<text><span class="style12">GERMANY</span><span class="style14"></span><span class="style42">Official name:</span><span class="style13"> Bundesrepublik Deutschland (The Federal Republic of Germany)</span><span class="style42">Member of: </span><span class="style13">UN, EU/EC, NATO, G7, OECD, OSCE, WEU</span><span class="style42">Area: </span><span class="style13">356733 km2 (137735 sq mi)</span><span class="style42">Population: </span><span class="style13">79754000 (1993 est)</span><span class="style42">Capital: </span><span class="style13">Berlin (capital in name only) 3590000 (city 3446000), Bonn (administrative capital) 542000 (city 296000) </span><span class="style42">Other major cities: </span><span class="style13">Essen 4700000 (Essen-Ruhr agglomeration; city 627000; Dortmund 601000; Duisburg 537000; Bochum 399000; Gelsenkirchen 294000; Oberhausen 255000), Hamburg 1924000 (city 1669000), Munich (München) 1465000 (city 1229000), Cologne (Köln) 1419000 (city 960000), Frankfurt 1268000 (city 654000), Stuttgart 1091000 (city 592000), Düsseldorf 913000 (city 578000), Hannover 680000 (city 518000), Bremen 622000 (city 546000), Nuremberg (Nürnberg) 617000 (city 498000), Dresden 580000 (city 485000), Mannheim 539000 (city 315000), Leipzig 532000 (city 503000), Wuppertal 485000 (city 386000), Solingen 357000 (city 166000), Mönchengladbach 341000 (city 263000), Bielefeld 322000, Chemnitz 306000 (city 288000), Halle 303000 (1991 est)</span><span class="style42">Language: </span><span class="style13">German (official)</span><span class="style42">Religions: </span><span class="style13">Lutheran and Churches of Lutheran tradition (43%), Roman Catholic (36%), Sunni Islam (2%)</span><span class="style42">GOVERNMENT</span><span class="style13">Each of the 16 states (</span><span class="style42">Länder</span><span class="style13">; singular </span><span class="style42">Länd</span><span class="style13">) is represented in the 79-member upper house of Parliament – the Federal Council (Bundesrat) – by three, four or six members of the state government (depending on population) appointed for a limited period. The lower house – the Federal Assembly (Bundestag) – has 662 members elected for four years by universal adult suffrage under a mixed system of single-member constituencies and proportional representation. Executive power rests with the Federal Government, led by a Federal Chancellor – who is elected by the Bundestag. The President is elected for a five-year term by the Bundesrat and an equal number of representatives of the states. Each state has its own parliament and government.</span><span class="style42">GEOGRAPHY</span><span class="style13">The North German Plain, a region of fertile farmlands and sandy heaths, is drained by the Rivers Elbe, Weser and Oder. In the west, the plain merges with the North Rhine lowlands which contain the Ruhr coalfield and over 20% of the country’s population. A belt of plateau, formed of old hard rocks, crosses the country from east to west and includes the Hunsrück and Eifel highlands in the Rhineland and the Taunus and Westerwald uplands in Hesse, and extends into the Harz and Erz Mountains in Thuringia. The Rhine cuts through these central plateau in a deep gorge. In southern Germany, the Black Forest (Schwarzwald) separates the Rhine valley from the fertile valleys and scarplands of Swabia. The forested edge of the Bohemian uplands marks the Czech border, while the Bavarian Alps – rising to the Zugspitze (2963 m / 9721 ft) – form the frontier with Austria. </span><span class="style42">Principal rivers: </span><span class="style13">Rhine (Rhein) 1320 km (820 mi), Elbe 1165 km (724 mi), Danube (Donau) 2850 km (1770 mi). </span><span class="style42">Climate: </span><span class="style13">The climate is temperate, but with considerable variations between the generally mild north coastal plain and the Bavarian Alps in the south, which have cool summers and cold winters. The eastern part of the country has warm summers and cold winters.</span><span class="style42">ECONOMY</span><span class="style13">Germany is the world’s third economic power after the USA and Japan. The country’s recovery after World War II has been called the ‘German economic miracle’. The principal industries include mechanical and electrical engineering, chemicals, textiles, food processing and vehicles, with heavy industry and engineering concentrated in the Ruhr, chemicals in cities on the Rhine and motor vehicles in large provincial centers such as Stuttgart. From the 1980s, there has been a spectacular growth in high-technology industries. Apart from coal and brown coal, Germany has relatively few natural resources, and the country relies heavily upon imports. Labor has also been in short supply, and large numbers of ‘guest workers’ (</span><span class="style42">Gastarbeiter</span><span class="style13">) – particularly