Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen constituent states have a total population of over 82 million in an area of 357,596 km2 (138,069 sq mi), making it the most populous member state of the European Union. It borders Denmark to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, and France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands to the west. The nation's capital and most populous city is Berlin and its main financial centre is Frankfurt; the largest urban area is the Ruhr.
Federal Republic of Germany Bundesrepublik Deutschland (German) | |
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Flag Coat of arms | |
Anthem: "Das Lied der Deutschen" ("The Song of the Germans") | |
Capital and largest city | Berlin 52°31′N 13°23′E / 52.517°N 13.383°E |
Official languages | German |
Demonym(s) | German |
Government | Federal parliamentary republic |
• President | Frank-Walter Steinmeier |
• Chancellor | Olaf Scholz |
Legislature | Bundestag, Bundesrat |
Area | |
• Total | 357,596 km2 (138,069 sq mi) (63rd) |
• Water (%) | 1.27 |
Population | |
• Q1 2024 estimate | 83,465,411 |
• 2022 census | 82,719,540 (19th) |
• Density | 236/km2 (611.2/sq mi) (58th) |
GDP (PPP) | 2024 estimate |
• Total | $6.017 trillion (6th) |
• Per capita | $70,930 (22nd) |
GDP (nominal) | 2024 estimate |
• Total | $4.710 trillion (3rd) |
• Per capita | $55,521 (17th) |
Gini (2023) | 29.4 low inequality |
HDI (2022) | 0.950 very high (7th) |
Currency | Euro (€) (EUR) |
Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC+2 (CEST) |
Date format |
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Drives on | Right |
Calling code | +49 |
ISO 3166 code | DE |
Internet TLD | .de |
Settlement in the territory of modern Germany began in the Lower Paleolithic, with various tribes inhabiting it from the Neolithic onward, chiefly the Celts. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity. A region named Germania was documented before AD 100. In 962, the Kingdom of Germany formed the bulk of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation. Following the Napoleonic Wars and the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the German Confederation was formed in 1815.
Formal unification of Germany into the modern nation-state commenced on 18 August 1866 with the North German Confederation Treaty establishing the Prussia-led North German Confederation, which became the German Empire in 1871. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the Weimar Republic. The Nazi rise to power in 1933 led to the establishment of a totalitarian dictatorship, World War II, and the Holocaust. In 1949, after the war and a period of Allied occupation, Germany was organized into two separate polities with limited sovereignty: the Federal Republic of Germany, or West Germany, and the German Democratic Republic, or East Germany. Berlin continued its de jure Four Power status. The Federal Republic of Germany was a founding member of the European Economic Community and the European Union, while the German Democratic Republic was a communist Eastern Bloc state and member of the Warsaw Pact. After the fall of the communist led-government in East Germany, German reunification saw the former East German states join the Federal Republic of Germany on 3 October 1990.
Germany has been described as a great power with a strong economy; it has the largest economy in Europe by nominal GDP. As a global power in industrial, scientific and technological sectors, it is both the world's third-largest exporter and importer. As a developed country, it offers social security, a universal health care system, and tuition-free university education. Germany is part of multiple international organizations and forums. It has the third-highest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, 54, of which 51 are cultural.
Etymology
The English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. The German term Deutschland, originally diutisciu land ('the German lands'), is derived from deutsch (cf. Dutch), descended from Old High German diutisc 'of the people' (from diot or diota 'people'), originally used to distinguish the language of the common people from Latin and its Romance descendants. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz 'of the people' (see also the Latinised form Theodiscus), derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- 'people', from which the word Teutons also originates.
History
Prehistory
Pre-human ancestors, the Danuvius guggenmosi, who were present in Germany over 11 million years ago, are theorized to be among the earliest ones to walk on two legs. Ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The first non-modern human fossil (the Neanderthal) was discovered in the Neander Valley. Similarly dated evidence of modern humans has been found in the Swabian Jura, including 42,000-year-old flutes which are the oldest musical instruments ever found, the 40,000-year-old Lion Man, and the 41,000-year-old Venus of Hohle Fels. The Nebra sky disk, created during the European Bronze Age, has been attributed to a German site.
Germanic tribes, Roman frontier and the Frankish Empire
The Germanic peoples are thought to have emerged from the Jastorf culture during the Nordic Bronze Age or early Iron Age. From southern Scandinavia and northern Germany, they expanded south, east, and west, coming into contact with the Celtic, Iranian, Baltic, and Slavic tribes. Southern Germany was inhabited by Celtic-speaking peoples, who belonged to the wider La Tène culture. They were later assimilated by the Germanic conquerors.
Under Augustus, the Roman Empire began to invade lands inhabited by the Germanic tribes, creating a short-lived Roman province of Germania between the Rhine and Elbe rivers. In 9 AD, three Roman legions were defeated by Arminius in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. The outcome of this battle dissuaded the Romans from their ambition of conquering Germania and is thus considered one of the most important events in European history. By 100 AD, when Tacitus wrote Germania, Germanic tribes had settled along the Rhine and the Danube (the Limes Germanicus), occupying most of modern Germany. However, Baden-Württemberg, southern Bavaria, southern Hesse and the western Rhineland had been incorporated into Roman provinces.
Around 260, Germanic peoples broke into Roman-controlled lands. After the invasion of the Huns in 375, and with the decline of Rome from 395, Germanic tribes moved farther southwest: the Franks established the Frankish Kingdom and pushed east to subjugate Saxony and Bavaria. Areas of what is today eastern Germany were inhabited by Western Slavic tribes.
East Francia and the Holy Roman Empire
Charlemagne founded the Carolingian Empire in 800; it was divided in 843. The eastern successor kingdom of East Francia stretched from the Rhine in the west to the Elbe river in the east and from the North Sea to the Alps. Subsequently, the Holy Roman Empire emerged from it. The Ottonian rulers (919–1024) consolidated several major duchies. In 996, Gregory V became the first German Pope, appointed by his cousin Otto III, whom he shortly after crowned Holy Roman Emperor. The Holy Roman Empire absorbed northern Italy and Burgundy under the Salian emperors (1024–1125), although the emperors lost power through the Investiture controversy.
Under the Hohenstaufen emperors (1138–1254), German princes encouraged German settlement to the south and east (Ostsiedlung). Members of the Hanseatic League, mostly north German towns, prospered in the expansion of trade. The population declined starting with the Great Famine in 1315, followed by the Black Death of 1348–1350. The Golden Bull issued in 1356 provided the constitutional structure of the Empire and codified the election of the emperor by seven prince-electors.
Johannes Gutenberg introduced moveable-type printing to Europe, laying the basis for the democratization of knowledge. In 1517, Martin Luther incited the Protestant Reformation and his translation of the Bible began the standardization of the language; the 1555 Peace of Augsburg tolerated the "Evangelical" faith (Lutheranism), but also decreed that the faith of the prince was to be the faith of his subjects (cuius regio, eius religio). From the Cologne War through the Thirty Years' Wars (1618–1648), religious conflict devastated German lands and significantly reduced the population.
The Peace of Westphalia ended religious warfare among the Imperial Estates. The legal system initiated by a series of Imperial Reforms (approximately 1495–1555) provided for considerable local autonomy and a stronger Imperial Diet. The House of Habsburg held the imperial crown from 1438 until the death of Charles VI in 1740. Following the War of the Austrian Succession and the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, Charles VI's daughter Maria Theresa ruled as empress consort when her husband, Francis I, became emperor.
From 1740, dualism between the Austrian Habsburg monarchy and the Kingdom of Prussia dominated German history. In 1772, 1793, and 1795, Prussia and Austria, along with the Russian Empire, agreed to the Partitions of Poland. During the period of the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic era and the subsequent final meeting of the Imperial Diet, most of the Free Imperial Cities were annexed by dynastic territories; the ecclesiastical territories were secularised and annexed. In 1806 the Imperium was dissolved; France, Russia, Prussia, and the Habsburgs (Austria) competed for hegemony in the German states during the Napoleonic Wars.
German Confederation and Empire
Following the fall of Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna founded the German Confederation, a loose league of 39 sovereign states. The appointment of the emperor of Austria as the permanent president reflected the Congress's rejection of Prussia's rising influence. Disagreement within restoration politics partly led to the rise of liberal movements, followed by new measures of repression by Austrian statesman Klemens von Metternich. The Zollverein, a tariff union, furthered economic unity. In light of revolutionary movements in Europe, intellectuals and commoners started the revolutions of 1848 in the German states, raising the German question. 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, a temporary setback for the movement.
King William I appointed Otto von Bismarck as the Minister President of Prussia in 1862. Bismarck successfully concluded the war with Denmark in 1864; the subsequent decisive Prussian victory in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 enabled him to create the North German Confederation which excluded Austria. After the defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian War, the German princes proclaimed the founding of the German Empire in 1871. Prussia was the dominant constituent state of the new empire; the King of Prussia ruled as its Kaiser, and Berlin became its capital.
In the Gründerzeit period following the unification of Germany, Bismarck's foreign policy as chancellor of Germany secured Germany's position as a great nation by forging alliances and avoiding war. However, under Wilhelm II, Germany took an imperialistic course, leading to friction with neighbouring countries. A dual alliance was created with the multinational realm of Austria-Hungary; the Triple Alliance of 1882 included Italy. Britain, France and Russia also concluded alliances to protect against Habsburg interference with Russian interests in the Balkans or German interference against France. At the Berlin Conference in 1884, Germany claimed several colonies including German East Africa, German South West Africa, Togoland, and Kamerun. Later, Germany further expanded its colonial empire to include holdings in the Pacific and China. The colonial government in South West Africa (present-day Namibia), from 1904 to 1907, carried out the annihilation of the local Herero and Namaqua peoples as punishment for an uprising; this was the 20th century's first genocide.
The assassination of Austria's crown prince on 28 June 1914 provided the pretext for Austria-Hungary to attack Serbia and trigger World War I. After four years of warfare, in which approximately two million German soldiers were killed, a general armistice ended the fighting. In the German Revolution (November 1918), Wilhelm II and the ruling princes abdicated their positions, and Germany was declared a federal republic. Germany's new leadership signed the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, accepting defeat by the Allies. Germans perceived the treaty as humiliating, which was seen by historians as influential in the rise of Adolf Hitler. Germany lost around 13% of its European territory and ceded all of its colonial possessions in Africa and the Pacific.
Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany
On 11 August 1919, President Friedrich Ebert signed the democratic Weimar Constitution.Communists briefly seized power in Bavaria and a few larger cities, while conservative elements failed to overthrow the central government in the 1920 Kapp Putsch. The occupation of the Ruhr by Belgian and French troops and a period of hyperinflation followed. A plan to restructure Germany's war reparations and the creation of a new currency in 1924 helped stabilise the government and ushered in the Golden Twenties, an era of artistic innovation and liberal cultural life.
The worldwide Great Depression hit Germany in 1929, and by 1932 the unemployment rate had risen to 24%. The Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler became the largest party in the Reichstag after the election of July 1932, and President Hindenburg appointed Hitler chancellor on 30 January 1933. After the Reichstag fire, a decree abrogated basic civil rights, and the first Nazi concentration camp opened. On 23 March 1933, the Enabling Act gave Hitler unrestricted legislative power, overriding the constitution, and marked the beginning of Nazi Germany. His government established a centralised totalitarian state, withdrew from the League of Nations, and dramatically increased the country's rearmament. A government-sponsored programme for economic renewal focused on public works, the most famous of which was the Autobahn.
In 1935, the regime withdrew from the Treaty of Versailles and introduced the Nuremberg Laws which targeted Jews and other minorities. Germany also reacquired control of the Saarland in 1935,remilitarised the Rhineland in 1936, annexed Austria in 1938, annexed the Sudetenland in 1938 with the Munich Agreement, and in violation of the agreement occupied Czechoslovakia in March 1939.Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) saw the burning of synagogues, the destruction of Jewish businesses, and mass arrests of Jewish people.
