Germany
, country of north-central
Europe
,
traversing
the
continent
’s main physical divisions, from the outer ranges of the
Alps
northward across the varied
landscape
of the Central German Uplands and then across the
North German Plain
.
One of
Europe
’s largest countries, Germany
encompasses
a wide variety of landscapes: the tall, sheer mountains of the south; the sandy, rolling plains of the north; the forested hills of the urbanized west; and the plains of the agricultural east. At the spiritual heart of the country is the magnificent east-central city of
Berlin
, which rose phoenixlike from the ashes of
World War II
and now, after decades of partition, is the capital of a reunified Germany, and the
Rhine River
, which flows northward from
Switzerland
and is celebrated in visual art, literature, folklore, and song. Along its banks and those of its principal tributaries?among them the
Neckar
,
Main
,
Moselle
, and
Ruhr
?stand hundreds of
medieval
castles, churches, picturesque villages, market towns, and centres of learning and
culture
, including
Heidelberg
, the site of one of Europe’s oldest universities (founded in 1386), and
Mainz
, historically one of Europe’s most important publishing centres. All are centrepieces of Germany’s thriving tourist economy, which brings millions of visitors to the country each year, drawn by its natural beauty, history, culture, and cuisine (including its renowned wines and beers).
The name Germany has long described not a particular place but the loose, fluid polity of Germanic-speaking peoples that held sway over much of western Europe north of the Alps for millennia. Although Germany in that sense is an ancient
entity
, the German nation in more or less its present form came into being only in the 19th century, when Prussian Prime Minister
Otto von Bismarck
brought together dozens of German-speaking kingdoms, principalities, free cities, bishoprics, and duchies to form the
German Empire
in 1871. This so-called Second Reich quickly became Europe’s leading power and acquired colonies in
Africa
,
Asia
, and the Pacific. That overseas empire was dismantled following Germany’s defeat in
World War I
and the
abdication
of Emperor
William II
. Economic depression, widespread unemployment, and political strife that verged on civil war followed, leading to the collapse of the progressive
Weimar Republic
and the rise of the
Nazi Party
under
Adolf Hitler
. After gaining power in 1933, Hitler established the
Third Reich
and soon thereafter
embarked
on a ruinous crusade to conquer Europe and exterminate Jews,
Roma
(Gypsies), homosexuals, and others.
The Third Reich disintegrated in 1945, brought down by the Allied armies of the
United States
, the United Kingdom, the
Soviet Union
,
France
, and other countries. The victorious powers divided Germany into four zones of occupation and later into two countries: the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the
German Democratic Republic
(East Germany),
separated
for more than 40 years by a long boundary. In East Germany this boundary was, until the fall of its communist government in 1989, marked by defenses designed to prevent escape. The 185 square miles (480 square km) of the “island” of
West Berlin
were similarly ringed from 1961 to 1989 by the
Berlin Wall
running through the city and by a heavily guarded wire-mesh fence in the areas abutting the East German countryside. Although
Berlin
was a flashpoint between the United States and the Soviet Union during the
Cold War
, the city declined in national and international significance until 1989?90, when a popular and peaceful uprising toppled the East German government and soon after restored a united Berlin as the capital of a reunified Germany.
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Since World War II, Germany has made great efforts to both
commemorate
the victims and redress the crimes of the
Holocaust
, providing strong material and political support for the state of
Israel
and actively prosecuting hate crimes and the
propagation
of
neo-Nazi doctrine
; the latter became an issue in the 1990s with the rise in Germany of anti-immigrant skinhead groups and the availability of Hitler’s
Mein Kampf
over the Internet. Clearly, modern Germany struggles to balance its national interests with those of an influx of political and economic refugees from far afield, especially
North Africa
,
Turkey
, and
South Asia
, an influx that has fueled ethnic tensions and swelled the ranks of nationalist political parties, particularly in eastern Germany, where unemployment was double that of the west. Tensions became especially
acute
in the second decade of the 21st century, when more than one million migrants entered Germany in the wake of the revolutions of the
Arab Spring
and the
Syrian Civil War
.
The constitution of the
republic
, adopted in 1949 by
West Germany
, created a federal system that gives significant government powers to its
constituent
Lander
(states). Before unification there were 11 West German
Lander
(including West Berlin, which had the special status of a
Land
without voting rights), but, with the accession of East Germany, there are now 16
Lander
in the unified republic. The largest of the states is
Bavaria
(Bayern), the richest is
Baden-Wurttemberg
, and the most populous is
North Rhine?Westphalia
(Nordrhein-Westfalen).
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Matters of national importance, such as defense and foreign affairs, are reserved to the federal government. At both the state and federal levels,
parliamentary democracy
prevails. The Federal Republic has been a member of the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO) since 1955 and was a founding member of the
European Economic Community
(
see
European Union
). During the four decades of partition, the Federal Republic concluded a number of agreements with the Soviet Union and East Germany, which it supported to some extent economically in return for various
concessions
with regard to humanitarian matters and access to Berlin. West Germany’s rapid economic recovery in the 1950s (
Wirtschaftswunder
, or “economic miracle”) brought it into a leading position among the world’s economic powers, a position that it has maintained.
Much of Germany’s post-World War II success has been the result of the renowned industriousness and self-sacrifice of its people, about which novelist
Gunter Grass
, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1999, remarked, “To be a German is to make the impossible possible.” He added, more critically,
For in our country everything is geared to growth. We’re never satisfied. For us enough is never enough. We always want more. If it’s on paper, we convert it into reality. Even in our dreams we’re productive.
This devotion to hard work has combined with a public demeanour?which is at once reserved and assertive?to produce a
stereotype
of the German people as aloof and distant. Yet Germans prize both their private friendships and their friendly relations with neighbours and visitors, place a high value on leisure and culture, and enjoy the benefits of life in a
liberal democracy
that has become ever more
integrated
with and central to a united Europe.