Germany

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Bundesrepublik Deutschland
Federal Republic of Germany
Flag of Germany Coat of arms of Germany
Flag Coat of arms
Motto
"Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit"
"Unity and justice and freedom"
Anthem
"Das Lied der Deutschen" (third stanza)
also called "Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit"
Location of Germany
Location of Germany (dark green)

– on the European continent (light green & dark grey)
– in the European Union (light green)
Capital
(and largest city) Berlin
[show location on an interactive map] 52°31′N, 13°24′E
Official languages German1
Demonym German
Government Parliamentary Federal Republic
- President Horst Köhler
- Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU)
Formation 843
- Eastern Francia 843
- Holy Roman Empire 962
- German Confederation 8 June 1815
- German Empire 18 January 1871
- Federal Republic 23 May 1949
- Reunification 3 October 1990
Accession to
the European Union 25 March 1957
Area
- Total 357,021 km² (63rd)
137,858 sq mi
- Water (%) 2.416
Population
- Dec. 2006 estimate 82,314,900[1] (14th)
- 2000 census 82,797,408 (July 2000 est.)
- Density 230.9 /km² (50th)
598.5 /sq mi
GDP (PPP) 2006 estimate
- Total $2.585 trillion (5th)
- Per capita $31,400 (17th)
GDP (nominal) 2006 estimate
- Total $2.89 trillion (3rd)
- Per capita $35,072 (19th)
Gini? (2000) 28.3 (low)
HDI (2004) 0.932 (high) (21st)
Currency Euro (€) (EUR)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
- Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Internet TLD .de
Calling code [[+49]]
1 Danish, Low German, Sorbian, Romany and Frisian are officially recognized and protected by the ECRML.

Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland (help·info), IPA: [ˈbundəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔjtʃlant]), is a country in West-central Europe. It is bordered on the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; on the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; on the south by Austria and Switzerland; and on the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

Germany is a parliamentary federal republic of sixteen states (Bundesländer). The capital city and seat of government is Berlin. As a nation-state, the country was unified amidst the Franco-Prussian War in 1871. After its defeat in World War II Germany was divided, and it became reunified in 1990. It is a founding member of the European Union, and with over 82 million people it has the largest population among the EU member states.[2]

The Federal Republic of Germany is a modern great power, a member state of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G4 nations and, as of 2006, ranked sixth in military expenditure.[3] Germany is the world's third largest economy by nominal GDP, the world's largest exporter of goods, and the world's second largest importer of goods.[4] In 2007 it held the rotating presidencies of both the European Council and the G8 summits.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 History
o 1.1 Germanic tribes (100 BC to AD 800)
o 1.2 Holy Roman Empire (843–1806)
o 1.3 Restoration and revolution (1814–1871)
o 1.4 German Empire (1871–1918)
o 1.5 Weimar Republic (1919–1933)
o 1.6 Third Reich (1933–1945)
o 1.7 Division and reunification (1945–1990)
* 2 Government
o 2.1 Foreign relations
o 2.2 States
o 2.3 Military
* 3 Law
o 3.1 State level
* 4 Geography
o 4.1 Climate
* 5 Demographics
o 5.1 Religion
o 5.2 Education
* 6 Economy
* 7 Infrastructure
* 8 Culture
o 8.1 Science
o 8.2 Sports
* 9 See also
* 10 References
* 11 External links

History

Main article: History of Germany

Germanic tribes (100 BC to AD 800)

Main articles: Germanic peoples and Germania

The ethnogenesis of the Germanic tribes is assumed to have occurred during the Nordic Bronze Age, or at the latest, during the Pre-Roman Iron Age. From southern Scandinavia and northern Germany, the tribes began expanding south, east and west in the 1st century BC, coming into contact with the Celtic tribes of Gaul as well as Iranian, Baltic, and Slavic tribes in Eastern Europe. Little is known about early Germanic history, except through their recorded interactions with the Roman Empire, etymological research and archaeological finds.[5]
Germanic tribes in 50 AD (not including most of Scandinavia)
Germanic tribes in 50 AD (not including most of Scandinavia)

Under Augustus, the Roman General Publius Quinctilius Varus began to invade Germania (a term used by the Romans running roughly from the Rhine to the Urals), and it was in this period that the Germanic tribes became familiar with Roman tactics of warfare while maintaining their tribal identity. In AD 9, three Roman legions led by Varus were defeated by the Cheruscan leader Arminius in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. Modern Germany, as far as the Rhine and the Danube, thus remained outside the Roman Empire. By AD 100, the time of Tacitus' Germania, Germanic tribes settled along the Rhine and the Danube (the Limes Germanicus), occupying most of the area of modern Germany. The 3rd century saw the emergence of a number of large West Germanic tribes: Alamanni, Franks, Chatti, Saxons, Frisians, Sicambri, and Thuringii. Around 260, the Germanic peoples broke through the Limes and the Danube frontier into Roman-controlled lands.[6]

