GERMANY

GERMANY is located in Central Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, between the Netherlands and Poland, and south of Denmark.  Germany is slightly smaller than the state of Montana.  Countries bordering Germany include Austria; Belgium; Czech Republic; Denmark; France; Luxembourg; Netherlands; Poland; and Switzerland.

The climate is temperate and marine; cool, cloudy, wet winters and summers; occasional warm mountain wind.  The terrain includes lowlands in north; uplands in center; and Bavarian Alps in the south.  Germany holds a strategic location on the North European Plain and along the entrance to the Baltic Sea.

Ethnic groups living in Germany include: German 91.5%; Turkish 2.4%; other 6.1% (made up largely of Greek, Italian, Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish).  Religions in Germany include: Protestant 34%; Roman Catholic 34%; Muslim 3.7%; unaffiliated or other 28.3%.

Germany is Europe's largest economy and the fifth largest economy in the world.  Germany is Europe’s second most populous nation (after Russia).  Germany is a key member of the continent's economic, political, and defense organizations.  Germany was in two devastating World Wars in the first half of the 20th century and occupied by the victorious Allied powers of the US, UK, France, and the Soviet Union in 1945.

With the advent of the Cold War, two German states were formed in 1949: the Democratic western Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the Communist eastern German Democratic Republic (GDR). The democratic FRG embedded itself in key Western economic and security organizations, the EC, which became the EU, and NATO.  The Communist GDR was on the front line of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact. The decline of the USSR and the end of the Cold War allowed for German re-unification in 1990. 

Since then, Germany has expended considerable funds to bring Eastern productivity and wages up to Western standards. In January 1999, Germany and 10 other EU countries introduced a common European exchange currency, the euro.

The flag of Germany consists of three equal horizontal bands displaying the national colors of Germany: black, red and gold.

Flag of Germany

Hamburg, Germany

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The wide chronological range and discussion of German Geography and History through the last two centuries will make this videoconference a "must do" with your students.

One of the great powers of the industrial world, Germany rose from a collection of small states, principalities, and dukedoms to become a unified empire in 1871. The German empire was strategically located between France and Russia, and it clashed with both nations as it attempted to expand its borders. This rivalry resulted in World War I, in which Germany was defeated. Germany, however, emerged again as a major force in Europe in the 1930s under the leadership of Adolf Hitler.

There have been few changes during the last two centuries on the western border of Germany with France, Belgium, and The Netherlands, but the border in the east with Poland has been redrawn several times in the same period and now lies along the Oder and Neisse rivers. Part of Germany's eastern border is shared with Czechoslovakia. The southern German borders with Austria and Switzerland are more clearly defined by the ranges of the Alps and by Lake Constance. The boundary between West and East Germany did not follow natural features to any extent but was a result of the division of Germany into zones of occupation after World War II.

The name Germany is used in three senses: first, it refers to the region in Central Europe commonly regarded as constituting Germany, even when there was no central German state, as was the case for most of Germany's history; second, it refers to the unified German state established in 1871 and existing until 1945; and third, since October 3, 1990, it refers to the united Germany, formed by the accession on this date of the German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany) to the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, or West Germany). The name Federal Republic of Germany refers to West Germany from its founding on May 23, 1949, until German unification on October 3, 1990. After this date, it refers to united Germany. For the sake of brevity and variety, the Federal Republic of Germany is often called simply the Federal Republic.

Internet Resources:

Germany: Portals to the World, Library of Congress)

Goethe-Institut Link Catalogue: Germany on the Internet

All Facts About Germany

Questions:

1. "What words used in German everyday speech are from a foreign language?
Create a list of these words.
Do you know from which language these words originated?
How do you think they were introduced into the German everyday language?"

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2. What language(s) is spoken in Germany?

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3. What are Germany's goals for preserving the German language? What are the motivations for these goals?

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4. Are English words used in Germany?

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5. Which languages have been the primary influences on Germany historically?

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6. Why would language legislation pose a problem for Germany?

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7. What is "verbal nationalism," and why might it be particularly successful in Germany as opposed to other countries?

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8. In what other countries are similar debates about language preservation taking place?

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9. Where does German rank globally in terms of the number of people in the world who speak it?

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10. In which other countries around the world is German spoken?

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