Posted on 09/18/2005 2:56:02 AM PDT by knighthawk
Following are key facts about Germany, which is holding a federal election today:
Population: 82.5 million (end 2004), including 7.3 million foreign citizens. Some 3.4 million people live in the capital and largest city Berlin. Most populous western European country.
Area: 357,022 sq km (137,906 sq miles). Germany, at the heart of Europe, shares borders with nine other countries.
Government/Politics: Germany is a federal republic. President Horst Koehler has been head of state since 2004, but his job is largely ceremonial.
Parliament has a lower house, the Bundestag, and an upper house, the Bundesrat.
The Bundestag to be elected on Sept. 18 will have a minimum of 598 members.
Sixteen federal states, or Laender, have a degree of autonomy and are represented in the Bundesrat.
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, 61, has been in office since 1998 at the head of a centre-left coalition of his own Social Democrats (SPD) and the environmentalist Greens.
Economy: Germany's economy is the world's third largest after the United States and Japan.
Germany has been the world's leading exporter of goods for the past two years, exports making up over a third of gross domestic product, but domestic demand has remained sluggish.
Unemployment, which hit a postwar record of 5.2 million in February, has dampened private consumption. The jobless rate at the end of August was 11.4 percent (9.6 percent in the west, 18.2 percent in east).
The Economy Ministry forecasts growth of 1.0 percent this year and 1.6 percent next.
Germany's deficit is set to breach the EU's maximum of 3 percent of gross domestic product for a fourth consecutive year in 2005.
Industry: Germany is highly industrialized and specializes in engineering, car and truck production, steel and chemicals.
Currency: Euro (since 1999, notes and coins from 2002)
Defense: The deployment of combat troops abroad was long a taboo issue in post-war Germany. It was not until 1994 that the Constitutional Court allowed troops to serve in peacekeeping missions, which still require parliamentary approval.
The federal republic first sent troops to a combat operation in 1999 in Kosovo. It currently has around 6,500 troops overseas, mainly in peacekeeping missions in the Balkans and Afghanistan.
Religion: Germany has 26.3 million Protestants and 26.6 million Roman Catholics. The Jewish community, which totaled over 500,000 in 1933, was virtually wiped out by the Nazis but has grown in recent years to around 100,000.
Some 3.2 million Muslims live in Germany, most of Turkish origin.
History: After the first German empire fell apart in the 17th century, Germany was composed of numerous kingdoms and principalities until the Prussian statesman Otto von Bismarck forged a united state in 1871.
Following defeat in World War One, the king abdicated and Germany was proclaimed a federal republic. The so-called Weimar Republic was politically volatile and ended when Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933.
Hitler's invasion of Poland in 1939 triggered World War Two, which ended with Germany's surrender. The country was divided into four zones of occupation by the victorious Allies in 1945.
The British, French and U.S. sectors formed the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), while the Soviet zone became the communist German Democratic Republic (East Germany).
After growing unrest, the East German authorities ordered the opening in November 1989 of the Berlin Wall, the fortified barrier built in 1961 to stop East Germans from fleeing to the west. The two German states were reunified on Oct. 3, 1990.
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Ping
That is interesting, and I appreciate the ping; but I guess it would be nice if there were some links that breathed some life into the facts. Information about life in Germany today, about how the people view politics and the world...about long-term (i.e., 3 months or longer) tourism.
I notice that 6% of the population subscribes to is-slime. What's the trend? How does the population feel about that? Will we see the land of Luther transformed into something else?
Still interesting on the east/west unemployment split. The east has a long way to go. A lot more unrest on that side I would guess.
Seems rather strange, the Tehran Times telling us about Germany.
What makes them a credible source for this information?
German election: Turks follow tradition by voting for Schroeder
17:38 2005-09-18
http://newsfromrussia.com/politics/2005/09/18/63112.html
In Germany the government cracks down on the extremists these days. In places like Beiern or the former East-Germany they do not like them. Beiern is very conservative. But in the major cities islam will grow.
Oh, really?
Tell that to the guys in the Pacific.
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Another fact about Germany, based on ten years there: Germans bathe once a year, whether they need it or not.
Answer: Four Hundred Years of German Humor
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