In August 1939, Hitler's government negotiated the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact that divided Eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence. On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, beginning World War II in Europe; Britain and France declared war on Germany on 3 September. In the spring of 1940, Germany conquered Denmark and Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France, forcing the French government to sign an armistice. The British repelled German air attacks in the Battle of Britain in the same year. In 1941, German troops invaded Yugoslavia, Greece and the Soviet Union. By 1942, Germany and its allies controlled most of continental Europe and North Africa, but following the Soviet victory at the Battle of Stalingrad, the Allied reconquest of North Africa and invasion of Italy in 1943, German forces suffered repeated military defeats. In 1944, the Soviets pushed into Eastern Europe; the Western allies landed in France and entered Germany despite a final German counteroffensive. Following Hitler's suicide during the Battle of Berlin, Germany signed the surrender document on 8 May 1945, ending World War II in Europe and Nazi Germany. Following the end of the war, surviving Nazi officials were tried for war crimes at the Nuremberg trials.
In what later became known as the Holocaust, the German government persecuted minorities, including interning them in concentration and death camps across Europe. The regime systematically murdered 6 million Jews, at least 130,000 Romani, 275,000 disabled, thousands of Jehovah's Witnesses, thousands of homosexuals, and hundreds of thousands of political and religious opponents.Nazi policies in German-occupied countries resulted in the deaths of an estimated 2.7 million Poles, 1.3 million Ukrainians, 1 million Belarusians and 3.5 million Soviet prisoners of war.German military casualties have been estimated at 5.3 million, and around 900,000 German civilians died. Around 12 million ethnic Germans were expelled from across Eastern Europe, and Germany lost roughly one-quarter of its pre-war territory.
East and West Germany
After Nazi Germany surrendered, the Allies de jure abolished the German state and partitioned Berlin and Germany's remaining territory into four occupation zones. The western sectors, controlled by France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, were merged on 23 May 1949 to form the Federal Republic of Germany (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland); on 7 October 1949, the Soviet Zone became the German Democratic Republic (GDR) (German: Deutsche Demokratische Republik; DDR). They were informally known as West Germany and East Germany. East Germany selected East Berlin as its capital, while West Germany chose Bonn as a provisional capital, to emphasise its stance that the two-state solution was temporary.
West Germany was established as a federal parliamentary republic with a "social market economy". Starting in 1948 West Germany became a major recipient of reconstruction aid under the American Marshall Plan.Konrad Adenauer was elected the first federal chancellor of Germany in 1949. The country enjoyed prolonged economic growth (Wirtschaftswunder) beginning in the early 1950s. West Germany joined NATO in 1955 and was a founding member of the European Economic Community. On 1 January 1957, the Saarland joined West Germany.
East Germany was an Eastern Bloc state under political and military control by the Soviet Union via occupation forces and the Warsaw Pact. Although East Germany claimed to be a democracy, political power was exercised solely by leading members (Politbüro) of the communist-controlled Socialist Unity Party of Germany, supported by the Stasi, an immense secret service. While East German propaganda was based on the benefits of the GDR's social programmes and the alleged threat of a West German invasion, many of its citizens looked to the West for freedom and prosperity. The Berlin Wall, built in 1961, prevented East German citizens from escaping to West Germany, becoming a symbol of the Cold War.
Tensions between East and West Germany were reduced in the late 1960s by Chancellor Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik. In 1989, Hungary decided to dismantle the Iron Curtain and open its border with Austria, causing the emigration of thousands of East Germans to West Germany via Hungary and Austria. This had devastating effects on the GDR, where regular mass demonstrations received increasing support. In an effort to help retain East Germany as a state, the East German authorities eased border restrictions, but this actually led to an acceleration of the Wende reform process culminating in the Two Plus Four Treaty under which Germany regained full sovereignty. This permitted German reunification on 3 October 1990, with the accession of the five re-established states of the former GDR. The fall of the Wall in 1989 became a symbol of the Fall of Communism, the dissolution of the Soviet Union, German reunification and Die Wende ("the turning point").
Reunified Germany and the European Union
United Germany was considered the enlarged continuation of West Germany so it retained its memberships in international organisations. Based on the Berlin/Bonn Act (1994), Berlin again became the capital of Germany, while Bonn obtained the unique status of a Bundesstadt (federal city) retaining some federal ministries. The relocation of the government was completed in 1999, and modernisation of the East German economy was scheduled to last until 2019.
Since reunification, Germany has taken a more active role in the European Union, signing the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 and the Lisbon Treaty in 2007, and co-founding the eurozone. Germany sent a peacekeeping force to secure stability in the Balkans and sent German troops to Afghanistan as part of a NATO effort to provide security in that country after the ousting of the Taliban.
In the 2005 elections, Angela Merkel became the first female chancellor. In 2009, the German government approved a €50 billion stimulus plan. Among the major German political projects of the early 21st century are the advancement of European integration, the energy transition (Energiewende) for a sustainable energy supply, the debt brake for balanced budgets, measures to increase the fertility rate (pronatalism), and high-tech strategies for the transition of the German economy, summarised as Industry 4.0. During the 2015 European migrant crisis, the country took in over a million refugees and migrants.
Geography
Germany is the seventh-largest country in Europe. It borders Denmark to the north, Poland and Czechia to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, and France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands to the west. Germany is also bordered by the North Sea and, at the north-northeast, by the Baltic Sea. German territory covers 357,596 km2 (138,069 sq mi). Elevation ranges from the mountains of the Alps (highest point: the Zugspitze at 2,963 metres or 9,721 feet) in the south to the shores of the North Sea (Nordsee) in the northwest and the Baltic Sea (Ostsee) in the northeast. The forested uplands of central Germany and the lowlands of northern Germany (lowest point: in the municipality Neuendorf-Sachsenbande, Wilstermarsch at 3.54 metres or 11.6 feet below sea level) are traversed by such major rivers as the Rhine, Danube and Elbe. Significant natural resources include iron ore, coal, potash, timber, lignite, uranium, copper, natural gas, salt, and nickel.
Climate
Most of Germany has a temperate climate, ranging from oceanic in the north and west to continental in the east and southeast. Winters range from the cold in the Southern Alps to cool and are generally overcast with limited precipitation, while summers can vary from hot and dry to cool and rainy. The northern regions have prevailing westerly winds that bring in moist air from the North Sea, moderating the temperature and increasing precipitation. Conversely, the southeast regions have more extreme temperatures.
From February 2019–2020, average monthly temperatures in Germany ranged from a low of 3.3 °C (37.9 °F) in January 2020 to a high of 19.8 °C (67.6 °F) in June 2019. Average monthly precipitation ranged from 30 litres per square metre in February and April 2019 to 125 litres per square metre in February 2020. Average monthly hours of sunshine ranged from 45 in November 2019 to 300 in June 2019.
Biodiversity
The territory of Germany can be divided into five terrestrial ecoregions: Atlantic mixed forests, Baltic mixed forests, Central European mixed forests, Western European broadleaf forests, and Alps conifer and mixed forests. As of 2016[update], 51% of Germany's land area is devoted to agriculture, while 30% is forested and 14% is covered by settlements or infrastructure.
Plants and animals include those generally common to Central Europe. According to the National Forest Inventory, beeches, oaks, and other deciduous trees constitute just over 40% of the forests; roughly 60% are conifers, particularly spruce and pine. There are many species of ferns, flowers, fungi, and mosses. Wild animals include roe deer, wild boar, mouflon (a subspecies of wild sheep), fox, badger, hare, and small numbers of the Eurasian beaver. The blue cornflower was once a German national symbol.
The 16 national parks in Germany include the Jasmund National Park, the Vorpommern Lagoon Area National Park, the Müritz National Park, the Wadden Sea National Parks, the Harz National Park, the Hainich National Park, the Black Forest National Park, the Saxon Switzerland National Park, the Bavarian Forest National Park and the Berchtesgaden National Park. In addition, there are 17 Biosphere Reserves, and 105 nature parks. More than 400 zoos and animal parks operate in Germany. The Berlin Zoo, which opened in 1844, is the oldest in Germany, and claims the most comprehensive collection of species in the world.
Politics
Germany is a federal, parliamentary, representative democratic republic. Federal legislative power is vested in the parliament consisting of the Bundestag (Federal Diet) and Bundesrat (Federal Council), which together form the legislative body. The Bundestag is elected through direct elections using the mixed-member proportional representation system. The members of the Bundesrat represent and are appointed by the governments of the sixteen federated states. The German political system operates under a framework laid out in the 1949 constitution known as the Grundgesetz (Basic Law). Amendments generally require a two-thirds majority of both the Bundestag and the Bundesrat; the fundamental principles of the constitution, as expressed in the articles guaranteeing human dignity, the separation of powers, the federal structure, and the rule of law, are valid in perpetuity.
The president, who has been Frank-Walter Steinmeier since 2017, is the head of state and invested primarily with representative responsibilities and powers. He is elected by the Bundesversammlung (federal convention), an institution consisting of the members of the Bundestag and an equal number of state delegates. The second-highest official in the German order of precedence is the Bundestagspräsident (President of the Bundestag), who is elected by the Bundestag and responsible for overseeing the daily sessions of the body. The third-highest official and the head of government is the chancellor, who is appointed by the Bundespräsident after being elected by the party or coalition with the most seats in the Bundestag.The chancellor, who has been Olaf Scholz since 2021, is the head of government and exercises executive power through his Cabinet.
Since 1949, the party system has been dominated by the Christian Democratic Union and the Social Democratic Party of Germany. So far every chancellor has been a member of one of these parties. However, the smaller liberal Free Democratic Party and the Alliance 90/The Greens have also been junior partners in coalition governments. Since 2007, the democratic socialist party The Left has been a staple in the German Bundestag, though they have never been part of the federal government. In the 2017 German federal election, the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany gained enough votes to attain representation in the parliament for the first time.
Constituent states
Germany is a federation and comprises sixteen constituent states which are collectively referred to as Länder. Each state (Land) has its own constitution, and is largely autonomous in regard to its internal organisation. As of 2017[update], Germany is divided into 401 districts (Kreise) at a municipal level; these consist of 294 rural districts and 107 urban districts.
Vorpommern
Anhalt
Westphalia
Württemberg
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Law
Germany has a civil law system based on Roman law with some references to Germanic law. The Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court) is the German Supreme Court responsible for constitutional matters, with power of judicial review. Germany's specialized supreme court system includes the inquisitorial Federal Court of Justice for civil and criminal cases, along with the Federal Labour Court, Federal Social Court, Federal Fiscal Court, and Federal Administrative Court for other matters.
Criminal and private laws are codified on the national level in the Strafgesetzbuch and the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch respectively. The German penal system seeks the rehabilitation of the criminal and the protection of the public. With the exceptions of petty crimes, tried by a single professional judge, and of serious political crimes, all charges are adjudicated by mixed tribunals where lay judges (Schöffen) and professional judges preside together.
In 2016, Germany's murder rate stood at a low of 1.18 murders per 100,000. In 2018, the overall crime rate fell to its lowest since 1992.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Germany since 2017, and LGBT rights are generally protected in the country.
Foreign relations
Germany has a network of 227 diplomatic missions abroad and maintains relations with more than 190 countries. Germany is a member of NATO, the OECD, the G7, the G20, the World Bank and the IMF. It has played an influential role in the European Union since its inception and has maintained a strong alliance with France and all neighbouring countries since 1990. Germany promotes the creation of a more unified European political, economic and security apparatus. The governments of Germany and the United States are close political allies. Cultural ties and economic interests have crafted a bond between the two countries resulting in Atlanticism.
After 1990, Germany and Russia worked together to establish a "strategic partnership" in which energy development became one of the most important factors. As a result of the cooperation, Germany imported most of its natural gas and crude oil from Russia.
