Germany - Tourism and Travel

The Federal Republic of Germany is located in Central Europe, on the North Sea and Baltic Sea Coasts.

Nine countries - Austria, Switzerland, Poland, the Czech Republic, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Luxembourg and France - border Germany, which has an area of 137,849 square miles (357,022 square kilometers).

After World War II, Germany's infrastructure and industry were devastated. The country continued to suffer economically during the Cold War, when East Germany and West Germany were divided.

Nevertheless, since Germany was reunited after the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the country has made a great economic recovery, and Germany now has the third largest economy in the world, after the United States and Japan, as well as the largest economy in Europe.

Germany is a member of the European Union, and uses the euro as its official currency.

The capital of Germany is Berlin.

Germany has a parliamentary system of government.

The country is divided into 16 states: Baden-Württemberg, Bayern, Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Hessen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Niedersachsen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Saarland, Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein and Thüringen.

Geography of Germany

Germany's terrain includes an indented coastline next to which is a fertile plain, which makes up about one third of the country.

Most of northern Germany's landscape was formed by glaciation.

Northern Germany contains heathlands which are mostly infertile, supporting only sheep and a small number of trees. The heathlands are covered in glacial deposits of sandy soil.

The Elbe River flows slowly across the north German plain until it reaches the North Sea. The river is 10 miles (16 kilometers) wide at its mouth.

Lake Müritz in the north lies in a type of shallow valley called an urstromtaler, which was created when meltwater flowed out of a retreating ice sheet. Lake Müritz is only 108 feet (33 meters) deep, but it covers an area of 45 square miles (117 square miles).

There are a belt of forested hills and plateaus in the center of the Germany, extending from the Ezegebirge Mountains, which are on the border with the Czech Republic in the east, to the Eifel region in the west.

The Harz Mountains of Germany are block-faulted mountains. They were formed 300 million years ago when a section of the Earth's crust was pushed up between two faults.

The Swabian Alps are further south.

In the far south, along the border with Austria, lie the Bavarian Alps. The average height of the Bavarian Alps is 6,500 feet (2,000 meters) above sea level.

Zugspitze, in the Northern Limestone Alps, part of the Bavarian Alps, is the highest mountain in Germany. It is 9,719 feet (2,962 meters) high.

The Black Forest, with sandstone and granite hills in the southwest. The Black Forest has rich mineral springs.

Germany's main waterways are the Rhine River and the Danube River. At 820 miles (1,320 kilometers) long, the Rhine is one of the longest rivers in Europe. Part of the floor of the Rhine Rift Valley has dropped between two parallel faults in the crust of the Earth. The Danube River flows from the Black Forest toward the Black Sea. The Danube and the Rhine are at the heart of a huge system of canals.

Germany has a temperate climate. The climate is continental in the east.

People of Germany

82,167,000 people live in Germany.

92% are ethnic Germans.

The official language is German. Turkish is also spoken in some places.

34% of the people are Protestant, 33% are Roman Catholic and 3% are Muslim.

More than 85 percent live in urban areas.

Economy of Germany

Major agricultural products in Germany are sugar beets, rye, oats and fodder. Germany is known internationally for its beers and wines. The slopes around the Rhine River and its tributaries are covered with vineyards.

There are reserves of coal, potash, baryte and lignite, but Germany lacks other minerals and raw materials needed for industry.

Germany's main industries are car manufacturing, industrial machine building, electronics and chemicals.