Some facts about Germany:
NAME: Bundesrepublik Deutschland (BRD) ---> Federal Republic of Germany
Area: 356,959km²
CAPITAL: Berlin
INHABITANTS: about 81 million
BIGGEST CITIES: Berlin (3.5 million inh.), Hamburg (1.7 million inh.), Munich (1.3 million inh.), Cologne (1 million inh.), Frankfurt am Main (660,000 inh.), Essen (630,000 inh.), Dortmund (600,000 inh.) and Stuttgart (600,000 inh.)
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE: German; in the state of Schleswig-Holstein there's also a Danish-speaking minority
CURRENCY: Euro; 100 Cents = 1 Euro
Germany is located in Central Europe. It's "neighbors" are: Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic and Poland. No other European country has that many "neighbors" as Germany. Germany is a member of the European Union (EU) and introduced the Euro on January 1st 2002. Germany is subdevided into 16 states, including 3 city-states whose status can be compared to the one Washington D.C. enjoys: (from the north to the south) Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Niedersachsen, Hamburg, Bremen, Berlin, Brandenburg, Nordrhein-Westfahlen, Sachsen-Anhalt, Hessen, Thüringen, Sachsen, Rheinland-Pflaz, Saarland, Baden-Württemberg, Bayern. Germany is supposed to be in the top 10 of the richest countries in the world and thus provides its people an excellent social system which is unique on this planet. After World War II, Germany has become a kind of "immigration-country". For we did not have enough labour, our government invited people from Italy, Greece and Portugal (who are not regarded as real immigrants for these countries are members of the EU) to work here. Since about 2 decades, there are also many people from Turkey, Poland and the former Yugoslavia living in Germany. Germany is the country with the largest and strongest economy in Europe, followed by France who we have close relations with, both economically and politically. |