Germany
Webpages concerning "Germany"
|
The contents has been generating using technology developed by scientec.
Wikipedia-Article "Germany"
|
|||||
| Motto: Unity and Justice and Freedom
(German: Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit) |
|||||
| Anthem: The third stanza of Das Lied der Deutschen | |||||
 |
|||||
| Capital | Berlin |
||||
| Largest city | Berlin | ||||
| Official languages | German 1 | ||||
| Government | Federal Republic Horst Köhler Angela Merkel (CDU) Franz Müntefering (SPD) |
||||
| Formation - Division - Reunification |
18 January 1871 23 May 1949 3 October 1990 |
||||
| Area • Total • Water (%) |
357,026 km² (61st) 2.416 |
||||
| Population • 2005 est. • 2000 census • Density |
82,443,000 (14th) N/A 230/km² (34th) |
||||
| GDP (PPP) • Total • Per capita |
2005 estimate $2.498 trillion (5th) $30,150 (17th) |
||||
| HDI (2003) | 0.930 (20th) – high | ||||
| Currency | Euro (€) 2 (EUR) |
||||
| Time zone • Summer (DST) |
CET (UTC+1) CEST (UTC+2) |
||||
| Internet TLD | .de | ||||
| Calling code | +49 |
||||
| 1 Danish, Low German, Sorbian, Romany and Frisian are officially recognised and protected as minority languages by the ECRML.
2 Prior to 2002: Deutsche Mark |
|||||
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (German: Deutschland or Bundesrepublik Deutschland listen ▶(?)) is one of the world's leading industrialised countries, located in Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea, to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic, to the south by Austria and Switzerland, and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Germany is a democratic federal parliamentary nation, made up of 16 (federal) states (Bundes-) Länder, which in certain spheres act independently of the Federation. Germany was formed in 1871, after the Franco-Prussian War, which united a scattering of independent states into an empire.
The Federal Republic of Germany is a member state of the United Nations, NATO, the G8 and the G4 nations, and is a founding member of what is now the European Union. It is the European Union's most populous and most economically powerful member.
Contents |
History
- Main article: History of Germany
The state now known as Germany was unified as a modern nation-state only in 1871, when the German Empire, dominated by the Kingdom of Prussia, was forged. This was the second German Reich, usually translated as "empire", but also meaning "kingdom", "domain" or "realm." (Königreich means "kingdom", and Reich- as in Reichskanzler was analogous to Royal- or calling the State the Crown in Commonwealth countries. Today the analogous entity is called der Bund, as in Bundeskanzler (Federal Chancellor).)
The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation (843–1806)
The medieval empire – known for much of its existence as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation but also as the "Holy Roman Empire" – stemmed from a division of the Carolingian Empire in 843, which was founded by Charlemagne on 25 December 800, and existed in varying forms until 1806, its territory stretching from the river Eider in the north to the Mediterranean coast in the south. During this period of almost a thousand years, the Germans expanded their influence successfully with the help of the Roman Catholic Church, the Teutonic Order and the Hanseatic League to the East. In 1530, the attempt of the Protestant Reformation of Catholicism turned out to have failed, and a separate Protestant church was acknowledged as new state religion in many states of Germany. This led to inter-German strife, the Thirty Years War (1618) and finally the Peace of Westphalia (1648), that resulted in a drastically enfeebled and politically disunited Germany, unable to resist the stroke of the Napoleonic Wars, during which the Imperium was overrun and dissolved (1806). The lasting effect of the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire came to be the division between Austria, formerly the leading state of Germany, from the more western and northern parts.
Restoration and revolution (1814–1871)
Following Napoleon's fall, the Congress of Vienna convened in 1814 in order to restructure Europe. In Germany, the German Confederation was founded, a loose league of 39 sovereign states. Disagreement with the restoration politics partly led to the lifestyle called Biedermeier and to intellectual liberal movements, which demanded unity and freedom during the Vormärz epoch each followed by a measure of Metternich repressing the liberal agitation. The Zollverein, a tariff union, profoundly furthered economic unity in the German states.
The states also started to be shaped by the Industrial Revolution, which was the initial step of the growing industrialisation in Europe and contributed to a wave of poverty in it, causing social uprisings. In light of a series of revolutionary movements in Europe, which in France successfully established a republic, intellectuals and common people started the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states. The monarchs initially yielded to the revolutionaries' liberal demands, and an intellectual National Assembly was elected to draw up a constitution for the new Germany, completed in 1849. However, the Prussian king Frederick William IV, who was offered the title of Emperor but with a loss of power, rejected the crown and the constitution. This prompted the demise of the national assembly along with most merits of the revolution. The restoration set in again lasting until 1858.
