Geography and Climate
Germany’s multicultural population and diverse geography are great reasons to live in Germany. It’s located in the heart of Europe and is bordered by Denmark to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic on its east, Austria and Switzerland just south, France and Luxembourg in the southwest and Belgium and the Netherlands in the northwest.
The country is about the size of Montana and is the seventh largest country by area in Europe. The Alps Mountains anchor its southern border with Austria and Switzerland, soaring to nearly 10,000 feet at the highest peak, the Zugspitze. The North Sea in the northwest and the Baltic Sea in the Northeast provide Germany access to the sea. Much of the country is forested, punctuated with lakes and major rivers like the Rhine, Danube and the Elbe.
Like most of northwest Europe, Germany has a temperate seasonal climate, somewhat moderated in the area bordering the North Sea by the North Atlantic Drift, an extension of the Gulf Stream. The north and northwest regions are generally cool year-round, with generally mild winters and rainfall occurring throughout the year. The eastern region of Germany has a more continental climate with notably colder winters and warm summers with long dry spells. The central uplands and the mountainous southern region have a mountain climate with lower temperatures and more precipitation.
Germany is in the Central European time zone, which is six hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time in the U.S. The country observes European Summer Time by moving its clocks ahead one hour.
Germany is spared from most natural disasters, but major flooding does occur, more so in the northern regions where rainfall is frequent.
People and Culture
Germany’s population is more than 81 million, which makes the country the sixteenth largest in the world and Europe’s largest. Its annual growth rate, however, is negative with more deaths each year than births and just a modest influx of new immigrants.
The primary language and ethnicity is German, but the country has the third-highest number of international migrants worldwide, more than 16 million or about 19 percent of its population. The largest ethnic group is Turkish followed by Greek, Italian, Polish, Russian and Spanish.
Officially the Federal Republic of Germany, the country is divided into 16 states and city-states. Berlin is Germany’s capital and largest city with a metropolitan area population approaching six million. Frankfurt is the country’s second largest urban area with a population over 5.6 million and Munich third with an estimated metro area population of 5.2 million.
Germany was first occupied in 500 B.C., but the country has often been influenced by powerful political influences throughout its history that have affected its religious views, political standpoint, economy and overall position on a global scale. Medieval Germany was ruled by a series of hereditary dynasties. The first of these was the Holy Roman Emperor, Otto the Great in 963. The eleventh through thirteenth centuries were dominated by struggles and conflicts between emperors and popes over political rights. The title of emperor remained within the ruling family until the fifteenth century.
The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were dominated by religious strife and led to a division of the country, a protestant north and catholic south, which was not resolved until the end of the Thirty Years War in 1648. In 1806, Napoleon defeated the Holy Roman Empire, leaving Germany to be dominated by Austria and Prussia, who extended their influence on the region with their victory in the Austro-Prussian War in 1866. The German Empire was created in 1871 following the Franco Prussian War. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Germany began industrializing the country and colonizing parts of North Africa. The international aspirations of Germany contributed to the start of the First World War. The German Empire was defeated in 1918 and replaced by the Weimar Republic.
Financial conditions and the hyperinflation that followe the First World War in Germany were contributing factors that led to the rise of Adolf Hitler as the leader of a new German Empire. A combination of Hitler’s aggressive foreign policy and eventual invasion of Poland precipitated World War II. Following Germany’s defeat in the Second World War the country was divided into British, French, U.S. and Soviet occupation, which led to the formation of two separate states: The German Democratic Republic (East Germany) and The German Federal Republic (West Germany). After 45 years of the Cold War, Germany was reunified and Berlin was made the capital of Germany.