Germany. History, Politics, and Economy

The Federal Republic of Germany occupies an area of 357,000 square kilometers in central Europe. It is bounded by nine countries and two bodies of water: by Poland and the Czech Republic in the east, by Austria and Switzerland in the south, by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands in the west, and by Denmark, the North Sea, and the Baltic Sea in the north. The official language is High (or Standard) German, but regional variations and dialects are widespread.

Germany is Europe's second-most populated country behind Russia. Its population density, almost 235 per square kilometer, is among the highest in Europe. Germany has only three cities with more than 1 million inhabitants: Berlin (3.5 million), the nation's capital and largest city; Hamburg (1.65 million), a major port city on the mouth of the Elbe River; and Munich (1.2 million), the fast-growing capital of Bavaria, Germany's largest state.

The main street and old gate house of the nucleated farm town of Uehlfeld in Bavaria in 1992. The gate house is all that remains of the wall that protected the town in the Middle Ages

Most Germans live in small - (100,000 to 500,000) and medium-sized (500,000 to 1 million) cities situated close to each other. The Ruhr region, in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, is a network of cities that includes Cologne, Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Essen, and Dortmund, with a combined population of over 8 million. Other important networks include Frankfurt-M аіnz-Wiesbaden and Mannheim Ludwigshafen. Bremen, Hannover, Stuttgart, Leipzig, and Dresden are also important urban-industrial centers.

The birthplace of Martin Luther (1483-1546), Germany remains a religiously divided country, with around 40 percent professing Protestantism and 35 percent Catholicism. Most Protestants live north of the Main River, most Catholics south of it. Before Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) seized power in 1933, Germany had a vibrant Jewish community of around 600,000, about 1 percent of the country's population.

Today that population stands at around sixty thousand. Germany has a fast-growing Muslim population; many arc of Turkish descent (2.4 percent of the population), who came to the country as part of the guest worker (Gastarbeiter) program.

History, Politics, and Economy. The terms German and Germany are of Latin derivation. Germans use the terms Deutsch and Deutschland. Historically, Germans lacked political unity and well- defined borders; language and ethnicity ("blood lines") functioned as the main cultural unifiers. Before the nineteenth century Germany was essentially the same as the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation (962-1806), which was under the tutelage of the Vienna-based Habsburg dynasty for over four hundred years. Thereafter, it became essentially the German empire (1871-1945), ruled from Berlin by Prussia's Hohenzollern dynasty.

The German empire (or "Second Reich" to distinguish it from the Holy Roman Empire) was characterized by rapid industrial growth, socialist-led labor unrest, and rabid militarism, especially after William II (1859-1941) assumed the emperor's throne in 1888.

Germany's defeat in World War I (1914-1918) was followed by a brief period of extreme political and economic instability under the Weimar Republic (1919-1933), then the establishment of Hitler's Third Reich (1933-1945). The Nazi goal of conquering Europe and exterminating its Jewish population came close to success during World War П (1939-1945) until thwarted by a combination of Soviet, American, and British forces.

The Cold War politics of the post-1945 period led to the division of Germany into two states: the Federal Republic of Germany (1949-), also known as West Germany, and the German Democratic Republic (19491990), also known as East Germany. A satellite state of the Soviet Union, East Germany collapsed in the wake of Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms and was absorbed by West Germany in 1990.

Today Germany is a federal republic consisting of sixteen Hinder (thirteen states and three city-states) with a parliamentary form of government and a bicameral legislature. The powerful Bundestag (federal diet) consists of around 670 delegates (the number varies) elected to four-year terms. The Bundestag selects the chancellor, the country's most powerful political figure, and passes all legislation.

The less-powerful Bundesrat (federal council), composed of around sixty-eight delegates elected by the states, has veto power only over legislation that relates to education, culture, law enforcement, and other state prerogatives. Germany also has a largely ceremonial president, elected to a five-year term by the Bundestag and representatives of the state governments. Tire Federal Constitutional Court, composed of sixteen justices elected to twelve-year terms, has the power to declare legislation unconstitutional.

Germany's two largest political parties—the conservative Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) and the left-leaning Sozialdemokratische Partei Duetschlands (Social Democratic Party or SPD) —have dominated national, state, and local politics since 1949. The Liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) has frequently been part of the governing coalition, more often with the CDU/CSU than with the SPD.

Founded in 1979, the environmentalist alliance '90/Greens (Green Party) has been represented in the Bundestag since 1983. The Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), successor to the Socialist Unity Party (Communist Party) of the former East Germany, has also enjoyed a modicum of electoral success since 1990. Parties that receive less than 5 percent of the vote are not represented in the Bundestag.

Germany's economy is the strongest in Europe and the third strongest in the world behind those of the United States and Japan. The country generally lacks natural resources, although it does possess extensive deposits of coal and lignite as well as modest deposits of iron ore, natural gas, timber, uranium, copper, potash, and nickel.

Its export-driven economy depends on the production of high-quality manufactured goods, including motor vehicles (DaimlerChrysler, BMW, Audi, Volkswagen, Opel), chemicals (Bayer, BASF, Aventis, Agfa), and machine tools and electronics (Bosch, Siemens), It also possesses an extensive transportation network that includes an efficient railway, high-speed autobahns, navigable rivers (Rhine, Elbe), and large seaports (Hamburg, Bremen, Bremerhaven).

Germany has an abundance of arable land, but agriculture accounts for just over I percent of its gross national product. Crops include barley, oats, wheat, sugar beets, vegetables, fruits, and wine grapes. Cattle, pigs, sheep, and poultry are the principal livestock.