In 1862, conflict between the Prussian King Wilhelm I and the increasingly liberal parliament erupted over military reforms. The king appointed Otto von Bismarck the new Prime Minister of Prussia. Bismarck used the desire for national unification to further the interests of the Prussian monarchy. He successfully waged war on Denmark, on Austria and, finally, on France.
German Empire (1871–1918)
- Main article: German Empire
After the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, the German Empire (Deutsches Kaiserreich) was proclaimed in Versailles on 18 January 1871. Virtually a result of the wars, the empire was a unification of the scattered parts of Germany but without Austria—Kleindeutschland. Later, colonies were established. After 1888, the Year of Three Emperors, Bismarck was forced to quit by the new emperor, young William II, in 1890 due to political and personal differences. The emperor's foreign policy was opposed to that of Bismarck, who had established a system of alliances in the era called Gründerzeit, securing Germany's position as a great nation and avoiding war for decades. Under Wilhelm II, however, Germany took an imperialistic course, not unlike other powers, but it led to friction with neighbouring countries. Most alliances in which Germany had been previously involved were not renewed, and new alliances excluded the country. Austria and Germany became increasingly isolated.
Although not one of the main causes, the assassination of Austria's crown prince triggered World War I on 28 July 1914, which saw Germany as part of the unsuccessful Central Powers in the second-bloodiest conflict of all time against the Allied Powers. In November 1918, the second German Revolution broke out, and Emperor William II and all German ruling princes abdicated. An armistice was signed on November 11, putting an end to the war. Germany was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, whose unexpectedly high demands were perceived as humiliating in Germany and as a continuation of the war by other means.
Weimar Republic (1919–1933)
- Main article: Weimar Republic
After the German Revolution in November 1918, a Republic was proclaimed. That year, the German Communist Party was established by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, and in January 1919 the German Workers Party, later known as the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers Party, NSDAP, "Nazis"). On 11 August 1919, the Weimar Constitution came into effect. 1920s Berlin was a vibrant and exciting city that flourished with the activity of artists and intellectuals, many of them Jews, during the Weimar Republic; many considered it to be the cultural capital of Europe during this time.
In a climate of economic hardship due to both the world wide Great Depression and the harsh peace conditions dictated by the Treaty of Versailles, and growing tired with a long succession of more or less unstable governments and continuous coalition changes, the political masses in Germany increasingly lacked identification with their political system of parliamentary democracy. This was exacerbated by a wide-spread right-wing (monarchist, völkische, and nazi) Dolchstoßlegende, a political myth which claimed the German Revolution as the main reason why Germany had lost the war, decried the Revolutionists as traitors (Novemberverbrecher = November criminals) and the political system born of the Revolution as illegitimate. On the other hand, radical left-wing communists such as the Spartacist League had wanted to abolish what they perceived as a "capitalist rule" in favor of a "Räterepublik" and were thus also in opposition to the existing form of government.
During the years following the Revolution, German voters increasingly supported anti-democratic parties, both right- (monarchists, Nazis) and left-wing (communists). In the two extraordinary elections of 1932, the Nazis got 37.2% and 33.0%, the communists got 17% in the latter election - half of the parliament were actually anti-democrats, not including smaller parties with questionable credentials in this respect. As a result, democrats like the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) were a minority.
At the beginning of the 1930s, Germany was not far from a civil war. Paramilitary troops, which were set up by several parties, intimidated voters and seeded violence and anger among the public, who suffered from high unemployment and poverty.
On 30 January 1933, President von Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler Chancellor of Germany.
Third Reich (1933–1945)
- Main article: Nazi Germany
On 27 February, the Reichstag was set on fire. Basic rights were abrogated under an emergency decree. An Enabling Act gave Hitler's government full legislative power. A centralised totalitarian state was established, no longer based on the rule of democratic law.
The new regime made Germany a one-party state by outlawing all oppositional parties and repressing the different-minded parts of the public with the party's own organisations SA and SS, as well as the newly founded state security police Gestapo.
Industry was closely regulated with quotas and requirements in order to shift the economy towards a war production base. Massive public work projects and extensive deficit spending by the state helped to significantly lower the high unemployment rate. This and large welfare programmes are said to be the main factors that kept support of the public even late in the war.