Germany's development policy functions as a distinct sector within its foreign policy framework. It is formulated by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and carried out by the implementing organisations. The German government sees development policy as a joint responsibility of the international community. It was the world's second-biggest aid donor in 2019 after the United States.
Military
Germany's military, the Bundeswehr (Federal Defence), is organised into the Heer (Army and special forces KSK), Marine (Navy), Luftwaffe (Air Force) and Cyber- und Informationsraum (Cyber and Information Domain Service) branches. In absolute terms, German military spending in 2023 was the seventh-highest in the world. In response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that German military expenditure would be increased past the NATO target of 2%, along with a one-time 2022 infusion of 100 billion euros, representing almost double the 53 billion euro military budget for 2021. In 2023, military spending according to NATO criteria amounted to $73.1 billion, or 1.64% of the country's GDP, well below the NATO target of 2%. In 2024, Germany reported $97.7 billion to NATO, exceeding the NATO target of 2% at 2.12% of GDP.
As of May 2024[update], the Bundeswehr has a strength of 180,215 active soldiers and 80,761 civilians. Reservists are available to the armed forces and participate in defence exercises and deployments abroad. Until 2011, military service was compulsory for men at age 18, but this has been officially suspended and replaced with a voluntary service. Since 2001 women may serve in all functions of service without restriction. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Germany was the fifth-largest exporter of major arms in the world from 2019 to 2023.
In peacetime, the Bundeswehr is commanded by the Minister of Defence. In state of defence, the Chancellor would become commander-in-chief of the Bundeswehr. The role of the Bundeswehr is described in the Constitution of Germany as defensive only. But after a ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court in 1994, the term "defence" has been defined not only to include protection of the borders of Germany, but also crisis reaction and conflict prevention, or more broadly as guarding the security of Germany anywhere in the world. As of 2017,[update] the German military has about 3,600 troops stationed in foreign countries as part of international peacekeeping forces, including about 1,200 supporting operations against Daesh, 980 in the NATO-led Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan, and 800 in Kosovo.
Economy
Germany has a social market economy with a highly skilled labour force, a low level of corruption, and a high level of innovation. It is the world's third-largest exporter and third-largest importer, and has the largest economy in Europe by nominal GDP, which is also the world's third-largest economy by nominal GDP and sixth-largest by PPP-adjusted GDP. Its GDP per capita measured in purchasing power standards amounts to 121% of the EU27 average. The country's service sector contributes approximately 69% of the total GDP, industry 31%—with Germany having the largest manufacturing sector in Europe—and agriculture 1% as of 2017[update]. The unemployment rate published by Eurostat amounts to 3.2% as of January 2020[update], which is the fourth-lowest in the EU.
Germany is part of the European single market which represents more than 450 million consumers. In 2017, the country accounted for 28% of the eurozone economy according to the International Monetary Fund. Germany introduced the common European currency, the euro, in 2002. Its monetary policy is set by the European Central Bank, which is based in Frankfurt.
The automotive industry in Germany is regarded as one of the most competitive and innovative in the world, and is the sixth-largest by production as of 2021. Germany is home to Volkswagen Group, the world's second-largest automotive manufacturer by vehicle production.
The top ten exports of Germany are vehicles, machinery, chemical goods, electronic products, electrical equipments, pharmaceuticals, transport equipments, basic metals, food products, and rubber and plastics.
Of the world's 500 largest stock-market-listed companies measured by revenue in 2023, the Fortune Global 500, 32 are based in Germany. 30 major Germany-based companies are included in the DAX, the German stock market index which is operated by Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Well-known international brands include Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, Opel, Siemens, Allianz, Adidas, Puma, Hugo Boss, SAP SE, Bosch and Deutsche Telekom.Berlin is a hub for startup companies and has become the leading location for venture capital-funded firms in the European Union. Germany is recognised for its large portion of specialised small and medium enterprises, known as the Mittelstand model. These companies represent 48% of the global market leaders in their segments, labelled hidden champions.
Research and development efforts form an integral part of the German economy, with the country ranking fourth in research and development expenditure since 2005. In 2018, Germany ranked fourth globally in terms of number of science and engineering research papers published and third in the quality-adjusted Nature Index in 2023. Research institutions in Germany include the Max Planck Society, the Helmholtz Association, the Fraunhofer Society, and the Leibniz Association. Germany is the largest contributor to the European Space Agency. The country was ranked 9th in the Global Innovation Index in 2024.
Infrastructure
With its central position in Europe, Germany is a transport hub for the continent. Its road network is among the densest in Europe. The motorway (Autobahn) is widely known for having no general federally mandated speed limit for some classes of vehicles. The Intercity Express or ICE train network serves major German cities as well as destinations in neighbouring countries with speeds up to 300 km/h (190 mph). The largest German airports are Frankfurt Airport, Munich Airport and Berlin Brandenburg Airport. The Port of Hamburg is the third-busiest port in Europe and one of the twenty largest container ports in the world.
In 2019[update], Germany was the world's seventh-largest consumer of energy. All nuclear power plants were phased out in 2023. Germany meets its power demands using 40% renewable sources, and has been called an "early leader" in solar panels and offshore wind. The country is committed to the Paris Agreement and several other treaties promoting biodiversity, low emission standards, and water management. Germany's household recycling rate is among the highest in the world—at around 65%. The country's greenhouse gas emissions per capita were the ninth-highest in the EU in 2018[update], but these numbers have been trending downward. The German energy transition (Energiewende) is the recognised move to a sustainable economy by means of energy efficiency and renewable energy, with the country being called "the world's first major renewable energy economy". Germany has reduced its primary energy consumption by 11% between 1990 and 2015 and set itself goals of reducing it by 30% by 2030 and by 50% by 2050.
Tourism
Domestic and international travel and tourism combined directly contribute over €105.3 billion to German GDP. Including indirect and induced impacts, the industry supports 4.2 million jobs. As of 2022, Germany is the eighth-most-visited country. Its most popular landmarks include Cologne Cathedral, the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, the Dresden Frauenkirche, Neuschwanstein Castle, Heidelberg Castle, the Wartburg, and Sanssouci Palace. The Europa-Park near Freiburg is Europe's second-most popular theme park resort.
Demographics
With a population of 84.7 million according to the 2023 German census, Germany is the most populous country in the European Union, the second-most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the nineteenth-most populous country in the world. Its population density stands at 227 inhabitants per square kilometre (590 inhabitants/sq mi). The fertility rate of 1.57 children born per woman (2022 estimates) is below the replacement rate of 2.1 and is one of the lowest fertility rates in the world. Since the 1970s, Germany's death rate has exceeded its birth rate. However, Germany is witnessing increased birth rates and migration rates since the beginning of the 2010s. Germany has the third oldest population in the world, with an average age of 47.4 years.
Four sizeable groups of people are referred to as national minorities because their ancestors have lived in their respective regions for centuries: There is a Danish minority in the northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein; the Sorbs, a Slavic population, are in the Lusatia region of Saxony and Brandenburg; the Roma and Sinti live throughout the country; and the Frisians are concentrated in Schleswig-Holstein's western coast and in the north-western part of Lower Saxony.
After the United States, Germany is the second-most popular immigration destination in the world. In 2015, following the 2015 refugee crisis, the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs listed Germany as host to the second-highest number of international migrants worldwide, about 5% or 12 million of all 244 million migrants. Refugee crises have resulted in substantial population increases; for example, the major influx of Ukrainian immigrants following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, whereby over 1.06 million refugees from Ukraine were recorded in Germany as of April 2023. As of 2019[update], Germany ranks seventh among EU countries in terms of the percentage of migrants in the country's population, at 13.1%. In 2022, there were 23.8 million people—28.7 percent of the total population—who had a migration background.
Germany has a number of large cities. There are 11 officially recognised metropolitan regions. The country's largest city is Berlin, while its largest urban area is the Ruhr.
Largest cities or towns in Germany Federal Statistical Office of Germany - Destatis (Census 2022) | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rank | Name | State | Pop. | Rank | Name | State | Pop. | ||
Berlin Hamburg | 1 | Berlin | Berlin | 3,596,999 | 11 | Essen | North Rhine-Westphalia | 571,039 | Munich Cologne |
2 | Hamburg | Hamburg | 1,808,846 | 12 | Dresden | Saxony | 557,782 | ||
3 | Munich | Bavaria | 1,478,638 | 13 | Nuremberg | Bavaria | 522,554 | ||
4 | Cologne | North Rhine-Westphalia | 1,017,355 | 14 | Hanover | Lower Saxony | 513,291 | ||
5 | Frankfurt | Hesse | 743,268 | 15 | Duisburg | North Rhine-Westphalia | 501,415 | ||
6 | Düsseldorf | North Rhine-Westphalia | 611,258 | 16 | Wuppertal | North Rhine-Westphalia | 356,768 | ||
7 | Stuttgart | Baden-Württemberg | 610,458 | 17 | Bochum | North Rhine-Westphalia | 354,288 | ||
8 | Leipzig | Saxony | 598,899 | 18 | Bielefeld | North Rhine-Westphalia | 330,072 | ||
9 | Dortmund | North Rhine-Westphalia | 598,246 | 19 | Bonn | North Rhine-Westphalia | 321,544 | ||
10 | Bremen | Bremen | 575,071 | 20 | Mannheim | Baden-Württemberg | 313,693 |
Religion
According to the 2022 census, Christianity is the largest religion at 49.7% of the population; 23.1% identified as Protestant and 25.1% as Catholic.
Islam is the second-largest religion in the country. In the 2011 census, 1.9% of respondents (1.52 million people) gave their religion as Islam, but this figure is deemed unreliable because a disproportionate number of adherents of this faith (and other religions, such as Judaism) are likely to have made use of their right not to answer the question. In 2019, there were an estimated 5.3–5.6 million Muslims with a migrant background (6.4–6.7% of the population), in addition to an unknown number of Muslims without a migrant background. Most of the Muslims are Sunnis and Alevis from Turkey, but there are a small number of Shi'ites, Ahmadiyyas and other denominations. Other religions each comprise less than one percent of Germany's population.
In 2011, formal members of the Jewish community represented no more than 0.2% of the total German population, and 60% of them resided in Berlin. An estimated 80 to 90 percent of these Jews in Germany are Russian-speaking immigrants from the former Soviet Union, who came to Germany from the 1980s onwards.
A study in 2023 estimated that 46.2% of the population are not members of any religious organization or denomination.Irreligion in Germany is strongest in the former East Germany, which used to be predominantly Protestant before the enforcement of state atheism, and in major metropolitan areas.
Languages
German is the official and predominantly spoken language in Germany. It is one of 24 official and working languages of the European Union, and one of the three procedural languages of the European Commission, alongside English and French. German is the most widely spoken first language in the European Union, with around 100 million native speakers.
Recognised native minority languages in Germany are Danish, Low German, Low Rhenish, Sorbian, Romani, North Frisian and Saterland Frisian; they are officially protected by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The most used immigrant languages are Turkish, Arabic, Kurdish, Polish, Italian, Greek, Spanish, Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian and other Balkan languages, as well as Russian. Germans are typically multilingual: 67% of German citizens claim to be able to communicate in at least one foreign language and 27% in at least two.
Education
Responsibility for educational supervision in Germany is primarily organised within the individual states. Optional kindergarten education is provided for all children between three and six years old, after which school attendance is compulsory for at least nine years depending on the state. Primary education usually lasts for four to six years. Secondary schooling is divided into tracks based on whether students pursue academic or vocational education. A system of apprenticeship called Duale Ausbildung leads to a skilled qualification which is almost comparable to an academic degree. It allows students in vocational training to learn in a company as well as in a state-run trade school. This model is well regarded and reproduced all around the world.
Most of the German universities are public institutions, and students traditionally study without fee payment. The general requirement for attending university is the Abitur. According to an OECD report in 2014, Germany is the world's third leading destination for international study. The established universities in Germany include some of the oldest in the world, with Heidelberg University (established in 1386), Leipzig University (established in 1409) and the University of Rostock (established in 1419) being the oldest. The Humboldt University of Berlin, founded in 1810 by the liberal educational reformer Wilhelm von Humboldt, became the academic model for many Western universities. In the contemporary era Germany has developed eleven Universities of Excellence.
