Country Information on Germany

Terrain Germany is made up of the North German Plain, the Central German Uplands, and the Southern German Highlands. The Bavarian plateau in the southwest averages 488 m above sea level, but it reaches 2,962m in the Zugspitze Mountains, the country's highest elevation. The Ems, Weser, Elbe, and the Oder rivers drain Northern Germany. The central uplands include the Harz mountains and the Thuringian Forest. Climate Germany has a continental climate in the western regions of the country with strong Atlantic influences in the northwest causing the winters to be mild but stormy. Further inland, winter temperatures are lower and summers are warm with slightly higher temperatures in the southwest. A temperate climate is experienced in the eastern regions with an Atlantic influence-giving rise to mild winters and cool summers. Due to a stronger Alpine influence in the interior, conditions are generally wetter and colder at higher altitudes. Fauna/Flora Almost two thirds of the country's extensive forests are coniferous. Beech predominates among the broad leafs. The Bavarian Forest in the southeast is the largest mountain forest in Europe. Forest fauna includes wild boars, fox and deer. History/Politics German invasions destroyed the declining Roman Empire in the 4th and 5th centuries AD. By the 14th century, the Holy Roman Empire was little more than a loose federation of the German princes who elected the Holy Roman emperor. In 1438, Albert of Hapsburg became emperor, and for the next several centuries the Hapsburg line ruled the Holy Roman Empire until its decline in 1806. Relations between state and church were changed by the Reformation, and came to a head in 1547, when Charles V scattered the forces of the Protestant League at Mühlberg. The Counter Reformation followed. A dispute over the succession to the Bohemian throne brought on the Thirty Years' War (1618-48), which devastated Germany and left the empire divided into hundreds of small principalities virtually independent of the emperor. After the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo (1815), the struggle between Austria and Prussia for supremacy in Germany continued, reaching its climax in the defeat of Austria in the Seven Weeks' War (1866) and the formation of the Prussian-dominated North German Confederation (1867). The architect of this new German unity was Otto von Bismarck. He unified all of Germany in a series of three wars against Denmark (1864), Austria (1866), and France (1870-71). On 18 January 1871, King Wilhelm I of Prussia was proclaimed German emperor. The North German Confederation, created in 1867, was abolished, and the Second German Reich, consisting of the North and South German states, was born. The Second German Empire collapsed following the defeat of the German armies in 1918. President von Hindenburg made Adolf Hitler the chancellor on 30 January 1933. His invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, precipitated World War II. Germany surrendered unconditionally to Allied and Soviet military commanders on 8 May 1945. On 5 June 1945, the four-nation Allied Control Council became the de facto government of Germany. The Federal Republic of Germany was proclaimed on 23 May 1949. The partition of Germany was further enhanced by the proclamation of the German Democratic Republic on 7 October 1949. The division between West Germany and East Germany was intensified when the Communists erected the Berlin Wall in 1961. On 3 October 1990, the German Democratic Republic acceded to the Federal Republic and Germany became a united state. In 1998 Social Democrat Gerhard Schröder was elected chancellor. Johannes Rau was elected president in 1999. Economy Germany possesses the world's third most powerful economy, but structural market rigidities have made unemployment (at 9.9% in 2000) a long-term, not just a cyclical, problem. Agriculture accounts for about 1% of the country's gross national product and occupies about 2.8% of the workforce. App. 33.4 % of the active population is employed in manufacturing, with 63.8% in the services sector. Manufactures include e.g. iron and steel, motor vehicles, machinery, chemicals, electronics and ships. Culture Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a poet, dramatist, painter, scientist and philosopher. His greatest work is the masterful epic drama "Faust". Famous German composers include Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven and Richard Wagner. Germany has also many exceptional visual artists. The gothic sculpture of Peter Vischer, the renaissance portraiture of Albrecht Dürer and the baroque architecture of Balthasar Neumann are magnificent examples in their fields.