In 1936, German troops entered the demilitarised Rhineland in an attempt to rebuild national self-esteem. Emboldened, Hitler followed from 1938 onwards a policy of expansionism to establish a "Greater Germany", starting with the forced unification with Austria and the annexation of the Sudetes region in Bohemia from Czechoslovakia. The British Prime Minister realised that his policies of appeasement towards Germany had failed. To avoid a two-front war, Hitler concluded the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with the Soviet Union. In 1939 Germany launched a Blitzkrieg against Poland, which, following British and French war declarations, began World War II.
Germany quickly gained direct or indirect control of large parts of Europe. In 1941, Hitler broke the pact with the Soviet Union by opening the Eastern Front. Later the United States entered the war in support of the United Kingdom and France, and by 1943 the Soviet Union started to push Germany back, too. On 8 May 1945, Germany surrendered after the Red Army occupied Berlin, where Hitler had committed suicide a week earlier.
Before and during the Second World War, Nazi Germany pursued the persecution and genocide of the Jews, as well as other nations they considered subhuman, homosexuals and political prisoners throughout occupied Europe. Persecution of the Jews began from the time the Nazis came to power, and became increasingly severe, as in 1935 the Nürnberger Rassengesetze (Nuremberg race laws) came into force, which deprived Jews of their German citizenship and thus of most rights. This pre-war persecution culminated in the so called Reichskristallnacht on 9 November 1938, a pogrom in which Jews and Jewish-owned businesses were attacked across Germany and Austria.
Following the beginning of the war, Germany began the systematic genocide of the Jews, the Holocaust, which resulted in about six million Jewish deaths, and up to five million non-Jewish people killed. The Holocaust was carried out throughout the areas Germany occupied, and included the use of special killing squads and extermination camps in a massive and centrally-organized effort to murder every possible member of the populations targeted by the Nazis.
Division and reunification (1945–1990)
- Main article: History of Germany since 1945
The war resulted in the death of several million Germans, large territorial losses and the expulsion of Germans from Eastern Germany and other parts of Eastern Europe. All major and many smaller German cities lay in ruins. Germany and Berlin were occupied and partitioned by the Allies into four military occupation zones – French in the south-west, British in the north-west, American in the south, and Soviet in the east.
On 23 May 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland) was established on the territory of the Western occupied zones, with Bonn as its capital, and declared "fully sovereign" on May 5, 1955. On 7 October 1949 the Soviet Zone was established as the German Democratic Republic (GDR, Deutsche Demokratische Republik), with East Berlin as its capital. In English the two states were known informally as "West Germany" and "East Germany" respectively. The former German capital, Berlin, was a special case, being divided into East Berlin and West Berlin, with West Berlin completely surrounded by East German territory.
West Germany was allied with the United States, the UK and France. Established as a liberal parliamentary republic with a "social market economy," the country enjoyed prolonged economic growth following the currency reform of June 1948 and U.S. assistance through the Marshall Plan aid (1948-1951).
East Germany was at first occupied by and later (May 1955) allied with the USSR. An authoritarian country with a Soviet-style command economy, East Germany soon became the richest, most advanced country in the Eastern bloc, but many of its citizens looked to the West for political freedoms and economic prosperity. The flight of growing numbers of East Germans to non-communist countries via West Berlin led on 13 August 1961, to East Germany erecting the Berlin Wall and a fortified border to West Germany.
Relations between East Germany and West Germany remained icy until the Western Chancellor Willy Brandt launched a highly controversial rapprochement with the East European communist states (Ostpolitik) in the 1970s, culminating in the Warschauer Kniefall on 7 December 1970.
During the summer of 1989, rapid changes took place in East Germany, which ultimately led to German reunification. Growing numbers of East Germans emigrated to West Germany via Hungary after Hungary's reformist government opened its borders. Thousands of East Germans also tried to reach the West by staging sit-ins at West German diplomatic facilities in other East European capitals, especially in Warsaw and Prague. The exodus generated demands within East Germany for political change, and mass demonstrations with eventually hundreds of thousands of people in several cities – particularly in Leipzig – continued to grow.
Faced with civil unrest, East German leader Erich Honecker was forced to resign in October, and on 9 November, East German authorities unexpectedly allowed East German citizens to enter West Berlin and West Germany. Hundreds of thousands of people took advantage of the opportunity; new crossing points were opened in the Berlin Wall and along the border with West Germany. This led to the acceleration of the process of reforms in East Germany that ended with the German reunification that came into force on 3 October 1990.
