Data at glance of Germany - average on period

History

As Europe's largest economy and second most-populous nation (after Russia), Germany is a key member of the continent's economic, political, and defense organizations. European power struggles immersed Germany 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, including the EC (now the EU) and NATO, while the communist GDR was on the front line of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact. The decline of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War allowed German reunification to occur 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.

Environment

Area: 357,022 km2

Climate: temperate and marine; cool, cloudy, wet winters and summers; occasional warm mountain (foehn) wind

Natural resources: coal, lignite, natural gas, iron ore, copper, nickel, uranium, potash, salt, construction materials, timber, arable land

Ethnic characteristics

Groups: German 85.4%, Turkish 1.8%, Ukrainian 1.4%, Syrian 1.1%, Romanian 1%, Poland 1%, other/stateless/unspecified 8.3% (2022 est.)note:  data represent population by nationality

Languages: German (official); note - Danish, Frisian, Sorbian, and Romani are official minority languages; Low German, Danish, North Frisian, Sater Frisian, Lower Sorbian, Upper Sorbian, and Romani are recognized as regional languagesmajor-language sample(s): Das World Factbook, die unverzichtbare Quelle für grundlegende Informationen. (German)The World Factbook, the indispensable source for basic information.

Religions: Roman Catholic 24.8%, Protestant 22.6%, Muslim 3.7%, other 5.1%, none 43.8% (2022 est.)

Government

Capital: Berlin

Government type: federal parliamentary republic

Executive branch

Chief of state: President Frank-Walter STEINMEIER (since 19 March 2017)

Head of government: Chancellor Friedrich MERZ (since 6 May 2025)cabinet: Cabinet or Bundesminister (Federal Ministers) recommended by the chancellor, appointed by the presidentelection/appointment process: president indirectly elected by a Federal Convention consisting of all members of the Federal Parliament (Bundestag) and an equivalent number of delegates indirectly elected by the state parliaments; president serves a 5-year term (eligible for a second term); following the most recent Federal Parliament election, the party or coalition with the most representatives usually elects the chancellor, who is appointed by the president to serve a renewable 4-year termmost recent election date: president: 13 February 2022chancellor: 6 May 2025election results: 2025: Friedrich MERZ (CDU) elected chancellor in second round; Federal Parliament vote - 325 to 2892022: Frank-Walter STEINMEIER reelected president; Federal Convention vote count - Frank-Walter STEINMEIER (SPD) 1,045, Max OTTE (CDU) 140, Gerhard TRABERT (The Left) 96, Stefanie GEBAUER (Free Voters) 58, abstentions 86expected date of next election: president: February 2027

Legislative branch

Description: legislative structure: bicameralnote: due to Germany's recognition of the concepts of "overhang" (when a party's share of the nationwide votes would entitle it to fewer seats than the number of individual constituency seats won in an election under Germany's mixed member proportional system) and "leveling" (whereby additional seats are elected to supplement the members directly elected by each constituency in order to ensure that each party's share of the total seats is roughly proportional to the party's overall shares of votes at the national level), the 20th Bundestag is the largest to date