Portal:Germany

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

Germany (German: Deutschland), officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central and Western Europe, lying between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and 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 357,578 square kilometres (138,062 sq mi) and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With nearly 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 largest metropolis 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.

Today, Germany is a federal parliamentary republic led by a chancellor. It is a great power with a strong economy. 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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SMS Lothringen was the last of five pre-dreadnought battleships of the Braunschweig class, built for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy). She was laid down in December 1902, was launched in May 1904, and was commissioned in May 1906. She was named for Lothringen (now Lorraine), a province of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918. The ship was armed with a battery of four 28 cm (11 in) guns and had a top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph). Like all other pre-dreadnoughts built around the turn of the century, Lothringen was quickly made obsolete by the launching of the revolutionary HMS Dreadnought in December 1906; as a result, her career as a front-line battleship was cut short.

Lothringen's peacetime career centered on squadron and fleet exercises and training cruises with II Battle Squadron. Scheduled to be withdrawn from service in July 1914 and replaced by newer dreadnought battleships, the outbreak of World War I that month prevented her retirement. She spent the first two years of the war primarily serving as a guard ship in the German Bight. She and the rest of II Squadron joined the dreadnoughts of the High Seas Fleet to support the raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool, and Whitby in December 1914. In poor condition by 1916, she was withdrawn from fleet service in February. She thereafter patrolled the Danish straits until she was replaced by the battleship Hannover in September 1917. She spent the rest of the war as a disarmed training ship.

After the war, Lothringen was retained by the re-formed Reichsmarine and converted into a depot ship for F-type minesweepers from 1919 to 1920. After the task of clearing the wartime minefields in the North Sea was completed, she was placed in reserve in March 1920. The ship remained inactive for the next decade and was stricken from the naval register in March 1931 and sold to ship breakers later that year. (Full article...)

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Image 1
Neue Wache
Photo credit: Daniel Schwen
The interior of the Neue Wache, the central memorial of Germany for victims of war and tyranny. Located in Berlin, the building was originally built as a guardhouse, and has been used as a war memorial since 1931. The statue, Mother with her Dead Son is directly under the oculus, and so is exposed to the rain, snow and cold, symbolising the suffering of civilians during World War II.
Image 2
Königsallee in Düsseldorf
Königsallee
Credit: Mikhail Shcherbakov
The Königsallee (literally "King's Avenue") is an urban boulevard in Düsseldorf, state capital of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The Königsallee is noted for both the landscaped canal that runs along its center, as well as for the fashion showrooms and luxury retail stores located along its sides.
Image 3
German Rentenmark
Banknote: Weimar Republic, National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History
The Rentenmark was a currency introduced on 15 November 1923 in Weimar Germany after the value of the previous currency had been destroyed by hyperinflation.

The banknote shown at left was printed in 1937 or later. It bears an adhesive coupon attached by the East German government in 1948, extending its validity while new East German mark banknotes were being printed.
Image 4
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 5
Bode Museum
Photograph: Thomas Wolf
The Bode Museum on Museum Island in Berlin, Germany, named after its founding director, is a museum of antiquities including sculpture, Byzantine art and numismatics. Designed by Ernst von Ihne and completed in 1904, the building was restored extensively from 1997 to 2006.
Image 6
Klaus Doldinger playing the saxophone
Klaus Doldinger
Credit: Raimond Spekking
Klaus Doldinger is a German saxophonist known for his work in jazz and as a film music composer. He was the recipient of 1997's Bavarian Film Awards.
Image 7
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
Credit: Metoc
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, a Holocaust memorial in Berlin
Image 8
Stefan Heym
Photograph: Marcel Antonisse / Anefo
Helmut Flieg (1913–2001) was a German writer best-known by the pseudonym Stefan Heym. He lived in the United States (or served in its army abroad) between 1935 and 1952, before moving back to his native Germany. He published works in English and German at home and abroad, including Nazis in the U.S.A. (1938), Goldsborough (1953), and Five Days in June (1977).
Image 9
Moritzburg Castle
Moritzburg Castle
Credit: Olaf Leillinger
Jagdschloss (hunting lodge) Moritzburg near Dresden in Saxony (1999)
Image 10
Reichstag
Photo: Matthew Field
The Reichstag building is a historical edifice in Berlin, Germany, constructed to house the Reichstag, parliament of the German Empire. It was opened in 1894 and housed the Reichstag until 1933, when it was severely damaged in a fire. After German reunification it underwent a reconstruction, completed in 1999, and now houses the modern Bundestag.
Image 11
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 12
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.
Image 13
Lichtenstein Castle
Photo credit: Andreas Tille
Lichtenstein Castle is a fairy-tale castle located near Honau in the Swabian Alb, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Although there have been previous castles on the site, the current castle was constructed by Duke Wilhelm of Urach in 1840 after being inspired by Wilhelm Hauff's novel Lichtenstein. The romantic Neo-Gothic design of the castle was created by the architect Carl Alexander Heideloff.
Image 14
Deutsche Mark
Banknote: Allied-occupied Germany (image courtesy of the National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History)
A one Deutsche Mark banknote issued by Allied-occupied Germany and circulated by the United States Army Command in 1948. This was the first of three issues of West German currency introduced that year. The Mark remained the official currency of West Germany until German reunification in 1990, then the official currency of Germany until the adoption of the euro in 2002.
Image 15
The Deutsche Bank Twin Towers in Frankfurt
Deutsche Bank Twin Towers
Credit: Raimond Spekking
The Deutsche Bank Twin Towers, headquarters of the Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt
Image 16
German Instrument of Surrender
Photograph credit: Lt. Moore; restored by Adam Cuerden
The German Instrument of Surrender was the legal document that effected the termination of the Nazi regime and ended World War II in Europe. A July 1944 draft version had also included the surrender of the German government, but this was changed due to concern that there might be no functional German government that could surrender; instead, the document stated that it could be "superseded by any general instrument of surrender imposed by, or on behalf of the United Nations", which was done the next month.