Health
Germany's system of hospitals, called Krankenhäuser, dates from medieval times, and today, Germany has the world's oldest universal health care system, dating from Bismarck's social legislation of the 1880s. Since the 1880s, reforms and provisions have ensured a balanced health care system. The population is covered by a health insurance plan provided by statute, with criteria allowing some groups to opt for a private health insurance contract. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Germany's health care system was 77% government-funded and 23% privately funded in 2013. In 2014, Germany spent 11.3% of its GDP on health care.
Germany ranked 21st in the world in 2019 in life expectancy with 78.7 years for men and 84.8 years for women according to the WHO, and it had a very low infant mortality rate (4 per 1,000 live births). In 2019[update], the principal cause of death was cardiovascular disease, at 37%.Obesity in Germany has been increasingly cited as a major health issue. A 2014 study showed that 52 percent of the adult German population was overweight or obese.
Culture
Culture in German states has been shaped by major intellectual and popular currents in Europe, both religious and secular, and its scientists, writers and philosophers have played a significant role in the development of Western thought. Global opinion polls from the BBC revealed that Germany is recognised for having the most positive influence in the world in 2013 and 2014.
Germany is well known for such folk festivals as the Oktoberfest and Christmas customs, which include Advent wreaths, Christmas pageants, Christmas trees, Stollen cakes, and other practices. As of 2024[update], UNESCO inscribed 54 properties in Germany on the World Heritage List. There are a number of public holidays in Germany determined by each state; 3 October has been a national day of Germany since 1990, celebrated as the Tag der Deutschen Einheit (German Unity Day).
Music
German classical music includes works by some of the world's most well-known composers. Dieterich Buxtehude, Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Friedrich Händel were influential composers of the Baroque period. Ludwig van Beethoven was a crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras. Carl Maria von Weber, Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms were significant Romantic composers. Richard Wagner was known for his operas. Richard Strauss was a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. Karlheinz Stockhausen and Wolfgang Rihm are important composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries.
In 2013, Germany was the second-largest music market in Europe, and fourth-largest in the world. German popular music of the 20th and 21st centuries includes the movements of Neue Deutsche Welle, pop, Ostrock, heavy metal/rock, punk, pop rock, indie, Volksmusik (folk music), schlager pop and German hip hop. German electronic music gained global influence, with Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream pioneering in this genre. DJs and artists of the techno and house music scenes of Germany have become well known (e.g. Paul van Dyk, Felix Jaehn, Paul Kalkbrenner, Robin Schulz and Scooter).
Art, design and architecture
German painters have influenced Western art. Albrecht Dürer, Hans Holbein the Younger, Matthias Grünewald and Lucas Cranach the Elder were important German artists of the Renaissance, Johann Baptist Zimmermann of the Baroque, Caspar David Friedrich and Carl Spitzweg of Romanticism, Max Liebermann of Impressionism and Max Ernst of Surrealism. Several German art groups formed in the 20th century; Die Brücke (The Bridge) and Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) influenced the development of expressionism in Munich and Berlin. The New Objectivity arose in response to expressionism during the Weimar Republic. After World War II, broad trends in German art include neo-expressionism and the New Leipzig School.
German designers became early leaders of modern product design. The Berlin Fashion Week and the fashion trade fair Bread & Butter are held twice a year.
Architectural contributions from Germany include the Carolingian and Ottonian styles, which were precursors of Romanesque. Brick Gothic is a distinctive medieval style that evolved in Germany. Also in Renaissance and Baroque art, regional and typically German elements evolved (e.g. Weser Renaissance).Vernacular architecture in Germany is often identified by its timber framing (Fachwerk) traditions and varies across regions, and among carpentry styles. When industrialisation spread across Europe, classicism and a distinctive style of historicism developed in Germany, sometimes referred to as Gründerzeit style. Expressionist architecture developed in the 1910s in Germany and influenced Art Deco and other modern styles. Germany was particularly important in the early modernist movement: it is the home of Werkbund initiated by Hermann Muthesius (New Objectivity), and of the Bauhaus movement founded by Walter Gropius.Ludwig Mies van der Rohe became one of the world's most renowned architects in the second half of the 20th century; he conceived of the glass façade skyscraper. Renowned contemporary architects and offices include Pritzker Prize winners Gottfried Böhm and Frei Otto.
Literature and philosophy
German literature can be traced back to the Middle Ages and the works of writers such as Walther von der Vogelweide and Wolfram von Eschenbach. Well-known German authors include Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and Theodor Fontane. The collections of folk tales published by the Brothers Grimm popularised German folklore on an international level. The Grimms also gathered and codified regional variants of the German language, grounding their work in historical principles; their Deutsches Wörterbuch, or German Dictionary, sometimes called the Grimm dictionary, was begun in 1838 and the first volumes published in 1854.
Influential authors of the 20th century include Gerhart Hauptmann, Thomas Mann, Hermann Hesse, Heinrich Böll, and Günter Grass. The German book market is the third-largest in the world, after the United States and China. The Frankfurt Book Fair is the most important in the world for international deals and trading, with a tradition spanning over 500 years. The Leipzig Book Fair also retains a major position in Europe.
German philosophy is historically significant: Gottfried Leibniz's contributions to rationalism; the enlightenment philosophy by Immanuel Kant; the establishment of classical German idealism by Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling; Arthur Schopenhauer's composition of metaphysical pessimism; the formulation of communist theory by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels; Friedrich Nietzsche's development of perspectivism; Gottlob Frege's contributions to the dawn of analytic philosophy; Martin Heidegger's works on Being; Oswald Spengler's historical philosophy; and the development of the Frankfurt School have all been very influential.
Media
The largest internationally operating media companies in Germany are Bertelsmann, Axel Springer SE and ProSiebenSat.1 Media. Germany's television market is the largest in Europe, with over 38 million TV households as of 2012. Around 90% of German households have cable or satellite TV, with a variety of free-to-view public and commercial channels. There are more than 300 public and private radio stations in Germany; Germany's national radio network is the Deutschlandradio and the public Deutsche Welle is the main German radio and television broadcaster in foreign languages. Germany's print market of newspapers and magazines is the largest in Europe. The papers with the highest circulation are Bild, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Die Welt. The largest magazines include ADAC Motorwelt and Der Spiegel. Germany has a large video gaming market, with over 34 million players nationwide. The Gamescom is the world's largest gaming convention.
German cinema has made major technical and artistic contributions to film. The first works of the Skladanowsky Brothers were shown to an audience in 1895. The renowned Babelsberg Studio in Potsdam was established in 1912, thus being the first large-scale film studio in the world. Early German cinema was particularly influential with German expressionists such as Robert Wiene and Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau. Director Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927) is referred to as the first major science-fiction film. After 1945, many of the films of the immediate post-war period can be characterised as Trümmerfilm (rubble film). East German film was dominated by the state-owned film studio DEFA, while the dominant genre in West Germany was the Heimatfilm ("homeland film"). During the 1970s and 1980s, New German Cinema directors such as Volker Schlöndorff, Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder brought West German auteur cinema to critical acclaim.
The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film ("Oscar") went to the German production The Tin Drum (Die Blechtrommel) in 1979, to Nowhere in Africa (Nirgendwo in Afrika) in 2002, and to The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen) in 2007. Various Germans won an Oscar for their performances in other films. The annual European Film Awards ceremony is held every other year in Berlin, home of the European Film Academy. The Berlin International Film Festival, known as "Berlinale", awarding the "Golden Bear" and held annually since 1951, is one of the world's leading film festivals. The "Lolas" are annually awarded in Berlin, at the German Film Awards.
Cuisine
German cuisine varies from region to region and often neighbouring regions share some culinary similarities, including with the southern regions of Bavaria and Swabia, Switzerland, and Austria. International varieties such as pizza, sushi, Chinese food, Greek food, Indian cuisine, and doner kebab are also popular.
Bread is a significant part of German cuisine and German bakeries produce about 600 main types of bread and 1,200 types of pastries and rolls (Brötchen).German cheeses account for about 22% of all cheese produced in Europe. In 2012 over 99% of all meat produced in Germany was either pork, chicken or beef. Germans produce their ubiquitous sausages in almost 1,500 varieties, including Bratwursts and Weisswursts.
The national alcoholic drink is beer. German beer consumption per person stands at 110 litres (24 imp gal; 29 US gal) in 2013 and remains among the highest in the world.German beer purity regulations date back to the 16th century.Wine has become popular in many parts of the country, especially close to German wine regions. In 2019, Germany was the ninth-largest wine producer in the world.
The 2018 Michelin Guide awarded eleven restaurants in Germany three stars, giving the country a cumulative total of 300 stars.
Sports
Football is the most popular sport in Germany. With more than 7 million official members, the German Football Association (Deutscher Fußball-Bund) is the largest single-sport organisation worldwide, and the German top league, the Bundesliga, attracts the second-highest average attendance of all professional sports leagues in the world. The German men's national football team won the FIFA World Cup in 1954, 1974, 1990, and 2014, the UEFA European Championship in 1972, 1980 and 1996, and the FIFA Confederations Cup in 2017.
Germany is one of the leading motor sports countries in the world. Constructors like BMW and Mercedes are prominent manufacturers in motor sport. Porsche has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans race 19 times, and Audi 13 times (as of April 2024[update]). The driver Michael Schumacher has set many motor sport records during his career, having won seven Formula One World Drivers' Championships.Sebastian Vettel is also among the most successful Formula One drivers of all time.
German athletes historically have been successful contenders in the Olympic Games, ranking third in an all-time Olympic Games medal count when combining East and West German medals prior to German reunification. In 1936 Berlin hosted the Summer Games and the Winter Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Munich hosted the Summer Games of 1972.
See also
- Outline of Germany
Notes
- From 1952 to 1990, the entire "Das Lied der Deutschen" was the national anthem, but only the third verse was sung on official occasions. Since 1991, the third verse alone has been the national anthem.
- Berlin is the sole constitutional capital and de jure seat of government, but the former provisional capital of the Federal Republic of Germany, Bonn, has the special title of "federal city" (Bundesstadt) and is the primary seat of six ministries.
- Danish, Low German, Sorbian, Romani, and Frisian are recognised by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
- The Bundesrat is sometimes referred to as an upper chamber of the German legislature. This is technically incorrect, since the German Constitution defines the Bundestag and Bundesrat as two separate legislative institutions. Hence, the federal legislature of Germany consists of two unicameral legislative institutions, not one bicameral parliament.
- Deutschland (German), German: [ˈdɔʏtʃlant]
- Bundesrepublik Deutschland (German), German: [ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant]
- Excluding Turkey, which only has 3% of its total territory in Europe along with some 10% of its population
- A migrant background was defined as having been born or having at least one parent born in a country from a prespecified list of countries with a significant Muslim population, or as having citizenship or having at least one parent with citizenship of one of these countries.
