Germany is Europe’s second largest country after Russia by population, and one of the wealthiest nations in the world. Lying in the centre of Europe, it borders nine other countries. In 1945, after World War II, Germany was split into two countries: West Germany, a democratic republic, and East Germany, a communist state backed by the Soviet Union. In 1990, the two parts were reunited. Today, it is a federal parliamentary republic, with a president, the head of state, and a Chancellor, who is head of the government and the country's political leader. Southern and eastern parts of Germany have a continental climate, with hot summers and cold winters. The rest of the country is milder and wetter, cooled by westerly winds from the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean.

Northern Germany

The northern third of Germany makes up part of the flat North European Plain, crossed by the rivers such as the Weser, Elbe and their tributaries. The land was smoothed flat by glaciers during the most recent Ice Age. Along the North Sea coast, the land is low-lying, fringed by sandy beaches and mudflats.

Much of northern Germany is a patchwork of farmland, used for grazing cattle and pigs as well as growing crops. The land along the southern edge of this plain is especially fertile and mostly given over to cereals such as wheat, barley and rye. The great cities of Berlin, Hanover, Bremen and the port city of Hamburg are situated here. In the northeast, the land is covered by sandy soils and river wetlands, and dotted by dozens of lakes formed by the meltwaters of the retreating ice sheet.

After the end of World War II in 1945, Germany was divided up between the USA, Britain, France and the Soviet Union. Berlin lay in the Soviet zone, but was also divided between the four powers. In 1949, three of the zones were joined together to become West Berlin, part of West Germany, while the Soviet zone became East Berlin, part of East Germany. In 1961, East Germany built a wall across the city to prevent people moving from East to West.
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In 1989, a wave of largely peaceful revolutions swept through many states of Eastern Europe, which then broke free from Soviet control and Communist rule. East Germany was among them, and the hated Berlin Wall came down in November of that year. Berlin once again became capital of a unified Germany, and has since blossomed into a world city, a hub of high-tech and creative industries, a centre of education and culture, and a magnet for migrants and tourists.

Ruhr

The Ruhr is an urban area in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is part of the larger Rhine-Ruhr region, which is home to more than 10 million people and one of the largest urban agglomerations in Europe. The Rhine-Ruhr region includes the cities of Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Essen, Gelsenkirchen, Bochum and Dortmund. These cities expanded rapidly in the 19th century, based on coal mining (the region lay above rich coalfields) and iron and steel industries that grew up along the Ruhr valley.
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After World War II, the region experienced rapid growth as part of Germany's "economic miracle" of the 1950s and 60s. The cities began to merge into one another to form a single urban area or megalopolis. Nowadays, the Ruhr is a major centre of modern manufacturing industries. Air and water pollution—once a serious concern—is largely a thing of the past.

Central Germany

Central Germany is made up of forested uplands separated by river valleys. They include the volcanic Harz Mountains and the densely wooded Rothaar Mountains. Further south lie the rounded hills of the Eifel and Hunsrück uplands, the Taunus Hills north of Frankfurt, Palatine Forest, Vogelsberg Massif and the Thuringian Forest (Thüringer Wald). To the east, the Czech border is marked by the Ore Mountains (Erzgebirge).
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In the west the Rhine and Mosel rivers wind through deep valleys whose slopes are lined with vineyards. Between Koblenz and Bingen, the Rhine carves its way through the narrow Rhine Gorge, a land of castles and legends. North of Cologne (Köln in German), the Rhine opens out into the low-lying industrial region of the Ruhr.

Southern Germany

The south of Germany is made up of the states of Bavaria (Bayern) in the southeast and Baden-Württemberg in the southwest. The land is mostly thickly forested uplands. Running along the Czech border in the southeast is the Bohemian Forest.

​​​​​​​The River Rhine flows along the French border in the southwest through a wide valley that rises on its western side to the uplands of the Black Forest. Here is the source of the Danube, which flows east across southern Germany through Austria and several other countries before reaching the Black Sea. The snow-capped Bavarian Alps, Germany's highest mountains, stretch across its border with Austria. Zugspitze, the country's highest point, is found here.

People

Most of the country’s people are ethnic Germans, the descendants of early Germanic settlers in the region. The next-largest ethnic group are Turks, a mainly Muslim people who make up just over 2% of the population. Many Turks came to work in Germany in the 1950s and have stayed to raise their families.
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Germany also has large immigrant populations from Italy, Poland and Albania. Lusatia, a region near the Polish border, is home to the Sorbs, a small Slavic population. Germany is a mainly Christian country. The north has a majority of Protestant Christians, while the south (especially Bavaria) is generally Catholic.
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Germany is a very highly-developed country and a high standard of living for most of its people. All Germans have access to excellent healthcare education systems. Nearly everyone can read and write.

Economy

At the end of World War II, Germany’s economy was badly damaged. West Germany reconstructed its industries quickly and soon became one of Europe’s richest countries, while the smaller, communist East Germany remained poor and undeveloped. When the two parts were reunited in 1989, Germany spent billions of dollars on modernizing the East. Today, its economy is the most powerful in Europe and one of the world’s largest.

Situated in the central German state of Hesse, Frankfurt, headquarters of many German banks as well as the European Central Bank, is one of the world's most important financial centres. The most important stock exchange in Germany is also based in the city. Because of this and its concentration of skyscrapers, Frankfurt is sometimes nicknamed "Mainhattan"—a mixture of Manhattan (the central borough of New York's central island) and Main, Frankfurt's river.
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Germany is famous for manufacturing: German-made products are in high demand all over the world. Highly-skilled German workers produce cars, machines, electronic devices, cameras, chemicals, sportswear and household goods for export. Manufacturing is centred on cities such as Cologne, Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Berlin. Germany also has important mineral reserves—it is the world's largest exporter of lignite (brown coal).

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Germany's road and railway networks are among the densest in the world. The country is crisscrossed by an extensive motorway (autobahn) system. High-speed InterCityExpress (ICE) trains serve all the major German cities as well as destinations in neighbouring countries.

Rivers and waterways

Across Germany a number of canals, manmade waterways, join up its navigable rivers, such as the Rhine, Elbe, Main, Oder and Danube. They thus create interconnecting inland waterways totalling thousands of kilometres in length. Major rivers and waterways alike are used by large, freight-carrying vessels and cruising riverboats.

One of the most important waterways is the Kiel Canal, a 100-kilometre (60-mile) link between the North Sea and Baltic Sea in the north. The Rhine-Main-Danube Canal in Bavaria runs from Bamberg, on the River Pegnitz (a tributary of the Main), and Kelheim on the Danube, a distance of 171 kilometres (106 miles). Rebuilt and completed in 1992, the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal links the North Sea to the Black Sea—right across the European mainland.

Facts about Germany

Population 83,456,045 (2023 estimate)

Area 348,672 sq km

Highest point Zugspitze 2963 m (9721 ft)

Capital Berlin, population 3,662,381

Other major cities Hamburg (pop. 1,739,117), Munich (1,260,391), Cologne (963,395), Frankfurt am Main (650,000), Essen (593,085), Stuttgart (589,793), Dortmund (588,462), Düsseldorf (573,057)

Language German

Religions Christianity, Roman Catholic (25%), Christianity, Protestant (23%), Islam (4.6%), Others (1.4%), No religion (46%)

Ethnicity German 92%, Turkish 2%, others (including Greek, Italian, Polish, Russian and Syrian) 6%

Currency Euro (EUR)

Chief exports cars and vehicles, machinery, chemicals, computers and electronics, medicines, metals, foods, textiles, rubber and plastic products