Germany Bundesrepublik Deutschland

GERMANY

BUNDESREPUBLIK DEUTSCHLAND

The Federal Republic of Germany is located in the centre of Europe. The state Germany is the founding member of the European Union (EU). Germany consists of 16 provinces (states) and its capital is Berlin. Berlin is also a province on its own.

The provinces in alphabetical order are: Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Hessen, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia.

Furthermore, Germany is with its 82 million (July 2007) populations the most crowded country of the EU. Germany owns the third big economy in the world. Paralleled to this Germany is a leading export country. Beneath the EU, Germany joins the membership of many organizations. These are the United Nations, OECD, NATO, G8 and the OSCE. There are living almost 7 million foreigners, nearly 1,8 million of them are the Turks.

The state Germany was founded in 1949 and it has never had a national holiday since when in 1990 the East and West Germany were united. After the reunion, Germany is celebrating the 3 October as national holiday. The internet TLD is .de, the traffic code is D, the calling code is +49 and the currency is EURO ( ). Germany has nine neighbour countries. These are Austria, Swiss, Denmark, Poland, Czech Republic, France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Germany has almost 80 big cities. The biggest of them is the capital Berlin. Then it s Hamburg and Munich. According to the Article 20 of the constitution (Basic Law) Germany is a democratic, social, federal state, the administration is parliamentary democracy and it is represented by the president of the republic.

Germany takes place in the temperate climate. In the summer sometimes the temperature rises up to just over 30 degrees Celsius. In winter it is generally about the freezing point. The highest mountain chain of Germany is the Alpines and shares it with Austria. The mountains are generally getting higher from the north to the south. The Feldberg is the highest mountain of the so called Schwarzwald ( Black Forest ) region and is located in the middle of Germany. Among its many rivers the longest is called the Danube and after the Volga it is also the second longest river in Europe. The next are the Rhine, Elbe, Oder, Weser, Mosel, Main and the others.

The cultural history of Germany is relatively new. There is no doubt that scientists, because of their religious confidences and some political reasons were forced to emigrate during the former times, were actually German. For example Karl Marx, Heinrich Heine, Friedrich Engels, Kurt Tucholsky, Thomas Mann, Heinrich Mann and Albert Einstein were German. Numerous German novelists, scientists and artists won the Nobel Prize, e.g. Albert Einstein, Theodor Mommsen and Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen are only three of nearly 100 winners, which could be mentioned here. The actress Blue Angel Marlene Dietrich was world famous in 1930. Today the German culture is represented by the Goethe Institutes in 130 countries all over the world. Nikolaus von Kues, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Immanuel Kant, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Karl Marx - the founder of Marxism, Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche are some famous German philosophers. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Schiller and the Brothers Grimm, Thomas Mann, Hermann Hesse, Heinrich Böll and Günter Grass for example, are known in literature. Further, Albrecht Dürer was a good painter. Germany brought also world famous musicians like Richard Wagner, Johannes Brahms, Richard Strauss, Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart was born in Salzburg, which is today in Austria.

Today, the Blind Guardian, Modern Talking and Rammstein are well known music groups. With their German lyrics Rammstein is every time on the top of the charts. The Aachener Dom, the old city Regensburg and the Cologne Cathedral at the Rhine River are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. But the castle Neuschwanstein in Heidelberg has a fabulous look; it is just like a tale.