See also: List of meanings of countries' names

After the fall of the Western Roman empire the Franks created an empire under the Merovingian kings and subjugated the other Germanic tribes. Swabia became a duchy under the Frankish Empire in 496, following the Battle of Tolbiac. Already king Chlothar I ruled the greater part of what is now Germany and made expeditions into Saxony while the Southeast of modern Germany was still under influence of the Ostrogoths. In 531 Saxons and Franks destroyed the Kingdom of Thuringia. Saxons inhabit the area down to the Unstrut river. During the partition of the Frankish empire their German territories were a part of Austrasia. In 718 the Franconian Mayor of the Palace Charles Martel marked war against Saxony, because of its help for the Neustrians. The Franconian Carloman started in 743 a new war against Saxony, because the Saxons gave aid to Duke Odilo of Bavaria. In 751 Pippin III, mayor of the palace under the Merovingian king, himself assumed the title of king and was anointed by the Church. The Frankish kings now set up as protectors of the Pope, Charlemagne launched a decades-long military campaign against their heathen rivals, the Saxons and the Avars. The Saxons (by the Saxon Wars (772-804)) and Avars were eventually overwhelmed and forcibly converted, and their lands were annexed by the Carolingian Empire.

Holy Roman Empire (843–1806)

Main article: Holy Roman Empire

Prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire (1341 parchment)
Prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire (1341 parchment)

The medieval empire stemmed from a division of the Carolingian Empire in 843, which was founded by Charlemagne on 25 December 800, and existed in varying forms until 1806, its territory stretching from the Eider River in the north to the Mediterranean coast in the south. Often referred to as the Holy Roman Empire (or the Old Empire), it was officially called the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation ("Sacrum Romanum Imperium Nationis Germanicæ") starting in 1448, to adjust the title to its then reduced territory.

Under the reign of the Ottonian emperors (919–1024), the duchies of Lorraine, Saxony, Franconia, Swabia, Thuringia, and Bavaria were consolidated, and the German king was crowned Holy Roman Emperor of these regions in 962. Under the reign of the Salian emperors (1024–1125), the Holy Roman Empire absorbed northern Italy and Burgundy, although the emperors lost power through the Investiture Controversy. Under the Hohenstaufen emperors (1138–1254), the German princes increased their influence further south and east into territories inhabited by Slavs. Northern German towns grew prosperous as members of the Hanseatic League.
Martin Luther, 1529
Martin Luther, 1529

The edict of the Golden Bull in 1356 provided the basic constitution of the empire that lasted until its dissolution. It codified the election of the emperor by seven prince-electors who ruled some of the most powerful principalities and archbishoprics. Beginning in the 15th century, the emperors were elected nearly exclusively from the Habsburg dynasty of Austria.

The monk Martin Luther wrote his 95 Theses questioning the Roman Catholic Church in 1517, thereby sparking the Protestant Reformation. A separate Lutheran church was acknowledged as the newly sanctioned religion in many German states after 1530. Religious conflict led to the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), which devastated German lands. The Peace of Westphalia (1648) ended religious warfare among the German states, but the empire was de facto divided into numerous independent principalities. From 1740 onwards, the dualism between the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy and the Kingdom of Prussia dominated German history. In 1806, the Imperium was overrun and dissolved as a result of the Napoleonic Wars.[7]

See also: Medieval demography

Restoration and revolution (1814–1871)

Main article: German Confederation

Following the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte, the Congress of Vienna convened in 1814 and founded the German Confederation (Deutscher Bund), a loose league of 39 sovereign states. Disagreement with restoration politics partly led to the rise of liberal movements, demanding unity and freedom. These, however, were followed by new measures of repression on the part of the Austrian statesman Metternich. The Zollverein, a tariff union, profoundly furthered economic unity in the German states. During this era many Germans had been stirred by the ideals of the French Revolution, and nationalism became a more significant force, especially among young intellectuals. For the first time, the colours of black, red and gold were chosen to represent the movement, which later became the national colours.[8]
Frankfurt Parliament in 1848
Frankfurt Parliament in 1848

In light of a series of revolutionary movements in Europe, which successfully established a republic in France, intellectuals and commoners started the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states. The monarchs initially yielded to the revolutionaries' liberal demands. King Frederick William IV of Prussia was offered the title of Emperor, but with a loss of power; he rejected the crown and the proposed constitution, leading to a temporary setback for the movement. Conflict between King William I of Prussia and the increasingly liberal parliament erupted over military reforms in 1862, and the king appointed Otto von Bismarck the new Prime Minister of Prussia. Bismarck successfully waged war on Denmark in 1864. Prussian victory in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 enabled him to create the North German Federation (Norddeutscher Bund) and to exclude Austria, formerly the leading German state, from the affairs of the remaining German states.

