Portal:Germany

Welcome to the Germany Portal!
Willkommen im Deutschland-Portal!

Germany (German: Deutschland), officially the Federal Republic of Germany (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland), is a country in Central and Western Europe, lying between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north with the Alps to the south. It borders Denmark to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, France to the southwest, and Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands to the west.

Germany includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,596 square kilometres (138,069 sq mi) and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With over 83 million inhabitants, it is the second most populous state of Europe after Russia, the most populous state lying entirely in Europe, as well as the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is a very decentralized country. Its capital and most populous city is Berlin, while Frankfurt serves as its financial capital and has the country's busiest airport.

In 1871, Germany became a nation-state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the Revolution of 1918–19, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic. The Nazi seizure of power in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After the end of World War II in Europe and a period of Allied occupation, two new German states were founded: West Germany, formed from the American, British, and French occupation zones, and East Germany, formed from the western part of the Soviet occupation zone, reduced by the newly established Oder-Neisse line. Following the Revolutions of 1989 that ended communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe, the country was reunified on 3 October 1990.

Germany is a federal parliamentary republic led by a chancellor. It is a great power with the largest economy in Europe. As a global leader in several industrial, scientific and technological sectors, it is a major trading nation. The Federal Republic of Germany was a founding member of the European Economic Community in 1957 and the European Union in 1993. Read more...

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Annelies Marie Frank (12 June 1929 – c. February or March 1945) was a German-born Jewish diarist and Holocaust victim. She gained worldwide notability posthumously for keeping a diary documenting her life in hiding during the German occupation of the Netherlands. In the diary, she regularly described her family's everyday life in their hiding place in a secret annex in Amsterdam from 1942 until their arrest in 1944.

Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1929. In 1934, when she was four-and-a-half, Frank and her family moved to Amsterdam after Adolf Hitler of the Nazi Party was elected to govern Germany. By May 1940, her family were trapped in Amsterdam due to Germany's occupation. Frank lost her German citizenship in 1941 and became stateless. Despite spending most of her life in the Netherlands and being a de facto Dutch national, she never officially became a Dutch citizen. As persecution of the Jewish population increased in July 1942, the family went into hiding in a secret annex concealed behind a bookcase in the building where Frank's father, Otto Frank, worked. The family were arrested two years later by the Gestapo, on 4 August 1944. (Full article...)