Politics
- Main article: Politics of Germany
Legal system
- Main article: Judiciary of Germany
Germany has a civil or statute law system based ultimately on Roman law. Legislative power is divided between the Federation and the individual federated states. While criminal law and private law have seen codifications on the national level (in the Strafgesetzbuch and the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch respectively), no such unifying codification exists in administrative law where a lot of the fundamental matters remain in the jurisdiction of the individual federated states. There are a series of specialist supreme courts; for civil and criminal cases the highest court of appeal is the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Court of Justice), located in Karlsruhe. The courtroom style is inquisitorial.
The Federal Constitutional (Bundesverfassungsgericht), also located in Karlsruhe, is the German Supreme Court responsible for constitutional matters, with power of judicial review. It acts as the highest legal authority and ensures that legislative and judicial practice conforms with the Basic Law. It acts independently of the other state bodies but cannot act on its own behalf.
Foreign Relations
- Main article: Foreign relations of Germany
Germany plays a leading role in the European Union, having a strong alliance with France. Germany is at the forefront of European states seeking to advance the creation of a more unified and capable European political, defence and security apparatus.
Since its establishment on 23 May 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany kept a notably low profile in international relations. In 1999, however, on the occasion of the NATO war against Yugoslavia, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's government broke convention by sending German troops into combat for the first time since World War II.
In 2003, Germany and France were leaders in the coalition of nations opposing the US-led war in Iraq. Nevertheless, the German government has offered help to the reconstruction efforts in Iraq, but only outside of the war-torn country, mainly by training Iraqi military and police personnel.
Despite the recent disagreement between Germany and the U.S. concerning the Bush Administration's foreign policy, Germany and the United States have been close allies ever since the end of the Second World War. The Marshall plan and continued U.S. support during the rebuilding process after World War II, as well as the significant influence American culture has had on German culture, have crafted a strong bond between Germany and the U.S. that lasts until this day. Not only do the United States and Germany share many cultural similarities but they are also deeply economically interdependent. 8.8% of all German exports are U.S. bound, and U.S.-German trade according to the U.S. Census Bureau totaled $108.2 billion for 2004. An illustration of the strong economic relations between the U.S. and Germany may be the fact that 18.3% of all cars sold in the U.S. were manufactured by German car manufacturers.
Together with Japan, India, and Brazil, Germany is currently seeking a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
Armed Forces
Germany's military, the Bundeswehr, is a defence force with Heer (Army), Deutsche Marine (Navy), Luftwaffe (Air Force), Zentraler Sanitätsdienst (Central Medical Services) and Streitkräftebasis (Joint Service Support Command) branches. It employs some 250,000 personnel, 50,000 of whom are 18-23-year-old men on national duty for currently at least 9 months. In peacetime, the Bundeswehr is commanded by the Minister of Defence, currently Franz Josef Jung (since 2005). If Germany is at war, the Chancellor becomes commander in chief of the German 'Bundeswehr'.
The military budget has not kept up with the Bundeswehr's mission, which has changed dramatically from protecting Germany's borders against a Soviet invasion into a mobile unit deployed around the world. The funding levels for the Bundeswehr have actually been falling since 1990, when military spending amounted to about 3.5 per cent of gross domestic product. Today, defence spending equals about 1.2 per cent of German GDP, compared to the NATO average of 2.3 per cent and the United States' more than 4 per cent. Critics argue that the current budget of €24.4 billion is too small to finance the necessary transformation of the Bundeswehr into a well-equipped force ready for NATO and UN led missions abroad. Opponents argue that the transformation from a manpower based army securing the Eastern border to a modernized force with less soldiers kept in pay is duly reflected in a lower budget.
Currently, the German military has about 1,180 troops stationed in Bosnia-Herzegovina; 2,650 Bundeswehr soldiers are serving in Kosovo; 3,900 Bundeswehr troops are assisting the US anti-terrorism operation called Enduring Freedom off the Horn of Africa. In Afghanistan, 4,500 German troops currently make up the largest contingent of the NATO-led ISAF force.
Energy policy
- See also: Nuclear power phase-out & Nuclear energy policy
In 2000, the German SPD-led government along with Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (Alliance '90/The Greens), officially announced its intention to phase out the use of nuclear energy. Jürgen Trittin (from the German Greens) as the Minister of Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, reached an agreement with energy companies on the gradual shut down of the country's nineteen nuclear power plants and a cessation of civil usage of nuclear power by 2020.