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Germany officially the Federal Republic of Germany is a country in Central Europe It lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south Its sixteen constituent states have a total population of over 82 million in an area of 357 596 km2 138 069 sq mi making it the most populous member state of the European Union It borders Denmark to the north Poland and the Czech Republic to the east Austria and Switzerland to the south and France Luxembourg Belgium and the Netherlands to the west The nation s capital and most populous city is Berlin and its main financial centre is Frankfurt the largest urban area is the Ruhr Federal Republic of GermanyBundesrepublik Deutschland German Flag Coat of armsAnthem Das Lied der Deutschen The Song of the Germans source source track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track Show globeShow map of EuropeLocation of Germany dark green in Europe light green amp dark grey in the European Union light green Capitaland largest cityBerlin 52 31 N 13 23 E 52 517 N 13 383 E 52 517 13 383Official languagesGermanDemonym s GermanGovernmentFederal parliamentary republic PresidentFrank Walter Steinmeier ChancellorOlaf ScholzLegislatureBundestag BundesratArea Total357 596 km2 138 069 sq mi 63rd Water 1 27Population Q1 2024 estimate83 465 411 2022 census82 719 540 19th Density236 km2 611 2 sq mi 58th GDP PPP 2024 estimate Total 6 017 trillion 6th Per capita 70 930 22nd GDP nominal 2024 estimate Total 4 710 trillion 3rd Per capita 55 521 17th Gini 2023 29 4 low inequalityHDI 2022 0 950 very high 7th CurrencyEuro EUR Time zoneUTC 1 CET Summer DST UTC 2 CEST Date formatDay month yearYear month dayDrives onRightCalling code 49ISO 3166 codeDEInternet TLD de Settlement in the territory of modern Germany began in the Lower Paleolithic with various tribes inhabiting it from the Neolithic onward chiefly the Celts Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity A region named Germania was documented before AD 100 In 962 the Kingdom of Germany formed the bulk of the Holy Roman Empire During the 16th century northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation Following the Napoleonic Wars and the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 the German Confederation was formed in 1815 Formal unification of Germany into the modern nation state commenced on 18 August 1866 with the North German Confederation Treaty establishing the Prussia led North German Confederation which became the German Empire in 1871 After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918 1919 the Empire was replaced by the Weimar Republic The Nazi rise to power in 1933 led to the establishment of a totalitarian dictatorship World War II and the Holocaust In 1949 after the war and a period of Allied occupation Germany was organized into two separate polities with limited sovereignty the Federal Republic of Germany or West Germany and the German Democratic Republic or East Germany Berlin continued its de jure Four Power status The Federal Republic of Germany was a founding member of the European Economic Community and the European Union while the German Democratic Republic was a communist Eastern Bloc state and member of the Warsaw Pact After the fall of the communist led government in East Germany German reunification saw the former East German states join the Federal Republic of Germany on 3 October 1990 Germany has been described as a great power with a strong economy it has the largest economy in Europe by nominal GDP As a global power in industrial scientific and technological sectors it is both the world s third largest exporter and importer As a developed country it offers social security a universal health care system and tuition free university education Germany is part of multiple international organizations and forums It has the third highest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites 54 of which 51 are cultural EtymologyThe English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine The German term Deutschland originally diutisciu land the German lands is derived from deutsch cf Dutch descended from Old High German diutisc of the people from diot or diota people originally used to distinguish the language of the common people from Latin and its Romance descendants This in turn descends from Proto Germanic thiudiskaz of the people see also the Latinised form Theodiscus derived from theudō descended from Proto Indo European tewteh people from which the word Teutons also originates HistoryPrehistory Pre human ancestors the Danuvius guggenmosi who were present in Germany over 11 million years ago are theorized to be among the earliest ones to walk on two legs Ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600 000 years ago The first non modern human fossil the Neanderthal was discovered in the Neander Valley Similarly dated evidence of modern humans has been found in the Swabian Jura including 42 000 year old flutes which are the oldest musical instruments ever found the 40 000 year old Lion Man and the 41 000 year old Venus of Hohle Fels The Nebra sky disk created during the European Bronze Age has been attributed to a German site Germanic tribes Roman frontier and the Frankish Empire Basilica of Constantine in Trier Augusta Treverorum built in the 4th century The Germanic peoples are thought to have emerged from the Jastorf culture during the Nordic Bronze Age or early Iron Age From southern Scandinavia and northern Germany they expanded south east and west coming into contact with the Celtic Iranian Baltic and Slavic tribes Southern Germany was inhabited by Celtic speaking peoples who belonged to the wider La Tene culture They were later assimilated by the Germanic conquerors Under Augustus the Roman Empire began to invade lands inhabited by the Germanic tribes creating a short lived Roman province of Germania between the Rhine and Elbe rivers In 9 AD three Roman legions were defeated by Arminius in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest The outcome of this battle dissuaded the Romans from their ambition of conquering Germania and is thus considered one of the most important events in European history By 100 AD when Tacitus wrote Germania Germanic tribes had settled along the Rhine and the Danube the Limes Germanicus occupying most of modern Germany However Baden Wurttemberg southern Bavaria southern Hesse and the western Rhineland had been incorporated into Roman provinces Around 260 Germanic peoples broke into Roman controlled lands After the invasion of the Huns in 375 and with the decline of Rome from 395 Germanic tribes moved farther southwest the Franks established the Frankish Kingdom and pushed east to subjugate Saxony and Bavaria Areas of what is today eastern Germany were inhabited by Western Slavic tribes East Francia and the Holy Roman Empire East Francia in 843Martin Luther born in Eisleben in 1483 challenged the indulgences of the Catholic Church giving rise to the Reformation and Protestantism Charlemagne founded the Carolingian Empire in 800 it was divided in 843 The eastern successor kingdom of East Francia stretched from the Rhine in the west to the Elbe river in the east and from the North Sea to the Alps Subsequently the Holy Roman Empire emerged from it The Ottonian rulers 919 1024 consolidated several major duchies In 996 Gregory V became the first German Pope appointed by his cousin Otto III whom he shortly after crowned Holy Roman Emperor The Holy Roman Empire absorbed northern Italy and Burgundy under the Salian emperors 1024 1125 although the emperors lost power through the Investiture controversy Under the Hohenstaufen emperors 1138 1254 German princes encouraged German settlement to the south and east Ostsiedlung Members of the Hanseatic League mostly north German towns prospered in the expansion of trade The population declined starting with the Great Famine in 1315 followed by the Black Death of 1348 1350 The Golden Bull issued in 1356 provided the constitutional structure of the Empire and codified the election of the emperor by seven prince electors Johannes Gutenberg introduced moveable type printing to Europe laying the basis for the democratization of knowledge In 1517 Martin Luther incited the Protestant Reformation and his translation of the Bible began the standardization of the language the 1555 Peace of Augsburg tolerated the Evangelical faith Lutheranism but also decreed that the faith of the prince was to be the faith of his subjects cuius regio eius religio From the Cologne War through the Thirty Years Wars 1618 1648 religious conflict devastated German lands and significantly reduced the population The Peace of Westphalia ended religious warfare among the Imperial Estates The legal system initiated by a series of Imperial Reforms approximately 1495 1555 provided for considerable local autonomy and a stronger Imperial Diet The House of Habsburg held the imperial crown from 1438 until the death of Charles VI in 1740 Following the War of the Austrian Succession and the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle Charles VI s daughter Maria Theresa ruled as empress consort when her husband Francis I became emperor From 1740 dualism between the Austrian Habsburg monarchy and the Kingdom of Prussia dominated German history In 1772 1793 and 1795 Prussia and Austria along with the Russian Empire agreed to the Partitions of Poland During the period of the French Revolutionary Wars the Napoleonic era and the subsequent final meeting of the Imperial Diet most of the Free Imperial Cities were annexed by dynastic territories the ecclesiastical territories were secularised and annexed In 1806 the Imperium was dissolved France Russia Prussia and the Habsburgs Austria competed for hegemony in the German states during the Napoleonic Wars German Confederation and Empire The German Confederation in 1815 Following the fall of Napoleon the Congress of Vienna founded the German Confederation a loose league of 39 sovereign states The appointment of the emperor of Austria as the permanent president reflected the Congress s rejection of Prussia s rising influence Disagreement within restoration politics partly led to the rise of liberal movements followed by new measures of repression by Austrian statesman Klemens von Metternich The Zollverein a tariff union furthered economic unity In light of revolutionary movements in Europe intellectuals and commoners started the revolutions of 1848 in the German states raising the German question 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 a temporary setback for the movement Berlin Palace the main residence of the House of Hohenzollern King William I appointed Otto von Bismarck as the Minister President of Prussia in 1862 Bismarck successfully concluded the war with Denmark in 1864 the subsequent decisive Prussian victory in the Austro Prussian War of 1866 enabled him to create the North German Confederation which excluded Austria After the defeat of France in the Franco Prussian War the German princes proclaimed the founding of the German Empire in 1871 Prussia was the dominant constituent state of the new empire the King of Prussia ruled as its Kaiser and Berlin became its capital In the Grunderzeit period following the unification of Germany Bismarck s foreign policy as chancellor of Germany secured Germany s position as a great nation by forging alliances and avoiding war However under Wilhelm II Germany took an imperialistic course leading to friction with neighbouring countries A dual alliance was created with the multinational realm of Austria Hungary the Triple Alliance of 1882 included Italy Britain France and Russia also concluded alliances to protect against Habsburg interference with Russian interests in the Balkans or German interference against France At the Berlin Conference in 1884 Germany claimed several colonies including German East Africa German South West Africa Togoland and Kamerun Later Germany further expanded its colonial empire to include holdings in the Pacific and China The colonial government in South West Africa present day Namibia from 1904 to 1907 carried out the annihilation of the local Herero and Namaqua peoples as punishment for an uprising this was the 20th century s first genocide The assassination of Austria s crown prince on 28 June 1914 provided the pretext for Austria Hungary to attack Serbia and trigger World War I After four years of warfare in which approximately two million German soldiers were killed a general armistice ended the fighting In the German Revolution November 1918 Wilhelm II and the ruling princes abdicated their positions and Germany was declared a federal republic Germany s new leadership signed the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 accepting defeat by the Allies Germans perceived the treaty as humiliating which was seen by historians as influential in the rise of Adolf Hitler Germany lost around 13 of its European territory and ceded all of its colonial possessions in Africa and the Pacific Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945A map of German occupied Europe in 1942 during World War II with areas controlled by the German Reich shown in bold black On 11 August 1919 President Friedrich Ebert signed the democratic Weimar Constitution Communists briefly seized power in Bavaria and a few larger cities while conservative elements failed to overthrow the central government in the 1920 Kapp Putsch The occupation of the Ruhr by Belgian and French troops and a period of hyperinflation followed A plan to restructure Germany s war reparations and the creation of a new currency in 1924 helped stabilise the government and ushered in the Golden Twenties an era of artistic innovation and liberal cultural life The worldwide Great Depression hit Germany in 1929 and by 1932 the unemployment rate had risen to 24 The Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler became the largest party in the Reichstag after the election of July 1932 and President Hindenburg appointed Hitler chancellor on 30 January 1933 After the Reichstag fire a decree abrogated basic civil rights and the first Nazi concentration camp opened On 23 March 1933 the Enabling Act gave Hitler unrestricted legislative power overriding the constitution and marked the beginning of Nazi Germany His government established a centralised totalitarian state withdrew from the League of Nations and dramatically increased the country s rearmament A government sponsored programme for economic renewal focused on public works the most famous of which was the Autobahn In 1935 the regime withdrew from the Treaty of Versailles and introduced the Nuremberg Laws which targeted Jews and other minorities Germany also reacquired control of the Saarland in 1935 remilitarised the Rhineland in 1936 annexed Austria in 1938 annexed the Sudetenland in 1938 with the Munich Agreement and in violation of the agreement occupied Czechoslovakia in March 1939 Kristallnacht Night of Broken Glass saw the burning of synagogues the destruction of Jewish businesses and mass arrests of Jewish people In August 1939 Hitler s government negotiated