen). In Germany it is easier to get a job when you have an Abitur, which you get when you have successfully taken the exams at the end of the 12th or 13th grade (the final years at the Gymnasium). Most German states have the Gesamtschule (comprehensive school), too. It offers diplomas after the 10th grade (Realschulabschluss, Mittlere Reife) and after the 13th grade (Abitur). The school system depends on the state, as a result of German federalism there are huges differences between the states.

Contrary to the first impression, the Abitur does not correspond with the US highschool diploma but with the Associate Degree in college. Germans finish their equivalent of the highschool diploma in their 10th grade exams leading to the degree of Mittlere Reife. In the Oberstufe (literally upper level) of Gymnasium they achieve the Allgemeine Hochschulreife (the ability to directly jump into university courses - usually what is achieved in U.S. colleges). This decision of the German states seriously impairs international comparisons of university attendance, as what is usually done in college elsewhere is done in German schools. Considering the high drop-out rates of pre-bachelor courses in the U.S., the low attendance of Germans in university might altogether be a statistical myth.

With the Mittlere Reife after the 10th grade (usually at the age of 16), German pupils can also begin an industrial education instead of choosing to go on until the 12th or 13th grade. This vocational education in the so called dual educational system (duales Ausbildungssystem) consists of education at a company as well as attending vocational school (Berufsschule). In three years you are in an apprentice state in the company. The practical parts of your job description are tought at the company, while the theoretical parts are mostly tought at the vocational school. After the three years there are exams held by the chamber of commerce and industry (Industrie- und Handelskammer). Lately there have been reports of apprentices stealing and/or buying exam questions in advance. After the exams companies are normally expected to employ their former apprentices or at least part of them because they cost money to train. Due to subventions for companies taking part in the dual educational system some companies have however begun to only train the apprentices for three years and then ditching them for new apprentices and subventions.

For higher qualified work German companies expect German universities to complete the education of the students. Training-on-the-job and the like are either uncommon or simply introductory for students, as companies demand readymade employees from the educational system. Common job offers demand 2+ years of work experience, young age and better than average skills.

Besides the university there is also the Fachhochschule which is a kind of university. Courses tought at the Fachhochschule are more practically oriented and are expected to result in faster training and better readiness for the job. As with the University you graduate from the Fachhochschule with a Diplom. The official titles are "Dipl. <branch of study>" for the university and "Dipl. <branch of study> FH" for the Fachhochschule.

Globalization and european unification produced the need for intermediate degrees at the normal university, such as the Bachelor Degree, that is being introduced into the German system from 2005 onward. Again, the German Bachelor Degree differs from international standards as it is a rather hard degree trying to reconcile the economy's demand for readymade employees with a shorttime degree which tends to package the bulk of the original 4,5 year Magister Degree's subject matter into a 3 year course.

Sports

Track and Field is very important in Germany. Germany excels in outdoor sports. Thay believe sports devolps their socialist personality. Women are trained as men, causing women to excel remarkably. Their goal is to get in the Olympic Games. For example: Wilson Kepketer was from Denmark Germany, he won the gold medal for the 800 meter dash in 1:41.11 on August,24,1997. Chrildren train in special school early in life to get the maximum training they need to succeed.

Culture

Germany's contributions to the world's cultural heritage are numerous, and the country is often known as das Land der Dichter und Denker (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, considered some of the most important poets of medieval Europe. 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, Hoffmann and Schiller. Other poets include Heinrich Heine, Rainer Maria Rilke and authors of the 20th century include 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 significant as well, as exemplified by Leibniz, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Engels, Feuerbach, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Husserl, Hartmann, Jaspers, Heidegger, Gadamer and Habermas. In the field of sociology influential German thinkers were Simmel, Weber, Tönnies, Adorno and Luhmann.

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, Stefan Zweig and Nicolaus Copernicus.

German language

The German language was once the lingua franca of central, eastern and northern Europe. Within the European Union, German is the language with the most native speakers, with more than English, French, Spanish and Italian. As a foreign language, German is the third most taught worldwide. It is also the second most used language on the Internet. The language has its origin in Old High German. There are numerous dialects of German, many of which are not intelligible to speakers of standard German. Some consider Low German to be a different language from German; 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.

Music

In the field of music, Germany's influence is noted through the works of, among others, Bach, Mozart, Händel, Telemann, Schütz, Beethoven, Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Brahms, Schumann, Wagner, Reger, Strauss, Orff, Henze and Lachenmann.

More recently, Germany has been recognized as the international center for electronica/trance music.

Science and technology

Germany has been the homeland of scientists like Helmholtz, Fraunhofer, Fahrenheit, Kepler, Haeckel, Wundt, Virchow, Ehrlich, Humboldt, Röntgen, Braun, Einstein, Born, Planck, Heisenberg, Creuzfeldt, Hertz, Koch, Hahn, Leibniz, Liebig, Mayr and Bunsen; and inventors and engineers such as Gutenberg, Otto, Bosch, Siemens, von Braun, Daimler, Benz and Diesel.