from Turkey and the former Yugoslavia – have been recruited. Since reunification in 1990 the labor shortage in the western part of the country has also been met by migration from the former GDR. Service industries employ almost twice as many people as manufacturing industry. Banking and finance are major foreign-currency earners and Frankfurt is one of the world’s leading financial and business centers. Reunification has presented major problems and its costs led to an economic downturn. The GDR’s economy had previously been the most successful in the Communist bloc, but, since reunification, many East German firms have been unable to compete with their Western counterparts. A trust (the </span><span class="style42">Treuhandanstalt</span><span class="style13">) was set up to oversee the privatization of the 8000 state-run firms in the east, but many have gone bankrupt and unemployment in the former GDR is high. The main German agricultural products include hops (for beer), grapes (for wine), sugar beet, wheat, barley, and dairy products. The collectivized farms of the former GDR were privatized in 1991. Forests cover almost 30% of Germany and support a flourishing timber industry. </span><span class="style42">Currency: </span><span class="style13">Deutsche Mark.</span><span class="style42">HISTORY</span><span class="style13">Germany has only been unified between 1871 and 1945, and since 1990. However, although for most of their history the German people were divided between a considerable number of states, they played a key role in Europe. Germanic peoples – who displaced Celts in what was to become Germany – helped to destroy the western Roman Empire. Most of the German lands were united under the Frankish Empire, but after the death of Charlemagne (768–814) the inheritance was divided. The Saxon kings – in particular Otto I – unsuccessfully attempted to reunite the Germans, although most of Germany was nominally within the Holy Roman Empire.In the 12th and 13th centuries, the Hohenstaufen Holy Roman Emperors tried to make their mark in Italy as well as north of the Alps. This diversion allowed dozens of German princes, dukes, bishops and counts to assert their independence. Their small states formed an astonishing jigsaw on the map of Europe until the 19th century. In 1648 there were no fewer than 343 German states. The Habsburgs – Emperors for almost the entire period from 1437 to 1806 – were often so concerned with the fortunes of their territories in Austria, Hungary and Bohemia that they were unable to control the subordinate electorates, principalities and bishoprics. The independence of local rulers was reinforced in the 16th century when a number of princes followed the lead of the Protestant reformer Martin Luther (1483–1547). The Peace of Augsburg (1555) established the principle that a state’s religion followed that of its prince. This was soon challenged by both Lutherans and Catholics, and became one of many factors contributing to the Thirty Years War (1618–48).During the 18th century, some small German states – notably Saxe-Weimar under Duke Charles Augustus – became centers of enlightened government and of culture. Other small territories became involved in the power politics of the major states. For example, after the accession of the elector of Hanover to the British throne in 1714 as George I, the British sovereign continued to be ruler of Hanover until 1837. The contribution of the small states was, however, overshadowed by the rise of Brandenburg-Prussia, under the uncompromising leadership of the Hohenzollern family of electors (after 1701 kings). Frederick William, the Great Elector (ruled 1640–88), laid the foundations of Prussia’s power. King Frederick William I (ruled 1713–40) expanded the army and did much to give Prussia its military nature, while Frederick II, the Great (ruled 1740–86), greatly enlarged his kingdom at the expense of Austria and Poland. By the 18th century, Prussia was vying for supremacy in Germany with the Austrian-based Empire.During the Napoleonic Wars, France redrew the map of Germany, merging and annexing many territories, establishing new client states, and founding the Confederation of the Rhine. The Napoleonic period saw the upsurge of romantically inspired German nationalist sentiment. After the Napoleonic Wars, a German Confederation, initially composed of 39 states, was established. Although the Confederation contained important ancient states such as Bavaria, Hanover, Saxony, Württemberg, Hesse, Oldenburg, Baden and Mecklenburg, none could match Prussia or Austria in size or influence. The Confederation did not satisfy the longings of the German people for unity. In 1830, and again in 1848, liberal nationalist movements swept Germany, extracting short-lived liberal constitutions from autocratic princes.Otto von Bismarck (1815–98) – prime minister of Prussia (1862–71), then German Chancellor (1871–90) – masterminded Prussia’s ascendancy over Austria and the other German states. Military victories over the Danes (1864), Austria and her German allies (1866) and France (1871) earned Prussia extra territories and complete domination within Germany. In 1871, a German Empire – of four kingdoms, six grand duchies, five duchies and seven principalities – was proclaimed with the King of Prussia as Emperor of Germany (Kaiser). From 1871 to 1918, an expansionist unified Germany attempted to extend its influence throughout Europe, engaged in naval and commercial rivalry with Britain, and built a colonial empire. Under the mercurial Emperor William II (reigned 1888–1918), Germany was a destabilizing force in world politics.Defeat in World War I (1914–18) led to the loss of much territory in Europe and the colonies overseas, the end of the German monarchies, the imposition of substantial reparations and the occupation of the Rhineland by Allied forces until 1930. The liberal Weimar republic (1919–33) could not bring economic or political stability. In the early 1930s the Nazi Party gained popularity, urging the establishment of a strong centralized government, an aggressive foreign policy, ‘Germanic character’ and the overturn of the postwar settlement. In 1933, Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) became Chancellor and in 1934 President. His Third Reich (empire) annexed Austria (1938), dismembered Czechoslovakia (1939) and embarked on the extermination of the Jews and others that the Nazis regarded as ‘inferior’. Invading Poland (1939), he launched Germany into war, defeat, occupation and division.In 1945, Germany lost substantial territories to Poland and was divided into four zones of occupation by the Allies – Britain, France, the USA and the USSR. Their intention was a united, disarmed Germany, but cooperation between the Allies rapidly broke down, and in 1948–49 the USSR blockaded West Berlin. The western zones of Germany were merged economically in 1948. After the merger of the western zones to form the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic was proclaimed in the Soviet zone (October 1949). The GDR’s economic progress suffered by comparison with that of the Federal Republic. Food shortages and repressive Communist rule led to an abortive uprising in the GDR in 1953. West Germany gained sovereignty – as a member of the Western Alliance – in 1955. The division of Germany was only grudgingly accepted in West Germany. Chancellor Konrad Adenauer (1876–1967) refused to recognize East Germany as a separate state and relations with the Soviet Union remained uncertain. Major problems with the Eastern bloc included the undefined status of the areas taken over by Poland in 1945 and the difficult position of West Berlin – a part of the Federal Republic isolated within Communist East Germany.Relations between East and West Germany were soured as large numbers of East Germans fled to the West, and this outflow was stemmed only when Walter Ulbricht (East German Communist Party leader 1950–71) ordered the building of the Berlin Wall. Adenauer strove to gain the acceptance of West Germany back into Western Europe through reconciliation with France and participation in the European Community. The economic revival of Germany begun by Adenauer continued under his Christian Democrat (conservative) successors as Chancellor – Ludwig Erhard (1963–66) and Georg Kiesinger (1966–69). Under Social Democrat Chancellors – Willy Brandt (1969–74) and Helmut Schmidt (1974–82) – treaties were signed with the USSR (1970) and Poland (recognizing the Oder-Neisse line as Poland’s western frontier), and relations with the GDR were normalized (1972). Under Helmut Kohl (Christian Democrat Chancellor from 1982) West Germany continued its impressive economic growth and enthusiastic membership of the EC, and acted as an economic and cultural magnet for much of Eastern Europe.The root causes of the GDR’s problems resurfaced in the late 1980s. The ageing Communist leadership led by Erich Honecker proved unresponsive to the mood of greater freedom emanating from Gorbachov’s USSR. In 1989 fresh floods of East Germans left the GDR for the West by way of Czechoslovakia and Hungary. Massive public demonstrations in favor of reform resulted in a change of leadership and the opening of the Berlin Wall (November 1989), allowing free movement between East and West. Demonstrations in favor of more radical change continued, and a coalition government was appointed in the GDR. When the GDR’s economy collapsed, West Germany proposed monetary union and the call for German reunification became unstoppable. Despite the initial opposition of the USSR, the reunification of Germany as a full member of the EC and NATO took place in October 1990. Soviet troops withdrew from the former GDR in 1994.</span></text>