the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact that divided Eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence On 1 September 1939 Germany invaded Poland beginning World War II in Europe Britain and France declared war on Germany on 3 September In the spring of 1940 Germany conquered Denmark and Norway the Netherlands Belgium Luxembourg and France forcing the French government to sign an armistice The British repelled German air attacks in the Battle of Britain in the same year In 1941 German troops invaded Yugoslavia Greece and the Soviet Union By 1942 Germany and its allies controlled most of continental Europe and North Africa but following the Soviet victory at the Battle of Stalingrad the Allied reconquest of North Africa and invasion of Italy in 1943 German forces suffered repeated military defeats In 1944 the Soviets pushed into Eastern Europe the Western allies landed in France and entered Germany despite a final German counteroffensive Following Hitler s suicide during the Battle of Berlin Germany signed the surrender document on 8 May 1945 ending World War II in Europe and Nazi Germany Following the end of the war surviving Nazi officials were tried for war crimes at the Nuremberg trials In what later became known as the Holocaust the German government persecuted minorities including interning them in concentration and death camps across Europe The regime systematically murdered 6 million Jews at least 130 000 Romani 275 000 disabled thousands of Jehovah s Witnesses thousands of homosexuals and hundreds of thousands of political and religious opponents Nazi policies in German occupied countries resulted in the deaths of an estimated 2 7 million Poles 1 3 million Ukrainians 1 million Belarusians and 3 5 million Soviet prisoners of war German military casualties have been estimated at 5 3 million and around 900 000 German civilians died Around 12 million ethnic Germans were expelled from across Eastern Europe and Germany lost roughly one quarter of its pre war territory East and West Germany The Berlin Wall during its fall in 1989 and the Brandenburg Gate background was one of the first developments in the end of the Cold War leading ultimately to the dissolution of the Soviet Union After Nazi Germany surrendered the Allies de jure abolished the German state and partitioned Berlin and Germany s remaining territory into four occupation zones The western sectors controlled by France the United Kingdom and the United States were merged on 23 May 1949 to form the Federal Republic of Germany German Bundesrepublik Deutschland on 7 October 1949 the Soviet Zone became the German Democratic Republic GDR German Deutsche Demokratische Republik DDR They were informally known as West Germany and East Germany East Germany selected East Berlin as its capital while West Germany chose Bonn as a provisional capital to emphasise its stance that the two state solution was temporary West Germany was established as a federal parliamentary republic with a social market economy Starting in 1948 West Germany became a major recipient of reconstruction aid under the American Marshall Plan Konrad Adenauer was elected the first federal chancellor of Germany in 1949 The country enjoyed prolonged economic growth Wirtschaftswunder beginning in the early 1950s West Germany joined NATO in 1955 and was a founding member of the European Economic Community On 1 January 1957 the Saarland joined West Germany East Germany was an Eastern Bloc state under political and military control by the Soviet Union via occupation forces and the Warsaw Pact Although East Germany claimed to be a democracy political power was exercised solely by leading members Politburo of the communist controlled Socialist Unity Party of Germany supported by the Stasi an immense secret service While East German propaganda was based on the benefits of the GDR s social programmes and the alleged threat of a West German invasion many of its citizens looked to the West for freedom and prosperity The Berlin Wall built in 1961 prevented East German citizens from escaping to West Germany becoming a symbol of the Cold War Tensions between East and West Germany were reduced in the late 1960s by Chancellor Willy Brandt s Ostpolitik In 1989 Hungary decided to dismantle the Iron Curtain and open its border with Austria causing the emigration of thousands of East Germans to West Germany via Hungary and Austria This had devastating effects on the GDR where regular mass demonstrations received increasing support In an effort to help retain East Germany as a state the East German authorities eased border restrictions but this actually led to an acceleration of the Wende reform process culminating in the Two Plus Four Treaty under which Germany regained full sovereignty This permitted German reunification on 3 October 1990 with the accession of the five re established states of the former GDR The fall of the Wall in 1989 became a symbol of the Fall of Communism the dissolution of the Soviet Union German reunification and Die Wende the turning point Reunified Germany and the European Union United Germany was considered the enlarged continuation of West Germany so it retained its memberships in international organisations Based on the Berlin Bonn Act 1994 Berlin again became the capital of Germany while Bonn obtained the unique status of a Bundesstadt federal city retaining some federal ministries The relocation of the government was completed in 1999 and modernisation of the East German economy was scheduled to last until 2019 Since reunification Germany has taken a more active role in the European Union signing the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 and the Lisbon Treaty in 2007 and co founding the eurozone Germany sent a peacekeeping force to secure stability in the Balkans and sent German troops to Afghanistan as part of a NATO effort to provide security in that country after the ousting of the Taliban In the 2005 elections Angela Merkel became the first female chancellor In 2009 the German government approved a 50 billion stimulus plan Among the major German political projects of the early 21st century are the advancement of European integration the energy transition Energiewende for a sustainable energy supply the debt brake for balanced budgets measures to increase the fertility rate pronatalism and high tech strategies for the transition of the German economy summarised as Industry 4 0 During the 2015 European migrant crisis the country took in over a million refugees and migrants GeographyA physical map of Germany Germany is the seventh largest country in Europe It borders Denmark to the north Poland and Czechia to the east Austria and Switzerland to the south and France Luxembourg Belgium and the Netherlands to the west Germany is also bordered by the North Sea and at the north northeast by the Baltic Sea German territory covers 357 596 km2 138 069 sq mi Elevation ranges from the mountains of the Alps highest point the Zugspitze at 2 963 metres or 9 721 feet in the south to the shores of the North Sea Nordsee in the northwest and the Baltic Sea Ostsee in the northeast The forested uplands of central Germany and the lowlands of northern Germany lowest point in the municipality Neuendorf Sachsenbande Wilstermarsch at 3 54 metres or 11 6 feet below sea level are traversed by such major rivers as the Rhine Danube and Elbe Significant natural resources include iron ore coal potash timber lignite uranium copper natural gas salt and nickel Climate Most of Germany has a temperate climate ranging from oceanic in the north and west to continental in the east and southeast Winters range from the cold in the Southern Alps to cool and are generally overcast with limited precipitation while summers can vary from hot and dry to cool and rainy The northern regions have prevailing westerly winds that bring in moist air from the North Sea moderating the temperature and increasing precipitation Conversely the southeast regions have more extreme temperatures From February 2019 2020 average monthly temperatures in Germany ranged from a low of 3 3 C 37 9 F in January 2020 to a high of 19 8 C 67 6 F in June 2019 Average monthly precipitation ranged from 30 litres per square metre in February and April 2019 to 125 litres per square metre in February 2020 Average monthly hours of sunshine ranged from 45 in November 2019 to 300 in June 2019 Biodiversity Berchtesgaden National Park in Bavaria The territory of Germany can be divided into five terrestrial ecoregions Atlantic mixed forests Baltic mixed forests Central European mixed forests Western European broadleaf forests and Alps conifer and mixed forests As of 2016 update 51 of Germany s land area is devoted to agriculture while 30 is forested and 14 is covered by settlements or infrastructure Plants and animals include those generally common to Central Europe According to the National Forest Inventory beeches oaks and other deciduous trees constitute just over 40 of the forests roughly 60 are conifers particularly spruce and pine There are many species of ferns flowers fungi and mosses Wild animals include roe deer wild boar mouflon a subspecies of wild sheep fox badger hare and small numbers of the Eurasian beaver The blue cornflower was once a German national symbol The 16 national parks in Germany include the Jasmund National Park the Vorpommern Lagoon Area National Park the Muritz National Park the Wadden Sea National Parks the Harz National Park the Hainich National Park the Black Forest National Park the Saxon Switzerland National Park the Bavarian Forest National Park and the Berchtesgaden National Park In addition there are 17 Biosphere Reserves and 105 nature parks More than 400 zoos and animal parks operate in Germany The Berlin Zoo which opened in 1844 is the oldest in Germany and claims the most comprehensive collection of species in the world PoliticsFrank Walter Steinmeier president since 2017Olaf Scholz chancellor since 2021 Germany is a federal parliamentary representative democratic republic Federal legislative power is vested in the parliament consisting of the Bundestag Federal Diet and Bundesrat Federal Council which together form the legislative body The Bundestag is elected through direct elections using the mixed member proportional representation system The members of the Bundesrat represent and are appointed by the governments of the sixteen federated states The German political system operates under a framework laid out in the 1949 constitution known as the Grundgesetz Basic Law Amendments generally require a two thirds majority of both the Bundestag and the Bundesrat the fundamental principles of the constitution as expressed in the articles guaranteeing human dignity the separation of powers the federal structure and the rule of law are valid in perpetuity The president who has been Frank Walter Steinmeier since 2017 is the head of state and invested primarily with representative responsibilities and powers He is elected by the Bundesversammlung federal convention an institution consisting of the members of the Bundestag and an equal number of state delegates The second highest official in the German order of precedence is the Bundestagsprasident President of the Bundestag who is elected by the Bundestag and responsible for overseeing the daily sessions of the body The third highest official and the head of government is the chancellor who is appointed by the Bundesprasident after being elected by the party or coalition with the most seats in the Bundestag The chancellor who has been Olaf Scholz since 2021 is the head of government and exercises executive power through his Cabinet Since 1949 the party system has been dominated by the Christian Democratic Union and the Social Democratic Party of Germany So far every chancellor has been a member of one of these parties However the smaller liberal Free Democratic Party and the Alliance 90 The Greens have also been junior partners in coalition governments Since 2007 the democratic socialist party The Left has been a staple in the German Bundestag though they have never been part of the federal government In the 2017 German federal election the right wing populist Alternative for Germany gained enough votes to attain representation in the parliament for the first time Constituent states Germany is a federation and comprises sixteen constituent states which are collectively referred to as Lander Each state Land has its own constitution and is largely autonomous in regard to its internal organisation As of 2017 update Germany is divided into 401 districts Kreise at a municipal level these consist of 294 rural districts and 107 urban districts Lower Saxony Bremen Hamburg Mecklenburg Vorpommern Saxony Anhalt Saxony Brandenburg Berlin Thuringia Hesse North Rhine Westphalia Rhineland Palatinate Bavaria Baden Wurttemberg Saarland Schleswig Holstein State Capital Area Population Census 2022 Nominal GDP Nominal GDP per capita EUR 2023 km2 mi2 Billions EUR 2023 Share of GDP Baden Wurttemberg Stuttgart 35 751 13 804 11 104 040 615 071 14 92 54 339Bavaria Munich 70 550 27 240 13 038 724 768 469 18 65 57 343Berlin Berlin 892 344 3 596 999 193 219 4 69 51 209Brandenburg Potsdam 29 654 11 449 2 534 075 97 477 2 37 37 814Bremen Bremen 420 162 693 204 39 252 0 95 56 981Hamburg Hamburg 755 292 1 808 846 150 575 3 65 79 176Hesse Wiesbaden 21 115 8 153 6 207 278 351 139 8 52 54 806Mecklenburg Vorpommern Schwerin 23 214 8 963 1 570 817 59 217 1 44 36 335Lower Saxony Hanover 47 593 18 376 7 943 265 363 109 8 81 44 531North Rhine Westphalia Dusseldorf 34 113 13 171 17 890 489 839 084 20 36 46 194Rhineland Palatinate Mainz 19 854 7 666 4 094 169 174 249 4 23 41 797Saarland Saarbrucken 2 569 992 1 006 864 41 348 1 00 41 617Saxony Dresden 18 416 7 110 4 038 131 155 982 3 78 38 143Saxony Anhalt Magdeburg 20 452 7 897 2 146 443 78 38 1 90 35 911Schleswig Holstein Kiel 15 802 6 101 2 927 542 118 68 2 88 40 090Thuringia Erfurt 16 202 6 256 2 110 396 75 909 1 84 35 715Germany Berlin 357 386 137 988 82 719 540 4 121 16 100 48 750 Law Germany has a civil law system based on Roman law with some references to Germanic law The Bundesverfassungsgericht Federal Constitutional Court is the German Supreme Court responsible for constitutional matters with power of judicial review Germany s specialized supreme court system includes the inquisitorial Federal Court of Justice for civil and criminal cases along with the Federal Labour Court Federal Social Court Federal Fiscal Court and Federal Administrative Court for other matters Criminal and private laws are codified on the national level in the Strafgesetzbuch and the Burgerliches Gesetzbuch respectively The German penal system seeks the rehabilitation of the criminal and the protection of the public With the exceptions of petty crimes tried by a single professional judge and of serious political crimes all charges are adjudicated by mixed tribunals where lay judges Schoffen and professional judges preside together In 2016 Germany s murder rate stood at a low of 1 18 murders per 100 000 In 2018 the overall crime rate fell to its lowest since 1992 Same sex marriage has been legal in Germany since 