German Empire (1871–1918)

Main article: German Empire

Foundation of modern Germany in Versailles-France, 1871. Bismarck is at the center in a white uniform.
Foundation of modern Germany in Versailles-France, 1871. Bismarck is at the center in a white uniform.

The state known as Germany was unified as a modern nation-state in 1871, when the German Empire was forged, with the Kingdom of Prussia as its largest constituent. After the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, the German Empire (Deutsches Kaiserreich) was proclaimed in Versailles on 18 January 1871. The Hohenzollern dynasty of Prussia ruled the new empire, whose capital was Berlin. The empire was a unification of all the scattered parts of Germany except Austria (Kleindeutschland, or "Lesser Germany"). Beginning in 1884, Germany began establishing several colonies outside of Europe.

In the Gründerzeit period following the unification of Germany, Emperor William I's foreign policy secured Germany's position as a great nation by forging alliances, isolating France by diplomatic means, and avoiding war. Under William II, however, Germany, like other European powers, took an imperialistic course leading to friction with neighbouring countries. Most alliances in which Germany had been previously involved were not renewed, and new alliances excluded the country. Specifically, France established new relationships by signing the Entente Cordiale with the United Kingdom and securing ties with the Russian Empire. Aside from its contacts with Austria-Hungary, Germany became increasingly isolated.
Imperial Germany (1871–1918), with the dominant Kingdom of Prussia in blue.
Imperial Germany (1871–1918), with the dominant Kingdom of Prussia in blue.

Germany's imperialism reached outside of its own country and joined many other powers in Europe to claim their share of Africa. The Berlin Conference divided Africa between the European powers. Germany owned several pieces of land on Africa including German East Africa, South-West Africa, Togo, and Cameroon. The Scramble for Africa caused tension between the great powers that may have contributed to the conditions that led to World War I.

The assassination of Austria's crown prince on 28 June 1914 triggered World War I. Germany, as part of the unsuccessful Central Powers, suffered defeat against the Allied Powers in one of the bloodiest conflicts of all time. The German Revolution broke out in November 1918, and Emperor William II and all German ruling princes abdicated. An armistice putting an end to the war was signed on 11 November and Germany was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919. Its negotiation, contrary to traditional post-war diplomacy, excluded the defeated Central Powers. The treaty was perceived in Germany as a humiliating continuation of the war by other means and its harshness is often cited as having facilitated the later rise of Nazism in the country.[9]

Weimar Republic (1919–1933)

Main article: Weimar Republic

Subdivisions of Germany in 1925. Map showing borders of Germany from 1919 until 1937.
Subdivisions of Germany in 1925. Map showing borders of Germany from 1919 until 1937.

After the success of the German Revolution in November 1918, a republic was proclaimed. The Weimar Constitution came into effect with its signing by President Friedrich Ebert on 11 August 1919. The German Communist Party was established by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht in 1918, and the German Workers Party, later known as the National Socialist German Workers Party or Nazi Party, was founded in January 1919.

Suffering from the Great Depression, the harsh peace conditions dictated by the Treaty of Versailles, and a long succession of more or less unstable governments, the political masses in Germany increasingly lacked identification with their political system of parliamentary democracy. This was exacerbated by a wide-spread right-wing (monarchist, völkisch, and Nazi) Dolchstoßlegende, a political myth which claimed that Germany lost World War I because of the German Revolution, not because of military defeat. On the other hand, radical left-wing communists, such as the Spartacist League, had wanted to abolish what they perceived as "capitalist rule" in favour of a Räterepublik. Paramilitary troops were set up by several parties and there were thousands of politically motivated murders. The paramilitary intimidated voters and seeded violence and anger among the public, which suffered from high unemployment and poverty. After a succession of unsuccessful cabinets, President Paul von Hindenburg, seeing little alternative and pushed by right-wing advisors, appointed Adolf Hitler Chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933.

