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Location: Central Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, between the Netherlands and Poland, south of Denmark
Map references: Europe
Area:
total area: 356,910 sq km
land area: 349,520 sq km
comparative area: slightly smaller than Montana
note: includes the formerly separate Federal Republic of Germany, the German
Democratic Republic, and Berlin following formal unification on 3 October
1990
Land boundaries: total 3,621 km, Austria 784 km, Belgium 167 km, Czech Republic 646 km, Denmark 68 km, France 451 km, Luxembourg 138 km, Netherlands 577 km, Poland 456 km, Switzerland 334 km
Coastline: 2,389 km
Climate: temperate and marine; cool, cloudy, wet winters and summers; occasional warm, tropical foehn wind; high relative humidity
Terrain: lowlands in north, uplands in center, Bavarian Alps in south
Natural resources: iron ore, coal, potash, timber, lignite, uranium, copper, natural gas, salt, nickel
Land use:
arable land: 34%
permanent crops: 1%
meadows and pastures: 16%
forest and woodland: 30%
other: 19%
Irrigated land: 4,800 sq km (1989 est.)
Population: 81,337,541 (July 1995 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 16% (female 6,518,108; male 6,857,577)
15-64 years: 68% (female 27,167,824; male 28,130,083)
65 years and over: 16% (female8,127,938; male 4,536,011) (July 1995 est.)
Population growth rate: 0.26% (1995 est.)
Birth rate: 10.98 births/1,000 population (1995 est.)
Death rate: 10.83 deaths/1,000 population (1995 est.)
Net migration rate: 2.46 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1995 est.)
Infant mortality rate: 6.3 deaths/1,000 live births (1995 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 76.62 years
male: 73.5 years
female: 79.92 years (1995 est.)
Total fertility rate: 1.5 children born/woman (1995 est.)
Nationality:
noun: German(s)
adjective: German
Ethnic divisions: German 95.1%, Turkish 2.3%, Italians 0.7%, Greeks 0.4%, Poles 0.4%, other 1.1% (made up largely of people fleeing the war in the former Yugoslavia)
Religions: Protestant 45%, Roman Catholic 37%, unaffiliated or other 18%
Languages: German
Literacy: age 15 and over can read and write (1991 est.)
total population: 99%
Labor force: 36.75 million
by occupation: industry 41%, agriculture 6%, other 53% (1987)
Names:
conventional long form: Federal Republic of Germany
conventional short form: Germany
local long form: Bundesrepublik Deutschland
local short form: Deutschland
Digraph: GM
Type: federal republic
Capital: Berlin
note: the shift from Bonn to Berlin will take place over a period of years
with Bonn retaining many administrative functions and several ministries
Administrative divisions: 16 states (laender, singular - land); Baden-Wuerttemberg, Bayern, Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Hessen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Niedersachsen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Saarland, Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein, Thueringen
Independence: 18 January 1871 (German Empire unification); divided into four zones of occupation (UK, US, USSR, and later, France) in 1945 following World War II; Federal Republic of Germany (FRG or West Germany) proclaimed 23 May 1949 and included the former UK, US, and French zones; German Democratic Republic (GDR or East Germany) proclaimed 7 October 1949 and included the former USSR zone; unification of West Germany and East Germany took place 3 October 1990; all four power rights formally relinquished 15 March 1991
National holiday: German Unity Day (Day of Unity), 3 October (1990)
Constitution: 23 May 1949, known as Basic Law; became constitution of the united German people 3 October 1990
Legal system: civil law system with indigenous concepts; judicial review of legislative acts in the Federal Constitutional Court; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal
Overview: Five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, progress towards economic integration between eastern and western Germany is clearly visible, yet the eastern region almost certainly will remain dependent on subsidies funded by western Germany until well into the next century. The staggering $390 billion in western German assistance that the eastern states have received since 1990 - 40 times the amount in real terms of US Marshall Fund aid sent to West Germany after World War II - is just beginning to have an impact on the eastern German standard of living, which plummeted after unification. Assistance to the east continues to run at roughly $100 billion annually. Although the growth rate in the east was much greater than in the west in 1993-94, eastern GDP per capita nonetheless remains well below preunification levels; it will take 10-15 years for the eastern states to match western Germany's living standards. The economic recovery in the east is led by the construction industries which account for one-third of industrial output, with growth increasingly supported by the service sectors and light manufacturing industries. Eastern Germany's economy is changing from one anchored on manufacturing to a more service-oriented economy. Western Germany, with threetimes the per capita output of the eastern states, has an advanced market economy and is a world leader in exports. The strong recovery in 1994 from recession began in the export sector and spread to the investment and consumption sectors in response to falling interest rates. Western Germany has a highly urbanized and skilled population that enjoys excellent living standards, abundant leisure time, and comprehensive social welfare benefits. It is relatively poor in natural resources, coal being themost important mineral. Western Germany's world-class companies manufacture technologically advanced goods. The region's economy is mature: services and manufacturing account for the dominant share of economic activities, and raw materials and semimanufactured goods constitute a large portion of imports.