2017 and LGBT rights are generally protected in the country Foreign relations Germany hosted the 2022 G7 summit at Schloss Elmau in Bavaria Germany has a network of 227 diplomatic missions abroad and maintains relations with more than 190 countries Germany is a member of NATO the OECD the G7 the G20 the World Bank and the IMF It has played an influential role in the European Union since its inception and has maintained a strong alliance with France and all neighbouring countries since 1990 Germany promotes the creation of a more unified European political economic and security apparatus The governments of Germany and the United States are close political allies Cultural ties and economic interests have crafted a bond between the two countries resulting in Atlanticism After 1990 Germany and Russia worked together to establish a strategic partnership in which energy development became one of the most important factors As a result of the cooperation Germany imported most of its natural gas and crude oil from Russia Germany s development policy functions as a distinct sector within its foreign policy framework It is formulated by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and carried out by the implementing organisations The German government sees development policy as a joint responsibility of the international community It was the world s second biggest aid donor in 2019 after the United States Military A German TPz Fuchs armoured personnel carrier Germany s military the Bundeswehr Federal Defence is organised into the Heer Army and special forces KSK Marine Navy Luftwaffe Air Force and Cyber und Informationsraum Cyber and Information Domain Service branches In absolute terms German military spending in 2023 was the seventh highest in the world In response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that German military expenditure would be increased past the NATO target of 2 along with a one time 2022 infusion of 100 billion euros representing almost double the 53 billion euro military budget for 2021 In 2023 military spending according to NATO criteria amounted to 73 1 billion or 1 64 of the country s GDP well below the NATO target of 2 In 2024 Germany reported 97 7 billion to NATO exceeding the NATO target of 2 at 2 12 of GDP As of May 2024 update the Bundeswehr has a strength of 180 215 active soldiers and 80 761 civilians Reservists are available to the armed forces and participate in defence exercises and deployments abroad Until 2011 military service was compulsory for men at age 18 but this has been officially suspended and replaced with a voluntary service Since 2001 women may serve in all functions of service without restriction According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Germany was the fifth largest exporter of major arms in the world from 2019 to 2023 In peacetime the Bundeswehr is commanded by the Minister of Defence In state of defence the Chancellor would become commander in chief of the Bundeswehr The role of the Bundeswehr is described in the Constitution of Germany as defensive only But after a ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court in 1994 the term defence has been defined not only to include protection of the borders of Germany but also crisis reaction and conflict prevention or more broadly as guarding the security of Germany anywhere in the world As of 2017 update the German military has about 3 600 troops stationed in foreign countries as part of international peacekeeping forces including about 1 200 supporting operations against Daesh 980 in the NATO led Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan and 800 in Kosovo EconomyFrankfurt a leading business and financial centre in Europe and the seat of the European Central Bank Germany has a social market economy with a highly skilled labour force a low level of corruption and a high level of innovation It is the world s third largest exporter and third largest importer and has the largest economy in Europe by nominal GDP which is also the world s third largest economy by nominal GDP and sixth largest by PPP adjusted GDP Its GDP per capita measured in purchasing power standards amounts to 121 of the EU27 average The country s service sector contributes approximately 69 of the total GDP industry 31 with Germany having the largest manufacturing sector in Europe and agriculture 1 as of 2017 update The unemployment rate published by Eurostat amounts to 3 2 as of January 2020 update which is the fourth lowest in the EU Germany is part of the European single market which represents more than 450 million consumers In 2017 the country accounted for 28 of the eurozone economy according to the International Monetary Fund Germany introduced the common European currency the euro in 2002 Its monetary policy is set by the European Central Bank which is based in Frankfurt The automotive industry in Germany is regarded as one of the most competitive and innovative in the world and is the sixth largest by production as of 2021 Germany is home to Volkswagen Group the world s second largest automotive manufacturer by vehicle production Then chancellor Angela Merkel at the 2013 Electromobility Summit in Berlin All new cars sold in Germany must be zero emission vehicles from 2035 The top ten exports of Germany are vehicles machinery chemical goods electronic products electrical equipments pharmaceuticals transport equipments basic metals food products and rubber and plastics Of the world s 500 largest stock market listed companies measured by revenue in 2023 the Fortune Global 500 32 are based in Germany 30 major Germany based companies are included in the DAX the German stock market index which is operated by Frankfurt Stock Exchange Well known international brands include Mercedes Benz BMW Volkswagen Audi Porsche Opel Siemens Allianz Adidas Puma Hugo Boss SAP SE Bosch and Deutsche Telekom Berlin is a hub for startup companies and has become the leading location for venture capital funded firms in the European Union Germany is recognised for its large portion of specialised small and medium enterprises known as the Mittelstand model These companies represent 48 of the global market leaders in their segments labelled hidden champions Research and development efforts form an integral part of the German economy with the country ranking fourth in research and development expenditure since 2005 In 2018 Germany ranked fourth globally in terms of number of science and engineering research papers published and third in the quality adjusted Nature Index in 2023 Research institutions in Germany include the Max Planck Society the Helmholtz Association the Fraunhofer Society and the Leibniz Association Germany is the largest contributor to the European Space Agency The country was ranked 9th in the Global Innovation Index in 2024 Infrastructure An ICE 3 train on the Cologne Frankfurt high speed rail line with operating speed up to 300 km h 190 mph With its central position in Europe Germany is a transport hub for the continent Its road network is among the densest in Europe The motorway Autobahn is widely known for having no general federally mandated speed limit for some classes of vehicles The Intercity Express or ICE train network serves major German cities as well as destinations in neighbouring countries with speeds up to 300 km h 190 mph The largest German airports are Frankfurt Airport Munich Airport and Berlin Brandenburg Airport The Port of Hamburg is the third busiest port in Europe and one of the twenty largest container ports in the world Windmills behind Lisberg Castle In 2019 update Germany was the world s seventh largest consumer of energy All nuclear power plants were phased out in 2023 Germany meets its power demands using 40 renewable sources and has been called an early leader in solar panels and offshore wind The country is committed to the Paris Agreement and several other treaties promoting biodiversity low emission standards and water management Germany s household recycling rate is among the highest in the world at around 65 The country s greenhouse gas emissions per capita were the ninth highest in the EU in 2018 update but these numbers have been trending downward The German energy transition Energiewende is the recognised move to a sustainable economy by means of energy efficiency and renewable energy with the country being called the world s first major renewable energy economy Germany has reduced its primary energy consumption by 11 between 1990 and 2015 and set itself goals of reducing it by 30 by 2030 and by 50 by 2050 Tourism Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria Domestic and international travel and tourism combined directly contribute over 105 3 billion to German GDP Including indirect and induced impacts the industry supports 4 2 million jobs As of 2022 Germany is the eighth most visited country Its most popular landmarks include Cologne Cathedral the Brandenburg Gate the Reichstag the Dresden Frauenkirche Neuschwanstein Castle Heidelberg Castle the Wartburg and Sanssouci Palace The Europa Park near Freiburg is Europe s second most popular theme park resort DemographicsWith a population of 84 7 million according to the 2023 German census Germany is the most populous country in the European Union the second most populous country in Europe after Russia and the nineteenth most populous country in the world Its population density stands at 227 inhabitants per square kilometre 590 inhabitants sq mi The fertility rate of 1 57 children born per woman 2022 estimates is below the replacement rate of 2 1 and is one of the lowest fertility rates in the world Since the 1970s Germany s death rate has exceeded its birth rate However Germany is witnessing increased birth rates and migration rates since the beginning of the 2010s Germany has the third oldest population in the world with an average age of 47 4 years A bilingual street sign in both German and Lower Sorbian in Cottbus Chosebuz in Brandenburg Four sizeable groups of people are referred to as national minorities because their ancestors have lived in their respective regions for centuries There is a Danish minority in the northernmost state of Schleswig Holstein the Sorbs a Slavic population are in the Lusatia region of Saxony and Brandenburg the Roma and Sinti live throughout the country and the Frisians are concentrated in Schleswig Holstein s western coast and in the north western part of Lower Saxony After the United States Germany is the second most popular immigration destination in the world In 2015 following the 2015 refugee crisis the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs listed Germany as host to the second highest number of international migrants worldwide about 5 or 12 million of all 244 million migrants Refugee crises have resulted in substantial population increases for example the major influx of Ukrainian immigrants following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine whereby over 1 06 million refugees from Ukraine were recorded in Germany as of April 2023 As of 2019 update Germany ranks seventh among EU countries in terms of the percentage of migrants in the country s population at 13 1 In 2022 there were 23 8 million people 28 7 percent of the total population who had a migration background Germany has a number of large cities There are 11 officially recognised metropolitan regions The country s largest city is Berlin while its largest urban area is the Ruhr vte Largest cities or towns in Germany Federal Statistical Office of Germany Destatis Census 2022 Rank Name State Pop Rank Name State Pop Berlin Hamburg 1 Berlin Berlin 3 596 999 11 Essen North Rhine Westphalia 571 039 Munich Cologne2 Hamburg Hamburg 1 808 846 12 Dresden Saxony 557 7823 Munich Bavaria 1 478 638 13 Nuremberg Bavaria 522 5544 Cologne North Rhine Westphalia 1 017 355 14 Hanover Lower Saxony 513 2915 Frankfurt Hesse 743 268 15 Duisburg North Rhine Westphalia 501 4156 Dusseldorf North Rhine Westphalia 611 258 16 Wuppertal North Rhine Westphalia 356 7687 Stuttgart Baden Wurttemberg 610 458 17 Bochum North Rhine Westphalia 354 2888 Leipzig Saxony 598 899 18 Bielefeld North Rhine Westphalia 330 0729 Dortmund North Rhine Westphalia 598 246 19 Bonn North Rhine Westphalia 321 54410 Bremen Bremen 575 071 20 Mannheim Baden Wurttemberg 313 693 Religion Cologne Cathedral a UNESCO World Heritage Site According to the 2022 census Christianity is the largest religion at 49 7 of the population 23 1 identified as Protestant and 25 1 as Catholic Islam is the second largest religion in the country In the 2011 census 1 9 of respondents 1 52 million people gave their religion as Islam but this figure is deemed unreliable because a disproportionate number of adherents of this faith and other religions such as Judaism are likely to have made use of their right not to answer the question In 2019 there were an estimated 5 3 5 6 million Muslims with a migrant background 6 4 6 7 of the population in addition to an unknown number of Muslims without a migrant background Most of the Muslims are Sunnis and Alevis from Turkey but there are a small number of Shi ites Ahmadiyyas and other denominations Other religions each comprise less than one percent of Germany s population In 2011 formal members of the Jewish community represented no more than 0 2 of the total German population and 60 of them resided in Berlin An estimated 80 to 90 percent of these Jews in Germany are Russian speaking immigrants from the former Soviet Union who came to Germany from the 1980s onwards A study in 2023 estimated that 46 2 of the population are not members of any religious organization or denomination Irreligion in Germany is strongest in the former East Germany which used to be predominantly Protestant before the enforcement of state atheism and in major metropolitan areas Languages German is the official and predominantly spoken language in Germany It is one of 24 official and working languages of the European Union and one of the three procedural languages of the European Commission alongside English and French German is the most widely spoken first language in the European Union with around 100 million native speakers Recognised native minority languages in Germany are Danish Low German Low Rhenish Sorbian Romani North Frisian and Saterland Frisian they are officially protected by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages The most used immigrant languages are Turkish Arabic Kurdish Polish Italian Greek Spanish Serbo Croatian Bulgarian and other Balkan languages as well as Russian Germans are typically multilingual 67 of German citizens claim to be able to communicate in at least one foreign language and 27 in at least two Education Heidelberg University Germany s oldest institution of higher learning and generally considered one of its most renowned Responsibility for educational supervision in Germany is primarily organised within the individual states Optional kindergarten education is provided for all children between three and six years old after which school attendance is compulsory for at least nine years depending on the state Primary education usually lasts for four to six years