This photograph shows Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel signing the German Instrument of Surrender in Berlin. The first surrender document was signed on 7 May 1945 in Reims by General Alfred Jodl, but this version was not recognized by the Soviet High Command and a revised version was required. Prepared in three languages on 8 May, it was not ready for signing in Berlin until after midnight; consequently, the physical signing was delayed until nearly 1:00 a.m. on 9 May, and backdated to 8 May to be consistent with the Reims agreement and public announcements of the surrender already made by Western leaders.
Image 17
Monument to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in Berlin-Mitte
Marx-Engels Forum
Credit: Manfred Brückels
Monument to Marx and Engels on the Marx-Engels-Forum in Berlin-Mitte. The Berliner Dom is visible in the background.
Image 18
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.
Image 19
German war bond poster
Poster: Lucian Bernhard; restoration: Bellhalla
A 1917 poster by Lucian Bernhard intended to sell war bonds in Germany. The caption, roughly translated, is "This is how your money helps you fight! Turned into submarines, it keeps enemy shells away! That's why you should subscribe to war bonds!" Mostly excluded from international financial markets during World War I, Germany was largely limited to domestic borrowing. The bond drives proved extremely successful, raising approximately 100 billion marks in funds.
Image 20
Karl Friedrich Schinkel
Painting credit: Karl Friedrich Schinkel
Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781–1841) was a Prussian architect and city planner. He was one of the most prominent architects in Germany and designed both Neoclassical and Neo-Gothic buildings, the most famous of which are found in and around Berlin. He was also a painter and a designer of furniture and stage sets.

This oil-on-canvas painting, entitled Castle by the River, was created by Schinkel in 1820. As an artist, his architectural talent shone through, and his buildings and landscapes are carefully drafted and meticulously executed. The painting is in the collection of the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin.
Image 21
A pavillon at Sanssouci, Potsdam
A pavillon at Sanssouci, Potsdam
Credit: AngMoKio
Image 22
SMS Fürst Bismarck (1897)
Illustration: Hugo Graf; restoration: Adam Cuerden
SMS Fürst Bismarck was Germany's first armored cruiser, built for the Kaiserliche Marine before the turn of the 20th century and launched in 1900. Named for the German statesman Otto von Bismarck, the ship was primarily intended for colonial duties. She served in this capacity as part of the East Asia Squadron until she was relieved in 1909, at which point she returned to Germany. The ship was rebuilt between 1910 and 1914, and after the start of World War I, she was briefly used as a coastal defense ship. She proved inadequate to this task, and so she was withdrawn from active duty and served as a training ship for engineers until the end of the war. Fürst Bismarck was decommissioned in 1919 and sold for scrap.

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Anniversaries for January 31

1665 – Death of theologian Johannes Clauberg
1884 – Birth of physicist Rudolf Mössbauer, winner of the 1961 Nobel Prize in Physics
1884 – Birth of Theodor Heuss, President of Germany 1949-1959

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Did you know...

... that Theresia Bauer was named science minister of the year four times?
... that while Germans murdered millions of prisoners of war during WWII, the survival ratio of Jewish POWs was generally tied to the army or nation they served with, and not to their ethnicity?
... that while Schubert wrote a melody for the song "Bunt sind schon die Wälder" in 1816, Johann Friedrich Reichardt's 1799 version is the one that remains popular?
... that on 26 December 1724 J. S. Bach directed the first performance of Christum wir sollen loben schon, BWV 121, based on a hymn written by Martin Luther in 1524?
... that the main cemetery of Mainz was established in 1803 and became the model for the Cimetière du Père-Lachaise in Paris?
... that German-born physician Pablo Busch (pictured) was labelled a "witch or curandero" by indigenous tribes in Bolivia?
... that Perplexities after Escher, a composition for heckelphone, string quartet and double bass, is based on five graphic artworks by M. C. Escher?
... that in addition to millions murdered, Nazi crimes against children included compulsory sterilization, forced labor, forced institutionalization, medical experiments and Germanisation?
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Selected cuisines, dishes and foods

Magenbrot (German: [ˈmaːɡn̩ˌbʁoːt] ) is a small, sweet glazed biscuit that shares many similarities with a gingerbread cookie. The name of the dish directly translates to "stomach-bread" as it is believed to help improve digestion. This recipe first appeared in Swiss cooking books in the late 18 century. It is usually sold in Christmas markets in northern Switzerland and southern Germany. It is known by many names including Honigkuchen [de], Gewürzkuchen, or Kräuterbrot. (Full article...)

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