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Image 1
Thomas Müller
Photograph: Michael Kranewitter
Thomas Müller (b. 1989) is a German professional footballer who has played for Bayern Munich since 2009; he is also the team's vice-captain. A versatile player, Müller plays as a midfielder or forward but has also been deployed in attacking roles such as attacking midfielder, second striker, centre forward and on either wing. He has represented Germany on its national team since 2010.
Image 2
Lighthouse Arngast in the Jade Bight
Lighthouse Arngast in the Jade Bight
Credit: Tom Kurpjuweit
Image 3
Hohenzollern Bridge and Cologne Cathedral
Hohenzollern Bridge and Cologne Cathedral
Credit: Thomas Robbin
The Hohenzollern Bridge crossing the Rhine in Cologne, Germany, with the Cologne Cathedral in the background. The bridge is a tied-arch railway bridge, as well as a pedestrian bridge. Originally built in 1911, it survived numerous Allied bombings in World War II, only to be destroyed by German engineers as the war drew to a close. Reconstruction began soon after and the bridge was opened to pedestrian traffic in 1948 and completely opened in 1959.
Image 4
Chinese House in Potsdam
Chinese House
Credit: Andreas Tille
The Chinese House in Sanssouci Park, Potsdam
Image 5
Reichstag
Reichstag
Credit: Ansgar Koreng
Reichstag in Berlin, December 2015
'"`UNIQ--templatestyles-0000001B-QINU`"'
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Image 6
New Synagogue, Berlin
Image credit: Wilhelm Ernst & Sohn
An 1896 engraving of the interior of the New Synagogue, Berlin. The synagogue was noted for its Moorish style and resemblance to the Alhambra. During the Kristallnacht pogrom of 1938, the Synagogue was set ablaze. Today the synagogue serves as an exhibit for various aspects of the Holocaust, particularly Kristallnacht.
Image 7
Wind beeches on the Schauinsland in the Black Forest
Wind beeches on the Schauinsland in the Black Forest
Credit: Richard Fabi
Image 8
Cologne Stadtbahn
Photograph credit: Martin Falbisoner
The underground station Rochusplatz on the Cologne Stadtbahn, a light rail system in the German city of Cologne. The station entrance is at the junction of Venloer Straße with Äußere Kanalstraße in the district of Ehrenfeld. It was opened in 1992 and consists of a mezzanine and one island platform with two rail tracks. The station was previously known as Äußere Kanalstraße, but was renamed to its present title on 15 December 2019. The system uses pairs of K5000/K5200 units built by Bombardier Transportation, which are almost identical to the M5000 trams used by Metrolink in Manchester, England.
Image 9
Cairn in Snow
Painting: Caspar David Friedrich
Cairn in Snow is a landscape painting by Caspar David Friedrich that was completed in 1807. The painting is a Romantic allegorical landscape, showing a pagan burial site between three oaks, near the town Gützkow in Germany. It is held by the Galerie Neue Meister in Dresden, Germany.
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Dresden
Photochrom: Detroit Publishing Co.
Restoration: Lise Broer
An 1890s photochrom print of Dresden, the capital city of Saxony in Germany, with Dresden Frauenkirche (left), Augustus Bridge (centre), and Katholische Hofkirche (right) visible. Dresden in the early 20th century was a leading European centre of culture and science, but suffered heavy damage due to an Allied bombing on February 13, 1945.
Image 11
Women in the wearing Bollenhut
Bollenhut
Credit: Michel Lefranc aka Tournachon
Women wearing tracht and Bollenhut at Black Forest Open Air Museum in Gutach
Image 12
Charlottenburg Palace
Photograph: Thomas Wolf
Charlottenburg Palace is a large palace in Charlottenburg, a part of the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf borough of Berlin, Germany. The palace was built at the end of the 17th century and expanded during the 18th century. It includes much exotic internal decoration in baroque and rococo styles. It was badly damaged during the Second World War, but has since been reconstructed, becoming a major tourist attraction.
Image 13
Paul von Hindenburg
Photograph credit: Nicola Perscheid; restored by Adam Cuerden
Paul von Hindenburg (2 October 1847 – 2 August 1934), was a German general and statesman who led the Imperial German Army during World War I. In 1925, he returned to public life to become the second elected president of the Weimar Republic. While he was personally opposed to Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party, he nonetheless played a major role in the political instability that resulted in their rise to power, ultimately agreeing to appoint Hitler as Chancellor of Germany in January 1933 after the Nazis had become the largest party in the Reichstag. This 1914 photograph of Hindenburg in military uniform was taken by the German photographer Nicola Perscheid.
Image 14
Schloss Neuschwanstein
Photo credit: Softeis
Schloss Neuschwanstein ("new swan stone castle") in southwest Bavaria is one of Germany's most popular tourist destinations. Construction was started by King Ludwig II and took 17 years. After his death in 1886, the castle was opened to the public. During World War II, many valuable items (all stolen) were stored at the castle, destined for Adolf Hitler's personal collection.
Image 15
Wanderer above the Sea of Fog
Painting: Caspar David Friedrich
Wanderer above the Sea of Fog is an 1818 painting by Caspar David Friedrich, a German Romantic. It has been read as a metaphor for the uncertainty of the future.
Image 16
Interior of the St. Paulinus church in Trier
Basilica of St. Paulinus
Credit: Berthold Werner
Interior of the St. Paulinus church in Trier, a work of Balthasar Neumann
Image 17
Walchensee Hydroelectric Power Station
Photograph credit: Diego Delso
The Walchensee Hydroelectric Power Station is a storage power station in Bavaria, Germany. The turbines, seen here, are fed by water from the Walchensee which is then released into the Kochelsee. The power station uses the hydraulic head of about 200 metres (660 ft) between the two natural lakes, and water from the Rißbach river is also used to augment the supply. The installed capacity is 124 MW with an annual production of 300 GWh; this is one of the largest of such power plants in Germany.
Image 18
Frankfurt
Image credit: Nicolas17
The night skyline of Frankfurt, showing the Commerzbank Tower (centre) and the Maintower (right of centre). Frankfurt is the fifth-largest city in Germany, and the surrounding Frankfurt Rhein-Main Region is Germany's second-largest metropolitan area.
Image 19
Regensburg, Germany
Photo credit: Karsten Dörre
A twilight panorama of Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany with the 12th century bridge Steinerne Brücke and Regensburg Cathedral on the left and the river Danube in the foreground. Located at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers, the first settlements in the area date to the Stone Age. A Roman fort was constructed in 179. In contrast to almost all other major German cities, Regensburg had little damage from Allied air raids in World War II and thus has an almost intact medieval city center, which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Image 20
Cathedral of Magdeburg
Photo credit: Chris 73
The Cathedral of Magdeburg (known as Magdeburger Dom in German) is the first gothic cathedral in Germany and with a height of 104 m the highest cathedral in Eastern Germany. The current cathedral was constructed over the period of 300 years starting from 1209, and the completion of the steeples took place only in 1520. In 2004 a funding drive for a new organ that was started in 1997 was completed, collecting 2 Million Euro. The new organ has been ordered from a company near Potsdam, constructing a 36 ton instrument with 93 registers and approximately 5000 pipes. The construction is planned to be completed in 2007, and the new organ will hopefully be used for the first time in 2008.
Image 21
German East African rupie
Banknote design credit: Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Bank; photographed by Andrew Shiva
The rupie was the unit of currency of German East Africa between 1890 and 1916. During World War I, the colony was cut off from Germany as a result of a wartime blockade and the colonial government needed to create an emergency issue of banknotes. Paper made from linen or jute was initially used, but because of wartime shortages, the notes were later printed on commercial paper in a variety of colours, wrapping paper, and in one instance, wallpaper. This fifty-rupie banknote was issued in 1915, and is now part of the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution.

