Flag of Germany

The Germany Report (One page, basic version)
Overview | History | Geography | Economy | People | Current Event
Star Player | World Cup Information | Links | Sources

 

Overview                                                                                                           
Germany is located in Europe. As Western Europe's richest and most populous nation, Germany remains a key member of the continent's economic, political, and defense organizations. European power struggles immersed the country in two devastating World Wars in the first half of the 20th century and left the country 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 western Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the eastern German Democratic Republic (GDR). The democratic FRG embedded itself in key Western economic and security organizations, the EC and NATO, while 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 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 formed a common European currency, the euro.  

History

A Time Line of Germany’s History

AD 9

Germanic warriors decisively defeated Roman forces at the Battle of Teutoburg Forest.

486

The Frankish king Clovis overran the Roman province of Gaul. Clovis introduced features of Roman life into western Germany.

843

The Treaty of Verdun divided Charlemagne’s empire into three kingdoms. The German kingdom soon divided into five duchies.

962

Otto I was crowned Holy Roman emperor in Aachen.

1075

A dispute between Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII marked the beginning of a series of civil wars contesting church power.

1300s

The Hanseatic League was the supreme commercial and military power in northern Germany.

1517

Martin Luther started the Protestant Reformation.

1555

The Peace of Augsburg recognized the right of princes to choose Lutheranism or Catholicism for their lands.

1648

The Peace of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years’ War.

1740

Frederick the Great became King of Prussia and began building Prussia into a great power.

   1806

The Holy Roman Empire came to an end with the establishment of the Confederation of the Rhine.

1815

The German Confederation was formed at the Congress of Vienna.

1848

Revolutions swept across Germany. The first German national assembly met at Frankfurt in the hopes of creating a more united country.

1871

Prussian prime minister Otto von Bismarck realized his dream of a united Germany as the German Empire was founded.

1918-1919

Germany was forced to accept harsh terms under the Treaty of Versailles that brought an end to World War I. The Weimar Republic was founded.

1933

Adolf Hitler and the Nazis assumed power.

1939

Germany invaded Poland, starting World War II.

1945

Allied armies occupied Germany and divided it into four zones of occupation. Nazi war criminals were tried at Nürnberg.

1949

Germany was divided into East Germany and West Germany. Berlin, in East Germany, was also divided between the two countries.

1955

East Germany and West Germany became sovereign states. East Germany joined the Warsaw Pact, an Eastern European military alliance. West Germany became a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a Western military alliance.

1961

The East German government built the Berlin Wall.

1989

The Communist government in East Germany collapsed, and the Berlin Wall was dismantled. Thousands of East Germans immigrated to West Germany.

1990

Germany was formally reunified under the government of the former West Germany.

1998                                                                                                                                                                                       

The conservative coalition government of Helmut Kohl, the longest serving German   Chancellor of the 20th Century (1982-1998), was defeated by the Social Democratic Party (SPD) of Gerhard Schröder.

 

Click here for all information referring to the history of Germany.

Germany’s Involvement in World War II

            On September 3,1939, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany to help defend Poland.  But Poland fell quickly under the German, and later, Soviet attacks.  In the spring of 1940, German forces captured Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg.  The Allied forces that opposed the Germans had been unprepared fir Germany’s blitzkrieg (lightning war) methods.  Hitler used fast-moving tanks and infantry supported by dive-bombers. 

            In May 1940, the German army moved around France’s eastern defenses and overwhelmed the French army.  France fell by the end of June.

            The German advance stopped at the English Channel.  After a series of desperate air battles over Britain in the summer and fall of 1940, the Germans failed to gain the air superiority they needed to invade England.  Hitler now turned to the east and the south.  He conquered the Balkans, now occupied Crete, and sent an army to northern Africa.  In June 1941, a huge German force invaded the Soviet Union and drove deep into Soviet territory.

            At the end of 1941, Nazi Germany dominated the continent.  Hitler used his power as proof of his theory that the Germans belonged to a “master race.”  The Nazis ruthlessly murdered about 6 million European Jews and about 5 million Poles, Gypsies, and others.  Many of these people died in the Nazi concentration camps. 

            Despite his army’s initial success, Hitler could not defeat the Soviet Union.  The Soviets continued to resist and slowly pushed the invaders back.  Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, brought the United States into the war.  The tide turned against Germany in 1943.  The Soviets counterattacked in the east.  American and British troops drove the Germans out of North Africa and invaded Italy from the south.  In June 1944, the Allies invaded France.  After the failure of the last German offensive in December 1944, the Allied troops poured into Germany.  As Soviet troops closed in on Berlin from the east, Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945.  On May 7, Germany surrendered. 

