Germany

From Metapedia

Federal Republic of Germany
Anthem: The third stanza of Das Lied der Deutschen
Capital (and largest city)		Berlin 52°31′N 13°23′E / 52.517°N 13.383°E / 52.517; 13.383
Official language(s)		German[1]
Demonym		German
Government		Federal parliamentary republic
-	President	Christian Wulff (CDU)
-	Chancellor	Angela Merkel (CDU)
-	President of the Bundestag	Norbert Lammert (CDU)
-	President of the Bundesrat	Hannelore Kraft (SPD)
Formation
-	Holy Roman Empire	2 February 962
-	Unification	18 January 1871
-	Federal Republic	23 May 1949
-	Reunification	3 October 1990
EU accession		25 March 1957
Area
-	Total	357,021 km2 (63rd) 137,847 sq mi
-	Water (%)	2.416
Population
-	Jan. 1, 2010 estimate	81,757,600 (15th)
-	Density	229/km2 (55th) 593/sq mi
GDP (PPP)		2010 estimate
-	Total	$2.940 trillion[1]
-	Per capita	$36,033[1]
GDP (nominal)		2010 estimate
-	Total	$3.315 trillion[1]
-	Per capita	$40,631[1]
Gini (2006)		27 [dated info] (low)
HDI (2010)		0.885[2] (very high) (10th)
Currency		Euro (€)[2](2002 – present) (EUR)
Time zone		CET (UTC+1)
-	Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Drives on the		right
Internet TLD		.de [3]
Calling code		49
1	^ Danish, Low German, Sorbian, Romany, and Frisian are officially recognised by the ECRML.
2	^ Before 2002: Deutsche Mark (DEM).
3	^ Also .eu, shared with European Union member states.

Germany: Defined by the German language area after the official national census of 1910

Germany is a country in central Europe. Parts of them are currently organized as the

• Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) or in German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland (BRD). Its capital is Berlin. The FRG is a member of the European Union and has the largest economy of any nation in Europe.
• Republic of Austria. Its capital is Vienna.
• Luxembourg
• Liechtenstein

Some other parts are under occupation:

• East Germany
• Sudetenland

Disputed:

• Imperial territory of Alsace-Lorraine
• South-Tyrol

Location

The country has border with Denmark in the north; Lithuania in the northeast; Poland and Czechia in the east; France (including Wallonia), Luxembourg and The Netherlands (including Flanders) in the west; Switzerland and Italy in the South; and Croatia, Hungary and Slovenia in the southwest.

History

Formation of modern Germany

After the reign of Napoleon the Holy Roman Empire ceased to exist and Germany was turned into a union of sovereign states in 1814.

In 1871 northern Germany was unified under the direction of Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Wilhelm II, King of Prussia, was declared German Emperor (Deutscher Kaiser).

WWI

Germany became entangled in World War I by supporting the Austro-Hungarian Empire against Serbia (which was backed by Imperial Russia.) France, a Russian ally, declared war on Germany, as did France's ally, the United Kingdom. Germany's armed forces achieved a decisive military victory over the Russian Empire in 1917 and concluded hostilities in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. In western Europe, Anglo-French forces battled the Germans until 1918, with both sides suffering heavy losses and neither making substantial territorial gains.

In 1918, the German Communist Party and the Spartacist League tried to overthrow the government of Kaiser Wilhelm II to establish a socialist government on German soil (similar to what the Bolsheviks had accomplished in Russia), but the revolution was put down by the Freikorps. However, the government was severely weakened, and Kaiser Wilhelm abdicated power in 1919 and went into exile in the Netherlands. A German provisional government signed an armistice with the United Kingdom and France, and Germany was afterward forced to sign the harsh and humiliating Treaty of Versailles.

Weimar Republic

The emerging Weimar Republic was established as a liberal state, but was inherently fragile, being plagued by the crippling monetary reparations required by the Versailles treaty, along with hyperinflation, widespread unemployment and poverty, cultural degeneracy, and threats of Communist revolution. It was called "The Jew Republic" by lots of national socialists. A series of coalition governments proved unable to deal the country's problems effectively.

Third Reich and WWII

The national election of 1933 brought the National Socialist German Workers Party to power as the major partner in a coalition government. Under the leadership of Chancellor Adolf Hitler, major economic and legal reforms were introduced, producing dramatic improvements in the German economy and bringing high levels of cultural and political stability. The twelve years of the National Socialist government were known as the Third Reich, or Third Empire, the First Reich being the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation and the Second Reich being the monarchy of 1871 to 1918. The Third Reich collapsed after Hitler's death and Germany's invasion by the Red Army during World War II.

Post-War Era

After the end of the war, Germany was partitioned into Allied and Russian controlled sectors: the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (Middle Germany) with West Berlin as an Allied enclave in the Eastern partition. De facto international control of both Western and Eastern affairs lasted until the reunification of the two countries on October 3, 1990. Even today (2010) there are foreign (especially American) soldiers and military bases on German territory.

Legal Status

Although the FRG is officially a sovereign state, it is ultimately subject to the directives of the United Kingdom, France, and the United States. Strictly speaking, the FRG does not have a constitution but is built on a so-called Basic Law (Grundgesetz). German courts have treated the Basic Law as a constitution even though it contains no declaration of constitutional status. The Basic Law declares that it shall lose its on validity as soon as the German people ratify a constitution. Although the vast majority of Germans today believe that their country is sovereign, Germany’s exact legal status is ambiguous.

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