About Germany
- Germany, with an area of 137,841 square miles, is the seventh largest nation in Europe by area and the sixty-third largest country in the world. The topography ranges from the peaks of the Alps (Germany's tallest is 9718 feet) to sea level at the Baltic and North Sea shorelines. In between are forests, most notably the Black Forest, and the lowlands of northern Germany. Major rivers include the Rhine, the Danube and the Elbe.
- Germany, as we know it today, is a relatively new country. Although there are records of Germanic people inhabiting Europe as early as the first century, the area remained a collection of separate kingdoms and principalities as recently as the late nineteenth century. The boundaries that we recognize today as Germany were the result of the Franco-Prussian War, which ended in 1871.
The largest Kingdom, Prussia, seized control of the new country, with Kaiser (Emperor) Wilhelm and later Wilhelm II running a relatively autocratic state. This led to a period of Imperialism and Germany's ill-fated role in World War II. The German people, fed up with the Prussians, ousted them in 1918 with the "German Revolution."
However, life did not improve for the average German and when a young, charismatic orator named Adolf Hitler claimed to be able to solve all of Germany's ills, the general populace was all too eager to make him chancellor and later dictator. Germany's military aggression led to World War II and the deaths of millions of Jews, gypsies and others that Hitler deemed undesirable. Upon the country's defeat by the Allied countries in 1945, Germany and Berlin were divided into four parts--one for each Allied country. The American, French and British portions eventually unified, but the Russian portion remained a separate entity until 1990. - Berlin, with 3.4 million residents, is Germany's capital city; October 3, the Day of German Unification, is Germany's national holiday; Germany is comprised of 16 states Approximately 31 percent of Germany is made up of forests; Germany has a 99 percent literacy rate.
- Germany's major cities include the capital and largest metropolis, Berlin, in the eastern part of the country; Munich, in Bavaria; Hamburg, along the North Sea; Frankfurt, the country's commercial and banking center; the industrial city of Stuttgart; and Cologne, along the Rhine River.
- Germany's most popular tourist attractions include the quaint Medieval cities along the "Romantic Road" (including Rothenburg, pictured above); the many castles along the Rhine and beyond, including Neuschwanstein, the model for Disneyland's Cinderella's Castle; the spectacular Cathedral at Cologne; Weimer, Germany's oldest city; and the annual late September Oktoberfest in Munich.