National product:
Germany: GDP - purchasing power parity - $1.3446 trillion (1994 est.)
western: GDP - purchasing power parity - $1.2363 trillion (1994 est.)
eastern: GDP - purchasing power parity - $108.3 billion (1994 est.)
National product real growth rate:
Germany: 2.9% (1994 est.)
western: 2.3% (1994 est.)
eastern: 9.2% (1994 est.)
National product per capita:
Germany: $16,580 (1994 est.)
western: $19,660 (1994 est.)
eastern: $5,950 (1994 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
western: 3% (1994)
eastern: 3.2% (1994 est.)
Unemployment rate:
western: 8.2% (December 1994)
eastern: 13.5% (December 1994)
Budget:
revenues: $690 billion
expenditures: $780 billion, including capital expenditures of $96.5 billion (1994)
Exports: $437 billion (f.o.b., 1994)
commodities: manufactures 89.3% (including machines and machine tools, chemicals,
motor vehicles, iron and steel products), agricultural products 5.5%, raw
materials 2.7%, fuels 1.3% (1993)
partners: EC 47.9% (France 11.7%, Netherlands 7.4%, Italy 7.5%, UK 7.7%, Belgium-Luxembourg
6.6%), EFTA 15.5%, US 7.7%, Eastern Europe 5.2%, OPEC 3.0% (1993)
Imports: $362 billion (f.o.b., 1994)
commodities: manufactures 75.1%, agricultural products 10.0%, fuels 8.3%, raw materials
5.0% (1993)
partners: EC 46.4% (France 11.3%, Netherlands 8.4%, Italy 8.1%, UK 6.0%, Belgium-Luxembourg
5.7%), EFTA 14.3%, US 7.3%, Japan 6.3%, Eastern Europe 5.1%, OPEC 2.6% (1993)
External debt: $NA
Industrial production:
western: growth rate 2.8% (1994)
eastern: growth rate $NA
Electricity:
capacity: 115,430,000 kW
production: 493 billion kWh
consumption per capita: 5,683 kWh (1993)
Industries:
western: among world's largest and technologically advanced producers of iron,
steel, coal, cement, chemicals, machinery, vehicles, machine tools, electronics;
food and beverages
eastern: metal fabrication, chemicals, brown coal, shipbuilding, machine building,
food and beverages, textiles, petroleum refining
Agriculture:
western: accounts for about 1% of GDP (including fishing and forestry); diversified
crop and livestock farming; principal crops and livestock include potatoes,
wheat, barley, sugar beets, fruit, cabbage, cattle, pigs, poultry; net importer
of food
eastern: accounts for about 10% of GDP (including fishing and forestry); principal
crops - wheat, rye, barley, potatoes, sugar beets, fruit; livestock products
include pork, beef, chicken, milk, hides and skins; net importer of food
Currency: 1 deutsche mark (DM) = 100 pfennige
Fiscal year: calendar year
Railroads:
total: 43,457 km
standard gauge: 43,190 km (electrified 16,694 km)
narrow gauge: 267 km (1994)
Highways:
total: 636,282 km
paved: 501,282 km (10,955 km of autobahn)
unpaved: 135,000 km (1991)
Inland waterways:
western: 5,222 km, of which almost 70% are usable by craft of 1,000-metric-ton
capacity or larger; major rivers include the Rhine and Elbe; Kiel Canal is
an important connection between the Baltic Sea and North Sea
eastern: 2,319 km (1988)
Pipelines: crude oil 3,644 km; petroleum products 3,946 km; natural gas 97,564 km (1988)
Ports: Berlin, Bonn, Brake, Bremen, Bremerhaven, Cologne, Dresden, Duisburg, Emden, Hamburg, Karlsruhe, Kiel, Lubeck, Magdeburg, Mannheim, Rostock, Stuttgart
Merchant marine:
total: 481 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 5,065,074 GRT/6,409,198 DWT
ships by type: barge carrier 6, bulk 8, cargo 224, chemical tanker 16, combination
bulk 4, combination ore/oil 5, container 158, liquefied gas tanker 13, oil
tanker 10, passenger 3, railcar carrier 4, refrigerated cargo 7, roll-on/roll-off
cargo 18, short-sea passenger 5
note: the German register includes ships of the former East and West Germany
Airports:
total: 660
with paved runways over 3,047 m: 13
with paved runways 2,438 to 3,047 m: 64
with paved runways 1,524 to 2,437 m: 68
with paved runways 914 to 1,523 m: 53
with paved runways under 914 m: 381
with unpaved runways over 3,047 m: 2
with unpaved runways 2,438 to 3,047 m: 8
with unpaved runways 1,524 to 2,438 m: 9
with unpaved runways 914 to 1,523 m: 62