In 1999, electricity production in Germany was made up by coal (47%), nuclear power (30%), natural gas (14%), renewable sources (including hydro) (6%), and oil (2%) ([1]). As for energy consumption, oil accounted for 41% of the total. The German government declaring climate protection as a key policy issue, announced a carbon dioxide reduction target by the year 2005 compared to 1990 by 25% ([2], pdf).
In 2005, the German government reached an agreement with Russia in building a gas pipeline at the bottom of the Baltic sea directly from Russia to Germany.
Geography
- Main article: Geography of Germany
States (Länder)
- Main article: States of Germany
Germany is divided into sixteen federal states (in German called Länder, singular Land; though more commonly Bundesländer, singular Bundesland). It is further subdivided into 439 districts (Kreise) and cities (kreisfreie Städte) (2004).
| In English | Auf Deutsch | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Federal State | Capital | Bundesland | Hauptstadt | |
| 1 | Baden-Württemberg | Stuttgart | Baden-Württemberg | Stuttgart |
| 2 | (Free State of) Bavaria | Munich | (Freistaat) Bayern | München |
| 3 | Berlin | Berlin | Berlin | Berlin |
| 4 | Brandenburg | Potsdam | Brandenburg | Potsdam |
| 5 | Bremen | Bremen | (Freie Hansestadt) Bremen | Bremen |
| 6 | Hamburg | Hamburg | (Freie und Hansestadt) Hamburg | Hamburg |
| 7 | Hesse | Wiesbaden | Hessen | Wiesbaden |
| 8 | Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania | Schwerin | Mecklenburg-Vorpommern | Schwerin |
| 9 | Lower Saxony | Hanover | Niedersachsen | Hannover |
| 10 | North Rhine-Westphalia | Düsseldorf | Nordrhein-Westfalen | Düsseldorf |
| 11 | Rhineland-Palatinate | Mainz | Rheinland-Pfalz | Mainz |
| 12 | Saarland | Saarbrücken | Saarland | Saarbrücken |
| 13 | (Free State of) Saxony | Dresden | (Freistaat) Sachsen | Dresden |
| 14 | Saxony-Anhalt | Magdeburg | Sachsen-Anhalt | Magdeburg |
| 15 | Schleswig-Holstein | Kiel | Schleswig-Holstein | Kiel |
| 16 | (Free State of) Thuringia | Erfurt | (Freistaat) Thüringen | Erfurt |
Territory
Since reunification Germany has resumed its role as a major centre between Scandinavia in the north and the Mediterranean region in the south, as well as between the Atlantic west and the countries of central and eastern Europe.
The territory of Germany stretches from the high mountains of the Alps (highest point: the Zugspitze at 2,962 m) in the south to the shores of the North Sea in the north-west and the Baltic Sea in the north-east. In between are found the forested uplands of central Germany and the low-lying lands of northern Germany (lowest point: Neuendorfer/Wilstermarsch at 3.54 metres below sea level), traversed by some of Europe's major rivers such as the Rhine, Danube and Elbe.
Due to its central location Germany has more neighbours than any other European country; these are Denmark in the north, Poland and the Czech Republic in the east, Austria and Switzerland in the south, France and Luxembourg in the south-west and Belgium and the Netherlands in the north-west.
Climate
The greater part of Germany lies in the cool/temperate climatic zone in which humid westerly winds predominate.
In the north-west and the north the climate is oceanic and rain falls all the year round. Winters there are relatively mild and summers tend to be comparatively cool, even though temperatures can reach above twenty-eight degrees Celcius for prolonged periods of time. (Average temperatures: Hamburg: January 0.3°C / July 17.1°C; Essen: January 1.5°C / July 17.5°C)
In the east the climate shows clear continental features; winters can be very cold for long periods, and summers can become very warm. Here, too, long dry periods are often recorded. (Average temperatures: Berlin: January -0.9°C / July 18.6°C)
In the central part and the south there is a transitional climate which varies from moderately oceanic to continental, depending on the location. (Average temperatures: Munich: January -2.2°C / July 17.6°C; Freiburg: January 1.2°C / July 19.4°C)
Economy
- Main article: Economy of Germany
Germany is the largest European economy and the fifth largest economy in the world measured by gross domestic product purchasing power parity, placed behind the United States, China, Japan and India. According to the World Trade Organization, Germany is also the world's top exporter, ahead of the United States and China. Its major trading partners include France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy and the Netherlands. Germany is the largest trading partner of most European countries. A major issue of concern remains the persistently high unemployment rate and weak domestic demand which slows down economic growth. However, according to Bert Rürup, head of Germany's Council of Economic Advisers, reunification is to blame for two-thirds of Germany's growth lag compared to its