Basic Information

• Germany is a federation with 16 federal states
• capital: Berlin (3.4 million inhabitants)
• population: 75 million
• area: 357.000 km² (Ø 230 people per km²)
• 25 million people live in 82 cities with more than 100.000 inhabitants
• 35 million people (43 %) live in communities with less than 20.000 inhabitants
  

Social Structure

There are 7.3 million foreigners living in Germany, above all

• Turk (2 million)
• Yugoslav (628 000)
• Italian (616 000)
• Greek (363 000)
• Pole (310 000)
  

Religion

• Christians 70 %
  • 35 % Protestants
  • 35 % Catholics
• Other / Without Confession 30 %
  • 3.2 million Moslems
  • 500.000 Greek Orthodox
  • 200.000 Buddhists
  • 88.000 Jews
    

Raw Materials

• Germany has only little raw materials, such as iron ore, copper, tin, oil, natural gas
• therefore Germany depends on imports
• the stocks of coal and salt will be sufficient formany decades
  

The Reunification

As a result of World War II, Germany was divided. In 1949, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) developed out of the Soviet zone of occupation, and the Federal Republic of Germany out of the U.S., British and French zones.

Divided Berlin became a special area under joint administration by the Four Powers. The German Democratic Republic claimed East Berlin as its capital, while the capital of the Federal Republic of Germany was located in Bonn.

On August 13, 1961, the East German government built the Berlin Wall, sealing off Berlin East from Berlin West. Twenty-eight years later, on November 9, 1989, the exodus of thousands of East Germans via Hungary and Austria to West Germany, and mass demonstrations in a number of East German cities, led to the opening of the Berlin Wall.