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.

History

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."