Third Reich (1933–1945)

Main articles: Nazi Germany and World War II

Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in Yugoslavia
Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in Yugoslavia

On 27 February 1933, the Reichstag was set on fire. Some basic democratic rights were quickly abrogated afterwards under an emergency decree. An Enabling Act gave Hitler's government full legislative power. Only the Social Democratic Party of Germany voted against it; the Communists were not able to present a viable opposition, as many of their deputies had already been murdered or imprisoned.[10][11] A centralised totalitarian state was established by a series of moves and decrees making Germany a single-party state. Industry was closely regulated with quotas and requirements, to shift the economy towards a war production base. In 1936 German troops entered the demilitarized Rhineland, and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's appeasement policies proved inadequate. Emboldened, Hitler followed from 1938 onwards a policy of expansionism to establish Greater Germany. To avoid a two-front war, Hitler concluded the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with the Soviet Union, a pact which was later broken by Germany.

In 1939, the growing tensions from nationalism, militarism, and territorial issues led to the Germans launching a blitzkrieg on September 1 against Poland, followed two days later by declarations of war by Britain and France, marking the beginning of World War II. Germany quickly gained direct or indirect control of the majority of Europe.
Berlin in ruins after World War II, Potsdamer Platz 1945
Berlin in ruins after World War II, Potsdamer Platz 1945

On 22 June 1941, Hitler broke the pact with the Soviet Union by opening the Eastern Front and invading the Soviet Union. Shortly after Japan attacked the American base at Pearl Harbor, Germany declared war on the United States. Although initially the German army rapidly advanced into the Soviet Union, the Battle of Stalingrad marked a major turning point in the war. Subsequently, the German army commenced retreating on the Eastern Front, followed by the eventual defeat of Germany. On 8 May 1945, Germany surrendered after the Red Army occupied Berlin.

In what later became known as The Holocaust, the Third Reich regime enacted governmental policies directly subjugating many parts of society: Jews, Slavs, Communists, Roma, homosexuals, freemasons, political dissidents, priests, preachers, religious opponents, and the disabled, amongst others. During the Nazi era, about eleven million people were murdered in the Holocaust, including six million Jews and three million Poles. World War II and the Nazi genocide were responsible for about 35 million dead in Europe.

Division and reunification (1945–1990)

Main article: History of Germany since 1945

Allied occupation zones in 1946
Allied occupation zones in 1946

The war resulted in the death of nearly ten million German soldiers and civilians; large territorial losses; the expulsion of about 15 million Germans from its former eastern territories and other countries; and the destruction of multiple major cities. Germany and Berlin were partitioned by the Allies into four military occupation zones. The sectors controlled by France, the United Kingdom, and the United States were merged on 23 May 1949, to form the Federal Republic of Germany; on 7 October 1949, the Soviet Zone established the German Democratic Republic. In English, the two Germanies were known informally as "West Germany" and "East Germany" and the two Berlins as "West Berlin" and "East Berlin".

West Germany, established as a liberal parliamentary republic with a "social market economy", was allied with the United States, the UK and France. The country eventually came to enjoy prolonged economic growth beginning in the early 1950s (Wirtschaftswunder). West Germany joined NATO in 1955 and was a founding member of the European Economic Community in 1958. Across the border, East Germany was at first occupied by, and later (May 1955) allied with, the USSR. An authoritarian country with a Soviet-style command economy, East Germany soon became the richest, most advanced country in the Warsaw Pact, but many of its citizens looked to the West for political freedoms and economic prosperity.[12] The Berlin Wall, built in 1961 to stop East Germans from escaping to West Germany, became a symbol of the Cold War. However, tensions between East and West Germany were somewhat reduced in the early 1970s by Chancellor Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik, which included the de facto acceptance of Germany's territorial losses in World War II.
The Berlin Wall in front of the Brandenburg Gate shortly after the opening in 1989
The Berlin Wall in front of the Brandenburg Gate shortly after the opening in 1989

In the face of a growing migration of East Germans to West Germany via Hungary and mass demonstrations during the summer of 1989, East German authorities unexpectedly eased the border restrictions in November, allowing East German citizens to travel to the West. This led to the acceleration of the process of reforms in East Germany that concluded with the Two Plus Four Treaty on 12 September 1990 and German reunification on 3 October 1990. Under the terms of the treaty, the four occupying powers renounced their rights under the Instrument of Surrender, and Germany was to regain full sovereignty.

Since reunification, Germany has taken a leading role in the European Union and NATO. Germany sent a peacekeeping force to secure stability in the Balkans and sent a force of German troops to Afghanistan as part of a NATO effort to provide security in that country after the ousting of the Taliban.[13]