Secondary schooling is divided into tracks based on whether students pursue academic or vocational education A system of apprenticeship called Duale Ausbildung leads to a skilled qualification which is almost comparable to an academic degree It allows students in vocational training to learn in a company as well as in a state run trade school This model is well regarded and reproduced all around the world Most of the German universities are public institutions and students traditionally study without fee payment The general requirement for attending university is the Abitur According to an OECD report in 2014 Germany is the world s third leading destination for international study The established universities in Germany include some of the oldest in the world with Heidelberg University established in 1386 Leipzig University established in 1409 and the University of Rostock established in 1419 being the oldest The Humboldt University of Berlin founded in 1810 by the liberal educational reformer Wilhelm von Humboldt became the academic model for many Western universities In the contemporary era Germany has developed eleven Universities of Excellence Health The Hospital of the Holy Spirit in Lubeck established in 1286 is a precursor to modern hospitals Germany s system of hospitals called Krankenhauser dates from medieval times and today Germany has the world s oldest universal health care system dating from Bismarck s social legislation of the 1880s Since the 1880s reforms and provisions have ensured a balanced health care system The population is covered by a health insurance plan provided by statute with criteria allowing some groups to opt for a private health insurance contract According to the World Health Organization WHO Germany s health care system was 77 government funded and 23 privately funded in 2013 In 2014 Germany spent 11 3 of its GDP on health care Germany ranked 21st in the world in 2019 in life expectancy with 78 7 years for men and 84 8 years for women according to the WHO and it had a very low infant mortality rate 4 per 1 000 live births In 2019 update the principal cause of death was cardiovascular disease at 37 Obesity in Germany has been increasingly cited as a major health issue A 2014 study showed that 52 percent of the adult German population was overweight or obese CultureA German Christmas market in Dresden Culture in German states has been shaped by major intellectual and popular currents in Europe both religious and secular and its scientists writers and philosophers have played a significant role in the development of Western thought Global opinion polls from the BBC revealed that Germany is recognised for having the most positive influence in the world in 2013 and 2014 Germany is well known for such folk festivals as the Oktoberfest and Christmas customs which include Advent wreaths Christmas pageants Christmas trees Stollen cakes and other practices As of 2024 update UNESCO inscribed 54 properties in Germany on the World Heritage List There are a number of public holidays in Germany determined by each state 3 October has been a national day of Germany since 1990 celebrated as the Tag der Deutschen Einheit German Unity Day Music Ludwig van Beethoven one of the most famed composers of classical music was born in Bonn in 1770 German classical music includes works by some of the world s most well known composers Dieterich Buxtehude Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Friedrich Handel were influential composers of the Baroque period Ludwig van Beethoven was a crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras Carl Maria von Weber Felix Mendelssohn Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms were significant Romantic composers Richard Wagner was known for his operas Richard Strauss was a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras Karlheinz Stockhausen and Wolfgang Rihm are important composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries In 2013 Germany was the second largest music market in Europe and fourth largest in the world German popular music of the 20th and 21st centuries includes the movements of Neue Deutsche Welle pop Ostrock heavy metal rock punk pop rock indie Volksmusik folk music schlager pop and German hip hop German electronic music gained global influence with Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream pioneering in this genre DJs and artists of the techno and house music scenes of Germany have become well known e g Paul van Dyk Felix Jaehn Paul Kalkbrenner Robin Schulz and Scooter Art design and architecture C D Friedrich Wanderer above the Sea of Fog 1818 Franz Marc Roe Deer in the Forest 1914 German painters have influenced Western art Albrecht Durer Hans Holbein the Younger Matthias Grunewald and Lucas Cranach the Elder were important German artists of the Renaissance Johann Baptist Zimmermann of the Baroque Caspar David Friedrich and Carl Spitzweg of Romanticism Max Liebermann of Impressionism and Max Ernst of Surrealism Several German art groups formed in the 20th century Die Brucke The Bridge and Der Blaue Reiter The Blue Rider influenced the development of expressionism in Munich and Berlin The New Objectivity arose in response to expressionism during the Weimar Republic After World War II broad trends in German art include neo expressionism and the New Leipzig School German designers became early leaders of modern product design The Berlin Fashion Week and the fashion trade fair Bread amp Butter are held twice a year Architectural contributions from Germany include the Carolingian and Ottonian styles which were precursors of Romanesque Brick Gothic is a distinctive medieval style that evolved in Germany Also in Renaissance and Baroque art regional and typically German elements evolved e g Weser Renaissance Vernacular architecture in Germany is often identified by its timber framing Fachwerk traditions and varies across regions and among carpentry styles When industrialisation spread across Europe classicism and a distinctive style of historicism developed in Germany sometimes referred to as Grunderzeit style Expressionist architecture developed in the 1910s in Germany and influenced Art Deco and other modern styles Germany was particularly important in the early modernist movement it is the home of Werkbund initiated by Hermann Muthesius New Objectivity and of the Bauhaus movement founded by Walter Gropius Ludwig Mies van der Rohe became one of the world s most renowned architects in the second half of the 20th century he conceived of the glass facade skyscraper Renowned contemporary architects and offices include Pritzker Prize winners Gottfried Bohm and Frei Otto Literature and philosophy Brothers Grimm who collected popular German folk tales and published them in a collection German literature can be traced back to the Middle Ages and the works of writers such as Walther von der Vogelweide and Wolfram von Eschenbach Well known German authors include Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Friedrich Schiller Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and Theodor Fontane The collections of folk tales published by the Brothers Grimm popularised German folklore on an international level The Grimms also gathered and codified regional variants of the German language grounding their work in historical principles their Deutsches Worterbuch or German Dictionary sometimes called the Grimm dictionary was begun in 1838 and the first volumes published in 1854 Influential authors of the 20th century include Gerhart Hauptmann Thomas Mann Hermann Hesse Heinrich Boll and Gunter Grass The German book market is the third largest in the world after the United States and China The Frankfurt Book Fair is the most important in the world for international deals and trading with a tradition spanning over 500 years The Leipzig Book Fair also retains a major position in Europe German philosophy is historically significant Gottfried Leibniz s contributions to rationalism the enlightenment philosophy by Immanuel Kant the establishment of classical German idealism by Johann Gottlieb Fichte Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling Arthur Schopenhauer s composition of metaphysical pessimism the formulation of communist theory by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels Friedrich Nietzsche s development of perspectivism Gottlob Frege s contributions to the dawn of analytic philosophy Martin Heidegger s works on Being Oswald Spengler s historical philosophy and the development of the Frankfurt School have all been very influential Media Babelsberg Studio in Potsdam The largest internationally operating media companies in Germany are Bertelsmann Axel Springer SE and ProSiebenSat 1 Media Germany s television market is the largest in Europe with over 38 million TV households as of 2012 Around 90 of German households have cable or satellite TV with a variety of free to view public and commercial channels There are more than 300 public and private radio stations in Germany Germany s national radio network is the Deutschlandradio and the public Deutsche Welle is the main German radio and television broadcaster in foreign languages Germany s print market of newspapers and magazines is the largest in Europe The papers with the highest circulation are Bild Suddeutsche Zeitung Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Die Welt The largest magazines include ADAC Motorwelt and Der Spiegel Germany has a large video gaming market with over 34 million players nationwide The Gamescom is the world s largest gaming convention German cinema has made major technical and artistic contributions to film The first works of the Skladanowsky Brothers were shown to an audience in 1895 The renowned Babelsberg Studio in Potsdam was established in 1912 thus being the first large scale film studio in the world Early German cinema was particularly influential with German expressionists such as Robert Wiene and Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Director Fritz Lang s Metropolis 1927 is referred to as the first major science fiction film After 1945 many of the films of the immediate post war period can be characterised as Trummerfilm rubble film East German film was dominated by the state owned film studio DEFA while the dominant genre in West Germany was the Heimatfilm homeland film During the 1970s and 1980s New German Cinema directors such as Volker Schlondorff Werner Herzog Wim Wenders and Rainer Werner Fassbinder brought West German auteur cinema to critical acclaim The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar went to the German production The Tin Drum Die Blechtrommel in 1979 to Nowhere in Africa Nirgendwo in Afrika in 2002 and to The Lives of Others Das Leben der Anderen in 2007 Various Germans won an Oscar for their performances in other films The annual European Film Awards ceremony is held every other year in Berlin home of the European Film Academy The Berlin International Film Festival known as Berlinale awarding the Golden Bear and held annually since 1951 is one of the world s leading film festivals The Lolas are annually awarded in Berlin at the German Film Awards Cuisine Bavarian Bratwurst with mustard a pretzel and German beer German cuisine varies from region to region and often neighbouring regions share some culinary similarities including with the southern regions of Bavaria and Swabia Switzerland and Austria International varieties such as pizza sushi Chinese food Greek food Indian cuisine and doner kebab are also popular Bread is a significant part of German cuisine and German bakeries produce about 600 main types of bread and 1 200 types of pastries and rolls Brotchen German cheeses account for about 22 of all cheese produced in Europe In 2012 over 99 of all meat produced in Germany was either pork chicken or beef Germans produce their ubiquitous sausages in almost 1 500 varieties including Bratwursts and Weisswursts The national alcoholic drink is beer German beer consumption per person stands at 110 litres 24 imp gal 29 US gal in 2013 and remains among the highest in the world German beer purity regulations date back to the 16th century Wine has become popular in many parts of the country especially close to German wine regions In 2019 Germany was the ninth largest wine producer in the world The 2018 Michelin Guide awarded eleven restaurants in Germany three stars giving the country a cumulative total of 300 stars Sports The German national football team after winning the FIFA World Cup for the fourth time in 2014 Football is the most popular sport in Germany With more than 7 million official members the German Football Association Deutscher Fussball Bund is the largest single sport organisation worldwide and the German top league the Bundesliga attracts the second highest average attendance of all professional sports leagues in the world The German men s national football team won the FIFA World Cup in 1954 1974 1990 and 2014 the UEFA European Championship in 1972 1980 and 1996 and the FIFA Confederations Cup in 2017 Germany is one of the leading motor sports countries in the world Constructors like BMW and Mercedes are prominent manufacturers in motor sport Porsche has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans race 19 times and Audi 13 times as of April 2024 update The driver Michael Schumacher has set many motor sport records during his career having won seven Formula One World Drivers Championships Sebastian Vettel is also among the most successful Formula One drivers of all time German athletes historically have been successful contenders in the Olympic Games ranking third in an all time Olympic Games medal count when combining East and West German medals prior to German reunification In 1936 Berlin hosted the Summer Games and the Winter Games in Garmisch Partenkirchen Munich hosted the Summer Games of 1972 See alsoGermany portalEurope portalOutline of GermanyNotesFrom 1952 to 1990 the entire Das Lied der Deutschen was the national anthem but only the third verse was sung on official occasions Since 1991 the third verse alone has been the national anthem Berlin is the sole constitutional capital and de jure seat of government but the former provisional capital of the Federal Republic of Germany Bonn has the special title of federal city Bundesstadt and is the primary seat of six ministries Danish Low German Sorbian Romani and Frisian are recognised by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages The Bundesrat is sometimes referred to as an upper chamber of the German legislature This is technically incorrect since the German Constitution defines the Bundestag and Bundesrat as two separate legislative institutions Hence the federal legislature of Germany consists of two unicameral legislative institutions not one bicameral parliament Deutschland German German ˈdɔʏtʃlant Bundesrepublik Deutschland German German ˈbʊndesʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant Excluding Turkey which only has 3 of its total territory in Europe along with some 10 of its population A migrant background was defined as 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