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

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."