Other denominations:
'"`UNIQ--templatestyles-00000017-QINU`"'

* 1 rupie
* 5 rupie
* 10 rupie
* 20 rupie
* 200 rupie
Image 22
East Frisia
Photo credit: Matthias Süßen
Morning fog on the plains of East Frisia, a coastal region in the northwest of the German federal state of Lower Saxony. It connects Western Frisia (in the Netherlands) with the district of Nordfriesland ("Northern Frisia") in Schleswig-Holstein, all of which belong to the historic and geographic Frisia.

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History

Holy Roman Empire (900–1806)
East Germany (1949–1990)

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Anniversaries for August 2

1788 – Birth of chemist Leopold Gmelin
1905 – Birth of composer Karl Amadeus Hartmann
1934 – After the death of President Paul von Hindenburg, Adolf Hitler assumes the title of "Führer und Reichskanzler"

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Did you know...

... that German-born Katrin Bennhold has been a senior writer for The New York Times in three European capitals?
... that Johann Sigismund Weiss played the lute before the Holy Roman emperor and the assembled German princes at the 1711 imperial election?
... that Beethoven's "Tremate, empi, tremate" was not performed for ten years after it was written?
... that the 1935 Free City of Danzig parliamentary election was seen as a setback for the Nazi Party, even though it won an absolute majority of seats?
... that every year in July, a whole German town is taken over by the Rudolstadt Festival and swept up in "folk fever"?
... that the pianist Alide Topp (pictured) once responded to claims that women lacked the "biceps of a man" for great music by stating she broke her pianos as well as any man?
... that Bernhard Waldenfels discussed "black holes of everyday life" in a book subtitled Challenges of Phenomenology?
... that Agostino Steffani missed the 1709 premiere of his opera Amor vien dal destino because he was in Rome mediating between the pope and the emperor?
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Selected cuisines, dishes and foods

A Fischbrötchen (listen) (pl. "Fischbrötchen", lit. 'fish bread roll') is a sandwich made with fish and other components such as fresh white or dried onions, pickles, remoulade, creamy horseradish sauce, ketchup, or cocktail sauce. It is commonly eaten in Northern Germany, due to the region's proximity to the North Sea and Baltic Sea.

A common preparation is made with Bismarck herring or soused herring. Other varieties use Brathering, rollmops, European sprat, salmon, smoked Atlantic mackerel, fried Atlantic cod, and other fish varieties (such as fish burgers). Prawns are sometimes used, as are various other species of food fish. Fischbrötchen are commonly served at fast food stands or take-out restaurants. (Full article...)

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