Important mathematicians were born in Germany such as Ries, Dedekind, Bessel, Gauß, Hilbert, Jacobi, Riemann, Klein and Weierstraß.

Transportation

Due to its central situation in Europe the volume of traffic, especially of goods transit, in Germany is very high. In the past decades, much of the goods traffic shifted from rail to road transport, which led the Federal Government to introduce a motor toll for lorries in 2005. In addition, individual traffic increased to an extent that on German roads, traffic densities are very high by international comparison. For the future, a further strong increase of traffic is expected. Thus, the 2003 federal transportation infrastructure plan scheduled an investment volume of approx. 150 billion euros for the 2001-2015 period, in order to deal with the expected increase in motorised passenger traffic of around 20% (1997-2015) and goods traffic of around 64% (1997-2005).

High speed vehicular traffic has a long tradition in Germany, not only owing to the automobile industry, but also, because the first Autobahn of the world, the AVUS, and the world's first automobile were built in Germany. Germany possesses one of the densest road systems of the world. It covers 12,037 kilometres (7,479 mi) of federal "Autobahn" motorways and 41,386 kilometres (25,716 mi) of federal highways. In contrast to other European countries, German motorways have no blanket speed limit. However, signposted limits are in place on many dangerous or congested stretches, and where traffic noise or pollution poses a nuisance; some of these limits apply only at night or only in wet conditions. A vehicle is not permitted to use the Autobahn unless it can attain a speed of at least 60 km/h (37 mph).

Another way to travel is via rail. Deutsche Bahn (German Rail) is the major German railway infrastructure and service operator. For commuter and regional services, franchises of various size are granted by the individual states, though largely financed from the federal budget. Unsubsidised long-range service operators can compete freely all over the country, at least in theory. Actually, Deutsche Bahn holds a de facto monopoly on long-range services, while its market domination in the subsidised, franchise-based commuter train market and the freight market is being slowly eroded by several hundreds of comparatively small competing railways.

The InterCity Express or ICE is a type of high-speed train operated by DB in Germany and neighbouring countries, for example to Zürich, Switzerland or Vienna, Austria. ICE trains also serve Amsterdam (The Netherlands) as well as Liège and Brussels (Belgium). In spite of branch lines progressively being closed for at least the last seven decades, the rail network throughout Germany is still very extensive and provides excellent services in most areas. On regular lines, at least one train every two hours will call even in the smallest of villages. The quality of rail service differs from state to state, generally being better in the South. Some states and regions have been pioneering the reopening of closed branch lines (notably Rhineland-Palatinate) or the interconnection of tramway and overland rail networks (e.g. around Karlsruhe). Nearly all larger metropolitan areas are being served by an S-Bahn heavy rail metro system. A large proportion of towns feature underground and/or tram systems. Good urban and overland bus services are ubiquitous.

Miscellaneous topics

• Communications in Germany
• German federal election, 2005
• German model
• 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 political parties in Germany
• List of universities in Germany
• Nuclear power phase-out
• Scouting in Germany
• Taxation in Germany
• Tourism in Germany
• Transportation in Germany
• Major power - Germany

External links

• Deutschland.de — Official German portal
• German Embassy News Portal for the U.S.
• Holy Roman Empire
• Facts about Germany — by the German Federal Foreign Office
• CityPanoramas — Panoramic views of German cities
• A manual for Germany — by the German Government Representative for Migration, Refugees and Integration
• Destatis.de — Federal Statistical Office Germany (in English)
• Germany economy and business indicators — Germany key Data on Taxes and Income Tax.
• LivingInGermany.de — Resource site for Ex-Pats about living and working in Germany in English.

References

• Jean Edward Smith, Germany Beyond The Wall: People, Politics, and Prosperity, Boston: Little, Brown, & Company, 1969.
• Jean Edward Smith, Lucius D. Clay: An American Life, New York: Henry, Holt, & Company, 1990.
• Jean Edward Smith, The Defense Of Berlin, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1963.
• Jean Edward Smith, The Papers Of Lucius D. Clay, 2 Vols., Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1974.

v t e States of the Federal Republic of Germany
States	Baden-Württemberg (since 1952) Bavaria (since 1949) Brandenburg (since 1990) Hesse (since 1949) Lower Saxony (since 1949) Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (since 1990) North Rhine-Westphalia (since 1949) Rhineland-Palatinate (since 1949) Saarland (since 1957) Saxony (since 1990) Saxony-Anhalt (since 1990) Schleswig-Holstein (since 1949) Thuringia (since 1990)
City-states	Berlin (since 1990) Bremen (since 1949) Hamburg (since 1949)
Former states	South Baden (1949–1952) Württemberg-Baden (1949–1952) Württemberg-Hohenzollern (1949–1952)

v t e Member states of the European Union
Austria Belgium Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Ireland Italy Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Netherlands Poland Portugal Romania Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden
See also: Potential enlargement and Former members

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• Europe
• European Union member states
• Germany
• Republics