Germany

Germany is a major industrialized country in the middle of Europe. The official name is "Bundesrepublik Deutschland" (Federal Republic of Germany).

Germany measures about 800 km (about 500 mi) from north to south; the country extends about 600 km (about 400 mi) from west to east and has is with a total area of 356 970 km² the fourth largest country in Europe. G. is an union of 16 federal states ("Bundesländer"), from north to south: Schleswig Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Niedersachsen, Hamburg, Bremen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Hessen, Sachsen-Anhalt, Brandenburg, Berlin, Thuringen, Sachsen, Rheinland Pfalz, Saarland, Baden-Würtemberg, Bayern.

It's adjacent in the north to the North Sea, Denmark, Baltic Sea, in the east to Poland, the Czech Republic, in the south to Switzerland and Austria and in the West to the Netherlands], [[France, Luxembourg and Belgium.

There were about 82 million residents at the end of 1999, including 7.3 million foreigners.

Germany takes part in the NATO, the European Union and the EuroCurrency.

Short History

Before Germany was unified in 1871, there had been many little states, principalities and kingdoms, after that Germany experienced rapid industrialization and economic growth.

Germany was a main participant in World War I from 1914-1918. After Germany was defeated, it lost also its colonies and big parts of the army (Treaty Of Versailles). In 1918 the German emperor Wilhelm The Second resigned and the Weimar Republic constituted itself.

The worldwide depression of the 1930s plunged the country once more into disaster. Millions of unemployed Germans, disillusioned by capitalist democracy, turned either to the Communist Party(KPD) or to the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP), the fascist party of NationalSocialism. By 1930 the Nazis were the second largest party in the Reichstag (the german parliament).

1933 they took over and formed a terrible regime under Adolf Hitler. The Nazis murdered millions of Jews (see also: Holocaust), communists, pastors, democrats, gypsies, gays, lesbians and many other. To get "Lebensraum" (living space) they started World War II by occupying PolanD 1939.

At the Potsdam Conference 1945, after the loss of World War II, the Allies divided the soon-to-be-defeated Germany into four military occupation zones-French in the southwest, British in the northwest, American in the south, and Soviet in the east. Berlin, in the Soviet sector, was also divided into four zones. As part of the ColdWar the zones developed 1949 in the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland, aka West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (Deutsche Demokratische Republik, aka EastGermany). West Germany was allied with the United States of America, the UK and France. It was a western capitalistic country with a so called Social Market Economy. East Germany was at first occupied and later allied with and controlled by the UnionOfSovietSocialistRepublics (Russia). It was a fairly unfree country (for example, its citizens were generally unable to leave) with a USSR-style communist economy. EastGermany was probably the richest, most advanced country in the Soviet bloc. Berlin was divided in the to parts West-Berlin (capitalistic) and "Berlin, capital of the DDR". West-Berlin was surrounded by the BerlinWall from August, 13th 1961 until 1989.

In 1989 EastGermany opened its borders again and in 1990 the two Germanies were reunified, which in actuality meant that EastGermany was annexed by West Germany, as the new country kept the name Bundesrepublik Deutschland, used the West German "Deutsche Mark" for currency, and the capital remained at Bonn. (Around 1994 it was moved back to Berlin, where it had been before World War II.)

Today Germany is doing fairly well economically, being the world's third-largest economy (behind the USA and Japan). It's among the top 5 countries in Internet access worldwide. Many Germans speak English and/or French, in addition to German and their local dialect of German (of which there are many).

Political Structure

The Federal Republic (Bundesrepublik) consists of the aforementioned 16 federal states (Bundesländer). The federal government (Bundesregierung) has the final say on most matters, but state-specific legislation, control over the police and cultural affairs are handled by the states' governments.

The head of state is the federal president (Bundespräsident). The president has no real power (he may dismiss parliament, though, but this has never happened so far), but is a representational figure (like England's queen). He is elected by the federal assembly (Bundesversammlung).

The head of government is the federal chancellor (Bundeskanzler). He is elected by the federal parliament (Bundestag) and is usually the candidate of the party with the most seats in parliament. He appoints a vice-chancellor (Vizekanzler), who is a member of his cabinet, usually ths foreign minister. When there is a coalition government (which is almost always the case), the vice-chancellor usually belongs to the smaller party of the coalition.

The heads of the federal states' governments are called minister presidents (Ministerpräsidenten). They form a cabinet as well, although it is usually much smaller than the federal government. The 16 minister presidents form the Bundesrat, which can be seen as a second chamber of German parliament, some fields of legislation require approval from the Bundesrat. The Bundesrat also sends representatives to the federal assembly, which elects the federal president.

It should be noted that heads of governments may change the structure of ministries whenever and however they see fit. For example, in the middle of February 2001, the federal Ministry of Agriculture was renamed to Ministry of Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture as a consequence of the BSE crisis. For that measure, competences from the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Health were transferred to the new Ministry of Consumer Protection.

Since 1998 the government is build from a coalition of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen(The Green Party / ecological oriented party). Chancellor is Gerhard Schröder (SPD), vice-chancellor is Joschka Fischer (Green). The federal president is Johannes Rau. The next election for the German Parliament will be in the autumn of 2002.

BTW: It's not true that all Germans like "Sauerkraut and Eisbein", and not many people there are wearing short leather trousers even not in BavariA. The Bavarian Capital is Munich (German München) which is famous of its big beer festival, the "Oktoberfest."

See History of Germany.