Geography

Economy

Click here for more information on Germany’s economy

 

People

Germany is the most populous country in Europe after Russia with a population of 83,029,536 (July 2001 est.).  The literacy rate is 99% as defined as age 15 and over can read and write.

The majority of German-speakers live in Germany itself, although Austria and the greater part of Switzerland are German-speaking, as are parts of eastern France. Germans share a common language, but they speak it in a variety of dialects, reflecting a strong sense of regionalism. The north is still largely Protestant, while the south and southwest, particularly Bayern (Bavaria), have strong Catholic traditions.

A large immigrant population, now some seven million people, provided much of the labor on which the former West Germany's economic recovery was built. Legislation in 1999 improved the rights of these Gastarbeiter (guest workers) to take full German nationality, but they still do not have equal rights. The two million Turks are the largest single group.

Germany's once liberal asylum laws were tightened in 1993 in response to domestic tension over the huge influx of ethnic Germans and "economic" refugees from Russia and eastern Europe after the collapse of communism. Unemployment and disappointed expectations, particularly among young Germans, has helped extreme right-wing parties win a significant but still limited following. Germany has since taken in more refugees from the war in former Yugoslavia than all other Western countries put together.

Family ties in Germany are little different from those in the USA or the UK. Millions of couples live together in common-law arrangements, and since this is frowned on by the Catholic Church, it is largely in rural districts in Bayern (Bavaria) that traditional habits are still observed. The birth rate is one of Europe's lowest, and the population would be falling were it not for the influx of immigrants since the 1950s.

Women have full rights under the law and play a bigger role in politics than in most other European countries. In 1998, 30% of Bundestag (Federal Assembly) members were women. However, they are less well represented in top jobs in business and industry. Germany has a tradition of strong feminism. Abortion remains a charged issue. Women in former East Germany had wanted to keep their right to abortion on demand, but the constitutional court, after strong Catholic lobbying, overruled the relatively liberal 1992 compromise for the whole country. Under a law eventually passed in mid-1995, women can get abortions (but only after counseling) within three months of conception.

Germans retain relatively formal social habits, with clear distinctions drawn between acquaintances and good friends. The formal Sie rather than the more familiar du is the normal form of address.

The Winner of the World Cup

I believe that Argentina will win the World Cup.  First of all, they are ranked the best team in the nation right now.  Also they have 4/1 odds of winning the world cup.  They will play Italy at the finals and will win.  Argentina has an easy bracket and has already beaten one of the harder teams.

Current Event

Metal-organic gaseous phase epitaxy for Handy, InterNet and space travel

SUMMARY

In Germany the city of Berlin is the hostess of the International Conference.  They will be discussing the metal-organic gaseous phase epitaxy.  They will be meeting in the Ludwig Erhard house, which is to hold 400 specialists from the science and industry.  MOVPE (Metal Organic Vapour phase Epitaxy) is the major procedure to manufacture the using of silicon technology on the basis of compound semiconductors.  This will allow the growth of thin crystal layers to be used in modern semiconductors.  It is necessary to use thick crystal layers in entertainment electronics, lighting, and the car industry.  These crystals are energy savers that make the transmission of large data sets possible.  With this new development it could help our communications, sensor technology, laser technology, medical technology, and thin section solar cells. 

OPINION

It is a great idea to test this new invention. This will help our everyday lives and bring new developments to our world.  There will be so many new possibilities of inventions and longer life expectancy.  With new medications and advancements in laser technology there will be a significant change in the cost of surgery and a shorter recovery period.

WORLD CUP STAR PLAYER

Star Player from Germany:  Kahn Oliver                                                           

     

World Cup Information

Germany was forced to work hard for their place in the 2002 FIFA World Cup™ Korea/Japan, only reaching the finals after a play-off victory against the Ukraine. Following disappointing displays in 1994 and 1998, German fans are expecting coach Rudi Voller to deliver a lot more this time. The hope is the national team boss can do as well as he did in 1990, as a player; and carry off football's most prestigious trophy.

Germany will be hopeful of progressing from the first round after being drawn to face Ireland, Cameroon and Saudi Arabia. But Voller and his team are unlikely to make the mistake of underestimating the African side coached by Winfried Schaefer. Cameroon is technically excellent, and since the German coach took the reins, have developed enormously in tactical terms. The "Indomitable Lions" are confident of making it to the second round, and are widely seen as Germany's toughest opponents. (Source Germany World Cup)

Links